Postmodernism in Literature
Dr. Merin Simi Raj
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Lecture 11
Having analyzed both of these works, it is also now easier to situate both of these texts within the
sphere of literatue, though literature remains contested and a vastly complex and even a complicated
category in the contemporary. When we talk about the first essay Barthes’ The Death of the Author,
here, we have already noted that at some point, the author has drawn our attention to the limited
sense in which he has been using the idea of the author, the term “author”.
Hello everyone, good morning and welcome to today's session of the NPTEL course Postmodernism in
And he also talks about the idea of the author, the category of the author within a text, within particular
Literature. In the last couple of weeks, we had been taking a look at how Postmodernism manifests and
literary texts, and also within a range of discourses. And here Barthes, when he talks about the idea of
we also started looking at a couple of essays, where the idea of Postmodernism gets manifested, where
the author, in his own words, “he has limited his subject”. And he talks about the ‘author function’ not in
the idea of the author, the idea of the text, and also the changing nature of the reading practices and
painting, music and other kinds of arts, but he says it is about the author in the limited sense of a person
the literary critical practices have been explored.
to whom the production of a text, a book or a work can be legitimately attributed”.
Though we have said multiple times, that Postmodernism is a very vast term and it defies classification
Even if we extend the idea of the text to contain much more than a book or a particular kind of
and dresses any kinds of definitions, for the purpose of this of course, it is very important to booken that
discourse, it is important to note that here there is a literary sense there is an idea of literature which is
discussion. In other words, it is very important to have an archive through which we would be working,
also been alluded to. Similarly, in Foucault's essay What is in Author? , here we find the though he
important to have a framework within which we would be situating most of our discussions. This course
expands the idea of the author to include a range of works a range of texts and even a range of
with the title “Postmodernism in Literature”, there is a kind of narrowing down that we try to do by
discourses, he also sets forward to locate the idea of the author as a modern figure within particular
discussing Postmodernism within the sphere of literature, but again this is not a very simple task given
moments in history which is also closely related with the history of literature. So, here in Foucault's
that literature has got a very complex definitions in the contemporary.
essay, though he extensively talks about a wide range of things which are even outside the gamut of
literature, we find that his practices, his ideology, and his theoretical framework could be directly
So, to be able to identify and set of theories, a set of frameworks which would enable our understanding
borrowed by any literary critical frameworks.
of literature in the Postmodern age to be able to enable our understanding of critical readings in the
Postmodern literary sphere . We also need to underscore particular texts, particular theories and
So, in that sense, when we talk about a number of theories; a number of frameworks; a number of
particular frameworks which we would be using as part of this course.
ideologies in the context of Postmodernism, for the purpose of this course, we shall be focusing mostly
on the kind of frameworks which could be used to analyze contemporary literature, analyze Postmodern
We started looking at 2 of these seminal essays The Death of the Author by Roland Barthes What is an
literature.
Author? by Michele Foucault, and here we also saw how the changing nature, the shifting frameworks of
the author, the text and the nature of literary criticism had been challenged and how a new kind of an
And here, it is also important to delineate what one exactly means by literature , and for this, I also draw
alternative method had been proposed, had been envisioned by both of these Poststructuralist
upon a contemporary book, a 2004 publication, India's Literary History by Stuart Blackburn and Vasudha
theorists . And we also saw the though both of those authors did not strictly work as literary critics,
Dalmia, when they talk about alternate ways of engaging with the idea of literary history. And here they
though did not strictly work within the category of literature, we also got a set of principles, a set of
begin with this introduction, which reads “ever since Clifford Geertz transformed the drama of Balinese
tenants, a set of litarary critical practices which could be used for the further re-reading of
cockfighting into a text, and new historicism made the complementary gesture of returning culture to
Postmodernist texts and contexts .
the centre of literary studies, students of literature, history and culture have shared a common
vocabulary key concepts and points of reference” .
