1. Postmodernism
for beginners
c deakin, 2005

2. Remember the ‘good old days’!
Life was once predictable
Things were well structured –
mapped out for us
We knew who we were – a clear
identity
We had firm beliefs about the
nature of things

4. From modernity to post-modernity
Modern age Post modern age
• production • consumption
• Community life • fragmentation (individualism)
• Social class • Identity from other sources
• Family • Families (many options)
• A belief in continuity and situation • Breakage with the past/tradition
• A role of education • Education for what?
• A one-way media • Duality of media (choice/interchange)
• Overt social control • Covert control (CCTV etc)
• Nationhood • Global
• Science aided progress and finding • Science is only one source of
the truth knowledge – plurality of truths now
Structure/security/place/stability Confusion/lack of structure/
YOU KNEW WHO YOU WERE incessant choice
YOU CREATE WHO YOU WANT TO BE

5. Key features of post-modernism
• Truth is relative
• Consumerism is all
• Transformation of the self (‘pick ‘n’ mix’)
• Disillusionment with the idea of progress
• Uncertainty
• Fragmentation of social life
• Incessant choice
• Globalisation
• The impact of ICT on social life

6. Search for
Globalisation
truth
has narrowed
time and space People less
Modern age has lost the likely to follow
enlightenment
rigid ideology
We recreate postmodernism Greater pluralism is
the past, modern life
blend with the
present
No absolutes
Traditional labels Culture and structures
and categories lose are fragmented
relevance
Less predictable

7. Further thoughts…
Progress is now a
Science no longer has the questionable enterprise
answers
Post modern society
feeds upon Cultural cohesion
itself..recreating the comes from sharing
past, entwining it with the same media
the present, with some
self mocking humour
Accepting many realities
and that all the big
Each cultural identity can co-
explanations are only
exist…giving the individual
bigger stories
many ways of being

8. 10 points of post-modernism & style
1. Emphasis on the centrality of style, at the expense of substance
2. Recycling past cultures and styles – pastiche
3. Playful use of ‘useless’ decoration
4. Celebration of complexity and contradiction. Mixture of high and
low culture.
5. Sensitivity to the subtleties of image, language and signs
6. Intermixing – different styles – collaging
7. Accepting the collapse of distinction and difference
8. Rejection of monolithic definitions of culture – celebrate pluralism
and diversity
9. Scepticism towards metanarratives and ‘absolutism’
10. Decline of the idea of only one source of meaning –truth.

9. Faith could re-emerge as scientific
thinking loses significance
• Science and progress always undermined
faith (see Comte and the demise of the
theological stage)
• As technical and bureaucratic (Weber)
thinking/living lose favour
• Think about the acceptance of the
alternative ‘spiritual’

10. Jacques Derrida
• Modernism = logocentrism
• Post-modernists rejected this and
argue that trying to tell the ‘big
story’ now is impossible
• Social structure is in a state of flux
• All meaning is now relative and
socially constructed
• Reality is fragile and confusing

11. Jean Francois Lyotard (1984)
• Science has helped destroy the
metanarratives
• All metanarratives are simplistic and
reductionst
• We should focus on playing language
games to explore the many narratives
that exist
• Knowledge is no longer a tool of the
authorities – we have choice/freedom
• Actions/ideas are now judged on how
useful they are..rather than how true
they are.

12. Jean Baudrillard
‘we are constantly surrounded by an
ecstasy of communication and that
communication is sickening’
We are now just customers whose
desires are created by the media.
We pursue the images attached to the
products
‘simulacra’ - make believe goods
which bear no relationship to the
real world
We live in hyper-realities in which
appearances are everything.
IMAGE IS EVERYTHING !

13. Post-modernism illustrated – ‘reality
TV’
Reality TV illustrates the
interchange between the
consumer and the media
They are ‘real people’ who people
can be observed and scrutinised.
They do not entertain – rather than
exist…they are a mish-mash of
cctv surveillance and gameshow
In the real world they are talentless
nobodys who are treated as stars

14. Post-modernism ilustrated
–’Disneyland’
Disneyland is a simulacra. It is
a simulated reality.
It is artificial – yet ‘real’.
It is a place that exists and is
accepted because our
imagination makes it so.
The fine line between reality
and fantasy is ‘greyer’.
The power of the symbol over
substance.

15. Post-modernism illustrated - diet
The high street is global. Look
at the choices and combination
that we now have.
What is the impact on
traditional culture? Identity?
People are also driven by to
change their body shape
through diet..a control..choice.
People are constructing
themselves and designing
their individual identities

16. Religion in a post-modern age
• Faith could re-emerge as scientific thinking loses significance
• Religious symbols have new life in new contexts
• Faith is now ‘up for grabs’ in the absence of absolute truth
• People can blend elements of various faiths to suit their lifestyle
• Globalisation has divorced faiths from locations and cultures
• fundamentalism is a response to a moral vacuum
• People can make choices which are more personal and meaningful
• Collective worship no longer needs to be based on ‘face to face’
interaction

17. Religious symbols have new life in new
contexts
How have traditional
religious symbols
been recycled.
Where can we find
crucifixes,
pentangles, kaballah
bracelets, buddhas
etc

18. Faith is now ‘up for grabs’ in the
absence of absolute truth
We can now make
spiritual choices that
fit in with our identity
and our own version
of ultimate truth and
meaning.

19. People can blend elements of various
faiths to suit their lifestyle
Many people are finding
greater freedom to ‘pick
‘n’ mix’ faiths to suit their
lifestyles.
This is about individual
interpretation and
incorporating elements,
ie, buddhist philosophy
with Christian morality
(Yuppie Buddhist experience
in early 1990s)

20. Globalisation has divorced faiths from
locations and cultures
Religion is now more
universal and there
are less barriers to
hold people back from
joining faiths that
differ to tradition

21. fundamentalism is a response to a
moral vacuum
There has been a
revival of ultra
traditional ideas and
‘strict morality’ with
some religions which
many have found
inviting and a source
of ‘security’

22. People can make choices which are
more personal and meaningful
Almost an extension
of individuation and
the search for
individual meaning.
the control and
oppressive elements
of religion can be
edited (see Rastafari)

23. Collective worship no longer needs to be
based on ‘face to face’ interaction
Organised religion
may be suffering –
but faith is still alive.
Structures/institutions
are melting away as
they now existing
within individual
minds and action.