A Mini Postmodern Primer

Postmodernity:

• Originally a term coined in 1949 to describe architectural style, specifically dissatifaction with modern architecture. It grew into a derivative meaning used to describe culture and history as a reaction to modernism.
• It is halmarked by deconstructionism and a rejection of the hegemonic and elitist aspects of the culture and characteristics of modernism.
• Commercialism stemming from the capitalism of the elitist and bourgeous Western Culture is often associated with postmodernity.
• Some argue that postmodernism represents an accumulated disillusionment with the promises of the Enlightenment project and its progress of science, so central to modern thinking.

Deconstructionism:

• A philosophical movement and theory of literary criticism that questions traditional assumptions about certainty, identity, and truth;
• Asserts that words can only refer to other words; and attempts to demonstrate how statements about any text subvert their own meanings: "In deconstruction, the critic claims there is no meaning to be found in the actual text, but only in the various, often mutually irreconcilable, 'virtual texts' constructed by readers in their search for meaning" (Rebecca Goldstein). (dictionary definition);
• The more common use of the term is the more general process of pointing to contradictions between the intent and surface of a work and the assumptions about it. A work then "deconstructs" assumptions when it places them in context.
• For example, someone who can pass as the opposite sex may be said to "deconstruct" gender identity, because there is a conflict between the superficial appearance and the reality of the person's gender. (from Wikipedia on postmodernism)

Hyperreal:

• An artistic style characterized by highly realistic graphic representation. (dictionary definition);
• Postmodern concept that the real, everyday aspects of the objective world are somehow less real than perceived hyperreality.
• (The hyperrealist says: “There’s got to be more to life than this, and there is a place or some mechanism in this world that will help me realize the really real – the hyperreal.”)
• Symbolism becomes drastically important as a mechanism of communication.

Simulacra:

• An image or representation that is actually not real or “unreal” by connotation.
• Can be used as another postmodern synonym for the “hyperreal.”

Kitsch:

• Sentimentality or vulgar, often pretentious bad taste, especially in the arts: "When money tries to buy beauty it tends to purchase a kind of courteous kitsch" (William H. Gass) (dictionary definition);

A term of German origin that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior copy of an existing style. The term is also used more loosely in referring to any art that is pretentious to the point of being in bad taste, and also commercially produced items that are considered trite or crass. (from Wikipedia)

In other words, we don’t buy products or services based on their own merit and true, objective value a logical person would expect. We buy kitsch and accept kitsch and want kitsch because good advertising campaigns influence our decision making processes. We allow ourselves to enter altered states of consciousness in response to media which bypasses our critical thought processes.

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Brief Review: On Simulacra and Kitsch of Postmodernism

Postmodernism.

Even if one rejects the concept of the inherent and inevitable decline of civilizations, one cannot reject the overwhelming trend of evidence that chronicles the decay of America and Western culture. Crime, illiteracy, racism and economic volatility document the disintegration of our society. With the dawn of postmodernism, the central ideas of society have been replaced with abstractions and substitutions for meaningful objectivity.

“Meaning implodes” as all contexts are absorbed into the communication medium and the “medium becomes the message.” The simulation replaces the objective context, thus creating simulacra, the “hyper-real,” to which an empty, false metaphysical value is ascribed. With only relative frames of reference for morality and meaning, denial of the objective content of living and the spirit of life produces an underlying metaphysical despair.

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Postmodernism and Deconstructionism

Theorists struggle with the definition of deconstructionism, as it is not easily or well-defined. Supposedly, it does not represent a method or school of philosophy for the purpose of textual criticism. However, the term deconstruction represents a type of textual criticism that attempts to identify the unwritten assumptions, presuppositions of a literary work or ideology, hopefully arriving at understanding of the thought or belief conveyed.

The process complicates the meaning of a work or idea by a sort-of critiquing it through a nihilistic viewpoint or cynicism. In some ways, it may be seen as an attempt to re-infuse metaphysical principles and consideration back into thought and culture that modernism and the age of reason tended to neglect. It could be, perhaps a means of seeking truth within a system that does not recognize or only accepts truth with much distrust and cynicism. Or stated differently, it is an attempt to reason by means of the logical fallacy of circular reasoning. Deconstructionism can never escape it’s own presuppositions of cynical distrust and denial of objective truth, while it dubiously attempts to arrive at truth.

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How did we become “Postmodern?”

Each era of human history presented its unique challenges and benefits, shaping and influencing culture as the culture answered those unique challenges. We ask ourselves and decide as a culture of subcultures just how we will live. Each phase or era has commonalities concerning proper conduct, correct reason and process, the nature of reality and valid knowledge.

Most people recognize the Ancient Greeks and the Hellenistic Period. I’m going to skip forward to more modern day eras, and eras within eras. Modernism, the common thought governing the industrial revolution, science and ethics at the turn of the last century was rather hopeful. The outlook was positive and objectivity became all important. Science and technology as well as acquired knowledge provided man with power to transcend his circumstances. People are seen as basically good and subjective aspects of man became secondary considerations. Science and knowledge would save us, and secular humanism thrived under these conditions.

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