Paper analysis 3
Quang Hong
Ahis 466
Postmodernism
Concept such as “reality”, “truth” and “humanity” are invariably put under scrutiny by thinkers and “texts” associated with postmodernism. Postmodernism is often viewed as a culture of quotations. It is difficult to define “postmodernism”. The difficulty of describing it as a concept stems from its wide usage in a range of cultural and critical movements since the 1970s. Postmodernism shows not only a period but also a set of ideas and can only be understood in relation to another equally complex term: “modernism”.
In late 19th and 20th century, modernism was a diverse art and cultural movement. Its common thread was a break with tradition and “make it new!”. The “post” in postmodern suggests “after”. To understand Postmodernism best, you can think it as “a questioning of the ideas and values associated with a form of modernism that believes in progress and innovation. Modernism maintains on a clear divide between art and popular culture.
Just like modernism, postmodernism does not select on any one style of art or culture. On the opposite of its naute, it is often associated with pluralism and an abandonment of conventional ideas of originality and authorship in favor of a pastiche of “dead” styles.
The transition from modernism to postmodernism were seen through the dramatically change in the world of architecture. It gained the acceptance widely in the 1970s. One of the first person to use the term is architectural critic “Charles Jencks”; he suggested that the end of modernism traced to the derelict Pruitt-Igoe public housing project was demolished (July 15, 1972 at 3:32pm). While modernist architects interested in unified meanings, universal truths, technology and structure; postmodernists in the other hand favored double coding, vernacular context and surfaces. For example, the city of Las Vegas is an example of ultimate postmodern architecture.
In relationship with visual art, postmodernism is associated with a group of New York artists such as Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman. They engaged in acts of image appropriation and have since known as “The Pictures Generation” after a 1977 show curated by Douglas Crimp.
In the 1980s, postmodernism became dominant discourse, associated with “anything goes” pluralism, fragmentation, allusions, allegory and quotations. This however; represented the end to the avant-garde’s believe in originality and the progress of art. The origins of these strategies started with Dada artist such as “marcel Duchamp” and pop artists in the 1960s.
Postmodernism can also be a critical project, revealing cultural constructions we select as the truth and open up a variety of repressed other histories of modernity. Modernists cannot revealed itself as patriarchal and racist and dominated by white heterosexual men. As a result, one of the most common themes addressed within postmodernism relates to cultural identity.
In the postmodern worldview, everything is contingent, and nothing is fixed. Following are the several implications of confronting reality this way. First, reality is ultimately unknowable. Our “situatedness” stops us from directly get into the real world or obtain true knowledge about it. This is not to say that the real world is not there, only that we can never shed our perspectives to obtain it. Second, both the truth and knowledge are constructions of language. They show the perspective of the one who is claiming, but should not be misunderstood as a statement of fact or the truth about actual reality. It is important to understand that postmodernism does not really argue that each person has their own truth, but that our perspectives on what is real are mainly shaped by the communities and culture surrounding us. Third, the progress is an illusion. The certainty of the modern project, which was based on a false confidence in human objectivity and certainty, has been restrained.
postmodernism only exists as a viable worldview in certain contexts. The worldview that claims that all worldviews are historically and culturally contingent turns out to be historically and culturally contingent itself. In fact, in all of its rebellion against the evils of modernism and Western civilizations, postmodernism ironically exists only in the context of modernism and Western civilization
Post modernism breaks down the idea of progress, leading to insights and provoking thought – but is challenging, rather than funny, as we have to re-evaluate our history and our actions as a country in a much darker light.