This statement and this paradigm is extremely important when we talk about literature in Postmodern
greatest philosophers of the contemporary . And in his work Modernity versus Postmodernity published
period. Because there are a number of ideas, a number of concepts and points of reference which the
in 1981, he also talks about the he also critiques the ideas of Postmodernism as they have been
field of literature, history, culture by extension the society seem to share. And it is in relation to this
manifested in the contemporary, and he extends his idea of legitimation in as some of his works to talk
convergence and the identification of a number of similar discourses that we also talk about Literature
about how the Postmodern is also a category to be critiqued. So, in that sense, we shall be looking at not
in the Postmodern period.
just those kinds of critics who celebrate the idea of Postmodernism, but also at those who would be
So, when we talk about Postmodernism in Literature, we are also talking about a number of extended
viewing Postmodernism through a critical lens.
sites of the literature which includes culture, which is also an extension of the Postmodern paradigm
And the other important idea and text that we shall be discussing is Baudrillard's idea of hyperreality ,
that everything is a text. The objective of today's lecture is to introduce to you a number of texts
and this was articulated in a number of texts by Baudrillard, but; however, we shall be focusing on the
theories and theorists whom we shall be discussing in detail as the course progresses. In the upcoming
excerpts from a Simulacra and Simulation, and Baudrillard is a French sociologist, philosopher, cultural
sessions we shall be talking about these theories and frameworks in detail, but today's session will give
theorist and political commentator, and his work could be classified within the School of Semiotics and
you an overview, we will try to bookend the discussion that we will be having in the coming weeks.
Postmodernism. His idea of hyperreality influenced not just literally and cultural practices, but also its
As and when I proceed to give you an overview of the range of texts that we shall be looking at, we shall
be proceeding in a fairly chronological sense, but of course, also going back and forth as and when the
discussion requires. We start looking at Lyotard's text The Postmodern Condition: A Report on
Knowledge which is a 1979 publication originally in French, it was translated into English only by 1984, it
influence could also be seen in a range of things, such as cinema, in the media, and also in the various
forms of virtual reality and cyber reality in the contemporary. Baudrillard was heavily influenced by the
idea of Phenomenology and also by Marshall McLuhan, and the reflections of Baudrillard’s works could
be seen in Borges as well as in Umberto Eco.
also became an instant watershed event in the history of Postmodernism, because this was also one of
Marshall McLuhan had famously are pronounced in 1964, “the medium is the Message”, and it also
the first works which introduced the term ‘Postmodernism’ into philosophical and social sciences,
became a revolutionary idea, a revolutionary dictum in the field of Media Studies and the Culture
though it had been previously used dominantly by art critics.
Studies and also by extension in certain discussions related to art and literature .
And most importantly Lyotard, in his work The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, he also
So, we shall be looking at the relation between Baudrillard's work on hyperreality, and also how it takes
defined the Postmodern as “incredulity to meta-narratives”, the details of which we shall be taking a
off from the ideas put forward already by Marshall McLuhan. And Umberto Eco’s work on Travels in
look at and in one of the upcoming sessions. And this work became very seminal in the understanding of
Hyper-reality is also useful to understand the notion of hyperreality, Eco being an Italian novelist,
the Postmodern period as a condition which is particularly reflected in certain kinds of societies, and
literary critic, semiotician and a philosopher who also could be considered as a notable critical and
mostly those were computerized societies. And this book also became a very influential in trying to
theorist of the 21st century.
attempt a kind of a definition, a kind of a framework within which the Postmodern age could be
situated.
What perhaps underlines all of these discussions at the idea of Deconstruction which could also be seen
as a practical approach towards reading literature in the Postmodern age, reading a literature, reading a
Significantly, Lyotard's text was also a discussion of the idea of legitimation, proposed by Jurgen
text in this age which also has witnessed an infiltration of a number of such contrasting and divergent
Habermas in the previous decade.
ideas. So, Derrida proposed this term ‘Deconstruction’ and also famously declared that there is not
So, in that context, when we talk about Lyotard's text The Postmodern Condition, we should also be
referring to the ideas of legitimation discussed by Habermas who was a German sociologist and
philosopher, who belonged to the Frankfurt school he was born in 1929 and is considered as one of the
outside the text and Derrida spoke about the idea of Deconstruction in a number of his own works and
we shall be looking at some of the excerpts from Derrida’s own our works.
