Postmodernism Assignment Help – Definition

What Is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism is the drastic departure from modernism. It is one of the controversial philosophical movements in the late 20^th century across philosophy, architecture, the arts and criticism, marking a rejection of the utopian vision of modernism, which was mainly based on simplicity and clarity.

Postmodernism criticises the typical beliefs about objective reality, human nature, and social progress, to name a few. For example,

In cinema, postmodernism brought many darker kinds of movies, giving the audience a view of the darker world with a hint of irony. Such films are more complex, dystopian and far-from-simple future.
Architecture saw a dramatic change with postmodernism. While modernist architects were more interested in universal truths, technology, structure, and unified meaning, postmodernists were inclined towards complexity, vernacular contexts, and irony.

Postmodernism as a philosophy rejects modernism's concepts of objectivity, rationality, and universal truth. It intensely focuses on the diversity of human experience and multiplicity of perspectives, questions the traditional notions of truth and the concepts. Know about fight or flight response.

The ‘post’ in postmodernism denies the existence of ultimate principles and lacks the optimism around scientific, philosophical, or religious truth.

What Is The Postmodernism Definition?

Postmodernism is the controversial, late 20^th-century movement in arts, philosophy and literary theory that questioned Western Philosophy in the modern period – roughly through the 17^th to 19^th century. It is defined as an intellectual stance determined by scepticism towards grand narratives and ideologies of modernism.

The postmodernist philosophy characterises broad scepticism or relativism and a primary suspicion of reasoning. It broadly asserts that western cultural norms, values, and intellectual are somewhat influenced by dominant groups' ideologies, indirectly serving their interests.

Tendencies characterise postmodernists to irreverence, self-referentiality, moral relativism, self-consciousness, epistemological. The critical approaches of postmodernism gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s and were mainly adopted in linguistics, architecture, economics, literary criticism, feminist theory, contemporary art, movies, and music.

To learn more about postmodernism in detail, get in touch with a subject matter expert at MyAssignmenthelp.com. The experts have in-depth subject knowledge and can help you understand the topic's complexities with utmost simplicity.

Get an Expert

Postmodernism Sociology Theory

Postmodernism is an approach that helps to define a society's progress to a new era beyond modernity. Within the period, individuals may give greater importance to science and rational thinking since traditional metaphysical overviews no longer provide a suitable explanation for postmodern life. You should get sociology assignment help.

Furthermore, a postmodern society will experience globalisation, integrating new religion into society. Therefore, the community is highly likely to experience a mixed culture where individuals choose a religion that suits their lifestyle and preference the best.

Zygmunt Bauman offers two helpful explanations if we need postmodernism sociology.

The first explanation:

The social world has rapidly moved in a postmodern direction. The massive growth and spread of technology, mass media, IT, and the movement of people across borders and the development of multicultural societies mean that we as a society live in the postmodern world. However, this explanation wasn’t sufficient to explain that sociology cannot understand and explain the expansion of the postmodern world.

The second explanation:

In this second view, Bauman suggests that sociology that analysed capitalism, industrialisation, and nation-states cannot deal with the pluralistic, media-saturated, globalising postmodern world. Although it remains unclear what sociology would look like, postmodern sociology is necessary for a postmodern world. Get details about psychodynamic theory.

Bauman also accepts that current projects originating in the European Enlightenment of rationally shaping society are not entirely possible, considering the theories of Comte, Marx or others. However, Bauman has shifted from using the term 'postmodern' – which he believes has lost its original meaning due to the diverse use – and describes the current age 'liquid modernity,' reflecting on the uncertainties that lie in imposing order and stability today's society.

Many sociologists and critics, such as Jurgen Habermas, reject the theory that we are entering the postmodern age and believe modernity is an 'incomplete consignment.' He believes modernity should be extended and pushed for more freedom, democracy and rational policy to survive. He further argues that postmodernists are more defeatists and pessimists.

Today, postmodern society theory has lost its ground to the idea of globalisation, which is now a dominant theoretical framework for understanding the future of social change in the 21^st century and beyond.

Learn how sociologists perceive a social change in the 21^st century from subject specialists. MyAssignmenthelp.com is the hub of top sociologists, philosophers, and other subject matter experts. With their expertise, you can gain an in-depth understanding of the context.

Connect Now

When Did Postmodernism Begin?

The term ‘postmodernism’ was first used in 1870 when John Watkins Chapman “a Postmodern style of painting” symbolising the departure from French Impressionalism. Through the decades, postmodernism was used to describe major socio-cultural shifts, attitudes and show dissatisfaction with "anything" relevant to modernism.

The essential features of postmodernism go back as early as the 1940s. But, according to today's scholars and sociologists, postmodernism began in the late 1950s and reached its popularity in the 1960s.

Since then, postmodernism has created a powerful impact and changed art, literature, music, drama, architecture, philosophy, history and film.

For detailed academic papers on postmodernism since its inception, visit MyAssignmenthelp.com. The website’s sample repository is well-stocked with 1000+ study materials, sample papers, and other study resources in sociology, philosophy and more.

Click to Connect

What Is The Goal Of Postmodernism?

Postmodernism is a controversial movement to discard the certainty of science and give the effort to explain reality. It grows from an understanding that truth isn't only mirrored in a human's ability to understand it. Instead, it is constructed as the mind tries to understand a private entity on its own.

The standard targets of postmodernism include truth, morality, human nature, language, science, reason, language objective reality, and social progress. While modernism was based on logic and idealism, the goal of postmodernism was to challenge the utopian vision of human life, society and progress.

Based on scepticism, postmodernism’s central notion was to portray that there's nothing as universal truth. Art and postmodern philosophy advocated that one's experience and interpretation are more valid than some abstract principles. It embraced more complexity to define the contradictory layers of meaning.

Postmodernism refused to accept any single style or meaning of what art or culture should. It challenged the distinction between high-end culture and popular culture and art with regular lifestyle. Postmodernists broke the established rules and 'societal norms' to introduce a new era of more freedom and democracy.

Even though the goals and ideologies are highly contentious and controversial – challenging tastes and breaking boundaries, postmodernism encourages self-awareness of style by mixing different types and art format by consciously or unconsciously borrowing from the past techniques.

Understanding such intricate concepts take time and effort. But things become more manageable when you have access to customised study support from top sociology professors or specialists in the country only at MyAssignmenthelp.com. Get in touch today!

Hire Now

What Is An Example Of Postmodernism?

Postmodernism has affected multiple facets of society, including art, literature and movies. Here's an example of postmodernism in films:

8 ½ is a popular postmodern film. It was directed by an Italian director, Federico Fellini, who played a prominent role in the Italian neorealism movement.

8 ½ is not a typical movie abiding by the standard film structure. The movie is based on a movie director, Guido Anselmi, suffering from "director's block". Even though he is working on the sets of a sci-fi movie he's working on, Guido struggles to overcome his existential crisis. He wants to tell the world about a universal truth through his film, but he fails to create a work that would solve his problem.

Guido’s scuffle with his inner self is relevant to other artists as well. But the main question still lies, how you would bestow a universal truth when such truth is non-existent. And that's what Postmodernism is. No wonder 8 ½ is so far ahead of other films when it’s about pointing out the futility of art.

For more postmodernism examples, visit MyAssignmenthelp.com. The website has a team of brilliant subject experts, professors, writers and more to help you gain an in-depth understanding of the concepts.