Defining Postmodernism & Some of its Main Features
Postmodernism is a broad cultural term that emerged in the late twentieth century as a means to contradict modernism. It became more dominant around the 1980s. This change in perspective paved the way for a variety of disciplines to appear, notably in the fields of art, communications, philosophy, literary and cultural criticism, technology, literature, fashion, and architecture to name a few. In other words, postmodernism applied to almost all major social and cultural fields. This approach destroyed established ideas regarding the aesthetics of art and architecture. It has different variables subject to change and comes with a deep semantic instability. Postmodernism rejected the ideas of modernism in all cultural aspects, to begin with. Modernism was defined by ideas, but postmodernism does not allow that. It even refuses to follow the constitution of time, unlike modernism. The two key principles of postmodernism were contradiction and complexity which was contrary to what modernism offered. Consumerism and corporate culture were highly influenced by this dystopian perspective.
The postmodernist philosophy revolved around three basic characteristics: skepticism, which is an attitude of doubting knowledge in different areas, particularly in a philosophical aspect. Postmodern thinkers doubted the notion of any knowledge to exist beyond their personal experience. Relativism, another characteristic of this postmodern philosophy is the refusal to accept the concept of absolute truths in ethics. A person or a society in discourse could be either morally right or wrong, relative to a particular context. Lastly, the third and most important characteristic of postmodernism is the general suspicion of reason. This develops a concept of standing against anything that the desire, emotions, feeling, or perception believes in. It is basically the process of drawing logical inferences. The postmodernist attitude refused to identify any particular style or definition of art, rejecting the two extremities (high and low) forms of literature and art. This approach also rejects the notion of distinctions between the various structures, styles, and genres of storytelling and writing. This resulted in bridging the gap between high culture and pop culture. Individuals were more focused on science and rationality. Even though postmodernism is said to be ended by the beginning of the 21st century as a period, if we look closely, we still live in a postmodern era. Here are some of the main features of postmodernism:
The formlessness of things: Postmodernism believes in formlessness and does not prefer giving shapes to the metaphor. This embraces fragmentation, pluralism, rejecting the notion of high art and emphasizing more on the abstract expressions of the different forms of art.
Loss of aura and authenticity: Postmodernism imports a wide variety of styles, employing materials from wide social backgrounds, for instance, folk culture. Artists no longer have to wait for a patron or the lyrics of a song do not necessarily require careful construction of words and rhythm.
Virtuality: The postmodernist approach proclaims the doubtful relationship between representation and reality, due to the development of communication outlets like sound, image, and text by electronic means. Imitation, duplication, or twisted reality became popular as a postmodernist phenomenon.
Meaning is indeterminate: The multidimensional attitude towards society or culture at large is what makes postmodernism an era of great controversies. This is more defined with critical terms like deconstruction and individual theoretical perspectives. Language is more ambiguous. Texts are found within other texts, words become codes, and deciphering meaning is now an act of personalized interpretation which is again subject to change. As a result, now cultures can be read by theorists.
Total rejection of metanarratives: Postmodernists tend to look at history through the eyes of subalterns. When a text is based on oral storytelling tradition, this helps to explore/transgress boundaries questioning the very existence of an individual identity, simultaneously giving voice to underrepresented voices. This is characterized by incoherence and irrationality.
Redefining individual identity: In the postmodern era, social life expanded to a great extent inviting individuals further into the world of chaos, creating an upheaval of identity crisis within them. This new dimension made the society stop looking for a singular authentic self, rather celebrations and recognition were in order. Winning over the dilemma of self-identity formation became an integral aspect of postmodernism.
Other key features include the lesser influence of iconoclasm, rise of neo-capitalism, Michel Foucault’s theory of the knowledge-power relationship as the governing factor for controlling a society, challenging the existing Marxist theories of the (postmodern) era-diminished class conflicts, multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity, and emergence of flexible approaches in the construction of society and culture.