And in connection with Deconstruction, the other term which perhaps is often used in connection with
But before this, perhaps in order to get a sense of how Poststructuralist Feminism is related to
Postmodernism is that of “Intertextuality” . This term, though it is mostly associated with Julia Kristeva,
Postmodernism, it would be perhaps good to take a look at The Laugh of the Medusa authored by
this is also now, being identified as one of the key terms in the understanding and in the discussion of
Helene Cixous.
Postmodernism in literature. And there are a number of theorists who have spoken about
Intertextuality, a number of a writers who have also practiced intertextuality in their writing and in their
various kinds of articulations.
She was born in 1937. She is better known as a French Feminist writer and she is also one of the
mothers of the Poststructuralist Feminist theory. In her work The Laugh of the Medusa, she talks about
how “Nearly the entire history of writing is confounded with the history of reason which is at once the
And Julia Kristeva who had worked extensively on the idea of Intertextuality, and had initially proposed
effect, the support and one of the privileged alibis. It has been one with the phallocentric tradition. It is
this in connection with her work on Lacan in Psychoanalysis. She was a Bulgarian French philosopher and
indeed that same self-admiring, self-stimulating, self-congratulatory phallocentrism”. So, the Feminist
could be considered literary critic, psychoanalyst, a Feminist and a novelist she was also one of the key
theory in the Poststructuralist Postmodernist period also moves away from the centre of literary
proponents of French Feminism.
writings of hitherto practices. And it also challenges the way in which the Modernist dictum the
Some further important works by Kristeva include Crisis of the European Subject, Powers of Horror: An
Essay on Abjection, in that context, it is useful to remember that ‘abjection’ is also a term which has
Modernist tradition had laid on particular kinds of historicizasions and particular kinds of textualizing
practices in place .
become extremely important in current, in contemporary Feminist theory; especially, during the
And the other important Poststructuralist Feminists include Luce Irigaray who was the author of the
Poststructuralist in the Postmodernist period. And in her work Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach
work of This Sex Which is Not One. There was also one particular essay from this work which became
to Literature and Art, she extensively talks about the idea of Intertextuality, and how it manifests itself in
more famous, Women on the Market where she uses the Marxist frameworks to critique the positioning
various forms of literary and artistic reflections.
of the woman, the location of the woman in the contemporary market space. And there is also Gayatri
And here as we have moved on to discuss about Feminism. It is also important to highlight and
underscore the connection between, the interrelated connection between Feminism and
Postmodernism. Postmodern Feminism celebrates the moving beyond the modernist polarities of
Chakravorty Spivak more noted for her work Can the Subaltern Speak? , though Spivak is a Feminist,
belongs to the school of Poststructuralist Feminism, her work is mostly along the lines of Subaltern
studies, but also becomes important in our understanding of the various facets of Postmodernism.
Liberal Feminism and Radical Feminism and some of the important proponents of this Postmodern
And here it is also important to highlight that usually though Subaltern Studies is associated with the
Feminism could be Judith butler and Mary Joe Frug, both of them also belonged to the school of French
idea of Postcolonialism, there are a few works which engage with the idea of a Subaltern in the context
Poststructuralist Feminism. We have already noted in the earlier sessions that there is an inherent
of the Postmodern though necessarily the Subaltern Studies were Postcolonial Studies celebrate the
connection between Poststructuralist and Postmodernism and French Poststructuralist Feminism in that
idea of Postmodernism- the criticisms which emerge from these particular schools of thoughts are useful
sense becomes one of the key ways in which we could engage with Postmodernism in the
to engage with the various limitations, and the various challenges which are inherent within the idea of
contemporary.
Postmodernism.
And the other important Feminist thinkers and writers who also belong to the French Poststructuralist
So, some of such works include Are Subaltern Studies Postmodern or Postcolonial? and Postmodernity
School could be Helene Cixous, who was noted for her work Writing the Feminine, and also Judith Butler
Subalternity and Border Gnosis and these are also some of the essays we shall be taking a look at in
who is more famous for her work a Gender Trouble. We shall be going into the specific details of these
detail in one of the later sessions.
works as and when we discuss Poststructuralist Feminism in the context of Postmodernism.
