Postmodernism
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| ==Development of postmodernism== | ==Development of postmodernism== | ||
| See [[The development of postmodernism]] | See [[The development of postmodernism]] | ||
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| - | ===Origins in architecture=== | ||
| - | {{Main|Postmodern architecture}} | ||
| - | The movement of Postmodernism began with [[architecture]], as a reactionary movement against the perceived blandness and hostility present in the Modern movement. [[Modern Architecture]] as established and developed by masters such as [[Walter Gropius]] and [[Philip Johnson]] was focused on the pursuit of an ideal perfection, harmony of form and function<Ref>Sullivan, Louis. "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,” published Lippincott's Magazine (March 1896).</ref> and dismissal of frivolous ornament<Ref>Loos, Adolf. "Ornament and Crime,” published 1908.</ref> Critics of modernism argued that the attributes of perfection and minimalism themselves were subjective, and pointed out anachronisms in modern thought and questioned the benefits of its philosophy.<ref>Venturi, et al.</ref> Definitive postmodern architecture such as the work of [[Michael Graves]] rejects the notion of a 'pure' form or 'perfect' [[architectonic]] detail, instead conspicuously drawing from all methods, materials, forms and colors available to architects. Postmodern architecture began the reaction against the almost totalitarian qualities of Modernist thought, favoring personal preferences and variety over objective, ultimate truths or principles. It is this atmosphere of criticism, skepticism and subjectivity that defines the postmodern philosophy. | ||
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| - | ===Notable philosophical and literary contributors=== | ||
| - | {{main|postmodern literature}} | ||
| - | Thinkers in the mid and late 19th century and early 20th century, like [[Søren Kierkegaard]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], through their argument against objectivity, and emphasis on skepticism (especially concerning social morals and norms), laid the groundwork for the [[existentialism|existentialist]] movement of the 20th century. Other notable precursors of postmodernism include [[Laurence Sterne]]'s novel ''[[Tristram Shandy]]'', [[Alfred Jarry]]'s [['Pataphysics]], and the work of [[Lewis Carroll]]. Art and literature of the early part of the 20th century play a significant part in shaping the character of postmodern culture. [[Dadaism]] attacked notions of high art in an attempt to break down the distinctions between high and low culture; [[Surrealism]] further developed concepts of Dadaism to celebrate the flow of the subconscious with influential techniques such as [[surrealist automatism|automatism]] and nonsensical juxtapositions (evidence of Surrealisms influence on postmodern thought can be seen in Foucault's and Derrida's references to [[Rene Magritte]]'s experiments with signification). Some other significant contributions to postmodern culture from literary figures include the following: [[Jorge Luis Borges]] experimented in [[metafiction]] and [[magical realism]]; [[William S. Burroughs]] wrote the prototypical postmodern novel, ''Naked Lunch'' and developed the [[cut up]] method (similar to [[Tristan Tzara]]'s "How to Make a Dadaist Poem") to create other novels such as ''[[Nova Express]]''; [[Samuel Beckett]] attempted to escape the shadow of [[James Joyce]] by focusing on the failure of language and humanity's inability to overcome its condition, themes later to be explored in such works as ''[[Waiting for Godot]]''. Writers such as [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and [[Albert Camus]] drew heavily from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, and other previous thinkers, and brought about a new sense of subjectivity, and forlornness, which greatly influenced contemporary thinkers, writers, and artists. [[Karl Barth]]'s [[fideist]] approach to theology and lifestyle, brought an irreverence for [[reason]], and the rise of [[subjectivity]]. [[Postcolonialism]] after [[World War II]] contributed to the idea that one cannot have an objectively superior lifestyle or belief. This idea was taken further by the [[anti-foundationalism|anti-foundationalist]] philosophers: [[Martin Heidegger|Heidegger]], then [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], then [[Jacques Derrida|Derrida]], who examined the fundamentals of knowledge; they argued that rationality was neither as sure nor as clear as [[modernists]] or [[rationalism|rationalists]] assert. Both World Wars contributed to postmodernism; it is with the end of the [[Second World War]] that recognizably postmodernist attitudes begin to emerge. It is possible to identify the burgeoning anti-establishment movements of the [[1960s]] as the constituting event of postmodernism. The theory gained some of its strongest ground early on in French academia. In 1971, the Arab-American Theorist [[Ihab Hassan]] was one of the first to use the term in its present form (though it had been used by many others before him, [[Charles Olson]] for example, to refer to other literary trends) in his book: ''The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature''; in it, Hassan traces the development of what he called "literature of silence" through [[Marquis de Sade]], [[Franz Kafka]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], Beckett, and many others, including developments such as the [[Theatre of the Absurd]] and the [[nouveau roman]]. In 1979 [[Jean-François Lyotard]] wrote a short but influential work ''[[The Postmodern Condition|The Postmodern Condition: A report on knowledge]]''. Also, [[Richard Rorty]] wrote ''[[Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature]]'' (1979). [[Jean Baudrillard]], [[Michel Foucault]], and [[Roland Barthes]] are also influential in 1970s postmodern theory. | ||
