Terms Modernism and Postmodernism - Essay Example

Modernism and postmodernism - Art, identity, fragmentation and fluidity within temporary culture, gender ambiguity [Course Name] [Date] Modernism and postmodernism - Art, identity, fragmentation and fluidity within temporary culture, gender ambiguity Introduction This paper will majorly focused on modernism and postmodernism relating it to the theory of Post-Colonialism, belonging and language and representation of rural and urban life. However the paper will examine the modernism and postmodernism from the postcolonial point of view to demonstrate how modernism and postmodernism are different philosophical discourse besides two different ways of spending lives. The post-colonialism and representation of rural and urban life will be used to distinguished modernism from the previous age. Belonging and language will be used to talk about the gender ambiguity, postmodernism. Modernism and Postmodernism There is not a single unanimously agreed definition of modernism and different scholars have defined it differently. Despite the absence of any agreed definition of modernism, all of the definitions of modernism talk about the changes in art, literature, business, and even in the daily lives of individuals because of the industrial revolution and formation of the industrial cities. In academic studies, modernism is a philosophical movement or is a particular perspective of looking at the universe and examining the activities of daily life. Modernism is the movement that shakes off all traditional things including religious belief from individuals’ lives and tries to make everything new. The movement encourages experimentation in every field and, therefore, new perspectives emerge. The effect of the modernism is conspicuous in art and literature as well. In literature, the writers reject the traditional method of writing smooth narrative fiction and “stream of consciousness” emerges as the replacement of the old narrative. The emergence of “abstract art” and “diversionist paintings” is the results of modernism. The philosophical movement of modernism starts in late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It is “a set of ideas” (Wakchaure 2012). Post-modernism is also a kind of philosophical movement or a perspective of looking at the development either scientifically or non- scientifically in every walk of life. Post-modernism also encompasses a wide range of area including literature, art, economics, history, and science etc. Postmodernism rejects most of the fundamental beliefs of Modernism and the “Age of Reason”. Language is the center of the argument of the postmodernist theorists, and they believe that language is self-referential. Therefore, the post-modernists do not believe in reality outside langue, and they seem to agree with Nietzsche’s thought, “reality is a mobile army of metaphor” (Klein 1997, p. 47). Post-modernism is tended to be skeptical and sees science as negative force bringing destructions to humanity despite its contribution to the development of the living standard of individuals. Discussion From the Postcolonial perspective modernism is a vast term stands for the explosion of new styles, new methods and new ways of doing life and rejecting the old or traditional ways of life, thinking and beliefs. Jean-Francois Lyotard argues, “The very idea of modernity is closely co-related with the principle that it is both possible and necessary to break with tradition and institute absolutely new ways of living and thinking” (Wakchaure 2012, p. 1). Modernism is also known as modernity seems to be stemmed from and influenced by the scholars who believe in rationalism such as Newton, Descartes and Kant. One of the pioneers of modernism is the poet and essayist Ezra Pond. On the other hand, Postmodernism seems to influence by Jacques Derrida, Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. Modernism leads the Western society to break out from the traditional values, culture besides religion and it gives the society capitalism, industrialization and urbanization besides the knowledge of science. This age teaches individuals to spend their lives for earning for the comfort of one’s self. On the contrary, post-modernism is in a way anti-modernism and is very critical of modernism (Malpas 2005, p. 26). Post-modernists have a different view of modern life and focus more on the negative consequences of modernism. The post-modernists seem to blame modernism and industrialism for bringing capitalism as a sound tool to exploit humanity, the scientific developments making the fortunate people enable to colonize the poor and less powerful nations. Post colonialism believed that the colonization of someone else’s territory leads to the suffering and devastation of ancient and indigenous people at the hand of colonizers. Furthermore, the postmodernists assert that the modernism leads to social practices and establishment of different institutions that allow the few elite and fortunate persons to rule over the large less fortunate people despite the claim that modernism believe in liberty, equality, and even-handed justice. Postcolonial perspective is that modernism makes Western countries enable to reach the other countries of the world. As a result the Western and especially the European, countries make non-Western countries their colony. The Western countries exploit the natural and human resources of other countries for the benefits of their own (Allen 2008, p. 63). (Zag, 2014) In addition to above, modernism is, in one way, by virtue of industrial revolution and when the industrial revolution came, large industrial cities developed and a lot of people migrated from the rural areas to the industrial cities. The migration of a huge number of people into the cities made the cities crowded. People coming from different places of the countries created difficulty in recognizing people because they did not know and were a stranger to each other. Different people with different culture, norms and values gathered