When we talk about Postcolonialism, it is perhaps the first and foremost work that comes to our mind is
discourse of race gets situated within the Postmodern space, and how there are challenges inherent in
Edward Said’s 1978 publication Orientalism, which in fact, makes use of a critical application of
the figurations of Postmodernism.
Poststructuralism. The details of this, we shall be taking a look at later.
And there have also been a lot of outright rejections of Postmodernism which we shall be briefly taking a
Homi Bhabha who is associated with the schools of Postcolonialism and Poststructuralist has
look at, particularly the work by Alan Sokal entitled Fashionable Nonsense and also the outright rejection
increasingly engaged with the ideas of hybridity, ambivalence, mimicry and third space; which are
of Postmodernism by Noam Chomsky on his lecture where he talks about Postmodernism as an
inherently Postcolonial concepts, but they are also used to talk about the Postmodern ideas in the
instrument of power. These are some of the works that we shall be engaging with to talk about the
contemporary. So, this, we shall be examining through certain excerpts from Bhabha’s own work The
limitations and challenges in these discourses related to Postmodernism.
Location of Culture.
Though Postmodernism is seen as a predominantly Western concept, which is more effective, which is a
And there are also a number of works which have taken and look at the association between the
more reflected in the Capitalist societies, it is also important to take a look at Postmodernism from a
Postcolonial between Postcolonialism and Postmodernism. The significant one being Anthony Appiah’s
non-Western perspective, which is precisely 1998 book by Ziauddin sardar, known as Postmodernism
essay titled Is the Post in the Postmodernism the Post in Postcolonial?. So, this essay has also led to a lot
and the Other: the New Imperialism of Western Culture. There are also a set of other essays by Ziauddin
of our increased focused attention on the positioning of the term ‘post’ in Postcolonialism as well as in
Sardar which would enable us to take a look at Postmodernism from various alternative critical vantage
Postmodernism.
points.
As we have indicated earlier it is notice of all kinds of ideologies and all kinds of schools of thoughts have
Postmodernism, being a condition, an idea which is in a state of flux which is also given rise to a number
celebrated, the arrival of Postmodernism or have completely embraced the anarchy and the absence of
of debates from various intellectual contexts, and we shall be taking a look at excerpts from The
classification and the resistance of definitions which Postmodernism talks about. There have also been a
Postmodernism Debate in Latin America, Marx and the Postmodernism Debates and The Postmodernism
range of criticisms, a range of are opositions to figurations of Postmodernism, and the most important
and the Holocaust, though we should not be engaging with these texts in greater detail, the
of these criticisms could be located from the Marxist perspective. So, in that sense, maybe one of the
understanding of these frameworks is very important for us when we talk about Postmodernism in
important works by way of criticism against Postmodernism that we shall be taking a look at is Fredric
literature.
Jameson’s Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.
Amidst all these charged discussions related to Postmodernism, there are also a number of critics who
Fredric Jameson, born in 1934, He is an American literary critic, and a Marxist political theorist. In his
believe that the age Postmodernism has already come to an end. This is a 2006 essay by Alan Kirby titled
work Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, he attempts a critique of Modernism and
The Death of Postmodernism and Beyond, and there are also a number of other literary theorists and
Postmodernism from a Marxist perspective.
critics who have spoken and endlessly about the end of Postmodern period.
And there have also been a number of other readings and re-readings from the Marxist perspective
And in order to get a comprehensive idea of a number of these concepts, number of these ideas,
including Alex Callinicos’ Against Postmodernism a Marxist Critique, and The Illusions of Postmodernism
particularly within the sphere of literature, history and our culture, which is also our primary focus; we
by Terry Eagleton who's also one of the leading Marxist literary critical thinkers of the contemporary .
shall be looking at a range of texts by Ihab Hassan, and Linda Hutcheon who are also leading theorists
And we should also be examining the idea of Postmodernism from a different critical vantage point,
of Postmodernism.
from the ideas of race particularly we shall be engaging with excerpts from, Postmodern Literature and
We should also be taking a look at a range of works by Brian McHale, because it provides as a detailed
Race authored by Len Platt and Sara Upstone. And here we shall also be taking a look at how the
insight, a number of novel insights into the idea of Postmodernism and how it gets reflected in the
contemporary literary practices. Though these range of texts may not provide you a comprehensive list
of how to engage with Postmodernism. I believe this is a useful framework for this course, where we
shall be engaging with a number of ideas from different discourses from different critical paradigms, and
we shall be using all of these paradigms, all of these critical practices in order to engage with particular
kinds of literary texts and contexts.
