1. Postmodernity Huyssen’s “Mass Culture as Woman” – in particular his definition of Modernism Basic Points of Habermas, Jameson, Baudrillard in The Anti-Aesthetic One detail each (key detail) from Habermas, Jameson, Baudrillard Discuss for next week’s task: example of PoMo – some parameters for finding and interpreting

2. Mass culture as Woman - Huyssen There is a systematic tendency in modernist critique of mass culture to cast commercial novelties as feminine Mass Culture – Woman Reader/Consumer of Pulp Subjective Audience Emotional, engaged Passive, receiver Indistinct, silence Actress (mimic) Imitative Reproductive Modernism – Man Writer/Producer of Art Objective Observer Ironic, detached In Control, sender Distinctive, voice Author(itative) Authentic Productive

3. Critique of Postmodernity – Three Classic Examples: Habermas, Jameson, Baudrillard These are theories/critiques of Postmodernity, not proponents or examples POSTMODERNIZATION: Post-industrial, Post-Fordism, Post-Colonialism, Late- Capitalism, Liquid Modernity, Information Society, Consumer Society, Globalization POSTMODERNISM: Reactions and attempts to make sense of this new world

4. Critique of Postmodernity – Three Classic Examples: Habermas, Jameson, Baudrillard Habermas – main point: The ideology of modernism is now mass Used for neoconservative purposes Used to cover up ongoing modernization in the socio-economic realm (left intact)

5. Critique of Postmodernity – Three Classic Examples: Habermas, Jameson, Baudrillard Jameson – main point: The techniques of modernism now apply to “Consumer Society” at large Pastiche Schizophrenia

6. Critique of Postmodernity – Three Classic Examples: Habermas, Jameson, Baudrillard Baudrillard – main point: The performance of modernism now applies to the everyday lifeworld Projection of Self (Scene) replaced by Display of Self (Obscene) Utility replaced by Ecstasy

7. Huyssen’s Definition Modernism (p. 197) Autonomous from Everyday Lifeworld Self-referential, ironic, rigorously deliberate Individual Consciousness – not sociologically determined or grounded in zeitgeist Experimental-Scientific - carries knowledge Technique is foregrounded (exploring language, canvas, frame is idealized purpose) Rejection, break with “realist” tradition Critical adversary of society – achieved through distinction and distance from mass culture

8. Habermas – Modernity – Incomplete Project Most insightful point (p.8): Protest requires “Communicative Rationality” or reason But Protest only occurs when economic and instrumental rationality is felt But need to understand his implicit concern: the Democratic Public Sphere

9. Jameson – Consumer Society Most Insightful point (p. 114-15) Modernist Individual Subject is myth (poststructuralism, more next week w/Foucault) If one individual can develop a private code, a unique style, then all can Fragmentation of all norms into mere style But need to understand the logic of pastiche and schizophrenia – and their consequences

10. Baudrillard – Ecstasy of Communication Most insightful point (p. 131) When all objects become commodities, then all functions become communication The individual becomes information, too. But need to understand earlier point about the (modernist) logics

11. Next Week – Find an Example of Postmodernity Method – 1970s and 1980s, Everyday Example (not textbook example from art history) Where to find it? Newspapers are still a wonderful archive of the everyday – but perhaps you have some other archive? Looking back 25+ years, the “utopian” character of these examples should have worn off – we know the actual, lived consequences, not just the potential wish-image promised at the time.