into the cities. Consequently, cosmopolitan cities came into existence. The development of the industrial cities gave birth to the concept of urban and rural life. The urban life was thought to be very complex in the sense of not recognizing people by sight, a lot of vehicles running on the rood and the large and high building. The rural life was thought to be simple in this sense that people know each other by sight and very few number of traffic on the road. Besides, the concept of hybrid and the hybrid identity developed in the cities because of the intermarriages between different people with different cultures. Furthermore, when the economic prosperity developed in the Western countries and When the West made the non-Western countries their colony, people from the other parts of the world migrated to the Western countries in search of job and higher education. It also caused to developed hybrid identity and identity crisis into the Western countries. Postcolonial perspective of modernism is that it stands for the activities of those people who thought that the traditional form of art, architecture, literature, etc. were not fitted and were becoming obsolete in the context of the new social, economic and industrial world. Ezra Pound’s suggestion “Make it new” reflects the growing thought among the learned people about the traditional forms of writing as becoming outdated (Gay 2008, p. 3). Besides, Pound, Theodor Adorno also challenged the Enlightenment thinking by saying that there did not seem any harmony in the form of the traditional form and the modern content (Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2011). The scientific development and changes in the early late 19th century and early 20th century, the modernists found themselves separated from the Victorian moral values and culture. The Victorian morality and culture were not fit in the new scientific society. (Witcombe, 1995) The people started believe in science and mankind’s power to influence the society by discovering and inventing new and unique things by using the technology (Gay 2008, p. 6). Consequently, modernism wiped out religion and all the beliefs that were associated to the age of Enlightenment. Modernism put in question all the activities including the culture and norms and strived for a replacement of the old beliefs and doctrines as well as culture. Modernism found science and reason as replacement of religion and culture and moral values could not find any replacement and, as a result, all of these values including region became part of history. Modernism brought capitalism and the concept of money and made money center of every individual. The most important and inevitable element of an individual is now no more religion or moral values but money. The artist and intellectuals in the early age of modernism not only broke from the past but also tried to redefine different art form in essential mode. Picasso, Matisse, Gustav Klimt and the Surrealist represented different twists in visual art. Woman with a Hat, by Henri Matisse (1905) The Post-colonialists see the revolt against the traditional way of painting and artwork as the result of industrial revolution giving the artists new content and form for their works. Arnold Schoenberg argues that the rejection of the hierarchal system of organizing works of music, as well as the rejection of the traditional way of harmonizing music, will provide new ways for the composer to organize music. The abstract artist and the impressionist gave more importance to color believing that color and shape are the essential characteristics of artwork. The modernist artist rejected the concept of depicting the natural world in their art. The artists minimize the use of photography in their representational arts. The artist tried very hard to restrict their art to the sphere of nonmaterial and they do not use the material world in their art. As a result, their art become go through a distinctive change from materialist to a spiritualist world. The post-colonialists appreciated the people, who were associated with designing because of their pragmatic approach to their work and rejected the old method of construction. The designers and architects believed that the new technology has made the old way of architecture outdated. The architects believed that all old ways of everyday life had been utterly replaced by technology such as car has been replaced horses for travelling and similarly, the old ways of construction and designing should be replaced by the new scientific methods. (CheDot, 2015) The modernist designers and architects do not much believe in the decoration of the buildings, but they were more inclined to apply scientific methods to make the building more flexible, stronger and long lasting. For the sake of making the building long lasting the modernists gave more emphasis on using the pure material. In the modernist architecture and designing more focus is given to the simplicity of the form as well as its clarity. The modernist did not use the clutter, but they prefer to open plan interior in their architecture. The modernist architect made simple skyscrapers and these skyscrapers were less decorative. Some of the methods of modernist have not been faded away in the contemporary period but are alive playing their role in the normal architecture. On the contrary to architecture, the visual art and literature did not give much attention to pragmatism. The modernists who were associated with visual art and literature experimented different techniques in order to confront the expectation of the reader. The Post-colonialism sees the experimentation as an attempt of individuals to show their power. The modernists wanted to make their art conspicuous by not fulfilling the expectation of the readers. The modernists not only wanted to defy the expectation of the readers but also their perception. Modernism, as defined above, was self-conscious and self-referential movement and, therefore, the artist, writers, and painters wanted to catch the attention