And in the next couple of weeks, we also hope to be able to cover these texts one by one in a systematic
way, and also culling out the important theoretical frameworks, the important critical practices which
we shall be using at a later point when we engage with particular novels and particular forms of literary
articulations. And I hope this also has given you an overview of how we approach the idea of
Postmodernism, how we attempt to cover the ground of Postmodernism in literature through a
chronological and through an ideological and literary critical practice.
It is all we have in this lecture, thank you for listening, and we look forward to seeing you in the next
session.
interactions, and the various philosophical underpinnings over there. He also had shown an early
Postmodernism in Literature
Dr. Merin Simi Raj
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Lecture 12
interest in Marxism and Socialism for a very brief period when he also had spent some time
teaching in Algeria, but; however, very soon we find that he grew extremely disillusioned with
the ideas of Marxism and with the ideas of Socialist philosophy. Because he was also exposed to
the ultra-Socialist models of governance during his stay in Algeria. And we also find him getting
back to teaching and learning philosophy and moving away from his passionate interest in
Marxism and Socialism.
Hello and welcome to yet another session of the NPTEL course Postmodernism in Literature. In
the previous session, we began looking at the outline which would be predominantly framing the
discussion in this course, in terms of Postmodern theories and frameworks . So, today we start
looking at these texts and contexts in a more systematic way. So, we begin with a discussion of
Lyotard’s text The Postmodern condition. This text could be considered as a seminal intervention
in the Postmodern debate, and this also is located at a very critical juncture in the understanding
of Postmodernism, as we have already noted, it also indicates a very significant transformation of
the discussions related to Postmodernism in the sphere of arts and humanities in general .
If I were to talk about Lyotard’s text, If I were to summarize Lyotard’s text in maybe less than a
minute, I would go by this definition that Lyotard offers right at the outset of his book;
“Simplifying to the extreme, I define Postmodern as an incredulity towards metanarratives.” So,
this perhaps sums up the very idea of the book, the incredulity toward metanarratives. And this
also, by extension summarizes the Postmodern age, summarizes the various facets of
Postmodernism as it would be found in different sites in the contemporary .
his first book was published in 1954, it was on Phenomenology and if we try to define
Phenomenology-it is the study of structures as consciousness experienced by from the
first-person point of view. And though most of his early works were directly concerned with
philosophy, and we are directly concerned with various aspects of philosophy, we do find him
moving towards some more socially concerned kind of writings, especially, when he makes this
tremendous intervention in the Postmodern Debate in 1979 with the publication of The
Postmodern Condition .
So, what is this book about? The title of the book is The Postmodern Condition: A Report on
Knowledge. Originally this was written as a report on the influence of technology and sciences.
So, there is also a way in which we find Lyotard, beginning his discussion with the various
aspects of sciences and technology, and then gradually moving towards an understanding of the
Postmodern in the various facets of contemporary culture contemporary societies. And if we try
to give a brief outline of how this work is structured
we may be able to say that, The
Postmodern Condition , when Lyotard analyzes the notion of knowledge in a Postmodern society
Let us first take a very brief look at life and works of Jean Francois Lyotard, the name is
and by analyzing the notion of knowledge he is also indicating the end of grand narratives which
pronounced as “Leo tar”. As we know he was a French a Postmodern thinker and philosopher,
according to Lyotard, is also a quintessential feature of modernity.
he lived from 1924 to 1998, he died of leukaemia 1998. If we try to trace his intellectual
traditions, he studied Literature and Philosophy at the university of Paris-Sorbonne. And during
which period he also became friends with Gilles Deleuze, who was also one of the key
Postmodern theorists and thinkers of the contemporary.
