What Is Postmodernism - Essay Example

What is Postmodernism The term Postmodernism is used most frequently in the cultural, philosophical and literary domain of today’s world. According to social observers the Western civilization and its cultural outlook are experiencing a change. This changing or the process of transition is known as the shifting from modernism to postmodernism. Though postmodernism is one of the most interesting field of study and research these days, but there is no such definition that can actually define postmodernism in the complete sense. (Hutcheon, n.d.), One hand, it is quite difficult to provide proper description of the periods when the transitions are happening and on the other hand it is also not possible to figure out properly the main signs of postmodernism. Perhaps it is the 30s, when the first time the term postmodernism was used. During this time postmodernism actually referred to change in historical spectrum of the Western world as well as certain changes that became conspicuous in the prevailing Art forms. It is the 1970s, when postmodernism drew huge attention from scholars in every field. In his book, A Primer on Postmodernism, the author Stanley J. Grenz has commented about prevailing influence of postmodernism, “First it denoted a new style of architecture. Then it invaded academic circles, originally as a label of theories expounded in University English and philosophy departments. Eventually it surfaced as the description for a broader cultural phenomenon.” (Grenz, 1996, p.2) If an attempt is made to find the basic concept of postmodernism, it is quite clear from the term itself that postmodernism signifies a movement that seeks to go beyond the modernism and widen the scope as well as significance of modernism. Postmodernism basically follows the main principles of modernism but at the same time it rejects just the modern process of thinking and introduces more aspects to the whole matter. So, in order to understand postmodernism it is important to understand the modernism at the same time. (Hicks, 2004) It is the basic tendency of modernist perspective understand knowledge that is good, certain and objective. A modern person also believes in this principle that human mind has the capacity to access knowledge. It is the quest for knowledge of a modern man that leads him to search for a basic pattern “of demonstrating the essential correctness of philosophic”, (Grenz, 1996, p. 4) Reason and analytical capacity are considered as the greatest virtues of a modern man and he tends to judge all the affairs that happen around him, over the foundation of reason. He also invents various methods to judge the affairs of the world and enhances his knowledge at the same time. Precisely it can be said that the very concept of modernism is very much dependent over ‘human rational capabilities.’ The whole philosophy of modernism, if it can be summed up in few lines, then it can be said, “The Enlightenment perspective assumes that knowledge is not only certain (and hence rational) but also objective. The assumption of objectivity leads the modernist to claim access to dispassionate knowledge.” (Grenz, 1996, p.4) Apart from believing that knowledge is both objective as well as certain in nature, the modernist philosophers also consider that knowledge is essentially beneficent in nature. The main reason for modernistic optimism is the sense of ‘inherent goodness of knowledge’ and it asserts that progress in every field of human understanding is inevitable and each individual will be freed from all sorts of ‘social bondage’ as well as ‘vulnerability to nature’ when knowledge will be properly empowered by the education. On the other hand, if we see post modernistic quest for knowledge, we see that postmodernism at the first place simply denies the modernist enlightenment and all those assumptions that were introduced in the intellectual arena. Deconstruction of the modern myth was initiated with philosophical arguments of Friedrich Nietzsche. The theory of deconstruction emerged as a novel literary theory and a new philosophical movement was initiated. The theory of deconstruction also gave birth to the theory of structuralism in literature and supporters of this theory came up with such philosophical arguments that introduced a huge change in the total literary discourse of that time. Structuralists came up with the point of argument that language has been constructed by the society and ‘that people develop literary documents-texts-in an attempt to provide structures of meaning that will help them make sense out of the meaninglessness of their experience.” (Grenz, 1996, p.5) The supporters of the theory of Deconstruction said quite in contradiction to the Structuralist interpretation that “Meaning is not inherent in a text itself,…but emerges only as the interpreter enters into dialogue with the text.” (Grenz, 1996, p.5) As meaning of a text is perspective dependent thus, it varies from person to person, whoever reads it and interpret it in his/her own ways. Thus, a text can have multiple layers of meaning. But application of such theory was not only confined in the context of literature. It was the genius of postmodern philosophers that they started applying the theories of deconstruction to the daily affairs and started interpreting them accordingly. Finally such questioning and various interpretation of a particular subject lead to the understanding among philosophers that Truth is transcendental and the world as well as existence is meaningless. (Gordon, 2001) The postmodernist approach received further boost through logical abandonment of ‘onto-theology’ and ‘metaphysics of presence’ from French philosopher Jacques Derrida. According to Derrida’s theory, as “nothing transcendent inheres in reality,…all that emerges in the knowing process is the perspective of the self who interprets reality.” (Grenz, 1996, p. 6) Michel Foucault added further development to Derrida’s theory by introducing a great deal of moral elements. To some extent, in the context of interpretation of reality, he agreed with Derrida but at the same time he suggested that every time the reality is interpreted, it is done in accordance with power. Moreover, Foucault also said that knowledge is generated with the use of power only. Thus, whenever a person is talking or utter about something, he is actually exercising his power and at the same time exhorting violence. With this theoretical empowerment, Foucault criticized the social institutions by saying that all such institutions actually encourage violence as they always intend to impose their understanding or way of interpretation over others. Postmodernism and modernism differs drastically from each other. Though the logical cores remain same and founded over same logical understanding but from the perspective of final outcome both these aspects are drastically different. The modernist approach conveys that knowledge is essentially good but in the postmodernist approach knowledge is an exercise of the violent act. Henceforth, the concept of inherent goodness of knowledge simply fades away under this philosophical discipline. Modernist approach has always encouraged this fact that fusion of knowledge with academic empowerment will lead to positive progress and the whole approach was mainly based over sense of optimism. Whereas in postmodernist approach the whole conception has changed and pessimist approach to the whole process of exercising knowledge has crippled in. Perhaps the greatest confusion has occurred at the psychological dimension of the existing generation. (Woods, 1999) This generation is gradually refusing to believe that humanity is the greatest virtue and this is the only power that has capacity to solve the major problems related to harmony and integrity of the world. Modernists believed that Truth is always certain and it is rational also at the same time and postmodernists refuse to believe that. They approach further in their process of interpreting Truth and they refuse to believe that truth has its own rational dimension and they also attempt to dethrone “the human intellect as the arbiter of truth” (Grenz, 1996, p.7). According to postmodernist approach reason is not the only approach to reach knowledge but virtues like intuition and emotion are also essential ways of attaining Truth. (Gordon, 2001) The approach towards life has derogated to a great extent if we follow the postmodernist approach. It is widely acknowledged among postmodernist philosophers that life is basically uncertain and fragile. They also believe that the whole existence of humankind is dependent over “a new attitude of cooperation rather than conquest.”(Grenz, 1996, p.7) The postmodernist approach truly reflects the whole condition of the postmodern society. In contradiction with the modernist approach it clearly indicates that western civilization us undergoing a huge change. References 1. Grenz, S. J. (1996) A Primer on Postmodernism. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 2. Gordon, D. (2001), Postmodernism and the Enlightenment: New Perspectives in Eighteenth-century, 2001 3. Hicks, S.R.C (2004), Explaining Postmodernism, Scholargy Publishing 4. Hutcheon, L. (n.d.), The Politics of Postmodernism, Routledge Publication 5. Woods, T. (1999), Beginning Postmodernism, Manchester University Press Read More