of the public through different ways. Modernism in literature reached its climax in early 20th century. The modernist on individualism is reflected in the different manifestos put forth by the different group during the movement. The modernist fiction writers such as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Edgar Morgan, etc. have depicted the subjectivism, individualism and the stream of consciousness method. The modernists believing that to know the world objectively is not possible but it can be perceived only through the human mind applied the stream of consciousness method. The narration was first person narrative. The stream of consciousness made the work fragmented and because the stream of consciousness shows the flow of thought which does not follow chronologically. Therefore, there does not present a sequence in the reading of the text. Modernism caused to bring economic prosperity and made the living standard better. The economic prosperity of the individuals because of industrial revolution lead the western not only breaking away from the Age of Enlightenment but also to divide the society into different classes such as upper class, middle class and lower class. The division of society in the West was based on money. Modernism gave the Western countries the curse of capitalism. Why capitalism is a curse is that it divided the society into different classes in the bases of how a person have money not on the bases of how a person is learned or not. Capitalism gave the upper class a free hand to exploit the middle and lower class. Therefore, Post-colonialism touches on the theme of imperialism and capitalism (Said, 1993). (http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/hine-macon.htm) The class system became part of the curriculum and the academic books especially the children books included the pictorial imagery of class systems to make the children familiar with the class system of the society. The exploitation of middle and lower class in the hand of upper class encompassed from human resources to economic resources. In literature, all these manifestation of modernism has been reflected. The narrative writings of novel and short stories demonstrate the exploitation of lower and less fortunate people such as David Copper field shows how economic revolution led to child exploitation. David, an orphan child, sends to the factory by his stepfather for the sake of economic benefits (Schuster 2014, p. 28). http://www.shutterstock.com/s/exploitation/search.html Child exploitation became dominant feature of modernism. People were not much concerned about the ethical and moral values but were only concerned to accumulate money by hook or crook. The exploitation of child has not diminished in the postmodern society but has increased because capitalism has become stronger than ever. In the first half of the nineteenth century saw a shift in social, political and in the esthetic taste of people because modernism paved the way for Romanticism. “Romanticism” revolves around the celebration of individuality, liberty and individual’s efforts in different fields. Besides, the word fashion became a catch term in all fields even in politics music and even art and architecture besides in social sciences. In fact, every aspect of life was in fashion, and every person wanted to be conspicuous in his or her field by following the established sense of fashion. Why the people associated to different fields were trying to be in vogue is that they did not want to resemble like the previous age. The modernism led people to break away from the old methods of painting, writing and construction. Modernism made the artist and other academic persons self-conscious, and they started an experiment with the form resulted in attracting the attention of the readers toward the form of the work. The literature shows how the modern people had been alienated and spent life in a chaotic world. The concept of alienation had been manifested through different characters. Post-modernism puts into questions the philosophical assumptions and values of the modern Western and particularly, of the European. Postmodernism rejects the concept that there is any natural reality beyond the human understanding. The rejection of the existence of any natural reality leads postmodernism to reject the presence of any absolute truth. Truth and reality are constructed by language and, therefore, to exist it beyond human understanding is not possible. Postmodernism centers most of its discussion on language. It is believed that the word postmodern became popular when Jean Francois Lyotard used it the first time in his book named “The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge”. The Postmodernism did not emerge in all discipline during one same period, but different disciplines have a different date of emergence. However, in 1977 the term postmodernism started to use by different academics to talk about their discoveries. Since the inception of postmodernism as a literary term, it stands for a specific group of values and particular perspective of defining and examining the world. Postmodernism is social, political and intellectual force that believes in the contemporaneity. Postmodernism is a challenging approach to different discipline because it often questions the basic foundations of rationality, subjectivity, epistemology, ethics, esthetics etc. Before going into further detail of postmodernism, the meaning “post in the term postmodernism should be defined here. Lyotard argues that the “post” of “postmodernism” does not stand for a movement of a comeback, but it tells that postmodernism is inevitably critically engaged with modernism (Agger 2014, p. 170). Besides, according to Cornel West postmodernism talks about the existence of “exterminism, empire, class, race, Gender, sexual orientation, age, nation, nature and region” and discusses the problems proliferating because of these issues (West 1990, p. 92). Postmodernism exposes the differences among different nations, race, within