Two Important POINTS from the Reading
- Postmodernism has become everyone's favourite bête noire, while at the same time not only generously providing something strong for debate, when so many other things had 'melted into the air', but also, in a mysterious way, be a concept in the right place at the right time. Postmodernism has It therefore serves the function of a paradigm shift in cultural studies and sociology, doing that kind of intellectual work inevitably provoke controversy and protest, even more so when what appears to be happening stake is precisely terms such as history, society and politics that have given substance and direction for the type of work we do.
- Some of the work is flawed by what is done to postmodern theory to make it compatible with feminist cultural criticism. It is first given a historical place which is in line with and connected to its modernist predecessor, and then slotted into a recognisable radical tradition.Modernity was symbolised in the strikingly fashionable figure of the modern woman. According to these writers there is a case to be made for positioning women strongly inside modernity.
POSTMODERNISM
The term "postmodernism" refers to both the time that followed modernism's dominance in cultural theory and practice in the first and second half of the twentieth century as well as a backlash against its ideals and principles. The phrase connotes doubt, irony, and philosophical challenges of the notions of universal truths and objective reality. The first use of the phrase was in 1970. Since there is no single postmodern style or philosophy upon which it is predicated, postmodernism as an artistic movement somewhat defies description. It is possible to say that it began with pop art in the 1960s and encompasses a lot of what came after, such as conceptual art, neo-expressionism, feminist art, and the Young British Artists of the 1990s.
The DIFFERENCE between MODERNISM VS POST-MODERNISM
Modernism
Myths of cultural and ethnic origin; master narratives and metanarratives of history, culture, and national identity.
Belief that the "Grand Theory" (totalizing explanations in history, science, and culture; rejection of totalizing theories; pursuit of localising and contingent theories) represents and explains all of knowledge.
Religion and social and cultural myths, social class and ethnic/national hierarchy, and what appear to be unmistakable foundations for togetherness.
Master narrative of technological and scientific progress.
Unified identity and a sense of being one, concentrated self.
Model of the nuclear middle-class family as the basic tenet of social structure.
Postmodernism
Intertextuality, performance, method, and production in art. Recycling of culture through art is authenticated by the audience and validated in subcultures that share the artist's identity.
Hyper-reality, visual saturation, simulacra, and texts and images with no prior "original" all seem more potent than the "actual." As seen on TV and MTV are more persuasive than firsthand knowledge.
Changes in pop culture's value, the blending of popular and high cultures, and hybrid cultural forms eliminate the distinction between "high" and "low" culture.
Trust and investment in institutional power conflicts, local politics, identity politics, and micro politics.
Without regard for "Depth," pay attention to how surfaces, pictures, and signifiers interact.
What is a metanarrative? Can we really do without them?
Jean-François Lyotard coined the term "metanarrative," also known as "grand narrative" or "mater narrative," to describe a theory that attempts to provide a summarising, comprehensive account of various historical events, experiences, and social and cultural phenomena by appealing to universal truth or universal values. Not a definitive denial of their existence or worth, postmodernism was characterised as having "incredulity towards metanarratives."
In my opinion. I do not think that humans can live without this. They felt dominated by the two primary meta-narratives they had been given—science and religion—and didn't like them because they wanted to "do their own thing." They advocated the idea that people might "create" their "own" narratives through storytelling as the fundamental act of "doing your own thing" in order to challenge the dominance of those institutions. They didn't challenge some of the solipsistic and rationalist characteristics, not necessarily of their hidden metaphysics or style of operation, but of their proclaimed metaphysics. These comprised ideas that drastically separated the world and the individual. They were more focused on the tone and energy of their words than anything else. The conversation, the theatrical act, is what matters most. They may not have intended for the statements to be dissected, removed from their historical and social contexts, and transformed into the kind of abstract and universal chains of logic that fascinated the English and Americans, who did not enjoy the discourse nearly as much as they did and who hoped to "settle" the issues at hand once and for all through sound reasoning.
Do we need binaries? Are they useful?
Binarism fundamentally involves appraisal, which certainly has the effect of elevating one of the binary conceptions above the other, the opposing one. The observation that over time the various evaluative attitudes of the phrases settle and eventually become cultural and political cliches is even more unsettling. The question is whether such ethical commitment, or, to put it another way, whether there are no other ways to honour ethical engagement, sufficiently legitimises the denial of binarism. Contrarily, the cognitive perspective is concerned with world orientation, and it is precisely this trait that helps to reconcile the ontological contradictions. Entropy would rule life absent the cognitive tools of differentiation. People are constantly looking for identification and distinction to establish their place in the world. In his book Gesellschaftsstruktur und Semantik (The structure of society and semantics), well-known for his system-theoretical approach to the sociology of knowledge, Niklas Luhmann makes the following claim: Without distinction, there can be no observation, no meaning, no action, and consequently no world, as the world can only be defined as an entity through differentiation (Luhmann 1989, p. 355). He uses the example of George Spencer Brown, who in his contribution to logic asks people to carry out their fundamental duty of "drawing a distinction" (p. 354). The unmarked expanse of the world can only be converted into a recognisable order of identities and differences if individuals undertake this work. What holds true for the entire world also holds true for individuals. According to Luhmann, a person cannot become unique without differentiation. Only through the awareness of difference is identity possible
Is your own identity postmodern in some way?
My own postmodern in some way is when something can be easily replaced with something new if it has a higher value than other things. All judgments are based on taste. In this post modern sense, anything can be art. The distinction between media and reality has collapsed, postmodern society now lives in a 'reality' defined by images and representations. This state is known as the hyper-reality state. All ideas of 'truth' serve only as claims. This reflects the feeling of modern society with a sense of alienation, insecurity and uncertainty about its identity, history, progress and truth within itself. traditions such as religion, family began to fade. In Post modern, it is these things according to post modern society that help identify themselves and shape attitudes. I belong to the Postmodern society because it is part of a more visual society, the 'watch society' because the modern society is dominated by television and the internet. implication is only a form of media reality, because our understanding of reality is now said to be completely dominated by images from various types of popular media, cultural forms can no longer be used as 'mirrors of reality', because reality itself is depicted by advertisements, films , video games and television pictures.