Gabriele Rabino Raffaele Contin 5^A Anno 2010/2011

POSTMODERNISM It appears in different areas of study and in society  It is hard to define  It’s not clear when it begins  To analyze it we have to start from modernism

MODERNISM Two modes of definition:  The first definition comes from Aesthetic movement  The second definition comes more from history and sociology than from literature of art history

Main Characteristics Of Modernism  A rejection of the distinction between high and low or popular culture.  A movement away from the apparent objectivity provided by omiscient third person narrator  An enphasis on subjectivity in writing and how seeing rather than on what is perceived.  Poetry seems more documentary and prose seems more poetic  An emphasis on fragmented forms: discontinuous narratives  A tendency toward reflexivity or self consciousness  A rejection of elaborate formal aesthetics in favour of minimalist designs.

Modernism And Postmodernism Sameness:  Rejecting boundaries between hig and low form of art  Rejecting rigid genre distinctions  Reflexivity and self consciousness  Cultural formation wich accompany particular stages of capitalist Difference:  Postmodernism, in opposition to modernist, chelebrates the idea of fragmentation.

Capitalism Three particular stages of capitalism:  Market Capitalist: it is associated with technoligical developments and with a particular kind of aesthetics:realism.  The second stage is associated with electric and internal combustion motors and with modernism.  The third is multinational or consumer capitalism associated with nuclear and eletronic technologies and correlated with postmodernism. CAPITALISM

Postmodernism society  There are no originals only copies  Knowledge becames functional.  The advent of electronic computer technologies has revolutionized the modes of knowledge production, distribution in the society.

Modernism Is Not Modernity  Modernity refers to : philosophical,political and ethical ideals  Modernity is older than modernismModernity They provide the basis for the aesthetic aspect of modernism. The previous era was labeled antiquity.  The modern era is associated with the European EnlightenmentEnlightenment

The Basic Ideas Of The Enlightenment Are similar at the basic ideas of humanism:  All human istitutions and practices can be analyzed by science.  The mode of knowing produced by the objective rational self is science.  Science is the paradigm for any and all socially useful forms of knowledge.  Also language must be rational, must be trasparent.  The knowledge produced by science is truth and is eternal.  This self knows itself and the word through reason posited as the highest form of mental functioning.  Reason is the ultimate judge or what is true.  There is a stable knowable self. This self is conscious,rational,autonomous

Modernity It is: rationality rationalization a society will better function. Have to do with the effort to achieve stability. order Modern societies Creates categories labeled order or disorder Stability and order are maintained in modern societies through the means of grand narratives.