01 November 05 - 15:27Postmodernism in a Nutshell
Below this entry is a short essay about postmodernism. For those that
might find the short essay too long, here is how I would describe
postmodernism in a nutshell:
Premodernism: Reality is imposed from above, i.e. by the church
Modernism: The attempt to realize a universal shared reality based on observable phenomena
Postmodernism: Reality is individually constructed and structured
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01 November 05 - 13:58What the Heck is PoMo Anyway?
PoMo is a colloquial term for Postmodernism. The mass media often makes
reference to postmodernism, but generally only as an adjective to
describe art or architecture. But what exactly does postmodern mean?
One can readily infer that postmodernism means "after modernism" but
that is only helpful once one knows what the term modernism refers
to...and still leaves unanswered the question as to what it is that
came after modernism. One way to discuss postmodernism is to look at
what is being referred to when the terms "modern" or "postmodern" are
used to discuss art, architecture, or society. The reference is to the
way in which individuals, groups, and societies understand reality.
Before the "Modern" era:
Prior to the modern era most people understood what was real in terms
of an imposed worldview. Before the "Age of Enlightenment" the average
person was at the mercy of the church, the state, or a feudal lord.
Without literacy or access to formal education people depended on their
leaders to tell them how the world functioned. The shared reality of
social units was imposed "from above" by a small elite.
Modernism:
The "modern" view of reality came about as access to literature and
learning became broader and as leading intellectuals began a search for
a commonly understood shared view of reality. The dawn of modernism
began with the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason. In the twentieth
century modernism reached its apex, especially in the arts, as artists
began experimenting with the perception of reality, and with ways of
expressing individual perceptions of the generally accepted shared
reality.
Postmodernism:
Postmodernism has its roots in the middle of the twentieth century. At
this time psychologists were beginning to see that each individual
actually created, or constructed his or her own unique reality.
Postmodernism questioned the existence of any universal world-view, and
instead suggested a constructivist approach from which multiple
realities were constructed by individuals and groups of individuals.
For psychologists this meant that instead of trying to gain conformity
to a shared social reality, individuals should be encouraged to
construct functional personal realities. The most well-known
psychological manifestation of postmodernism is the "client-centered"
approach to counselling as espoused by Carl Rogers. In the visual arts
postmodernism allowed artists to become "unlocked in time" and to
borrow from the past while simultaneously building on the past.
Postmodernism and Fluxus:
After the First World War many artists and writers became disillusioned
with the results of modernism after having witnessed or participated in
the senseless slaughter of the war. Dada sowed the first seeds of
artistic post-modernism, but without an alternative post-modern
worldview, dada was restricted to nihilistic artistic protest and
mayhem. With the dawn of the postmodern worldview in the 1950s a new
"anti-art" movement was born that included the humour and protest
elements of dada but replaced the nihilism of dada with either optimism
or with a non-committal trivialization of the modern worldview. The
artist, George Maciunas coined the term "Fluxus" to describe this first
postmodern manifestation of intermedia in the arts.
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