1. Raymond Berrios Gonzalez ENGG 630 Prof. Evelyn Lugo February 23, 2009
Postmodernism Theory
Raymond Berrios Gonzalez
ENGG 630
Prof. Evelyn Lugo
February 23, 2009

2. Objectives: Define the concept postmodernism.
Establish the time frame of this movement.
Learn about the movement in different areas (architecture, arts, music and literature)

3. Postmodernism:
Broad term used to describe movements in a wide range of disciplines, including art, philosophy, critical theory, and music.
It can best be understood by relating it to modernism.
Modernism a manifestation of Western Europe’s 1800’s mechanism, industrialism, literature, art, and ideas that promoted a progressive an prosperous society.
It’s not necessarily a rebellion against modernism, but a movement that builds upon it and more or less rejects modernist strict rationalism.

4. Postmodernism (Cont.):
It is not clear when postmodernism began.
It upholds a subjective thinking towards morality, social constructions, political movements, art, religion, and true statements.
It has the believe that truth is relative and that objective truth may not be knowable.

5. Postmodernism in Literary Theory
It refers in part to the crisis in determining meaning and signification highlighted by Post-Structuralism and deconstruction.
It also refers to the process of examining the canon of literary “authorities”, that is, the writers who are most commonly studied in schools and universities, and attempting to discern the ideological and social currents that have shaped that canon.
In the practice of fiction and poetry, it has manifested itself in an experimentation and eclecticism which has focused on the nature of fictionality and of writing itself.

6. It can be attached to almost any work that questions the boundaries and possibilities of the fictional enterprise.
Attempts to collapse arbitrary borders between genres and to question what constitutes the nature of genre; that refers, directly or by allusion, to other texts
Makes problematic the idea of “characters” and of a narrative that can lead to a fixed point and convey a fixed meaning.

7. Postmodernist Art
Postmodernist art began flourishing in the 60’s with expressions like Pop art, Fluxus, and feminist art that was inherently political and simultaneously engaged with and critical of commercial mass culture.
One of the most distinctive characteristics of postmodernist art is the dissolution of traditional categories of art and artworks.
The feminist art of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s challenged the institutionalized male bias and sexism of the art system.

8. Postmodernist Architecture
Postmodernist architecture has a particular specificity and complexity, in part because the term postmodernist architecture was given a specific meaning very early in the postmodern period.
Its diverse in spirit and in style, and the ways it defines itself, in each movement and project, in relation to this diversity.
Architects combine disparate elements from previous architectural eras and styles in the same building, an incongruous mixing that initially gave rise to the term postmodernist architecture.

9. New technologies and high-tech materials have made it possible to break from the traditional architectural forms and create more free-form and sculptural edifices, such as Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

10. Postmodernism in Music and Dance
Is particularly characterized by the collapse of boundaries between "high" dance (classical ballet and modern dance) and "popular" dance (jazz dance, folk and tribal dance, ballroom dancing, and Broadway musical choreography), as choreographers fused their various styles and movements.
Dance, however, became quite literally more a part of the world, as choreographers developed architecturally inspired, site-specific works.

11. References:
Howels, C. (2008) Postmodernism. Retrieved on February 19,
2009 from
encyclopedia_ /Postmodernism_(literature).html
Mc Guilan, B. (2003) What is Postmodernism? Retrieved February
17,2009 from manuscript.php?postid=43790