What is Post-
Modernism ?
. Post-Modernism is a
complicated term , or set of
ideas that has only emerged
as an area of academic study
since the mid-1980’s.
Post-modernism is hard to
define , because it is a
concept that appears in a
wide variety of disciplines or
areas of study, including art,
architecture, music, film ,
literature, sociology,
communications, fashion
and technology. It’s hard to
categorise it into a
chronological time frame or
fixed label.
The Deep, by Jackson Pollock (1953)
The easiest way to start thinking about postmodernism is by thinking
about modernism, the movement from which postmodernism
seems to grow or emerge.
Modernism is the movement in
visual arts, music, literature, and
drama which rejected the old
Victorian standards of how art
should be made, consumed, and
what it should mean. In the period
of ‘high modernism,’ from around
1910 to 1930, the major figures of
modernism literature helped
radically to redefine what poetry and
fiction could be and do: figures such
as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, T.
S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust,
Wallace Stevens, Franz Kafka, and
Rainer Maria Rilke are considered
the founders of twentieth century
modernism.
Shot Marilyn, by Andy Warhol ,1964
According to Peter Barry :
“Modernism was that earthquake in
the arts which brought down much of
the structure of pre-twentieth century
practice in music, painting, literature ,
and architecture.”
Modernism challenged the 19th
century preconceptions regarding how
art is created, perceived and what are
its functions.
Modernism was pronounced around
Europe during the eve of
World-War-I (1890’s), as the world
saw the destruction of faith and
morality and a new fragmented world
order emerging into being. Modern
artists reflect the fragmented world
order through their art and mourn the
loss of a world order based on faith
and tradition.
The Scream, by Edward Munch, 1893
In architecture traditional forms and
Modernism materials were rejected in favour of plain
challenged and geometrical forms
rejected what had In literature there
been considered the was a rejection of
most fundamental traditional realism
elements of practice in favour of
in the arts – experimental
forms of various
melody and kinds evident in
harmony were put the use of the
aside in music stream of
consciousness
Perspective and technique of
direct pictorial narration
representation were
abandoned in
painting, in favour of
plain geometrical
forms
Nude on the Stairs, Marcel Duchamp, 1912
The period of high modernism was the twenty years from 1910 to 1930 and some of the
literary ‘high priests’ of the movement writing in English were T.S Eliot , James Joyce,
Wyndham Lewis, Virginia Woolf, Wallace Stevens and Gertrude Stein, and Writing in
French or German were Marcel Proust , Stephen Mallarme, Andre Gide, Franz Kafka, and
Rainer Maria Rilke.
Important characterestics of the
literary modernism practised by the
Modernist writers include the
following :
1. A new emphasis on
impressionism and Subjectivity ,
that is on ‘how we see’ rather
than on ‘what we see’.
T.S Eliot, writer of the poem, ‘Waste Land’
,1922.
Still Life with Glass of
Absinthe and a Carafe, 1887,
by Van Gogh.
Impressionists lay emphasis
on perception of reality
intensified by inner emotions
rather on realist depictions
of events. Impressionists try
to imitate the meaning of
things rather than the
objective material itself.
They aim at changing the
way we see the world rather
than what we see in the
world therefore , some
impressionists paintings
show a moment of life which
is very trivial but makes
viewers admire life with new
eyes.
2. A movement in novels away from the apparent objectivity provided by such
narration , fixed narrative points of view, and clear -cut moral positions.
Consider the opening lines of Charles Dickens ‘David Copperfield’ and James
Joyce’s ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ –
Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down
along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens
little boy named baby tuckoo ...
His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy
face.
He was baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne lived: she
sold lemon platt.
— James Joyce, Opening to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,1916.
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be
held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of
my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at
twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to
cry, simultaneously.
------ Charle’s Dickens ,Opening to David Copperfield, 1850.
3. A blurring of the distinctions between genres so that novels tend to become
more lyrical and poetic, for instance, and poems more documentary and prose like.
4. A new liking for fragmented, discontinuous narrative, and random-seeming
collages
I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
"Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?"
But
O O O O that Shakespearean Rag—
It's so elegant
So intelligent
"What shall I do now? What shall I do?"
"I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
"With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?
"What shall we ever do?"
The hot water at ten.
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door. \
- T.S Eliot’s poem, Waste Land,1922
Now we have a rough indication of what and when
Modernism was. Does Postmodernism then, continue it
or oppose it? What are the basic differences between
these two movements ?
Both Modernism and Post- Modernism is characterised by
an ‘eclectic approach , by a liking for aleatory writing ,
and for parody and pastiche.
Eclectic - deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and
diverse range of sources, for example , T.S Eliot’s poem ;The
Waste Land’ alludes to religious texts such as the Upanishads,
the bible and also incorporates images which echo
Shakespeare, Dante etc.
Aleatory - depending on the throw of a dice or on chance;
random. The dada poets used to cut newspaper clippings and
put them together randomly to create a nonsensical collage of
words and they called it poetry.
Tristan Zara , How to Write a Dada Poem
Parody - an imitation of the style
of a particular writer, artist, or
genre with deliberate exaggeration
for comic effect.
Pastiche- an artistic work in a
style that imitates that of
another work, artist, or period.
Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q, 1919
How is Modernism different from Post-Modernism?
But, while postmodernism seems very much like modernism in
these ways, it differs from modernism in its attitude toward a lot
of these trends.
1) Modernism laments Fragmentation Post-Modernism celebrates
it. The world is meaningless ? Let’s not pretend art can make
mean meaning, then, ley’s just play with nonsense.
2) Post-Modernism is a reaction against the modernist inclination
towards a fierce asceticism and the delineation between ‘high’ and
‘low’ art. Post-Modernist writers rely on the surface only without
any depth of significance.
Jackson Pollock , The She-Wolf, 1943
