Postmodernism in European and American history - Essay Example

Postmodernism The 20th century is widely known to be the period of drastic changes in the European and American history. Europe and America were facing a perpetual fluctuation and vicissitude in the political, economical, social, military, and cultural conditions. In such a world of violence and skepticism, the artists launched a movement called "Modernism" according to which they gave up all the romantic Victorian traditions and adopted new themes and modes of expression. However, Modernism lasted till the World War II and was superseded by a new movement called Postmodernism. Postmodernism is a diverse set of ideas, concepts, models, that emerged “as a reaction against modernism or as a natural evolution of modernism” (Withrow 2008, p.47) in the 1950s after the Second World War. Postmodernist concepts not only projected themselves in the fields of art and literature but also in other areas like architecture, sociology, technology, economics, religion, and communication, thereby on the whole of the society. This influence of postmodernism is continuing even now and so this paper will analyze how the postmodernist features are still recognizable in the contemporary society, from the perspectives of postmodernist thinkers Jean Baudrillard, French sociologist and a leading postmodernist thinker, was well known for his media related theory of “hyperreality” and “Simulation”, and how it impacts the society. According to Baudrillard, because of hyperreality created by the media, people in the society are not able to tell what is reality? what is fiction or what is created? It is a “theory that modern man can no longer tell what reality is because he has become lost in a world of "simulacra", images and signs created and presented as "real" by the mass media” (telegraph.co.uk 2007). Baudrillard further argues that mass media has taken the role of ‘God’, with countries using it optimally as part of international relations, thereby showing ‘its favourable images’ and controlling the minds of the people, thereby impacting the society. He denotes that USA has been using mass media to create hyperreality and thus making the American people as well as the world people believe in its stimulated images as the real one. “…his contention being that if we live in a Disneyesque world in which our understanding is shaped by media-driven signs, and the tools of historical intelligibility have disappeared, how can we tell what is real.” (telegraph.co.uk 2007). Baudrillard particularly focuses on the 1991 Gulf War arguing that with neither country claiming victory and with no major political changes in Iraq, the war was largely ‘staged’ by US media companies particularly CNN as part of its international relations exercise. This got replicated in the 2003 War on Terror as well with the CNN journalists functioning like American military’s spokespersons providing America’s point of view to the whole world. CNN’s track record was not on the favorable side, so it gave a negative image to the American media and thereby American government among the various societies, thereby negatively affecting American’s International relations with many countries particularly European countries. That is, unlike 1991 Gulf War, America’s use of CNN as part of its international relations exercise did not work as expected, with people as well as political governments of various countries criticizing the war adventures. This resulted in mass protests against the war throughout the world. Thus, Baudrillard’s postmodernist thoughts on how CNN created a kind of hyperreality to impact the people, shows how postmodernist features are still visible in the society. Lyotard views postmodernism from a different perspective and focuses on how its influences various aspects of society particularly the key aspects of media and other creative forms. Creative forms in the sense, although postmodernism had its origins in the second half of the 20th century, it is still having major impacts on how creative works are created and viewed, which in turn modifies or tunes the mind set up of the common people, thereby society. According to Lyotard, postmodernism is having a major impact in the way media forms are created, which borders on negativity, “I have read that in the name of postmodernism architects are ridding themselves of the Bauhaus project, throwing out the baby – which is still experimentation – with the bath water of functionalism.” (Lyotard 1993, p.1). He mentions that the world is changing at a faster pace so postmodernism has become the norm, “Classicism seems out of the question in a world where reality is so destabilised that it has no material to offer to experience, but only for analysis and experimentation.” (Lyotard 1993, p.5). However, quite opposite to Baudrillards view that mass media is the creator of “hyperreality” and “simulation” and how it could act negatively, Lyotard focuses on how creators or media creators including TV channels, movies, etc should create different impression of the actual work like a modified version or hyped version of reality, rather than presenting reality. These different views about postmodernism provide different and interesting perspectives about how postmodernism is clearly visible in the society, in the form of media influence. Zygmunt Bauman Adorno, Polish sociologist, came up with many post-modernistic thoughts on how globalization has expanded the role of mass media in shaping human thought processes and thereby societies in a all new direction. Globalization has impacted many countries and has enabled businesses to make an entry into various countries. Along with conventional businesses, foreign media has also entered or entering into other countries, thereby shaping the views of the people in those countries about the parent country with their created images. That is, media from a specific country enters other countries, creating ‘images’ about that specific country. So, according to Bauman, “Whatever we do or refrain from doing affects the lives of people who live in places well never visit.” (Bauman qtd by Bentley and Jones 2001, p.1).Bauman has also stated how development of technology in the form of video content has started having a great impact on the minds of the viewers all over the world. “…hearing about human misery is, however, much less potent in arousing compassion than the misery we see: the pictures, the spectacles of human suffering.” (Bauman qtd by Bentley and Jones 2001, p.1). Although, the viewers may be thousands of miles away from sufferings and could not take any direct actions to stop that human suffering, they could do something in their sphere that too using media forms like writing in internet forums, sending emails to the concerned countries’ official machineries, etc. This way, the ubiquitous media makes true impact on the way a society or even government of a specific country can act and think. That is, with criticism or praises coming from various parts of the world, particularly from the countries, which are the stakeholders, the concerned country and its official machineries has to take important foreign policy decisions. Thus, it is clear that various post modernistic theories put forward by many theorists interpreted the influence of theories in the contemporary society, giving importance to media forms and other powerful structures. With these media forms and other structure, nations got the ability to influence their international relation in their favor, although there are chances that it could backfire or misfire. But, the bottom line is, postmodern thoughts and theories could have an impact on the day-to-day living of the people, thus being recognizable in the contemporary society. Works Cited Bentley, T and Jones, DS 2001, The Moral Universe: Whatever happened to Compassion, Creative Commons, London. Withrow, LR 2008, Claiming New Life: Process-Church for the Future, Chalice Press. Lyotard, FJ 1993, What is the postmodern? University of Minnesota Press. telegraph.co.uk 2007, Jean Baudrillard, viewed on April 22, 2009 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1544846/Jean-Baudrillard.html Read More