Post Modernism Philosophy, Art, Literature,

Post Modernism

Philosophy, art, literature, design, marketing, interpretation of history and culture have been effected by post modernism ideas. Post modernism is mainly "a movement of ideas" which borrows principles from the modernism. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism)

The supporters of the post modernism movement sustain that due the economic and social conditions and the ubiquity of broadcast media their ideals were born. Some argue that that postmodernism is just an expansion to modernism, and not a separate ideology. Certain conditions like economic and technological development have given birth to an era dominated by the media and the ideas are just "simulacra," meaning that the notions are reproductions of each other. The post modernism ideology emerged because of certain economic and technologic thinking. It implies the idea "that knowledge has become common field," and it turns out in a large variety of disciplines and areas of study like art, film literature etc. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism)

This movement underlines "irony, playfulness and bricolage." In art the postmodernism movement relies on "self -consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity and the subject is destructured. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism)

Frederic Jamson formulated the idea that modernism and postmodernism are cultural creations which developed through "particular stages of modern capitalism." There are three "phases of capitalism" which served to the "production of art and literature." The first stage is the "market capitalism," which took place in the eighteenth through late nineteenth century, and is associated with the steam-driven motor and the realism type of aesthetic. The second phase happens during the World War II, and is a stage associated with modernism. The actual phase is called the consumer capitalism. (http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html)

Post modernism is regarded through its historical, theoretical, aesthetic and cultural aspects.

The historical aspect of the movement refers to the fact that postmodernism is a response to World War II. Film director, Volker Shlondorff, created a movie, "The Tin Drum," about a little boy called Oskar who wishes never to grow up, and his wish becomes true. It is rather an absurd story of a tiny boy who rises against the mediocre middle-class society that lived in Germany during the Nazi period. The Tin Drum is the symbol of his protest. It is a strange, dark movie that uses late expressionism or surrealism in order to "examine people's reaction at the beginning of the war." (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078875/plotsummary)

Postmodernism refers to a hyper realism, a simulacra, it creates almost an imaginary world. The thriller "White noise" exposes an environment in which everything seems possible, even talking to a dead wife using a device called Electronic Voice Phenomenon.

Post modernism brings up the concept of ambiguity or paradox. The great play, "Waiting for Godot," by Samuel Becket, has two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, who meet and wait for a certain Godot. The Godot character never appears. Many critics consider the name Godot to be a hidden name for God. Godot in the end is a paradox. The dramatist described in his play the person at the end of the World War II. It is a person who can be characterized as master and victim of will. The characters have a will but their wishes destroy them. The characters are waiting for someone or something to save them.

From the aesthetic point-of-view the postmodernism movement pleads for an anti-narrative structure of the work. Tarantino's film, "Pulp Fiction," doesn't have a classic plot. Two stories that seem unrelated come together in a "non linear plot." The first story is about two thieves, Honey Bunny and Pumpkin who decide to rob a restaurant, and the second story of two hit men working for mob, named Vincent and Jules.

The novel "Finnegan's Wake" by James Joyce is constructed using strange loops through the action. The main character is called Finnegan and the writer puts his character through different situations. Finnegan falls from a scaffold and dies, but in his dream he goes through many experiences: he is a warrior, an explorer invading land, "a victim of a vengeful pirate queen." The progress of the book is complicated especially as it "draws in mythologies, theologies, mysteries, philosophies, histories, sociologies, astrology, other fictions, alchemy, music, color, nature, sexuality, human development, and dozens of languages to create the world drama in whose cycles we live." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake)