Postmodernism

for beginners

c deakin, 2005
Remember the ‘good old days’!
Life was once predictable

Things were well structured –

mapped out for us

We knew who we were – a clear

identity

We had firm beliefs about the

nature of things
From modernity to post-modernity
Modern age Post modern age

• production • consumption
• Community life • fragmentation (individualism)
• Social class • Identity from other sources
• Family • Families (many options)
• A belief in continuity and situation • Breakage with the past/tradition
• A role of education • Education for what?
• A one-way media • Duality of media (choice/interchange)
• Overt social control • Covert control (CCTV etc)
• Nationhood • Global
• Science aided progress and finding • Science is only one source of
the truth knowledge – plurality of truths now

Structure/security/place/stability Confusion/lack of structure/

YOU KNEW WHO YOU WERE incessant choice
YOU CREATE WHO YOU WANT TO BE
Key features of post-modernism
• Truth is relative
• Consumerism is all
• Transformation of the self (‘pick ‘n’ mix’)
• Disillusionment with the idea of progress
• Uncertainty
• Fragmentation of social life
• Incessant choice
• Globalisation
• The impact of ICT on social life
 Search for
Globalisation
truth
has narrowed
time and space People less
Modern age has lost the likely to follow
enlightenment
rigid ideology

We recreate postmodernism Greater pluralism is

the past, modern life
blend with
the present
No absolutes

Traditional labels Culture and structures

and categories lose are fragmented
relevance

Less predictable
 Further thoughts…
Progress is now a
Science no longer has the questionable enterprise
answers

Post modern society

Cultural cohesion
feeds upon
comes from sharing
itself..recreating the
the same media
past, entwining it with
the present, with some
self mocking humour
Accepting many realities
and that all the big
Each cultural identity can co-
explanations are only
exist…giving the individual
bigger stories
many ways of being
 10 points of post-modernism & style
1. Emphasis on the centrality of style, at the expense of substance
2. Recycling past cultures and styles – pastiche
3. Playful use of ‘useless’ decoration
4. Celebration of complexity and contradiction. Mixture of high and
low culture.
5. Sensitivity to the subtleties of image, language and signs
6. Intermixing – different styles – collaging
7. Accepting the collapse of distinction and difference
8. Rejection of monolithic definitions of culture – celebrate pluralism
and diversity
9. Scepticism towards metanarratives and ‘absolutism’
10. Decline of the idea of only one source of meaning –truth.
 Faith could re-emerge as scientific
thinking loses significance

• Science and progress always undermined

faith (see Comte and the demise of the
theological stage)
• As technical and bureaucratic (Weber)
thinking/living lose favour
• Think about the acceptance of the
alternative ‘spiritual’
Jacques Derrida
• Modernism = logocentrism

• Post-modernists rejected this and

argue that trying to tell the ‘big
story’ now is impossible

• Social structure is in a state of flux

• All meaning is now relative and

socially constructed

• Reality is fragile and confusing

Jean Francois Lyotard (1984)
• Science has helped destroy the
metanarratives

• All metanarratives are simplistic and

reductionst

• We should focus on playing language

games to explore the many narratives
that exist

• Knowledge is no longer a tool of the

authorities – we have choice/freedom

• Actions/ideas are now judged on how

useful they are..rather than how true
they are.
 Jean Baudrillard
‘we are constantly surrounded by an
ecstasy of communication and that
communication is sickening’

We are now just customers whose

desires are created by the media.

We pursue the images attached to the

products

‘simulacra’ - make believe goods

which bear no relationship to the

real world

We live in hyper-realities in which

appearances are everything.

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING !
Post-modernism illustrated – ‘reality
TV’
Reality TV illustrates the
interchange between the
consumer and the media

They are ‘real people’ who people

can be observed and scrutinised.

They do not entertain – rather than

exist…they are a mish-mash of
cctv surveillance and gameshow

In the real world they are

talentless nobodys who are
treated as stars
Post-modernism ilustrated
–’Disneyland’
Disneyland is a simulacra. It is
a simulated reality.

It is artificial – yet ‘real’.

It is a place that exists and is

accepted because our
imagination makes it so.

The fine line between reality

and fantasy is ‘greyer’.

The power of the symbol over

substance.
Post-modernism illustrated - diet
The high street is global. Look
at the choices and combination
that we now have.
What is the impact on
traditional culture? Identity?

People are also driven by to

change their body shape
through diet..a control..choice.
People are constructing
themselves and designing
their individual identities
 Religion in a post-modern age
• Faith could re-emerge as scientific thinking loses significance
• Religious symbols have new life in new contexts
• Faith is now ‘up for grabs’ in the absence of absolute truth
• People can blend elements of various faiths to suit their lifestyle
• Globalisation has divorced faiths from locations and cultures
• fundamentalism is a response to a moral vacuum
• People can make choices which are more personal and meaningful
• Collective worship no longer needs to be based on ‘face to face’
interaction
Religious symbols have new life in new
contexts
How have traditional
religious symbols
been recycled.

Where can we find

crucifixes,
pentangles, kaballah
bracelets, buddhas
etc
 Faith is now ‘up for grabs’ in the
absence of absolute truth

We can now make

spiritual choices that
fit in with our identity
and our own version
of ultimate truth and
meaning.
People can blend elements of various
faiths to suit their lifestyle
Many people are finding
greater freedom to ‘pick
‘n’ mix’ faiths to suit their
lifestyles.

This is about individual

interpretation and
incorporating elements,
ie, buddhist philosophy
with Christian morality

(Yuppie Buddhist experience

in early 1990s)
Globalisation has divorced faiths from
locations and cultures

Religion is now more

universal and there
are less barriers to
hold people back from
joining faiths that
differ to tradition
fundamentalism is a response to a
moral vacuum

There has been a

revival of ultra
traditional ideas and
‘strict morality’ with
some religions which
many have found
inviting and a source
of ‘security’
People can make choices which are
more personal and meaningful

Almost an extension
of individuation and
the search for
individual meaning.

the control and

oppressive elements
of religion can be
edited (see Rastafari)
Collective worship no longer needs to be
based on ‘face to face’ interaction
Organised religion
may be suffering –
but faith is still alive.

Structures/institutions
are melting away as
they now existing
within individual
minds and action.