Postmodernity

We explain what postmodernism is, its art, architecture, philosophy and characteristics. Also, its relationship with modernity.

What is postmodernism?

Postmodernity or postmodernity is a process cultural, artistic, literary and philosophical that began in the second half of the 20th century and that is characterized by its opposition to the intellectual bases of modernity. In general, the term “postmodernism” is adopted to refer to different artistic and intellectual expressions and “postmodernity” to refer to the cultural and intellectual foundations of the period, and even to designate the period itself.

Postmodernism began with the emergence of postmodern thought in the 1960s, when The intellectual paradigms of modernity, based since the 17th century on faith in reason, were challenged the search for progress through science and technology, and the formulation of universalist explanations and grand narratives about history and society. Postmodernism is characterized by its opposition to the aesthetic, philosophical and theoretical precepts of modernity, which it considers exhausted or outdated.

According to some authors, it is necessary to distinguish between “postmodern culture” and “postmodern theory.” “Postmodern culture” is the contemporary cultural trend based on the centrality of the individual, the experience of globalization, the crisis of great ideologies and the lack of certainties. On the other hand, “postmodern theory” is the set of critical reflections and philosophical statements that adopt a critical position regarding the intellectual bases of modernity.

The term “postmodern” is used in numerous disciplines, both in the arts and in the humanities and social sciences. However, it is difficult to define, since it simultaneously encompasses a set of very diverse currents of thought. In general, everything that shares the idea that the modern project failed or was surpassed is considered postmodern.

Within the currents of postmodernism, some trends that receive specific names are included, such as poststructuralism, which was part of the process of emergence of postmodern philosophy in the 1960s and 1970s and which, for that reason, is sometimes considered almost as a synonym for postmodernism.

In any case, when talking about postmodernity, a distinction is commonly made between the historical period, the artistic movement and the philosophical current.

See also: Contemporary Age

Modernity and postmodernity

Postmodernity can only be understood if we first understand what modernity is, since postmodernity is considered a stage of change or improvement with respect to modernity.

Modernity is the cultural and intellectual process that began in the West in the Modern Age especially from the 17th century onwards, with the development of the scientific revolution and the emergence of the Enlightenment, influenced in turn by Renaissance humanism. During this time, important scientific, social, political, cultural and economic changes occurred.

Among other things, the bourgeoisie was consolidated as the dominant social class, which from the end of the 18th century began to concentrate political power. In this way, nation-states, the rule of law and the republican order emerged, all under the premise that human reason is the best instrument to organize the social and political world. The Industrial Revolution also occurred, which increased faith in science, progress, and the accumulation of knowledge to promote social progress, a typical characteristic of modernity and many ideologies of the period (such as liberalism and socialism).

Postmodernism began with the loss of certainties around those promises largely inspired by nihilism and the pessimistic vision that followed the Second World War (1939-1945) and its horrors. In this sense, postmodernism disbelieve modern “grand stories” that raise the possibility of universal social progress from science and technology, and from the causes inspired by great ideologies.

On the contrary, it assumes an ironic stance, relativizes what were previously absolute values ​​and sometimes adopts a form of nominalism, that is, the idea that all generalization is pure linguistic convention because everything in the world is necessarily particular. Hence, the main criticism of postmodern philosophy is directed at its lack of alternatives, since Radical criticism of modern thought is not usually accompanied by superior proposals equally forceful, which some intellectuals interpret as a kind of philosophical dead end.

In any case, it should not be thought that with the beginning of postmodernity there was a move from one paradigm to another, but rather that postmodernism implied at the same time a questioning of the validity of the values ​​of modernity and a refusal to become a new paradigm. Indeed, postmodern thought rejects the very idea of ​​a unified theory that claims possession of the truth, and in fact it is made up of very different currents and interpretations. Furthermore, postmodernity is not an era that left modernity behind, but rather it is a period of criticism and questioning of many of the principles of modernity within societies that remain largely organized on the basis of modern ideas.