the same gender. Postmodernism puts into question the basic concept of gender differences on the bases of sexual orientation centering the discussion on language. Most of the discussion revolves around language and modernism believes that language is a structure without structure (Standing, 2004). Postmodernism is an umbrella term, which has its set of ideas and beliefs that are not embraced by majority or are uncommon. It stands for the devastation of culture, cultural differences. It deals with the practicality of different fields such as history, literature, art, individuals’ lives and society. In addition, it also resists closure, and this aspect of postmodernism defies human understanding because human understanding’s of different things is based on limitation or closure. When there will not be any boundary of any particular thing, it will not make sense. It is also known as a movement that deliberately merges different ideas to complicate things for understanding. In fact, postmodernism reflects the complex and complicated lives of modern people, their social interaction, and their complex identities. Postmodernism is a literary and cultural phenomenon that it tells about the collapse of Western humanism. It also points out that the humanistic values, contained in art and culture, have been replaced by the capitalistic thinking of the people. Postmodernism points out how the industrialization has brought tremendous devastation to the human society as well as to the thinking of the public including the intellectuals. It is a way of presentation, which presents the un-presentable into a form. The theory does not claim that the form is a fit one for representing the unpresentable but it is represents such thing to do away with the concept of un-presentable. Postmodernism does not believe in any kind of meta-narratives. Meta-narrative is the concept that human history is pursuing a course of development, but this sense of pursuing a course of development does not exist in the world of Postmodernism. The rejection of meta-narrative puts in question the basic understanding of things such as time and history. Post modernism puts into question truth, reality and religion. Barbara Kruger a post modernist artist “offered and angry critique of how she understands religions to use cultural practices and language to control the psyche and society” (Suggs 1997, p. 18). The postmodernism not only puts into questions the existence of truth and reality but it also a harsh critique of science and art besides the Western society. Such as one of the prominent postmodern writer Jacques Derrida questions the basic foundation of epistemology. He questions in his essay “Sign, Structure and Play” the philosophy and science of being present at the same time at the center and out of the center as well (Taylor & Winquist 1998, p. 504). He seems to state that the West is not ready to accept any other discipline as epistemology except science and philosophy. Postmodernism expose the modernists’ lack of understanding about the nature of language. In addition to above the postmodernist, painters, architects, fiction writers, sociologists and the persons, who are associated to music and fashion, have tried to depict the distance, differences penetrated into the everyday life such as the sense of alienation and identity crisis. The artists have tried to show the complex, complicated and confused living of the contemporary people into their art works besides the consciousness about the absence of the sense of belonging. http://fashions-cloud.com/pages/p/postmodernism-art-movement/ The postmodern art seems to be a reaction against the modernist art. In fact, the postmodern artist are more concern about art not because they stand for something but believe in the theory that art should be drawn for its sake. Contradiction and paradoxes are centers to the postmodern art. The postmodernist artists have used the industrial materials and have mixed the high and lower culture to show the bewilderment of the contemporary life. Postmodernism brought one of the most famous and highly appreciable theories to different fields including art and literature known as “Post-colonialism”. “Post-colonialism” is a theory that examines the novels of modernism. It is, in fact, a critique of Western and specifically European in the sense of making others as colonies of their own by virtue of scientific advancement. It is a critique of the Western understanding of nonwestern countries. Edward Said is thought to be one of the touchstones of Post-colonialism theory. Said believed that the European imperialism was not restricted to colonizing the less economically developed countries, but it was deep rooted in their narrative writings such as fiction and prose. He said in his book named “Culture and Imperialism” that the Western literature also had equal participation in the colonialism of the non-Western countries. Said argues that in the narrative writings the non-Western countries had been shown as barbaric, void of culture and civilization, and it gave a justification for the Western to make the non-Western countries as their colony. The European claimed that they were helping the non-Western people by giving them culture civilization and education (Said 1993, p. xii). In addition the gender ambiguity is because of the sense that people fail to find themselves to a particular gender and find them at the same time belonging to the gender of men and women (Standing 2004). Now, it is not a big issue for a person to change his or her gender. The advancement in the field of biology and particularly, in genetics engineering has made it possible for individuals to switch his or her gender. