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3/27/2012
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What is Postmodernism?
“Perhaps the clearest and most certain thing
that can be said about postmodernism is that
it is a very unclear and very much contested
concept…”
–Richard Shusterman in Aesthetics and Postmodernism
What is Postmodernism?
Postmodernists themselves, do not consider it
to be a comprehensive theory or systematic
philosophical approach. They prefer
considering it…
• a (social/intellectual) condition
• a movement
• a set of attitudes
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What is Postmodernism?
• Postmodernism: The belief that there is no
universally applicable, objective foundation
for knowledge.
• Jean-Francois Lyotard defines postmodernism
as “incredulity towards meta-narratives”
Lyotard on Meta-narratives
• meta-narratives: grand all encompassing myths
about humanity, the world and the cosmos.
• There is no neutral vantage point from which
humans can see the world free from bias. Instead
we see the world through the lenses of stories
that we tell about ourselves and the world
• No “meta-narrative” can be proven to be
absolutely true for all times, people, or cultures.
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Lyotard on Meta-narratives
• Lyotard (1924-1998) saw
grand meta-narratives
(such as Christianity,
Enlightenment
Rationalism, Marxism) as
“totalizing”, authoritarian
and repressive. They are
used to silence voices
which do not fit or
challenge the dominate
ideologies.
Postmodernism as Anti-modernism
• Modernism: a set of ideas and practices which trace their intellectual heritage back to the European “age of enlightenment”
• Enlightenment Philosophical concepts– Objective & universal truths are discoverable through
reason and science.
– Language can represent the world as it really is.
– All human beings share a common nature
– The application of reason, science and technology to the ordering of society will bring about greater freedom and social justice.
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Postmodernism as Anti-modernism
• Enlightenment political concepts:
– Uniqueness and autonomy of the individual
– Natural rights/Human rights
– Democracy / Limited Government
– Capitalism / Economic liberalism
– Egalitarianism / Equality of interests
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The Frankfurt School
• In 1923 a group of
intellectuals formed the
Institute for Social
Research in Frankfurt,
Germany. During the
rise of the Nazis several
Jewish members of the
school fled Germany
and re-established the
school in New York City
The Frankfurt School & “Critical Theory”
• The Frankfurt School believed modern western
society had failed to live up to the promises of
the enlightenment and was rapidly deteriorating
into multiple totalitarian governments which
suppressed human freedom.
• “Critical Theory” (a precursor to postmodernism)
attempted to stem the tide of totalitarian
thinking through criticism of social institutions
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The Frankfurt School & “Critical Theory”
While some members of the school considered
themselves enlightenment humanists or neo-
marxists, others advanced more “postmodern”
ideas..
• Jurgen Habermas (1929-)
– Science is cannot be impartial/ideologically neutral.
– Science uncritically promotes values which should be
challenged (ex. technological domination of nature)
– The notion of objective reason is oppressive
The Frankfurt School & “Critical Theory”
• Theodor Adorno (1903-1969)
– Criticized “the culture industry”
– Modern art and popular media culture deadens
political awareness and promotes passivity.
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Hyper-real and Simulacra
Hyper-real Jean Baudrillard
Features of Postmodernism
1. Language as “the play of signs”
– Language does not point us to “the real world” but to an
internal game of signs and symbols.
– Language is never neutral. Written and spoken language
both depend on interpretation which is influenced by
society, history and politics.
2. Anti-realism
– We cannot know the world “as it is”
– Language constructs the world that we mistakenly take as
brute reality.
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Features of Postmodernism
3. Anti-rationalism
– Human rationality is also historically and culturally
constructed—reject notion of objectivity
– As such we cannot appeal to reason as a neutral arbiter
of disputes regarding human practices or judgments.
4. Rejection of “human nature”
– Postmodernists are skeptical of appeals to fixed or innate
human capacities which all human beings share.
– Culture constructs oppressive notions of gender and race
which are falsely taken to be universal & immutable.
