Culture

1. Postmodernism and Culture

2. CULTURE • refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance.

3. POSTMODERNISM • term used to designate a multitude of trends—in the arts, philosophy, religion, technology, and many other areas—that come after and deviate from the many 20th-cent. movements

4. Lyotard’s view • An era in which people have rejected the grand, supposedly universal stories and paradigms such as religion and gender that have defined culture and behavior in the past, and have instead begun to organize their cultural life around a variety of more local and subcultural ideologies and myths. Incredulity towards metanarratives

5. Various Definitions • A worldview that emphasizes the existence of different worldviews. • There is no single way to define postmodernism, and that is the single most postmodern thing about it.

6. The development of postmodernism • Features of postmodern culture begin to arise in the 1920s with the emergence of the Dada movement, which featured collage and a focus on the framing of objects and discourse as being important, than the work itself • Another strand which would have tremendous impact on post-modernism would be the existentialists, who placed the centrality of the individual narrative as being the source of morals and understanding.

7. Postmodernism has manifestations in many modern academic and non-academic disciplines • philosophy, theology, art, architecture, film, television, music, theatre, sociology, fashion, technology, literature, and communications are all heavily influenced by postmodern trends and ideas, and are thoroughly scrutinised from postmodern perspectives • Exactly when modernism began to give way to postmodernismdepends on the observer and the theoretical framework

8. GLOBALIZATION • It refers to the worldwide exchanges brought about by modern communication and infrastructure. • It describes how human beings are becoming more intertwined.

9. CONTRIBUTION TO POSTMODERNISM • Journalists, politicians & others use the word to signify that something profound is happening. • It is eroding local cultures and traditions through a global culture.

10. Consumerism • The features of culture that have contributed to postmodernism include consumerism, the fragmentation of authority, and the commodification of knowledge • Consumerism is a term used to describe the effects of equating personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption. • In an abstract sense, consumerism refers to the belief that the free choice of consumers should dictate the economic structure of a society

11. Since consumerism began, various individuals and groups have consciously sought an alternative lifestyle through simple living. • While consumerism is not a new phenomenon, it has only become widespread in the 20th century and particularly in recent decades, under the influence of capitalism and globalization • A culture that is permeated by consumerism can be referred to as a consumer culture

12. "Overcoming Consumerism" is a growing philosophy. It is a term that embodies the active resistance to consumerism. • anti-consumerists tend to believe that consumerism is an artificial creation sustained by artificial social pressures, while libertarians tend to believe that consumerism is natural and the only way to eliminate it is through artificial social pressures.

13. Post-modernism …or have we moved beyond modernism?

14. Epistemological Relativism • There is no such thing as objective knowledge. • Everything is viewed through the lens of our values and our culture. • Question- How can we make judgements about the world around us if all knowledge and truths are relative. • This is a central critique of the epistemological relativism generated in much of Postmodern thought.

15. Postmodernism in language • It refers to the use of postmodern ideas in the field of linguistics. • An important concept in postmodernism's view of language is the idea of "play" text. • Play is the means by which the reader constructs or interprets the text, and the means by which the author gains a presence in the reader's mind. • In the context of postmodernism, play means changing the framework which connects ideas, and thus allows the troping, or turning, of a metaphor or word from one context to another, or from one frame of reference to another.

16. Roland Barthes argued this concept, and coined it 'Death of the Author'; this allows for 'freedom of the reader'. It is the reader's freedom which gives meaning to a text, not the author's intention. Barthes is well known for having stated, "It is language that speaks, not the author". • In post modernistic view ,author shall choose words which transmit the idea as transparently as possible to the reader. Thus postmodernism in language has often been identified with poor writing and communication skills.

17. Postmodern Literature

18. Postmodern literature ? • arose as a series of styles and ideas in the post-World WarII period . • explores subjectivism, turning from external reality to examine inner states of consciousness. • explores fragmentariness in narrative- and character-construction.

19. Some Attributes of Post-Modernist Literature • the writing of reflexive or meta-fiction • the use of paradox • a crossing or dissolving of borders -- between fiction and non-fiction, between literary genres, between high and low culture

20. Gender • The postmodern novel was also part of a larger social project: integration and ending discrimination against women. • Perspective of postmodern writers on the life of women:

21. Other sub-genres? • Excrement Literature • Electronic literature • Hypertext fiction

22. Some of the authors of Postmodern Literature : • J.R.R. Tolkien • Salman Rushdie • C.S. Lewis • Dan Brown

23. J.R.R Tolkien • the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of The Rings another fiction The Silmarillion. • The covers of the Lord of the Rings series:

24. Tolkien’s RNG:

25. Salman Rushdie • an Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction. • His novel, Midnight’s Children, however, catapulted him to literary fame and is often considered his best work to date. • He is best known for the violent criticism his book The Satanic Verses (1988) inspired in radical Muslims.