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| - | ====Philosophical Movements and contributors==== | ||
| - | <blockquote style="background: white; border: 0px solid black; padding: 1em;"> | ||
| - | {| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" align="center" | ||
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| - | ! style="background:#ECE9EF;" | Influencer | ||
| - | ! style="background:#FFF6D6;"|Year | ||
| - | ! colspan="2" style="background:#EEF6D6;" | Influence | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Karl Barth]] ''' | ||
| - | |c.1930 | ||
| - | |[[Fideism|fideist]] approach to theology brought a rise in subjectivity | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Martin Heidegger]] ''' | ||
| - | |c.1930 | ||
| - | |rejected the philosophical grounding of the concepts of "subjectivity" and "objectivity" | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Ludwig Wittgenstein]]''' | ||
| - | |c.1950 | ||
| - | |[[anti-foundationalism]], on [[certainty]], a [[philosophy of language]] | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Thomas Samuel Kuhn]]''' | ||
| - | |c.1962 | ||
| - | |posited the rapid change of the basis of scientific knowledge to a provisional consensus of scientists, popularized the term "[[paradigm shift]]" | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[W.V.O. Quine]]''' | ||
| - | |c. 1962 | ||
| - | |developed the theses of indeterminacy of translation and ontological relativity, and argued against the possibility of [[A priori and a posteriori (philosophy)|a priori]] knowledge | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Jacques Derrida]]''' | ||
| - | |c.1970 | ||
| - | |re-examined the fundamentals of writing and its consequences on philosophy in general; sought to undermine the language of western [[metaphysics]] ([[deconstruction]]) | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Michel Foucault]]''' | ||
| - | |c.1975 | ||
| - | |examined discursive power in ''[[Discipline and Punish]]'', with Bentham's panopticon as his model, and also known for saying "language is oppression" (Meaning that language was developed to allow only those who spoke the language not to be oppressed. All other people that don't speak the language would then be oppressed.) | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Jean-François Lyotard]]''' | ||
| - | |c.1979 | ||
| - | |opposed universality, meta-narratives, and generality | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Richard Rorty]]''' | ||
| - | |c.1979 | ||
| - | |philosophy mistakenly imitates scientific methods; argues for dissolving traditional philosophical problems; [[anti-foundationalism]] and anti-essentialism | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Matthew Barnard]]''' | ||
| - | |c.1980 | ||
| - | |argues that Postmodernism is merely a state of mind, in comparison to Modernism claiming that both forms don't actually even exist in fundamental terms. | ||
| - | |- | ||
| - | |'''[[Jean Baudrillard]] ''' | ||
| - | |c.1981 | ||
| - | |''[[Simulacra and Simulation]]'' - reality created by [[mass media|media]] | ||
| - | </table> | ||
| - | </blockquote> | ||
| - | |---- | ||
| - | |} | ||
| == See also == | == See also == | ||
Revision as of 19:11, 4 January 2008
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- The Carlton Cabinet (1981) by Ettore Sottsass was my de facto first exposure to postmodernism. I was hooked.--Jahsonic
- “Modern architecture died in St. Louis, Missouri on July 15, 1972 at 3:32 pm when the infamous Pruitt-Igoe scheme, or rather several of its slab blocks, were given the final coup de grace by dynamite.” -- Charles Jencks
- "Pop in the broadest sense was the context in which a notion of the postmodern first took shape, and from the beginning until today, the most significant trends within postmodernism have challenged modernism's relentless hostility to mass culture." -- After the Great Divide (1986) - Andreas Huyssen
- The postmodernisms have, in fact, been fascinated precisely by this whole “degraded” landscape of schlock and kitsch, of TV series and Reader's Digest, of advertising and motels, of the late show and the grade-B Hollywood film, of so-called paraliterature, with its airport paperback categories of the gothic and the romance, the popular biography, the murder mystery, and the science fiction or fantasy novel: materials they no longer simply “quote” as a Joyce or a Mahler might have done, but incorporate into their very substance. --Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1984) - Fredric Jameson * Source: New Left Review 146, 1984, pp. 53—92
Development of postmodernism
See The development of postmodernism
See also
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