So, in some sense, he is also leading us to move away from various aspects of Modernism,
various aspects of Modernity which also began to signify the signs of progress, democracy,
freedom and many good things in essence that the modernist period embodied. Here, we also
find Lyotard leading us to be convinced to uphold a persistent opposition to universals,
right from his only academic caree,r he showed a tremendous interest in the philosophy of
metanarratives and generality which again he thought, were significant aspects of the Modernist
indifference which has also become a foundational aspect in the ways of his theorising, in the
period, significant aspects of the promise of Modernity. And this work was tremendously
ways of his a critical approach. And in that sense, he also continued to look at reality and social
influential, and it was received very well soon after its publication, but; however, Lyotard
himself considered this work among one of his worst works because he thought that he knew
and stories . And it is this telling and retelling of narratives and stories which provides legitimacy
very little about the subject at time of its writing. Regardless of his own criticism of his works,
as well as purpose and meaning to all cultures.
we do find that Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition has become a seminal work or perhaps a
foundational work in our understanding of the conceptual frameworks of Postmodernism. One of
the premises on which Lyotard locates his work is that, the Western society has lost the
credibility of the metanarratives upon which its cultures, its meaning and its very value situated
upon.
So, for example, if we take the case of the story of European Enlightenment, or the story of the
Age of Reason as it has been told and retold from the Western point of view, we would also
begin to see that it is also a story which positions the West vis-à-vis the rest is the world. There is
a very clear predominance which is being accorded to the Western world, to the Western ideals
and the Western point of view in this narration of the story of the European enlightenment as the
This also leads us to this question what is a metanarrative, if the Postmodern is defined as
Age of Reason. And this incidentally is not just a story of the past, it also continues to remain as
’incredulity towards metanarratives’, it would be perhaps futile to precede any further without an
a metanarrative of the contemporary .
understanding of what metanarratives are.
And this is in Lyotard's conception, and here, and this kind of attribution of the status of
So, metanarrative, in very simple terms, perhaps it is like a grand theory like Marxism or
metanarrative to the story of the European enlightenment or European story of the Age of
Christianity; which attempts to provide explanation for a range of things. So, in that sense, they
Reason, it also becomes quite central to the meaning-making process. In that sense, the cultures
are also a universal and objective in nature, at least they are projected as being universal and
and particular kinds of value systems particular societies are all defined on the basis of how this
objective in nature, and this is also intended to apply to everyone regardless of class, regardless
story of enlightenment, the story of the Age of Reason has been told and retold. This also leads
of any kinds of differences, regardless of any racial or gender differences.
to a basic understanding of a structure of the narrative.
For example, Modernism emerged as a metanarrative based on the idea of progressed reason,
There is a way in which the grandnarrative forms a big story. There are also a number of
science and technology development. The promise of progress, the promise of advancement, the
smaller stories which could be framed on the basis of this big story that exists. So, in that sense,
promise of good life that Modernism and Modernity put forward, it could be seen as a
we also have a structure emerging over here with the big story as the foundation. And a number
metanarrative as a grand narrative; and according in Lyotard, these sorts of conceptions should
of smaller stories, a number of for smaller narratives which are all based on the truth value,
be viewed with suspicion because there is no single truth, there is no single concept which could
which is attributed to this big story.
be applied to everyone in a very universal and general way, because the human experiences are
very diverse. If one is talking about a particular idea of progress, a particular idea of
advancement that could not be an overarching experience which could be applied to everyone in
the same way. And this sort of imposition of a metanarrative, imposition of a grand narrative,
onto particular societies needs to be seen with suspicion, and subsequently they also should be
replaced with micronarratives .
So, let me try to illustrate and simplify this process for you. If perhaps, Lyotard is trying to tell us
that there are all kinds of cultures which are dominant, which are prevalent in the society, and
these cultures acquire a kind of legitimacy through a process of telling and retelling of narratives
The big story, in that sense, becomes a grand narrative or the metanarrative, on which a number
of other stories also acquired their legitimacy, their meaning and the values attributed to that.
This sort of a process, when it is applied in the context of European enlightenment and the Age
of Reason, it also leads to the emergence of the West as a heroic West.
