Lecture: Postmodernism

Session 9

Characteristics of Postmodernism

Uses tools of post-structuralism? Critiques pre existing cultural norms.. Symbolic Capital*

1. Deletion of the boundary between art and everyday life

2. Collapse of hierarchical distinctions between “high” and “popular” culture

3. Stylistic eclecticism and the mixing of codes

4. Celebration of parody, pastiche, irony and playfulness

5. Espousal of surface over depth

6. Shift in emphasis from content to form

7. Decline of the concepts of originality and artistic genius, and assumption that art is only repetitious

Session 9

Characteristics of Postmodernity according to Fredric Jameson

commodification of aesthetics

depthlessness

historicity

emotional intensities

technology

Session 9

hegemonic : order-maintaining

counter-hegemonic: resistant or order-transforming

Session 9

Post-Marxism

1) Post-Marxists acknowledge that there is no necessary correspondence between economics and culture, and that the cultural realm has a presence and power of its own separate from the economic base.

2) They recognize that there has been a transition from a society of commodity production to a society of consumption and the re-production of images and information.

3) Post-Marxists follow Foucault in observing that power is not a force located within a single group, class or action, but it permeates all our lives "from the bottom up".

4) They hold a fragmented view of class, arguing that gender, ethnic, religious or sexual identities cut across and fracture the Marxist notion of social class.

5) They recognize that the expression or representation of these "sub-cultural" identities constitutes new sites of oppression and struggle that serve to replace traditional class politics.

Session 9

Summary of Postmodernism

1. Postmodernism is an imprecise, elusive and sometimes contradictory term with a range of applications and potential understandings.

2. There are at least three distinct ways the term postmodernism has been used: as an epoch, as astyle and as a method.

3. Each of these perspectives conceives of postmodernism in relational terms and claims that society, culture and forms of analysis have changed significantly in recent decades.

4. Postmodern theorists are concerned with describing the nature of these changes and suggesting reasons for why they have come about.

5. They propose new approaches and new vocabularies for understanding and discussing contemporary social and cultural phenomena.

6. Many postmodern critics agree that as a style or a form of analysis, postmodernism aims to be a critique, transgression or subversion of pre-existing norms.

7. Postmodernism is conceived by many as a "crisis of representation", or loss of faith in our ability to represent reality.