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Modernity
RENAISSANCE TO ABOUT 1900 (+/- 30 years)
Baudrillard:
Early modernity: Renaissance to Industrial Revolution
Modernity: Industrial Revolution
Postmodernity: Period of mass media
The world according to white Anglo-Saxon males from Europe
Timeline
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Your Place in History
Modern
Timeline
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Modernism Postmodernism
14th C 1900 2000
You are here
Modernity
God, reason and progress
There was a center to the universe.
Progress is based upon knowledge, and man is capable of discerning objective absolute truths in science and the arts.
Modernism is linked to capitalism—progressive economic administration of world
Modernization of 3rd world countries (imposition of modern Western values)
Newtonian Order
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Language & Truth: The “Modern” View
People are the same everywhere
There are universal laws and truths
Knowledge is objective, independent of culture, gender, etc.
Language is a man-made tool that refers to real things / absolute truths
I, the subject, speak language
I have a discernible self
The self is the center of existence
What Is Language?
as
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Liberal Humanism: View of Literature & Film
Good literature is of timeless significance.
The text will reveal constants, universal truths, about human nature, because human nature itself is constant and unchanging.
Good literature is honest and sincere.
Art is to be respected, and belongs on a pedestal.
There are accepted traditional standards for different art forms & genres that should be obeyed and respected.
Purpose of Literature
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Modernism
Early 1900s:
World War I
Worldwide poverty & exploitation
Death of the Old Order
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Modernism
Early 1900s:
World War I
Worldwide poverty & exploitation
Intellectual upheaval:
Freud: psychoanalysis
Marx: class struggle
Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Neitzsche
Picasso, Stravinsky, Kafka, Proust, Brecht, Joyce, Eliot
Death of the Old Order
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Relativism
Einstein: relativity, quantum mechanics
Refutation of Newtonian science
Time is relative
Matter and energy are one
Light as both particle and wave
Universe is strange
The Bending of Time & Space
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
E=mc2
Modernist Art
Cubism
Surrealism
Dadaism
Expressionism
Breaking the Rules
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Modernist Art
Cubism
Surrealism
Dadaism
Expressionism
Breaking the Rules
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Modernist Art
Cubism
Surrealism
Dadaism
Expressionism
Breaking the Rules
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Modernist Art
Cubism
Surrealism
Dadaism
Expressionism
Breaking the Rules
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Modernist Literature
“Things fall apart,The centre cannot hold,Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
--Yeats, “The Second Coming”
A World with No Center
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Modernist Literature Emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity
Movement away from “objective” third-party narration
Tendency toward reflexivity and self-consciousness
Obsession with the psychology of self
Rejection of traditional aesthetic theories
Experimentation with language
Breaking the Rules
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
What is Postmodernism?
Continuation of modernist view
Does not mourn loss of history, self, religion, center
A term applied to all human sciences —anthropology, psychology, architecture, history, etc.
Reaction to modernism; systematic skepticism
Anti-foundational
Acceptance of a New Age
POSTMODERNISM
What is Modernism?
The world according to White Anglo-Saxon males, based upon the mythology of Western Europe, rooted in the Judeo-Christian religion and Greek-Roman philosophy.
Western man is superior.
Progress, reason and science are the highest manifestations of humanity.
Western man was put one earth to modernize the world (e.g., Manifest Density, Columbus).
The rest of the world consists of barbarians, and “orientals.”
Acceptance of a New Age
POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism: Basic Concepts
Life just is
Rejection of all “grand narratives.”
All “truths” are contingent cultural constructs
Skepticism of progress; anti-technology bias
Sense of fragmentation and decentered self
Multiple conflicting identities
Mass-mediated reality
The End of Master Narratives
POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism: Basic Concepts
All versions of reality are SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS
Concepts of good and evil
Metaphors for God
Language
The self
Gender
Taste (aesthetics)
EVERYTHING!
The End of Master Narratives
POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism: Basic Concepts
Language is a social construct that “speaks” & identifies the subject
Knowledge is contingent, contextual and linked to POWER
Truth is pluralistic, dependent upon the frame of reference of the observer
Values are derived from ordinary social practices, which differ from culture to culture and change with time.
Values are determined by manipulation and domination
Language As Social Construct
POSTMODERNISM
Postmodern View of Language
Observer is a participant/part of what is observed
Receiver of message is a component of the message
Information becomes information only when contextualized
The individual (the subject) is a cultural construct
Consider role of own culture when examining others
All interpretation is conditioned by cultural perspective and mediated by symbols and practice
The Observer is King
POSTMODERNISM
PostModern Literature & Film
No guiding traditional grand narratives
Extreme freedom of form and expression
Rejects traditional linear narratives
Plays with time and space
Repudiation of boundaries of narration & genre
Intrusive, self-reflexive author
Deliberate violation of standards of sense and decency (which are viewed as methods of social control)
Play and Parody
POSTMODERNISM
PostModern Literature & Film
Characters on the margins of society
Mix of high and low brow art forms
Integration of everyday experience, pop and consumer culture
Playful treatment of serious subjects (no gnashing of teeth)
Doesn’t take itself seriously (no pretentious universal truths)
Has fun with language and imagery (MTV like)
Play and Parody
POSTMODERNISM
PostModern Literature Parody, play, black humor, pastiche
Ambiguities and uncertainties
Ironic detachment
Postcolonial, global-English literature
Global
Celebrate diversity of views and lifestyles
Fragmented Identities
POSTMODERNISM
Modernity PostModern
History as fact
Faith in social order
Family as central unit
Authenticity of originals
Mass consumption
Binary Oppositions
POSTMODERNISM
Written by the victors
Cultural pluralism
Alternate families
Hyper-reality (MTV)
Niches; small group identity
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
A gay Southern Baptist who practices Buddhist meditation and believes in the Big Bang theory.
PostModernism
“The narrative is unravelled, the author is dead, the Enlightenment project is toast, and history is history.”
“An epochal shift in the basic condition in being.”
--Geoffrey Nunberg
An Epochal Shift in Thinking
POSTMODERNISM
PostModernism
A Global Battle:
THE OBJECTIVISTS vs. THE CONSTRUCTIVISTSModern Postmodern
Battle of World Views
POSTMODERNISM
PostModernism
OBJECTIVISTS
My Way
POSTMODERNISM
“When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?' My simple answer is, `Yes, they are.'”
-from Pat Robertson's "The New World Order"
PostModernism
People were burned at the stake for believing there was more than one version of reality.
Metaphors Kill
POSTMODERNISM
PostModernism
Our public schools have become a postmodern battleground.
God is Not Dead
POSTMODERNISM
PostModernism
You can be a Christian (or Buddhist, or Hindu, etc.) in the postmodern world.
God is Not Dead
POSTMODERNISM
PostModernism
We all slip and slide between the objective and constructive views:
1. We live in a world of naïve realism. (We accept grand narratives as true.)
2. But when we think about things, or have to explain our views, we become constructivists.
We Live in the Middle
POSTMODERNISM
PostModernism
THE HOPE OF POSTMODERNISTS:
The deconstruction of foundational views will lead to a recognition and acceptance of a pluralistic worldview.
Create a truly global civilization.
Celebrating Diversity
POSTMODERNISM