So, this image, there is something that we are all familiar within our understanding and the
learnings of Western history, and this notion of the heroic West this image of the heroic West is
primarily built on 2 major elements, due to the promise of Freedom and Reason that the Age of
Enlightenment and predominantly the West makes. And the promise of Freedom is based
through a pursuit of democracy, and reason through the pursuit of science.
And this metanarrative, this grand narrative this grand truth which also promises all kinds of
cultures, values, stories in lives supported by, legitimated by the big story or the big meta grand
good things to everyone is also quite similar to the notions of Marxism, and Christianity, because
narrative.
they are also according to Lyotard, are grand narratives metanarratives, where a possibility of
salvation for all is offered. So, when Lyotard talks about the rejection of the metanarratives, he is
also talking about the rejection of all kinds of metanarratives including Marxism Christianity and
earn and all the foundations on which the contemporary society the modern value systems have
been built upon.
And this particular narration of the story of enlightenment, this particular rendering of the image,
the notion of the heroic West, also requires from us a certain kind of a faith and trust in this
metanarrative. And this trust also becomes an implicit feature in the creation of a number of
other stories, a number of other cultures just like we pointed out earlier there is a big story the
grand narrative upon which a number of stories are built, and this also leads to the legitimation of
a number of cultures, values, stories, lives etcetera.
Which are also based, which are also an offshoot of this big story or the metanarrativeand the
grand narrative. This requirement with the faith and trust in the metanarrative also leads to the
dominant story. It also leads to the metanarrative becoming the dominant story, the most
accepted, the verified, and perhaps the true story compared to the other.
But however, something drastically changed after the Second World War. And this was perhaps
the first blow to the metanarratives to the idea and notion of the grand narratives, in the Western
world. And what happened after Second World War? There are 2 major things which we could
identify, the first one, the horrors of the World War and secondly, holocaust. And this included
the manufactured genocide which happend in Auschwitz and we also know the various kinds of
consequences that are followed by these sort of horrifying events.
And these events-- it also had completely destroyed the tremendous hope the tremendous idea of
progress that the West had put forward, and this also challenged majorly the idea of European
enlightenment, the story of the Age of Reason which also promised to provide Freedom and
Reason through democracy and science. And this was also for the good of everyone, this also
promised a certain kind of universality, regardless of any kinds of differences that operated
within particular societal structures.
So, after the Second World War, we find this narrative of progress being very seriously
damaged, being very seriously challenged, and this also had given rise to a number of
countercultural attacks. This could be seen as a synonymous to the various developments
So, it is this singular notion of the metanarrative, it is this overarching dominant position of the
happening in the Postmodern age. So, there were particular kinds of countercultural attacks
metanarrative that Lyotard is arguing against, that Lyotard is engaging with, but; however, this
happening for example, in the 1950's, we could see the emergence of the beat generation, and in
metanarrative or this grand narrative could not continue to hold this position forever because
the 1960's, the Civil Rights Movement. And in the 1970's, we also find a number of smaller
something drastically changed. And if one dares to question this metanarrative, one dares to
narratives, the number of micronarratives emerging, challenging the supremacy, challenging the
move away from this dominant story, you also run the risk of being labelled as an outsider, a
very idea of the metanarrative.
deviant or even a threat . So, this is the way in which the positioning of metanarrative or the
grand narrative works through a process of legitimacy, it acquires a particular kind of supremacy,
it also emerges as the dominant story.
It also perhaps have a very different interesting thing that the idea of the of the Postmodern,
challenging the metanarrative itself could have the possibility of emerging as another
metanarrative. And this is also something that many critics have noted in the discussion of
And moving away from this story, your questioning of this story also runs the risk of being
Lyotard, having said that, it is important to reiterate the fact that the counter cultural attacks
termed as a deviant or an outsider, or even considered as a threat. And in that sense if there are
which emerged in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's-- they also challenged the notion of the West
other questions, if there are the stories, other lives, other cultures, which are outside this
being the heroic West, the notion of the West being a progressive West and also wonder, whether
dominant story, they are all seen as illegitimate. They are seen as invalid in comparison to the
the story of the Western progress as it has been narrated through these grand narratives, through
these metanarratives is also a mask for the brutality that it also entails whether the West is also as
So, what are we left with, after the end of the metanarratives, after displaying incredulity toward
ignorant and as authoritarian just like the rest the world.
