Postmodernism: theoretical background Part 1 Postmodernism: theoretical background

Modernism and postmodernism in literature and the other arts Next week… Part 2 Modernism and postmodernism in literature and the other arts

SYNOPSIS (Mis)conceptions of postmodernism Truth in postmodernism Influential theories in/of postmodernism (deconstruction, hyperreality, grand narratives) Chaos or complexity? (entropy as a metaphor, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon)

MOST COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT POSTMODERNISM Denial of the existence of ANY truth Radical skepticism about ABSOLUTE TRUTH Representation of the COMPLEXITY of the world Representation of the CHAOTIC nature of the contemporary world Postmodernist thought aims at a PLAYFUL restructuring of our ordinary ways of perceiving and representing the world Postmodernism is about DESPAIR and the MEANINGLESSNESS of life

Postmodernism in the broadest sense is a conscious problematization of what is “true” and “real”/an inquiry into how “truth” and “reality” are made rather than found. Questioning the Platonist/metaphysical foundations of Western philosophy

Socrates  Plato  Aristotle METAPHYSICS Socrates  Plato  Aristotle WORLD Appearance Replica (copy) Contingent Perishable Physical Material Reality Ideal form Essential Eternal Mental Non-Material VS.

TRUTH IN POSTMODERNISM

Friedrich Nietzsche “Against that positivism which stops before phenomena, saying ‘there are only facts,’ I should say: no, it is precisely facts that do not exist, only interpretations…” PERSPECTIVISM There can be several co-existing conceptual schemes within which “truths”/“facts” can be established.

Walter Truett Anderson: “Four Different Ways to Be Absolutely Right” Four worldviews: (a) the neo-romantic (b) the social-traditional (c) the scientific-rational (d) the postmodern-ironist Truth is… (a) found through harmony with nature/exploration of inner self (b) in the historical heritage of (Western) civilization (c) discovered through science/scientific methods (d) a social construction

THEORIES OF POSTMODERNISM

“Structure Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences” DECONSTRUCTION (Post-structuralism) Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) “Structure Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences” (1966)

Fredinand de Saussure (1857-1913) Language is a system of differences STRUCTURALISM Fredinand de Saussure (1857-1913) Langue Parole (Language as a system) (Actual utterances) Sign Signifier Signified Referent Language is a system of differences

STRUCTURALISM

POST-STRUCTURALISM (Deconstruction)

The “deconstruction” of structures We like to see the world organized into structures Structures are always built around a center All centers are arbitrarily chosen, giving us the semblance of a structure

STRUCTURALISM Sign Signifier Signified Referent

SIGNIFIER

Signified Signified Signified SIGNIFIER Signified Signified Signified Signified Signified Signified Signified

SIMULACRUM AND HYPERREALITY Simulacra and Simulation Jean Baudrillard Simulacra and Simulation (1981)

“It’s a new reality show about a producer trying to make a reality show about a family obsessed with reality shows.”

Simulacrum: a copy or replica of something Baudrillard: simulacrum is not just a copy of an “original,” but a representation which becomes a “truth” in its own right Hyperreality: the representation is experienced as more real than the

An illustration of the logic of the simulacrum: Disneyland

DISTRUST OF GRAND NARRATIVES Jean-Francois Lyotard: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979)

“Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives. […] To the obsolescence of the metanarrative apparatus of legitimation corresponds, most notably, to the crisis of metaphysical philosophy and of the university institution which in the past relied on it. The narrative function is losing its functors, its great hero, its great dangers, its great voyages, its great goal. It is being dispersed in clouds of narrative language elements—narrative [...]. Where, after the metanarratives, can legitimacy reside?”

CHAOS OR COMPLEXITY?

The term was coined by Rudolf Clausius in 1865 Entropy (transfer content)  Energy (work content) The term was coined by Rudolf Clausius in 1865

Definitions of entropy The 2nd law of thermodynamics: The amount of energy in a thermodynamic system (e.g. a heat engine) that is not available for doing work (i.e. the amount of energy that gets lost).

Science (physics): The final stage reached in the degradation of matter and energy in a closed system. (All closed systems, including the universe will run down and end in heat death)

Statistical mechanics: The condition of a mechanical system Statistical mechanics: The condition of a mechanical system. (The more run-down the given machinery, the higher its entropy is.)

Communication/ Information theory: The effectiveness of a certain system of signs (such as language) in transmitting new information. (The more new information a statement carries, the higher its entropy is).

Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937) “Entropy” (1960)

Callisto’s apartment Callisto is dictating his memoirs to his lover, Aubade, and is brooding over entropy and apocalypse. Washington D.C. February 1957 Temperature: 37 F (cca. 2-3 ºC) Meatball’s apartment Meatball is throwing a raucous party, where a host of diverse guests are arriving . Saul’s apartment Saul has just had an argument with his wife over communication theory.

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