Characteristics of postmodernism

Postmodern thought is characterized, broadly speaking, by the following:

• Opposes dualistic thinking. He tends to move away from what he interprets as a tradition of modern Western thought, which would have constructed a vision of the world based on dual oppositions: black-white, east-west, man-woman. Thus, in social terms it seeks to make visible the “others”, those who do not conform to a dualistic view, and promotes recognition of diversity (social, sexual, identity, among others).
• Proposes the deconstruction of ideas and values. It questions tradition and the values ​​of modernity, and denaturalizes what in previous times was considered an undeniable truth, thus dismantling the inherited cultural apparatus and exhibiting its limitations and arbitrariness.
• Understand reality as a creation of language. Contrary to modern Western tradition, which assumes the existence of a reality and considers language as a mechanism for representing said reality, postmodern thought suggests that language shapes thinking about what is real and, therefore, reality. It is a linguistic construction, a text.
• Proposes that truth is a matter of perspective. He disbelieves in great truths and in the very concept of truth, and suggests that what really exists are points of view. Objective reality does not exist or is inaccessible, beyond our reach, and we only have access to the way we perceive and understand it, which is why there are multiple subjective and relative truths.

postmodern art

Although it is not easy to determine when postmodern art emerged, it is estimated that began in the 1960s with artistic expressions such as pop art and conceptual art and is still valid today. Its main characteristic is that questions the traditional concept of art when valuing the exhibition or representation of industrial or commercial objects, mass reproduction, collage and pastiche.

It also challenges the criteria of aesthetic authority by promoting skepticism, freedom, the rejection of the difference between high culture and mass culture, and the weakening of genres and styles which are no longer understood as differentiated and static and come to be understood as liquid or fluid categories, not very rigid, that can be combined.

Intertextuality is another significant feature of postmodern art, in which a text or visual work refers to other texts or visual works through different methods, or takes the form of pastiches, collages, parodies or plagiarism that tend to relativize the figure of the author.

Some of the typical concerns of postmodernism are also explored in the cinema. For example, films like blade runner (1982), The Matrix (1999), inception (2010), among others, raise questions about what is real, what is true, what is human, and the separation between natural and artificial.

postmodern architecture

postmodern architecture It emerged in the mid-20th century and was consolidated as a movement in the 1970s. Its main proposal is the return of ornament and the balance between form and function, in response to the excessive functionalism and frequent simplicity of modern architecture that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century.

The combination of styles, creative freedom, the use of curves and striking colors, the rejection of rigidity and the return to a sensitive decoration of the facades, which gave rise to a style called “neoeclectic”, are some of the characteristics of postmodern architecture that opposes the modern, discreet and utilitarian style.

Thus, while postmodern architects consider modern buildings as too abstract or simplistic, modern architects judge postmodern architecture as vulgar and associate it with the construction and design of shopping centers, which is why they criticize its strong relationship with consumerism.

postmodern philosophy

postmodern philosophy emerged in France in the 1960s. Although it has multiple representatives, they have in common a questioning of the basic postulates of modernity and the Enlightenment, which dominated Western philosophy from the 17th century to the mid-20th century.

postmodern philosophy proposes abandoning modern faith in rationality in the great stories or explanations about society and in the possibility of social progress through the use of science and technology. Instead, it adopts a skeptical and relativist position that maintains that there is no absolute truth but rather relative truths, that there is no good and evil but rather values ​​that depend on the cultural context, that social norms are always cultural constructions and not data of nature, and that what is understood as reality is a product of language and not an objective reality.

Some significant influences on postmodern thought come from psychoanalysis and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Soren Kierkegaard's (1813-1855) critiques of rationality.

The term “postmodern” applied to philosophy was popularized by the French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) in his book The postmodern condition (1979). Some thinkers included in this philosophical trend are Michel Foucault (1926-1984), Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995), Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007), Julia Kristeva (1941-), Peter Sloterdijk ( 1947-) and Judith Butler (1956-).

References

• Byshop, R. (1996). Postmodernism. In D. Levinson and M. Ember (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (vol. 3, pp. 993-998). Henry Holt and Company.
• Díaz, E. (2009). Postmodernity. Byblos.
• Duignan, B. (2024). Postmodernism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy
• Tate (sf). Postmodernism. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism