the story of modernism

8/11/2019 The Story of Modernism

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The story of ModernismModernity came into being with the Renaissance;

fundamentally about ORDER: rationality andrationalization, creating order out of chaos.

Basic ideas of humanism (Enlightment):

1) There is a stable, coherent, knowable self. This self isconscious, rational, autonomous, and universal

2) This self knows itslef and the world through reason(rationality) – as the highest form of mentalfunctioning and the only objective form



The story of Modernism3) The mode of knowledge produced by the objective

rational self is SCIENCE, which can provide universaltruths about the world, regardless of the individualstatus of the knower

4) Knowledge such produced is TRUTH, and is eternal.

5) Knowledge/truth produced by science will always

lead towards progress and perfection; any and allhuman institutions and activities can be analyzed byscience (reason/objectivity) and improved

6) Reason is the ultimate judge of what is true, and

therefore of what is right and what is good



The story of Modernism7) In a world governed by reason, the true will always be

the same as the good and the right (and thebeautiful); there can be no conflict between what istrue and what is right

8) Science is the paradigmof all socially forms ofknowledge. Science is neutral and objective;

scientists must be free to follow the laws of reason.9) Language must be also rational; in order to berational, it must be transparent; it must functiononly to represent the real/perceivable world which

the rational mind observes



The story of ModernismThere must be a firm and objective connection between

the objects of perception and the words used to namethem (between signifier and signified)

Modern societies have created categories labeled asORDER or DISORDER (binary oppositions). Why?



The story of ModernismStability = TOTALITY (or a totalized system) – Derrida

(totality = the wholeness, or completeness of asystem).

Totality, stability and order are maintained in modernsocieties though the means of grand narratives /master narratives = stories a culture tells itself about

its practices and beliefs



Literary responses to

Modernism in the 20th

century1) Sense of loss on ontological ground (a loss of

confidence that there is a reliable, knowable groundof value and identity). WHY?

2) A sense that our culture has lost its bearings, thatthere is no center, no cogency, collapse/bankruptcyof values

3) Loss of faith in a moral center and moral directiondue to the recognition of failure for traditional values: industrialization, breakdown of thetraditional rural society, wars, colonialism, society

built on power and greed




century Shift in paradigms from the closed, finite, measurable

cause-and-effect universe of the 19th century science toan open, relativistic, strange universe and a shift fromand evolutionary, development-based model to astructural, surface-depth-based model

Consensus, social authority and textual authority are

replaced with individual judgement andphenomenological validation. Meaning = individualexperience




century Studies/disciplines focused on the individual:

psychology, psychotherapy, political science(democratization); in aesthetics, movements such asimpressionism and cubism, focused on the process ofperception

Forces governing behaviour, particularly the most

powerful and formative ones, are hidden: Marx, Freud,Nietzsche. This led to the search for underlying,hidden structures, operational laws which motivatebehaviour and govern phenomena =STRUCTURALISM




century A move to the mystical ad symbolic as ways of

recovering a sense of the holy in experience and ofrecreating a sustainable ontological ground:development of symbolic thought, the concept ofuniversal archetypes, nature of the sacred, creativemystery



Modernism vs.

Post-ModernismMain features of Modernism:

1) Emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity: HOW

is more important than WHAT (stream ofconsciousness)

2) A movement away from the apparent objectivityprovided by omniscient third-person narrators, fixed

narrative points of view, clear-cut moral positions.3) Blurring distinctions between genres.

4) Emphasis on fragmented forms, discontinuousnarratives, collages of different materials.



Modernism re-visited5) Tendency towards reflexivity, self-consciousness,

focus on the production of the work of art

6) Rejection of elaborate formal aesthetics in favor ofminimalist designs; favours spontaneity and discovery

7) Rejection of the HIGH and LOW distinction inculture



What is Post-Modernism? Jean Francois Lyotard – The Postmodern Condition: A

Report on Knowledge – 1979

“

Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodernas incredulity towards meta-narratives[. ..] Thenarrative function is losing its functors, its great hero,its great dangers, its great voyages, its great goal. It isbeing dispersed in clouds of narrative language[...] Where, after the metanarratives, can legitimacyreside?”



M. vs. PMMaster Narratives/Meta-narratives of history, culture

and national identity; myths of cultural and ethnicorigin VS. suspicion and rejection; local narratives;ironic deconstruction of master narratives.

Faith in “Grand Theory” (totalizing explanations inhistory science and culture) VS. rejection of suchtheories; attempt to localize

Faith in myths of social and cultural unity, hierarchies ofsocial class and ethnic/national values VS. social andcultural pluralism, dis-unity



M. vs. PMMaster narrative of progress through science and

technology VS. Skepticism of progress; new agereligions; anti-technology reactions

Unified, centered self; “individualism”, unified identity VS. sense of fragementation; multiple, conflictingidentities

Social order based on family; middle-class, nuclearpattern VS. alternative family units, multiple identitiesfor couplings and child raising

Hierarchy, order, centralized control VS. subverted

order, loss of centralized control, fragmentation



M. vs. PMFaith in big politics (National state, national parties) VS.

micro-politics, local politics

Faith in DEPTH (meaning values, content, the signified)over SURFACE (appearances, the superficial, thesignifier) VS. atttention to play of surfaces, images,signifiers; no concern for DEPTH

Faith in reality beyond media and representations;authenticity of ORIGINALS vs. Hyper-reality, imagesaturation; images and texts without any prior original

Dichotomy of HIGH and LOW culture; imposed

consensus



M. vs. PMDichotomy of HIGH and LOW culture; imposed

consensus that high or official culture is normativeand authoratitative VS. disruption o the dominance ofhigh culture by popular culture; mix of popular andhigh cultures, new valuation of pop culture; hybridcultural forms which cancel the HIGH/LOW categories

Mass culture, mass consumption, mass marketing VS.de-massified culture, niche products and marketing,smaller group identities



M. vs. PM Art as unique object and finished work authenticated by

artist and agreed upon standards VS. art as process,performance, production, intertextuality, art asrecycling of culture

Knowledge mastery, ENCYCLOPEDIA vs. navigation,information management, WWW

Broadcast media, centralized one-to-many

communications VS. interactive, client-server,distributed, many-to-many media (the Internet)

Centering/centeredeness, centralized knowledge VS.dispersal, dissemination, networked, distributed

knowledge



M. vs. PMDeterminancy vs. contingency, indeterminancy

Serriousness of intention and purpose VS. play, irony,

challenge of official seriousness, subversion ofearnestness

Clear generic boundaries (in music, literature, art) VS.hybridity, promiscuous genres, intertextuality,

pasticheClear dichotomy between organic and inorganic VS.

cyborgian mix, human and machine



M. vs. PMOrdering of sexual differences, unified sexualities,

exclusion/bracketing of pornography VS. androgyny,queer sexual identities, polymorphous sexuality, massmarketing of pornography

Bearer of words – THE BOOK, THE LIBRARY (system forprinted knowledge) VS. hypermedia transcendingphysical limits of media; information systemrepresented by the Internet



Modernism vs. Post-MSymbolism Dadaism

Form Antiform

Purpose PlayDesign Chance

Hierarchy Anarchy

Logos

Art Object Performance/Happening

Distance Participation

Creation/Totalization Decreation/Deconstruction



Modernism vs. Post-MSynthesis Antithesis

Presence Absence

Centering Dispersal

Genre text/intertext

Semantics Rhetorics

Selection Combination

Narrative ( grande) Anti-narrative ( petit histoire)Type Mutant

Phallic Androgynous

Metaphysics Irony

the story of modernism

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