Postmodernism...What is it? Does it affect your life? Where can it be found? The answer is "it's just about everywhere," from humor to buildings to TV sitcoms. Andy Warhol's soup cans, Kurt Vonnegut's novels, county music, rap, hip-hop and "Malcolm in the Middle" all exhibit some characteristics of postmodernism. Explore the world of postmodernism and see how it fits into your life.
"The Post-Modern Age is a time of incessant choosing. It's an era when no orthodoxy can be adopted without semiconscious and irony, because all traditions seem to have some validity. This is partly a consequence of what is called the information explosion, the advent of organized knowledge, world communication and cybernetics. It is not only the rich who become collectors, eclectic travelers in a time with a superabundance of choice, but almost every urban dweller...Post Modernism is fundamentally the eclectic mixture of any tradition with that of the immediate past: it is both the continuation of Modernism and its transcendence. Its best works are characteristically doubly-coded and ironic, making a feature of the wide choice, conflict and discontinuity of traditions, because this heterogeneity most clearly captures our pluralism."
Charles Jencks "What is Post-Modernism" in The Truth About the Truth
"And thus today we find ourselves in a paradoxical situation. We enjoy all the achievements of modern civilization that have made our physical existence on this earth easier in so many important ways. Yet we do not know exactly what to do with ourselves, where to turn. The world of our experiences seems chaotic, disconnected, confusing. There appear to be no integrating forces, no unified meaning, no true inner understanding of phenomena in our experience of the world. Experts can explain anything in the objective world to us, yet we understand our own lives less and less. In short, we live in the post-modern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain."
Vaclav Havel "The Search for Meaning in a Global Civilization" address upon acceptance of the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, Independence Hall, Philadelphia
JOURNAL RESPONSES: Now that you've read several definitions of this term, postmodernism, and investigated some of its philosophical issues, use your journal to explore the following:
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Are you a postmodernist? Where do your interests lie? For your task, choose a subject that you'd like to learn more about. Use the guiding questions and links provided to start your quest through the world of postmodernism. Your ultimate task will be to create your own postmodern work or critique an existing postmodern piece.
Now that you have explored the postmodernism in
theory, philosophy, literature or film, follow your passion to art,
architecture or music.
Read any or all of these sites or find one of your
own.
Write your final journal entry reflecting your new understanding of art or
music in the postmodern world.