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2008-03/28/content_6573939.htm Gender ambiguity is not only because of transgender but also because of the people who are tended to attract to the same gender. The outstanding concept of gender as men and women has been greatly shattered because of gays, homosexual, and transgender. LGHT are growing as the third category of gender. In the age of modernism, gender was defined on the base of some characteristics. The men and women were distinctively defined and a person is known by his or her outfit and the characteristic associated with men or women but in the postmodern period the difference between men and women on the base of certain characteristics have been vanished and the characteristics are no more useful to define men and women. The postmodern people believed that the concept of gender is socially constructed and is not natural (Dreger 2014). In the postmodern period, it would not be wrong if one says that the sex is also culturally or socially constructed because one can change his or sex by virtue of science. In addition, Post-colonialism sees the influence of post-modernism on the studies of literature as well. Postmodernism uses pos-colonialism to examine the literature of modernism and point out the bias of modernist literary writers. The postmodern literature can be distinguished from the modernist literature in its narrative techniques. The postmodern fiction writers do not use very smooth narrative in their works, but they tend to use fragmented and unreliable narrators to show the unreliability and fragmented contemporary life. If would not easy for one to define postmodern fiction or to classify them into different genres because they do not come up to any classification either, farce, classic, pop-fiction or tragedy, etc. http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features/tdvcpostmodernnoveljuly04.asp The postmodern literature is closer to the postmodern philosophies such as nihilism, existentialism, and absurdum. Postmodern literature is a sort of critique of modernism, the devastation industrialization have brought to the lives of individuals. The postmodern people search meaning in life despite all the facilities available. The anxiety, restlessness, boredom and the sense of alienation are greatly evolved into the postmodern literature (Malpas 2005, p. 22). Conclusion Post-colonialism sees Modernism and Postmodernism are two different methods of examining the everyday activities of individuals either in the personal life of social. Modernism and Postmodernism seems to show how human beings have gone through mental development. In fact, these two approaches seem demonstrate the evolution of the world besides human being. The world is evolving not because it is in the nature of the world to go through changes but because human beings are causing to bring changes to the world. Human beings are evolving mentally, but this evolution seems to be circular in the sense that before the beginning of Modernism people were much concerned about human values, morality and culture but modernism wiped away all these elements and human beings became self-conscious and money became the center of individuals. Postmodernism puts in questions all the achievement of modernists and even questions the basic foundation of epistemology and declare scientific development responsible for the suffering of human beings. Both postmodernism and modernism are different discourses one talks about the development that human being have made in the field of science and the other talks about the adverse or negative impact on these scientific developments. Modernism gives importance to rationality and reasoning, but postmodernism does not give much importance to rationality and reasoning, but it questions the basic assumptions of rationality. Postmodernism does not believe in any structure or limit and emphasis more on deconstructing the established concept that human beings are following a sequential development. The postmodernists use and center their discussion on language as a source to point out the lapses of modernism. Sources that have been used in the paper Taylor, VE & Winquist, CE 1998, Postmodernism: Foundational essays, Taylor & Francis, New York. Said, EW 1993, Culture and Imperialism, Vintage Books, New York. Gay, P 2008, Modernism: The Lure of Heresy : from Baudelaire to Beckett and Beyond, W. W. Norton & Company, New York. Taylor, VE & Winquist, CE 1998, Postmodernism: Foundational essays, Taylor & Francis, New York. Malpas, S 2005, The Postmodern, Psychology Press, New York. Wakchaure, S 2012, What is Post-modernism, viewed 5 May 2015, . Note: the rest of the sources have viewed to support the arguments. List of References Agger, B 2014, Cultural Studies As Critical Theory, Routledge, London. Allen, RJ 2008, Preaching and the Other: Studies of Postmodern Insights, Chalice Press, Indiana. CheDot 2015, Modernist Architecture 2015 Pict At Architecture, viewed May March 2015, , http://abencaodopai.com/modernist-architecture.html/modernist-architecture-2015-pict-at-architecture. Dreger, A 2014, Social Construction of Sex, viewed 2 Jun 2015, . Gay, P 2008, Modernism: The Lure of Heresy : from Baudelaire to Beckett and Beyond, W. W. Norton & Company, New York. Klein, W 1997, Nietzsche and the Promise of Philosophy, SUNY Press, New York. Malpas, S 2005, The Postmodern, Psychology Press, New York. Said, EW 1993, Culture and Imperialism, Vintage Books, New York. Schuster, S 2014, An Analysis of Childhood and Child Labour in Charles Dickens Works: David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, Anchor Academic Publishing, New York. Wakchaure, S 2012, What is Post-modernism, viewed 5 May 2015, . Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2011, Theodor W. Adorno, viewed 1 May 2015, . Standing, E 2004, Postmodern Approaches to Gender, Sex, and Sexuality, viewed 1 May 2015, . Suggs, MS 1997, Art Education: Content and Practice in a Postmodern Era, National Art Education Association, New York. Taylor, VE & Winquist, CE 1998, Postmodernism: Foundational essays, Taylor & Francis, New York. Wakchaure, S 2012, What is Post-modernism, viewed 5 May 2015, . West, C 1990, The New Cultural Politics of Difference, The Humanities as Social Technology, vol 53, no. 6, pp. 93-109. Zag, Z 2014, Comic: What is Colonialism? , viewed 3 May 2015, . Read More