Postmodernism and Popular Cultural
Name :- Gohil Dvangiba Aniruddhsinh
Roll No. :- 14, Semester- 2
Paper no.:- 8 ( The Cultural Studies)
Topic :- Postmodernism and Popular Cultural
Submitted to Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Postmodernism and Popular Culture
Postmodernism,
like post structuralism and deconstruction, is a critique of the aesthetic of
the preceding age, but besides mere critique, postmodernism celebrates the very
act of dismembering tradition. Postmodernism questions everything rationalist
European, philosophy held to be true,
arguing that it is all contingent and that most cultural constructions have
served the function of empowering members of a dominant social group at the
expense of “Others”. Beginning in the mid-1980s, film, literature, sociology,
communications, fashion, and other fields.
Modernist
literature rejected the Victorian aesthetic of prescriptive morality and, using
new techniques drawn from psychology, experimented with the new techniques
drawn from psychology, experimented with point of view, time, space, and steam
of consciousness writing. Major figures of “high modernism” who radically
redefined poetry and fiction included Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Ezra Pound,
T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, and William Faulkner.
Modernism typically displayed an emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity, on
how subjectivity takes place, rather than on what is perceived. Modernists
deployed fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives, and pastiche an in
Faulkner’s The Sound and The Fury (1929).
Often narratives were spares, even minimal, as in Stevens’s Poetry. Modernist
novels sought to be metafictive, or self referential about their status as
texts, their production as art, and their reception.
Postmodernism
borrows from modernism disillusionment with the givens of society; a penchant
for irony; the self conscious “play” within the work of art; fragmentation and
ambiguity; and a destructed, decentered dehumanized subject. But while
modernism presented a fragmented view of human history, this fragmentation was
seen as tragic. Despite their pessimism, Modernist works still hope, following
Matthew Arnold a generation before, that art may be able to provide the unity,
coherence, and meaning that has been lost in most of modern life, as church and
nation have failed to do. One can located this hope, faint as it sometimes is,
in such memorable passages as the Molly Bloom section that closes Joyce’s
Ullysses (1922). In contrast, Postmodernism not only does not mourn the loss of
meaning, but celebrates the activity of fragmentation. Whereas modernism still
seeks a rational meaning in a work of art, postmodernism explores the provisionally
and irrationality of art.
Postmodernism
was a movement that happened after the modern era, it denies the existence of
any metanarratives, ultimate principles and it lacks optimism of there being scientific,
religious or philosophical truth which people normally use to answer their “big
questions” such as how the world was created, which is known as the modern
mind. They also believe that there is no longer a distinction between high
culture and popular culture. Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviours,
objects, and other characteristics common themembers of a particular group or
society; it also helps individuals express who they are.
High
culture is generally pursued by the upper class which refers to classical
music, theatre, fine arts, and other sophisticated pursuits and popular culture
are ideas preferred by aninformal consensus within the mainstream of a given
culture. This essay will attempt toanswer the question by looking at several
reasons why different theorists came up with theconclusion that there is no
longer a distinction between high culture and popular culture. Jean-François
Lyotard wrote the book ‘The postmodern condition’ where he defines postmodernism
as ‘incredulity to metanarratives’. What he means by this is that instead of believing
in universal stories created by religions and science, they choose to
question them and reject all the
stories that answer ‘big questions’ due to the plurality and there are no
relativism in these stories. Lyotard believes that less people now believe in
these metanarratives, they are becoming less important in the culture we live
in. He expresses that science is now different to how it used to be and
has no faith in it; he also stated that the role of science is no longer to educate
and explore answers but instead it’s used to create entertainment and economic value
for people and it’s revolved around capitalism. This relates back to the
question that there is no longer a distinction to popular culture and high
culture as it shows that people are now focusing more on making money and
inventing things that will create a profit rather than using it
as knowledge. As well as that things that are considered as high
culture such as theatre are now consumed by the masses and have become a popular
thing to do which is another example of not being able to distinguish
between popular culture and high culture.
‘Disneyland
is there to conceal the fact that it is the ‘real’ country, all of ‘real
America’, which is Disneyland. Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to
make us believe that the rest Is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the
America surrounding it is no longer real, but of order of the hyperrealism
and of stimulation’ (Story 1994) This relates back to popular culture because
hyperrealism only exists as it’s giving the consumers what they want
and not necessary what they need. Therefore it will only expandas the
masses will grow more and more into it and it will give people more
opportunities to create hyperrealism. His theory shows that individuals are now
looking for more materialistic and chasing for things they want and not need,
they are escaping into the world of television and internet rather than looking
for knowledge and what would considered as high cultured activities.
Lastly “Postmodernism: The cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” written by
Fredric Jameson comes up with the contrast to the above two theories that
Marxism can explain postmodernism. For Jameson postmodernism is more than just
a certain cultural style.
‘It
is above all ‘the cultural dominant’ of late or multinational capitalism’
(Story 1994) what he means is that this is capitalism in its purest form,
reaching social formations that couldn’t be reached before. He explains
that our culture is now experiencing the weakening of historicity, where our
knowledge of history is getting less and less by time due to pastiche. Our
knowledge of history not only comes from school but also from media we are surrounded
in our culture such as television programmes that may be set in the past
but the in formation included in them may not be true or accurate but because
consumers watches it that will be how they see the past, this links back to
Baudrillard’s theory about hyperrealism where consumer think things created by
the media is more real than reality itself. Jameson characterizes postmodern
parody as “blank parody” without any political bite. According to him parody
has been replaced by pastiche. ‘Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of
a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask,
speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry’
(Jameson 1991).
Another thing that Jameson criticised was in the culture we now live in how things look are more important than what they actually mean. For example TV programmes such as ‘Geordie Shore’ their package and how they look are more important than what the show is actually about, if they all looked normal and like how every other person you see on the street, it would not be as popular as it is now. This show is definitely not considered as high culture however people that consume high cultured activities may like to watch that, it reinforces the logic of consumer capitalism. These kinds of programmes distracts people from wanting to spend more time participating in high cultured activities, instead they enjoy the entertainment from a simplistic and easy form of media. In conclusion after looking at all the theorists, they all showed evidence that there is no longer a distinction between high culture and popular culture. They all mutually shared the opinion that postmodernism has become very materialistic, high culture activities are no longer a huge part in life due to the fact that we are now living in a capitalist society and the main goal is to make profit to keep society from running. This is once again backed up by Lyotard, when he claim that science is only used to create things that people want and not what the society needs anymore. Jameson showed that high culture and popular culture are now becoming very similar things, they borrow and use things from each other to create.
Thank You…
Reference :-
www.academia.edu
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