Key ideas and concepts of Postmodern criticism
The term 'postmodernism' can be used in connection with multiple areas within humanities. It is a basis of cultural evolving of the mid-end 20th century. It is quite hard to narrow and to specify it's features. It used to be considered as a 'theory', 'concept', 'philosophy' or 'movement'. There are many opinions concerning the origins of the movement. Nevertheless, some of the key precursor influences in philosophy and aesthetics can be outlined.
One of the earliest contributors to the formation of postmodern foundations was Friedrich Niezsche. His idea of 'willfullness' in life and in art suggested that there is something more to the surrounding world and objects within it than their factual value. He promoted exploratory and aesthetically oriented view on life. In art, he insisted that the interpretative and deep approach should be taken. Because he saw the world and life as ambiguous and rich, the only way to give it a meaning is to embrace the fact of aesthetic transformations towards perfection. Nietzschean ideas were adopted by multiple significant figures of postmodern era, like Derrida and Foucault and were situated within Poststructuralism and Postmodernism theories.
Within the debates about Postmodernism, it is impossible to avoid mentioning Structuralism, Poststructuralism and Deconstruction. Structuralism is a methodological approach, particular for linguistics and social sciences, that implies an idea of underlying structures that organize all the elements of human existence. The movement evolved from the works of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. He managed to create a system that could explain the fundamental principles of how all languages work, how the meaning is created. According to Saussure, Language can be divided into two parts - langue and parole - where the former is a system of language with it's own rules and the latter- the individual way of how the language is used. We can say that langue represents grammar and parole represents the words and how they function in language. The other important contribution of the linguist was defining language as a system of signs that gave birth to the Semiotics - science about signs. A sign itself consists of two parts: signifier- a word and signified- a concept behind it. The relationship between those part s mostly arbitrary, do that in different languages the same object can be signified by different words, but still have a common signified idea. Due to such system-like nature of language, it can be claimed that the meaning of the objects can only be created in relation with other objects.
These Saussurean ideas of system was picked up by Roland Barthes, French cultural theorist, who implied it to different spheres of cultural phenomena, media texts in particular. In his works, he tried to explain the ideas behind popular social myths. His interpretation of 'myth' is also connected to the idea of system of meaningful connections within certain narratives. Quite contributory to the postmodern theory was Barthes' idea of 'death of the author' and the consequent activation of the reader. This implies that any text can be understood merely in relation to other texts (intertextuality) and every spectator receives the responsibility for the interpretation. The last theory book written by Barthes -'Camera Lucida'- was dedicated to photography. Here Barthes described photography as rather 'magic' than art because it is an analogue copy of the reality that does not have any code.
The idea of 'intertextuality' was supported by a Bulgarian philosopher Julia Kristeva. She applied the theories of Structuralism in the context of psychoanalyses. Her work contributed to the explanation to the concept of 'abjection' - an important one in the context of Postmodern art. She described 'abject' as 'personal items of disgust' and re-apply the concept to the social taboos. Abjection is strongly tied up not only with psychological, but also with physical the human body. Kristeva claims that our body is a big source of socially inappropriate aspects that threaten our public 'cleanliness'. As well as the theory was applied i the context of Feminism and stood for the female body features that has not been tolerated by patriarchal society.
As Structuralism turns into Poststructuralism the idea of 'text' is no longer a final result/message, but rather a process that can never become a whole one. That feature was was reflected in a controversial concept of Deconstruction that was introduced by Jacques Derrida. The French philosopher and critic is considered to be the major influence of Poststructuralism theory. Deconstruction is a method of text interpretation that is known to be based on ambiguity. It allows the meaning withing one text to consist of strongly opposite ideas that interfere each other. Derrida believed that the meanings exist before being shaped by language, which is quite similar to Structuralism ideas of systems. However, for Derrida, the meaning comes not from the underlying structures, but from the concept of Differance ("to differ") that implies the meaning of the word is created by it's difference to the other words. Binary opposition and influence of the external conditions are the two pillar of Decostruction method, that make it quite unstable, controversial and interpretation driven.