26. Clive Staples Lewis • an Irish author and scholar, of mixed Irish, English, and Welsh ancestry. • work on medieval literature • Christian apologetics • fiction, especially the children’s series entitled The Chronicles of Narnia and his science fiction Space Trilogy.

27. C.S.Lewis’s :The Chronicles of Narnia –The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

28. Dan Brown • Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for writing the controversial 2003 bestseller, The Da Vinci Code

29. POSTMODERN ART Enosh Nikhil

30. Postmodern art (sometimes called po-mo) is a term used to describe art which is thought to be after or in contradiction to some aspect of modernism. • Postmodern art uses a vocabulary of media, genres or styles as parts of an extended visual language that goes beyond the boundaries of the modernist vocabulary

31. Postmodern art (and thought) favors reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity (especially in narrative structures), ambiguity, simultaneity, and an emphasis on the destructured, decentered, dehumanized subject.

32. In his theoretical writings, Jean Baudrillard concludes that what motivates art's historical change is not any 'authentic' or 'original' impulse, but simply fashion, pivoting on the desire for novelty, which he sees as an organic and integrated process. • The basic premise behind postmodern art is that all forms of novelty and rebellion have already been explored,

33. Even if everything being done wasn't true the particular emphasis on rejection of that which is old or already done is only handicapping to an artists self-expression. • Artist Allison Hetter, when asked what post-modernism was, replied with the simple phrase: "Everything's been done already." Many observers feel that we are in the stage of the po-po-mo where: "Everything's been re-done already".

34. Some of the famous modern art pieces of sculpture, photography, architecture and painting Judy Chicago’s ‘ Dinner Party’

35. Richard Serra's "Tilted Arc", 1981 (now destroyed)

36. Vietnam War Memorial (1982)

37. Pacita Abad’s How Mali Lost Her Accent, 1991 Hung Lui: Three Fujins, 1995

38. Faith Ringgold’s Dancing at the Louvre, 1991 Jesse Trevino: Senora Dolores Trevino, 1982

39. Photo above from Larry Powell's book "Hunger of the Heart: Communion at the Wall" Sandy Scogland’s Revenge of the Goldfish, 1981

40. Sculpture of Walking Man by George Segal A Ceramic Sculpture by Joan Miro

41. MUSIC • POST MODERN MUSIC : • MUSICAL STYLE - Tends to be self referential and ironic. Favours eclecticism in musical form and genre • MUSICAL CONDITION - Simply state of music in post modernism .It does’nt have any particular style or characteristic

42. JONATHANKRAMER’SVIEW-> • is on some level and some way ironic • challenges barriers between high and low styles • questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values • embraces contradictions • distrusts binary oppositions • includes fragmentations and discontinuities • presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities

43. THEORIES : • it is a degenerate modernity, the critic Theodor Adonor being an example of idea that trends of music after serialism represent banalization of and regression from modernity. • It is a sign of late capitalism and decline of identity creating metanarratives such as nation states. • As with modernity and postmodernism in general, modernity may be considered to not yet have ended, and thus there is no post modern condition. • DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MODERN AND POSTMODERN MUSIC: • modern music was characterized by focus on musical fundamentals and expressions. • however in post modern music, the commodity being sold by record companies and pop stars are not the fundamentals of the music, but the cultural image surrounding music, which reverbates through films, televisions, and other media.

44. FEATURES OF POSTMODERN-MUSIC ROCK MUSIC –(PINK FLOYD) POP MUSIC – (BEATLES)

45. ‘DJING’ RAP

46. POSTMODERNISM IN DESIGN Postmodernism in urban design Postmodernism in graphic design

47. Postmodernisminurbandesign • Postmodernism in contemporary cities in terms of globalization. • Growing proportion of all economic activity • Progressively organized at the international scale • This international scope induces economic patterns & induces multicultural ambience.

48. Postmodernism in Graphic design • Graphic design may be considered as the root of postmodernism. • Postmodernism in graphic design has been mainly a visual & decorative movement. • Graphic design saw a massive popular raising at the end of the seventies in form of Graffiti and Hip Hop culture's rise .

49. Postmodernism in architecture • As with many cultural movements, one of postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen in architecture. • The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist movement are replaced by diverse aesthetics.

50. Post-modernism is a rejection of strict rules set by the early modernists and seeks exuberance in the use of building techniques, angles, and stylistic references • Architects generally considered postmodern include: Peter Eisenmen, Philip Johnson, John Burgee, Robert Venturi, Ricardo Bofill, and Frank Gehry. • A prime example of postmodern architecture lies along the Las Vegas strip which was glamorized by Robert Venturi in the book ‘Learning from Las Vegas’.