Postmodernity and

Postmodernism
A Postmodern Building
 Why Change from Modernity to
Postmodernity?
• Modernity is defined as a period or condition loosely identified
with the Progressive Era, the Industrial Revolution, or the
Enlightenment.
• In philosophy and critical theory postmodernity refers to the state
or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity, a
historical condition that marks the reasons for the end of
modernity.
• This usage is ascribed to the philosophers, Jean-François Lyotard
and Jean Baudrillard.
• One "project" of modernity is said by Habermas to have been the
fostering of progress by incorporating principles of rationality and
hierarchy into public and artistic life.
• Lyotard understood modernity as a cultural condition
characterized by constant change in the pursuit of
progress. Postmodernity then represents the culmination
of this process where constant change has become the
status quo and the notion of progress obsolete.
• Following Ludwig Wittgenstein's critique of the possibility
of absolute and total knowledge Lyotard further argued
that the various metanarratives of progress such as
positivist science, Marxism, and structuralism were
defunct as methods of achieving progress.
Postmodernity and Postmodernism
• Postmodernity : a condition or a state of being associated with changes to institutions
and conditions and with social and political results and innovations, globally but
especially in the West since the 1950s. (late 20 th and early 21st century life).

• Whereas postmodernism is an aesthetic, literary, political or social philosophy, the

"cultural and intellectual phenomenon", especially since the 1920s' new movements in
the arts.

• The period has had diverse political ramifications: its "anti-ideological ideas" appear to
have been associated with
a) the feminist movement
b) racial equality movements
c) gay rights movements
d) anti-globalization movement
 Postmodernism
• Follows many modernist ideas, rejecting
differences between high and low forms of
art, rejecting rigid genre distinctions,
emphasizing pastiche, parody, irony and
playfulness.
• But while it is similar to modernism, if differs
in its attitude towards many of these trends.
• Modernism, for example, tends to present a
fragmented view of human subjectivity and
history, but presents that fragmentation as
something to be something tragic, something
to be lamented, mourned as a loss. Hence, the
generally unhappy novels of twentieth century
modernism.
• Many modernist works uphold the idea that
literature and art can provide unity, coherence and
meaning (moral lesson) which has been lost in most
of modern life: art will do what other human
institutions fail to do.
• Postmodernism, in contrast, doesn’t lament the idea
of fragmentation or incoherence but rather
celebrates it. The world is meaningless, lets not
pretend that art and literature can make meaning,
then, lets play with nonsense.
• Again the difference between modernism and
postmodernism is that postmodernism
celebrates this loss sense of purpose, and of
tradition and values, encouraging
experimentation in art and use of reason and
logic in art.
• Another issue at the centre of debate
between modernism and postmodernism is
the extent to which the legacy of
Enlightement values still crucial for
Jean-Francois Lyotard (1924-1998)
• Lyotard attacks the Enlightenment project because it
is totalizing explanation of everything, as are
Marxism, Christianity and the myth of scientific
progress.
• He calls these totalizing explanations as grand
narratives. He argues that while they seem to
explain and reassure that the world can be
understood as a structure, they are really illusions
fostered to smother differences, oppositions and
familiarity.
• The grand narratives are no longer applicable.
• All that mankind can hope for is to study the
world as a series of micro narratives, which
are “small stories”, which might explain a
certain set of phenomena, but does not make
any claim to universal “truths”.
• Because postmodernism does not accept
grand narratives on which fundamental
religious beliefs depend, they are constantly
being challenged by “so-called”
fundamentalist religious groups.
• Examples: Muslims banning Salman Rushdie’s
The Satanic Verses and protests against books
by J.K. Rowling by conservative Christians.
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007)
 Jean Baudrillard
• Another key figure in postmodernism .
• Says that the commodities that you buy are all
signifiers.
• You buy stuff, not necessarily because you will
use it, or because it gives you pleasure, but
because the stuff means something beyond
itself - it is a signifier that points to a signified.
• That signified, according to Baudrillard, is a
social status within a variety of social codes or
models.
• Thus, when you buy a car, you don’t buy just
any car to drive around in; the car you buy is a
signifier of your social position, your income
level, your recreational habits, your
political/environmental views, whether you
have children etc.
C
a
r
s
!
• So someone who buys and drives a Jaguar is
signifying something different from those who
buy a hybrid car.
• What is being signified is, in fact, your
position(s) as a person.
• According to Baudrillard, identity is the
product of signifier with which one surrounds
oneself.
• Baudrillard takes this idea of signifier-signified
relationship further by discussing his idea
called simulacrum.
 Simulacrum
• Baudrillard starts with the idea that signifiers
are representations (words, pictures, symbols,
whatever) that point to something beyond or
outside of the signifiers themselves.
• He calls these signifiers simulacrum.
 Simulacrum (plural: simulacra)
• simulacrum originally meant "likeness,
similarity,“ used to describe a representation,
such as a statue or a painting, especially of a
God. By the late 19th century: an image without
the substance or qualities of the original.
• Philosopher Fredric Jameson offers photorealism
as an example of artistic simulacrum, where a
painting is sometimes created by copying a
photograph that is itself a copy of the real.
• But in the world of mass media, which
Baudrillard studies, there are signifiers
without any real signified.
• For example, Mickey Mouse is a signifier in
movies and television series but the signifier
does not refer to any single signified, a real
mouse called Mickey.
• A signifier does not mirror or reproduce or
imitate or copy reality: they are reality itself.
e.g. Mickey Mouse
• Jean Baudrillard points to a reversal of the
relation between representation and reality
where the media are coming to constitute a
(hyper)reality, a media reality which seems
"more real than real" (Kellner, 1991). The
distinction between the real and the
representation collapses and dissolves away.
All that truly can be said to be left is the
simulacra itself.
 Hyperreality and Consumerism
• Hyperreality is significant as a paradigm to
explain current cultural conditions.
Consumerism, because of its reliance on sign
exchange value (e.g. brand X shows that one is
fashionable, car Y indicates one's wealth),
could be seen as a contributing factor in the
creation of hyperreality or the hyperreal
condition.
• In Western thought since Plato, Baudrillard
points out, the idea of an original or real thing
has been favoured over the idea of an
imitation or copy.
• This is particularly evident in the arts, where
the first edition of a famous work (for
literature works) is worth a lot of money, while
a print or 18th edition is worth very little.
• In the postmodern mass media, however, the
original largely disappears, and only copies
exists.
• An example, is in Music CDs. There is no
‘original” master version of any music CD, but
only thousands and thousands of copies.
Another example is the painting by Andy
Warhol.
Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe
 Postmodernist literary theory
• Postmodern Literature is literature characterized by heavy reliance on
techniques like fragmentation, paradox, and questionable narrators,
and is often (though not exclusively) defined as a style or trend which
emerged in the post–World War II era.
• Hence, there are many similarities between modernist and
postmodernist literature.
• It is not specifically a “movement” but tends to converge with various
critical theories, particularly: particularly reader-response and
deconstructionist approaches.
• Postmodern literature is commonly defined in relation to a precursor.
• For example, a modernist literary work has a neatly tied up ending
but postmodernist literature does not conclude neatly.
• The great difference between both modernist
and postmodernist literature is that while
both give great prominence to fragmentation
as a feature of twentieth art and culture, they
do so in very different moods.
 Some Characteristics of
Postmodernist Literature
 1) Irony, playfulness, black humor
• Linda Hutcheon claimed postmodern fiction as a whole could be
characterized by the ironic quote marks, that much of it can be taken as
tongue-in-cheek.
• This irony, along with black humor and the general concept of "play"
(related to Derrida's concept) are among the most recognizable aspects
of postmodernism.
• It's common for postmodernists to treat serious subjects in a playful and
humorous way.
• The central concept of Joseph Heller's Catch-22.
• The term catch-22 was coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22.
• About a pilot requesting a psych evaluation hoping to be found not sane
enough to fly, and thereby escape dangerous missions, would thereby
demonstrate his sanity.
 2) Intertextuality
• The relationship between one text (a novel for example)
and another or one text within the interwoven fabric of
literary history.
• Intertextuality in postmodern literature can be a
reference or parallel to another literary work, an
extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style.
• E.g. Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose takes on the
form of a detective novel and makes references to
authors such as Aristotle, Arthur Conan Doyle, and
Borges
 3) Pastiche
• Related to postmodern intertextuality, pastiche means to
combine, or "paste" together, multiple elements. In
Postmodernist literature this can be an homage to or a parody of
past styles. It can be seen as a representation of the chaotic,
pluralistic, or information-drenched aspects of postmodern
society. It can be a combination of multiple genres to create a
unique narrative or to comment on situations in postmodernity:
• For example, Thomas Pynchon includes in his novels elements
from detective fiction, science fiction, and war fiction; songs; pop
culture references; well-known, obscure, and fictional history
mixed together; real contemporary and historical figures.
 4)Temporal Distortion

