THE SUBLIME TROUBLES OF POSTMODERNISM

The Passing Of Postmodernism: A Spectroanalysis of the Contemporary, 2010

The Passing of Postmodernism addresses the increasingly prevalent assumption that a period marked by poststructuralism and metafiction has passed and that literature and film are once again engaging sincerely with issues of ethics and politics. In discussions of various twentieth- and twenty-first-century writers, directors, and theorists—from Michel Foucault and Slavoj Žižek to Thomas Pynchon and David Lynch—Josh Toth demonstrates that a certain utopian spirit persisted within, and actually defined, the postmodern project. Just as modernism was animated by an idealistic belief that it could finally realize the utopia beckoning on the horizon, postmodernism was compelled by an equally utopian belief that it could finally reject the possibility of all such illusory ideals. Toth argues that this specter of an impossible future is and must remain both possible and impossible, a ghostly promise of what is always still to come.

2014

Postmodernism and Society, 1990

Many sociologists, cultural commentators, literary theorists and philosophers have been intrigued by the idea of postmodernity for some time now, and this interest is reflected in the considerable outpouring of writing on the topic which has appeared over the last year or two. There seems, however, to be scant agreement on how the crucial terms in these discussions are to be understood. 'Modernity' and 'postmodernity', 'modernism' and 'postmodernism' appear and reappear in philosophical, literary and other texts in what is at first sight a bewildering array of guises. Combined, especially in Britain, with a scepticism towards fashionableespecially French-debates as well as resistance to what are seen as trendy neologisms, particularly in the realm of culture and aesthetics, there is a danger that much of the debate about postmodernism will remain on the academic and cultural margins, the property of an avant-garde but held generally in deep suspicion and even derision by the rest. This collection is offered in the belief that the debate about postmodernism addresses issues that are actually of crucial significance to the humanities and the social sciences and, more

Comunicação e Sociedade, Modernidade e Pós-Modernidade, Coordenação do volume : Albertino Gonçalves e Jean-Martin Rabot, Vol. 18, 2010, pp. 41-51., 2010

Is there such thing as a postmodern gesture ? We propose to reflect on the cultural stance that lies behind postmodern theory. If we focus on the founders of the movement, we realize how the modern/postmodern divide constitutes, in some way, an artificial dichotomy. Beyond the descriptive aspects of the social changes involved in postmodernism, we envisage the native intent that drives postmodern authors. The analysis of these roots gives us a relevant insight into the postmodern idea itself. The novelty can indeed be found in a reflexive posture which characterizes postmodernism in its inner connection with modernity. We therefore develop the hermeneutics of change that postmodern thinkers put in practice when it concerns the re-reading and re-writing of some modern claims. Postmodern thinkers open interstices within modernity, creating a fundamental space wherein to revitalize modernity and foster imagination toward new socio-historical configurations.

1988

As an intellectual movement postmodernism was born as a challenge to several modernist themes that were first articulated during the Enlightenment. These include scientific positivism, the inevitability of human progress, and the potential of human reason to address any essential truth of physical and social conditions and thereby make them amenable to rational control (Boyne and Rattansi 1990). The primary tenets of the postmodern movement include: (1) an elevation of text and language as the fundamental phenomena of existence, (2) the application of literary analysis to all phenomena, (3) a questioning of reality and representation, (4) a critique of metanarratives, (5) an argument against method and evaluation, (6) a focus upon power relations and hegemony, (7) and a general critique of Western institutions and knowledge (Kuznar 2008:78). For his part, Lawrence Kuznar labels postmodern anyone whose thinking includes most or all of these elements. Importantly, the term postmodernism refers to a broad range of artists, academic critics, philosophers, and social scientists that Christopher Butler (2003:2) has only half-jokingly alluded to as like “a loosely constituted and quarrelsome political party.” The anthropologist Melford Spiro defines postmodernism thusly: The postmodernist critique of science consists of two interrelated arguments, epistemological and ideological. Both are based on subjectivity. First, because of the subjectivity of the human object, anthropology, according to the epistemological argument cannot be a science; and in any event the subjectivity of the human subject precludes the possibility of science discovering objective truth. Second, since objectivity is an illusion, science according to the ideological argument, subverts oppressed groups, females, ethnics, third-world peoples. [Spiro 1996: 759] Postmodernism has its origins as an eclectic social movement originating in aesthetics, architecture and philosophy (Bishop 1996). In architecture and art, fields which are distinguished as the oldest claimants to the name, postmodernism originated in the reaction against abstraction in painting and the International Style in architecture (Callinicos 1990: 101). However, postmodern thinking arguably began in the nineteenth century with Nietzsche’s assertions regarding truth, language, and society, which opened the door for all later postmodern and late modern critiques about the foundations of knowledge (Kuznar 2008: 78). Nietzsche asserted that truth was simply: a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms – in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are. [Nietzsche 1954: 46-47] According to Kuznar, postmodernists trace this skepticism about truth and the resulting relativism it engenders from Nietzsche to Max Weber and Sigmund Freud, and finally to Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and other contemporary postmodernists (2008:78).

Richard Devetak, Anthony Burke, Jim George (eds), An Introduction to International Relations (Cambridge University Press), 2012

There are basically three ways that people use the term "postmodernism":

This paper traces the historical discourse of Western Civilization from the period of Modernity to Postmodernity. Major political, social, moral, and scientific shifts occurred in the Western Civilization during Modernity because of the maturation of underpinning utilitarian and materialistic ethics. Postmodernity is a critique on the ideologies of modernity. The identifiable difference between the two lies in the nature of discourse. The discourse of modernity rests on the transcendent criteria such as 'progress' and 'reason'. Postmodern discourse, on the other hand, analyzes social life in terms of paradox and indeterminacy and rejects all metanarratives and overarching guiding principles, religion, science, objectivity, rationality and the notion of truth. Yet the two are closely related and complement each other by sharing a deep commitment and affinity to empiricism, concrete forms and reductionism.