Other important notions of Postmodern discourse are those considered by Jean Baudrillard: simulation, the simulacrum and hyperreality. Baudrillard, as a sociologist and cultural theorist concentrated his research in the sphere of media, television in particular. Simulation and simulacrum were a part of discussion about signs and how they are operated in society. As to Baudrillard, the reality consists of signs as symbols created by humanity. Thus, the whole reality can be seen as a simulation: a copy of something real that is no longer considered as a copy. The simulacrum stand for all the symbolic systems in media and culture that constrict our reality. Television is a good example of simulacrum: it is not a copy of reality, but a model that stands on it's own. The critic also defined the inability to distinguish the reality from a simulation, for that he had coined the term 'hyperreality'.
A more materialistic outlook on Postmodernism from social and economic perspective was offered by Fredric Jameson. The critic viewed Postmodern era as commodified and the one that lost it's historical values. Art and culture in their turn, seemed to be in dependent relation with economic prosperity and obeyed the laws of late capitalism. He adopted Baudrillard's notion of simulacrum to describe postmodern reality that artificially created by media myths and lost connection with history. Another critical remark concern the depthlesness of culture, that implies literal flatness of screens and loss of the quality and authenticity. Jameson connected directly to the technological progress which is more reproduction oriented and copy-friendly.
The idea of 'intertextuality' was supported by a Bulgarian philosopher Julia Kristeva. She applied the theories of Structuralism in the context of psychoanalyses. Her work contributed to the explanation to the concept of 'abjection' - an important one in the context of Postmodern art. She described 'abject' as 'personal items of disgust' and re-apply the concept to the social taboos. Abjection is strongly tied up not only with psychological, but also with physical the human body. Kristeva claims that our body is a big source of socially inappropriate aspects that threaten our public 'cleanliness'. As well as the theory was applied i the context of Feminism and stood for the female body features that has not been tolerated by patriarchal society.
As Structuralism turns into Poststructuralism the idea of 'text' is no longer a final result/message, but rather a process that can never become a whole one. That feature was was reflected in a controversial concept of Deconstruction that was introduced by Jacques Derrida. The French philosopher and critic is considered to be the major influence of Poststructuralism theory. Deconstruction is a method of text interpretation that is known to be based on ambiguity. It allows the meaning withing one text to consist of strongly opposite ideas that interfere each other. Derrida believed that the meanings exist before being shaped by language, which is quite similar to Structuralism ideas of systems. However, for Derrida, the meaning comes not from the underlying structures, but from the concept of Differance ("to differ") that implies the meaning of the word is created by it's difference to the other words. Binary opposition and influence of the external conditions are the two pillar of Decostruction method, that make it quite unstable, controversial and interpretation driven.
Other important notions of Postmodern discourse are those considered by Jean Baudrillard: simulation, the simulacrum and hyperreality. Baudrillard, as a sociologist and cultural theorist concentrated his research in the sphere of media, television in particular. Simulation and simulacrum were a part of discussion about signs and how they are operated in society. As to Baudrillard, the reality consists of signs as symbols created by humanity. Thus, the whole reality can be seen as a simulation: a copy of something real that is no longer considered as a copy. The simulacrum stand for all the symbolic systems in media and culture that constrict our reality. Television is a good example of simulacrum: it is not a copy of reality, but a model that stands on it's own. The critic also defined the inability to distinguish the reality from a simulation, for that he had coined the term 'hyperreality'.
A more materialistic outlook on Postmodernism from social and economic perspective was offered by Fredric Jameson. The critic viewed Postmodern era as commodified and the one that lost it's historical values. Art and culture in their turn, seemed to be in dependent relation with economic prosperity and obeyed the laws of late capitalism. He adopted Baudrillard's notion of simulacrum to describe postmodern reality that artificially created by media myths and lost connection with history. Another critical remark concern the depthlesness of culture, that implies literal flatness of screens and loss of the quality and authenticity. Jameson connected directly to the technological progress which is more reproduction oriented and copy-friendly.
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