Features of Postmodernism
5. Rejection of “the uniqueness of the
individual”
– The “self” is constructed in relation to the “other”
– Concepts of uniqueness, originality and genius either
deny or trivialize this fact.
6. Rejection of stable, inherit meaning in “texts”
– There are no “true” interpretations of artworks
– High Art/Low art distinctions
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Postmodern Pluralism in Art
• In the wake of postmodern ideas the artworldhas seen unprecedented diversity…
– Minority/political perspectives in art
– Collaborative and anonymous art (rejection of
genius/individualism)
– Appropriation / Readymades (rejection of originality)
– Hybridization (rejecting rigid classification of artforms)
– Kitsch (rejection of High/low & popular/fine art)
Does Postmodernism have a method?
There is no single
method of analysis
shared by all
postmodernists.
• Many, however, employ
a loose method of
analysis called
deconstruction,
developed by Jacques
Derrida (1930-2004)
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Deconstruction
• Derrida did not conceive of deconstruction as a fixed
method, nevertheless deconstruction usually follows
the following pattern…
1. Recognize “binary oppositions” in the texts
key ideas
– Good/evil, us/them, male/female, light/dark, east/west
2. Identify “violent hierarchy” in these ideas
(i.e. one term is treated as superior to the
other)
Deconstruction
3. Show the hierarchy is reversible—reconstruct
the narrative as it would be seen from the
perspective of the oppressed term.
or…
show that the two terms are not fixed and
stable but are ambiguous and subvert
eachother in the text’s own internal logic.
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Michel Foucault
• Michel Foucault (1926-
1984) contributed two
important concepts to
deconstruction-
Archaeology: historical
assumptions underlying
ideologies.
Genealogy: how an idea
transforms over time.
Foucault and “the death of the author”
In his essay “What is an
Author?” Foucault
deconstructs the idea of
authorship. He
concludes that the
“author function” is one
way in which society
limits the diversity of
interpretations which
are possible in any text.
“The author is therefore
the ideological figure by
which one marks the
manner in which we
fear the proliferation of
meaning”
-Michel Foucault
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Importance of the Author to Interpretation
• In a conversational
context disputes over
meaning are settled by
the speakers intentions.
• Similarly, many
philosophers and critics
appeal to the authors
intentions to identify
the correct
interpretation of a text
In a conversation, if
somebody said something
that could be interpreted
different ways you you
would probably ask them
to clarify what they meant
Intentionalism and Interpretation
• Actual Intentionalism: A works meaning, both explicit and implicit is what it’s author intended
• Hypothetical Intentionalism: the works meaning is determined by the intentions the audience is best justified in attributing to the author.
– Can be used in conjunction with A.I.
– Gets around “intentionalist fallacy” (lecture 4)
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Foucault and “the death of the author”
In his essay “What is an
Author?” Foucault
deconstructs the idea of
authorship. He
concludes that the
“author function” is one
way in which society
limits the diversity of
interpretations which
are possible in any text.
“The author is therefore
the ideological figure by
which one marks the
manner in which we
fear the proliferation of
meaning”
-Michel Foucault
Saint Jerome proposes four criteria:
(1) If among several books attributed to an author one is inferior to the others, it must be withdrawn from the list of the author's works (the author is therefore defined as a constant level of value)
(2) the same should be done if certain texts contradict the doctrine expounded in the author's other works (the author is thus defined as a field of conceptual or theoretical coherence)
(3) one must also exclude works that are written in a different style containing words and expressions not ordinarily found in the writer's production (the author is here conceived as a stylistic unity)
(4) finally, passages quoting statements that were made, or mentioning events that occurred after the author's death must be regarded as interpolated texts (the author is here seen as a historical figure at the crossroads of a certain number of events)
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A Compromise? Meaning vs. Significance
• Stephen Davis argues interpretations do not
change a works “meaning” but they can
change its significance.
– Meaning: fixed by semantic, symbolic and other
properties of a text. The object of interpretation is
unaffected by being interpreted.
– Significance: how we think about a work and
relate to its values and ideas that lie beyond it.