POSTMODERNISM

DEFINITION

Postmodernism: cultural practices (aesthetic) Postmodernity: a condition of society—

describes our contemporary era (epoch)

Modernism (similar to Enlightment) is an equally contested term but below are a number of widely agreed-upon characteristics:a) stable, coherent, knowable self• the self (i.e. each of us) is conscious, autonomous, and universal• thus differences from person to person are largely irrelevantb) the self is rational• it knows itself thru. reason n an objective form• reason is the pinnacle of mental functioningc) science is the pinnacle of rational thought• the source of objective and universal truths about the world• further renders status of the knower irrelevant• science is the paradigm for all socially useful knowledged) science produces truth• objective, universal, eternale) scientific truth is the source of enlightenment• rational objective truth produces progress and perfection• all institutions, practices, and individuals can be improved upon by such knowledgef) reason is the ultimate judge• it can tell us what is right and good• it is an unbiased source of law and rule• thus there should be no conflict between what is true and rightg) language can and must be rational• transparent• functions to clearly represent the real world• a firm and objective connection between words and things

1) EARLY POSTMODERNISM: FROM ‘POP ART’ TO THE POSTMODERN CONDITION

From the late 1950s through the 1960s, the term postmodernism was rarelyused, limited to small circles within the art community

It was initially used to express opposition to the canon of modernity—in the museum and the academy

In this sense, it was another attack on the Arnoldian concept of culture:• rejecting the split b/n high and low culture

Mostly, it was a concern over how modern culture had become safe and respectable (middle-class or bourgeois culture)

An early strategy of postmodernism was to look to mass culture for new sources of art

Andy Warhol is the quintessential early postmodern artist

He stacked Brillo boxes in a gallery and reproduced Campbell Soup cans• his point was to make the everyday a site of art (i.e. going to the supermarket)

LYOTARD AND ‘THE POSTMODERN CONDITION’

“Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives. This incredulity is undoubtedly a product of progress in the sciences: but that progress in turn presupposes it.”

What are ‘metanarratives’?• Modernity (the Enlightenment)• Liberalism• Marxism

The main point is that these all rely on totalizing frameworks and universal principles

In short, Lyotard’s focus was on what he perceived a crisis in the status of knowledge

The metanarratives of modernity used universal and totalizing frames to understand things• thus knowledge could be equated with certainty• thus knowledge could be universally valid• Science, since the Enlightenment offered ‘universal truth’• in turn, such knowledge was our sole source of progress and liberation

Lyotard saw something else: modern knowledge as an homogenizing force which silenced and excluded

2) BAUDRILLARD: THE SIMULACRUM AND HYPERREALITY Baudrillard became famous in the late 1980s and early

90s as a preeminent postmodern theorist He questions presuppositions of modernity

• i.e. the active rational subject• material ‘reality’ as the foundation of everyday life

Many consider Baudrillard to be apolitical• i.e., unlike Gramsci, Williams, Thompson, etc., he does not see the subject as an active agent of change

He presents consumption as a kind of cultural practice• i.e. it entailed the production of meaning• that is, commodities have their own sign-value• sign-value is the commodity’s mark of prestige, style, power, identity, etc.

Consumption—as a kind of ‘symbolic exchange’—redefined the parameters of capitalism• i.e. even workers now understood themselves more as productive forces in symbolic exchange (consumers) than as producers of commodities (workers)

For Baudrillard, the postmodern is marked by the domination of the hyperreal and simulation• media (particularly ICTs) and consumption (particularly its symbolic exchange) forms the new matrix in which our subjectivity (identity) is formed

Thus the postmodern condition is that of symbolic exchange, simulation (the simulacrum), and hyperreality

Baudrillard’s postmodernism is defined by:i) the political economy of the sign• no longer possible to separate the economic realm from the cultural realm• a shift from the production of things to the production of information/meaning• a semiotic economyii) the simulacrum• an identical copy without an original—called a ‘simulacrum’• there is no meaningful distinction to be made b/n a copy and an original• the very concept of the original becomes irrelevant• Baudrillard calls this process ‘simulation’

iii) hyperreality• no distinction b/n reality and simulation• when the simulacrum becomes the general model, we shift into hyperreality• the characteristic mode of postmodernism that is, reality and simulation are

experienced as without difference[There has been a] dissolution of TV into

life, the dissolution of life into TV. (Baudrillard)

What about the conflation of reality with ‘Reality TV’?

Representation/appearance and realityRecapping, for Baudrillard, our postmodern age is characterized by:• an economy that produces information and meaning over things• no distinction b/n a copy and the original• no distinction b/n reality and representation

This challenges one of the basic concepts of modernity—that there is afundamental reality under the world of appearance or representation

For Baudrillard, another defining characteristic of postmodernity is the end of the search for meaning in the underlying reality of appearances

In other words, it questions the claims of representation• representation of what?• a singular ‘real’?

Is there a ‘real’ behind appearance or representation?Representation does not stand at one remove from reality, to conceal or distort, it is reality. (Storey)

Media plays a key role• media constantly represents reality• media representation affects and produces reality, ex. Terrorist Ambush

Disneyland is the quintessential example of the postmodern realm of simulation• where the ‘real’ is no longer ‘real’• where simulated reality is reality

Ex. Ariel and Luna Maya Scandal

FREDERIC JAMESON