In Western philosophy, postmodernism is a late 20th-century movement characterized by widespread suspicion of reason, broad skepticism, subjectivism or relativism, and an intense sensitivity to the role of ideology in establishing and maintaining political and economic power. We present you with 5 key features of Postmodernism.
Postmodernism is essentially a response against the intellectual assumptions and values of the modern age in the history of Western philosophy (approximately, the 17th through the 19th century). In fact, even though they weren’t unique to the 18th-century Enlightenment, many of the doctrines that are commonly associated with postmodernism can be fairly described as the outright rejection of general philosophical stances that were taken for granted at the time. Here are the 5 key features of Postmodernism.
5 key features of Postmodernism:
1- Politics of Culture
Postmodernism opposes modern art and architecture. Elitism is thought to have had a strong influence on modern art. It denotes a drop in standards. Postmodern architecture is rooted in populism; it is an expression of cheap populism. It is suggested that postmodern architecture is regressive rather than progressive, reactionary rather than radical; a sell-out of everything that architecture should stand for.
However, postmodernists defend some of these criticisms of modern art, not only in architecture, music, and entertainment programming but also in the media. It must be acknowledged that the new art has touched the grassroots and ordinary people. It is more grounded in reality.
2. The end of reality
It is sometimes argued that postmodernist views announce the “end of the real.” Postmodernism has given rise to communications as well as the electronic replication of sound, pictures, and text. Television has frequently played an important role in this area. Worse, issues about the link between reality and representation have evolved in this postmodern development of communications.
According to Baudrillard’s idea, there is nothing real in this universe. Instead, there exist simulations, which are carbon duplicates of reality, and, to make matters worse, there is no original copy. Signs and images float in the air. We do not buy commodities through the media; we buy signals and pictures. And, strangely, we ingest these signs and visuals.
3. Postmodern society is multicultural and incoherent
Multiculturalism is one of the distinguishing features of postmodern society. When our national leaders give public speeches, they frequently begin with the statement “We the people of this community…” They convey the idea that we are common people with common lifestyles and beliefs by using the term “we.”
However, postmodernists would not accept such terminology. They contend that the community is never ‘one’. It has a diverse range of nationalities, emotions, religious beliefs, and linguistic abilities. A community can never be compared to a large family. Society is already fractured enough.
4. Rejection of metanarratives
Postmodernists are uninterested in the past. Postmodernity, if it exists in India, would immediately reject indologists who make broad generalizations based on scriptures and epics, as Yogendra Singh would concur. Postmodernists in Europe and the United States reject metanarratives, and the next generation of postmodernists in India will reject G.S. Ghurye, M.N. Srinivas, and other sociologists in this group.
Indeed, one of the most distinguishing features of the postmodern era is a loss of rational and social coherence in favor of cultural representations and social changes, as well as identities marked by fragmentation, multiplicity, plurality, and indeterminacy.
From this vantage point, postmodernism completely rejects metanarratives. How difficult it is for such metanarratives to persist in contemporary society since postmodernism represents splintered culture.
How can metanarratives explain the structure and function of a plural, multi-ethnic, and divided society? These narratives fail miserably to uncover any basic reality underlying human civilization. In their approach, they are anti-foundational.
5- Knowledge-power relationships
Michel Foucault is widely credited for giving postmodernism a distinct identity. If Lyotard defined it through the rejection of metanarratives, Baudrillard identified it through simulations, i.e., signs and pictures, and Derrida introduced it through deconstruction. It was endowed with knowledge and power, according to Foucault.
He maintained that there are numerous social institutions in society, such as the prison system and psychiatry, which deals with men’s behaviors
. According to Foucault, none of these institutions are impartial or independent. All of this is intertwined with our society’s power structure.
Throughout history, power has been wielded through surveillance, monitoring, and other types of regulation of people’s lives. According to Foucault, the modern notion of the self is inextricably linked to, and inseparable from, the workings of such institutions, and so none of us can claim to be free of the exercise of power.
He does not offer a theory explaining how naturally free human beings are oppressed from above by the laws of any ruling class or group. Instead, he suggests that humanity is simply an idea with a history, just like any other notion.
The history of all social institutions is the history of power relations. And, where does the power come from? Power originates from knowledge, that is, expertise. In the postmodern period, it is the knowledge-power relationship that controls and governs society.
