We explain what postmodernism is and what its general characteristics are. We also explain what postmodern society and its architecture are like.
Postmodernism opposed the concepts that reality is natural.
What is postmodernism?
Postmodernism is a philosophical, cultural and artistic movement that emerged at the end of the 20th century as a reaction to the intellectual and philosophical ideas of modernity. It gets its name from having succeeded modernism as a philosophical movement.
Postmodernism opposes the idea of a natural realityobjective and independent of the human being, and maintains that this idea is based on naive realism. He stands out for his skepticism or rejection of the current of “enlightened reason”.
Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998), in The postmodern conditionanalyses postmodern culture as the end of metanarratives or “grand narratives”, the main characteristic of modernity. Examples of these are reductionism and teleological interpretations of Marxism and the Enlightenment, among others.
Instead of denying the identity of what is known until now, postmodernism It is based on the concept of “difference” as a productive mechanism. He maintains that thinking (and what compels humans to act) is a matter of sensitivity rather than reason.
See also: Epistemology
Characteristics of postmodernism
The postmodernist movement was characterized by considering that:
- Modern Western philosophy creates dualisms. Postmodernism maintains a hybrid or pluralist position regarding reality.
- Truth is a matter of perspective or context, rather than something universal or absolute. This idea comes from Nietzschean perspectivism: Nietzsche states that “there are no facts, only interpretations.”
- Language shapes the way of thinking and there can be no thought without language. Authors such as Derrida work with this idea.
- Language is capable of literally creating reality. Austin’s performativity elaborates a theory in this regard.
postmodern philosophy
Postmodern philosophy part of the idea of overcoming modernity. Although it is difficult to find an origin of postmodernism, its beginning is usually located in the 1960s, in France. Most postmodern thinkers are also post-Nietzschean: Derrida, Lyotard, Foucault, Baudrillard, Deleuze, Guattari, Nancy, Barthes and Lacan, among others.
This overcoming of modernity arises as a rejection or distancing from the ideals characteristic of the previous era. Many of its authors work from existentialism, deconstruction, posthumanism and contemporary literary theory. All of them break with the primacy that modernity gave to the subject and reason.
Some central ideas of philosophical postmodernism are Derridean logocentrism, binary dichotomy and power relations. Works such as The words and the things of Foucault, From grammatology of Derrida, or The anti-Oedipus of Deleuze and Guattari, work from these ideas.
With respect to concept of differencedifferent authors adopt similar positions but not entirely reconcilable with each other.
- In Derrida’s case, there is the concept of différance or “difference,” which is the superposition of simultaneous deferring upon differentiating. This concept first appears in his 1967 book, On grammatologywhich works on language and writing not as a sign but as gramma or “differentiated” registration.
- Deleuze also works with Bergsonian multiplicity as a form of difference.
- For his part, Foucault works at the episteme as a singularity modified by the exercise of power.
- In the case of Lyotard, the term coined is “dispute”, determining that it is no longer possible to legitimize the historical truth claims of the different Western philosophical systems.
Postmodern art
Postmodernism It is characterized by breaking the established rules about art. and for introducing a new era of freedom in which “anything goes.” It is an anti-authoritarian movement by nature because it refuses to recognize the influence of any style.
The postmodernist movement, in order to challenge the limits of collective taste, is shown in a funny, ironic and even ridiculous tone. He has an anti-dualist stance that opposes classical oppositional preconceptions such as east and west, man and woman, rich and poor or black and white.
Some examples of postmodern art are minimalism, conceptual art, land art, the happening and the interventions. All of them affirm that there is a failure of avant-garde art. They maintain that the avant-garde is nothing more than a failed response to the established canon: once they make their criticism and mark their artistic difference with respect to the canon, they end up entering it.
postmodern architecture
The State Gallery in Stuttgart, Germany is a postmodern building.
postmodern architecture It stands out for being of an indefinite type, without opposing any of the known styles, even when it manages to differentiate itself from them. He replaced modern aesthetics (without ornamentation and right angles) with irregular lines and unusual surfaces.
Some examples of postmodern architecture are: the State Gallery in Stuttgart (in Germany), the Piazza d’Italia public square in New Orleans (in the United States) and the Scottish Parliament Building in Holyrood (in Scotland).
Modernist architects often consider postmodern buildings as vulgar. or with a populist ethic. On the contrary, postmodern architects may consider the works of modernity as soulless and too bland facades.
postmodern literature
Postmodern literature It is characterized by an ideology and a style that appeal to fragmentationdiversity, paradox, little-known narrators, parody and “black humour”. He rejects the distinction between genres and forms of writing.
The literature of the 1990s in Latin America experienced a tendency towards postmodernism. Among its most prominent exponents are Ricardo Piglia, Diamela Eltit, Rafael Humberto Moreno-Durán, José Balza and José Emilio Pacheco.
Postmodern authors They are identified by drawing a diffuse boundary between fictional speeches and essays.: They write fictions about literature and essays in fiction mode.
postmodern society
During the development of postmodern society We moved from a production economy to a consumer economyeven to compulsive consumerism that caused harmful consequences that can be seen today.
To counteract the negative consequences, postmodernism began to question environmental disasters caused by the overexploitation of natural resources and the amount of toxic waste generated. He proposed a revaluation of planet Earth and raising awareness to care for it.
Criticisms of postmodernism
In all fields in which postmodernity develops resistance and rejection have appeared to the general ideas that it raisesWhether in architecture, art or literature, generations of artists, writers and thinkers maintain that postmodernism is the symptom of a society in decline whose support has been lost in time.
One of the most famous examples is the book written by physicists Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense: The Abuse of Science by Modern Intellectuals. There they highlight the relativism to which postmodernism is subject. They criticize both the use of scientific concepts by philosophers and the use of non-communicative language by some authors, such as Derrida or Heidegger, who usually write their works with non-predicative language or released into playful exercise as a display of thought.
The philosophers and thinkers most criticized by Sokal and Bricmont are Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour and Jean Baudrillard.
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