Postmodernism
v
Generally
a world view/theory.
“A style and
concept in the arts characterised by distrust of theories and ideologies and by
the drawing of attention to conventions.”
Modernism
– another theory or world view.
Postmodernism is the reaction against modernism in all disciplines – art, philosophy,
film, literature, history etc.
Ø
Both
modernism and postmodernism still currently exist.
Ø
Modernist and postmodernist texts have shared conceptions.
They challenge typical conventional structures.
Ø
To
tell the difference between the two is intent – analyse what the authors
intended to do.
Ø
Modernist
– critical, deconstructs, makes fun of
Postmodernist – take things from the past, turn things around, nostalgic
§
Pessimistic
postmodernism – think that everything is already done
§
Optimistic
postmodernism – think that there could be something new done by combining
things together
Ø
It
is self-contradictory (contradicts with itself) and ironic (it knows that it
contradicts itself).
Ø
Postmodernity
is suspicious of meta-narratives (e.g. Capitalism, Marxism, Feminism, God etc.)
–it is self-contradictory because they say that there can’t be theories for everything
when it is a theory itself. It offers a meta-narrative that there are no
meta-narratives.
Conventions
of postmodernism
v
Irony
v
Playing
with conventions
v
Black
humour – asks and raises questions but have few answers – it is criticised for
being offensive, racist etc. –gone too far.
v
Intertextuality
v
Pastiche
– past together/comment (from past)
v
Magic
realism
v
Different
perspectives
