Among the many terms any student in the department comes across, the one term that successfully baffles juniors and seniors alike is ‘postmodernism’. Even though the term evades definition and has its own connotations across multiple domains like literature, philosophy, art and architecture, among many others, we shall try to understand some of the central aspects common to all, in this new article on the HSSpeak series.
WHAT IS POSTMODERNISM?
Simply put, it is a philosophical stance that questioned the existence of an objective and universal truth or reality. It sought a rejection of ‘grand narratives’ (also called meta narratives) a totalising, dominant story that attempts to encompass all the different stories or experiences within it. Since human experiences are immensely diverse, each of them brings with it, its own smaller, local narratives. Each of these needs to be seen as equally valid ‘truths’. No theory can claim to account for a single, universal reality because there exist multiple realities. A postmodernist is one who recognises the existence of multiplicity of standpoints. In other words, we construct our own realities by interpreting the world in our own ways.
An embrace of pluralism paved way for an acceptance of multiple approaches to acquire knowledge. Disciplines like Subaltern studies, Feminist studies, Postcolonial studies witnessed renewed interest in them. This stemmed from the realisation that a historically marginalised group, say for example, those who had been colonised, do not perceive the world in the same way as how the colonisers would perceive it. Each of their realities is very different from the other as they are constituted by their own set of experiences. Some of the central pioneers of this movement included Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Francois Lyotard.
As the name suggests, it is a stance that emerged after modernism, as a critique of the ideas and values it upheld. Modernism was associated with the 18th century Enlightenment philosophy and the values of the industrialised world like reason, science, order, progress and a faith in the ability of grand narratives like Marxism, liberalism, science etc. to offer overarching explanations of reality. Disillusioned by the Second World War, people had begun to view the emancipatory project of the Western philosophy of Enlightenment with skepticism.
IN LITERATURE
In literature, the onus of postmodernism was to dig out the local narratives which were, till then, lurking beneath the larger grand narratives of modernity. There was renewed interest in repressed narratives – Dalit, feminist, postcolonial and African-American literatures were some of them. On the stylistic side, various devices like fragmentation, unreliable narrators, impossible and unrealistic plots (e.g. Magical realism) emerged. A postmodern reading invited multiple meanings or interpretations of the text.
IN ART
In art and architecture, it meant going against conventions, rejection of the distinction between the so called ‘high’ and ‘low’ art. Assigning value to art would be a futile attempt as value is a social construct. Just like all truths are valid, all styles in art also equally valid.
————
To bring it all together in the most comprehensible way possible, the most postmodern thing about post-modernism is that it refuses to let itself be defined. It refuses to create boxes in which knowledge can be stored and be called ‘absolute knowledge’. So when you think of postmodernism the next time, think of an absent centre, think of knowledge as true only in context, here and now, and not as some small part in a larger, grander scheme of things.
https://arthistoryunstuffed.com/beginning-postmodernism-theory/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism
By Aswathy Venugopal
Illustration by Namrata Nirmal
Article 19 