• This is a common technique in modernist

fiction: fragmentation and non-linear
narratives are central features in both modern
and postmodern literature.
 5)Magic realism
• Magic realism may be employed by a writer of
a literary work who uses use still, sharply
defined, smoothly painted images of figures
and objects depicted in a surrealistic manner.
The themes and subjects are often imaginary,
somewhat outlandish and fantastic and with a
certain dream-like quality.
 6)Paranoia
• Perhaps demonstrated most famously and
effectively in Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and the
work of Thomas Pynchon, the sense of
paranoia, the belief that there's an ordering
system behind the chaos of the world is
another recurring postmodern theme.
 7)Minimalism
• Literary minimalism can be characterized as a
focus on a surface description where readers
are expected to take an active role in the
creation of a story.
• The characters in minimalist stories and novels
tend to be unexceptional.
• Among those categorized as postmodernist,
literary minimalism is most commonly
associated with Samuel Beckett.
 Deconstruction: Postmodernist way of
reading a text.
• One of the most popular postmodernist tendencies within
aesthetics is deconstruction. Deconstructions work
entirely within the studied text to expose and undermine
its frame of references, assumptions, and ideological
foundations
• Although deconstructions can be developed using
different methods and techniques, the process typically
involves demonstrating the multiple interpretations of a
text and their resulting internal conflicts, and subversive
binary oppositions (e.g. masculine/feminine
• old/new).
• Deconstructors see works in terms of their
undecidability. They reject the structuralist view
that a work of literary art is demonstrably
unified from beginning to end, in one certain
way, or that it is organized around a single
center that ultimately can be identified.
• As a result, deconstructors see texts as more
radically heterogeneous than do structuralist.
•
 Bibliography
• Klages, Mary. (2006). Literary theory: A guide
for the perplexed. New York, London:
Continuum.
The end.