metanarratives. We do have with us after that a playful engagement with many conflicting
So, the kind of things that happen in the wake of Second World War including the many
horrifying political event,s including the emergence of Totalitarianism, and including the various
perils associated with science and progress, they all led to the questioning of the idea of
Modernity, the questioning of the idea of progress and also led to the countercultural attacks,
which could be seen as the many representations, the many manifestations of the Postmodern
age.
micronarratives, and these micronarratives occupied this space created by the questioning of the
grand metanarratives. And this process of the micronarratives occupying the space created by the
displacement of the metanarratives, it is not a neat process for example, the Civil Rights
Movement which emerged in America in the 1960's, is a succinct example of how this process
cannot be a present as a neat and structured process, because the Civil Rights Movement, even
while it was arguing for the civil rights for the citizens, it also openly excluded people on the
basis of race and gender. But at the same time, they were also protesting the Vietnam War. There
So, in that sense, when we begin to look at Postmodernism as an “incredulity towards
is an engagement with many conflicting micronarratives and not the privileging of a single
metanarratives”, Postmodernism could be seen as a reaction to the failings of Modernism. So, it
metanarrative.
is also a phenomenon that emerges from crisis. It cannot have any other kind of an emergence,
any other kind of a starting point than as a kind of response as a reaction to the many things
which had failed in the Modernist period. The failure of Modernism could be understood in three
different ways, it could be seen as a moral challenge, a philosophical challenge and a scientific
challenge, when we talk about the moral challenges, we talk about the World Wars, the
emergence of Fascism, Totalitarianism which all of them also entailed an imposition of a single
truth, an imposition of one particular group over the other, this is not about a universal good.
And when we talk about philosophical challenges, there was also this notion emerging that
objectivity was not possible, that experience, the moment you begin to value experience over
everything else there is also a risk of a diversity of experiences coming in and also an inability to
privilege one over the other. And in terms of the scientific challenges, the emergence of
Quantum Physics and also the question whether science can provide answers to everything.
All of these together began to emerge collectively as a failure of the Modernism project. So, here
according to Lyotard, when we begin to approach Postmodernism from the perspective of
Lyotard’s Postmodern Condition, Postmodernism needs to be seen not as a result, but as a cause
of further change. Which is why perhaps it is not just enough to say that the metanarrative, the
idea of the metanarrative is dead and gone, but help perhaps we can only merely suggest that the
So, accordingly, the attempts to construct these grand theories, they also tend to unduly dismiss
the naturally existing chaos and disorder of the universe and also the power of the individual
event. So, it is very important to displace and dismiss the metanarratives in order to bring back
the attention which are due to these aspects. And Lyotard also reminds us that the metanarratives
are created and reinforced by power structures and hence they are also untrustworthy.
So, Lyotard's thesis, Lyotard's report is also about why all of these metanarratives are
untrustworthy for various reasons. And accordingly not to illustrate his position, he also rejects,
continues to reject the theological underpinnings of both Marx and Freud and though Marx and
Freud were not Postmodernists in any way their significance is very important in our
understanding and our framing of Postmodernism.
And locating this move from the Modern to the Postmodern, Lyotard begins by designating the
Modern as any signs that legitimates itself through metanarratives. And here, we can have in
Hegel, Freud, Marx Kant and other grand narratives which were predominant during the
Modernist period, during the period of Modernity, and this word ‘legitimation’ is also extremely
important, because this is something that you from Habermas which we also will be taking a
look at in our later sessions .
idea of the metanarrative is merely restricted here by the emergence of a variety of counter
And here while designating the modern and by extension the idea of the metanarrative, Lyotard
cultures from different political and social positions.
is also talking about large-scale theories and philosophies of the world, which had also defined
the progress of this history, the possibility of absolute freedom in the ideas of enlightenment and
In addition to Jameson's forewords he also provides a context to Lyotard’s work, where he also
of course, the overarching principle of Marxism. And he is talking about how all of these things
alludes to certain personal convictions that Lyotard had. In Jameson's own words: “Lyotard is
were also associated with the idea of modernism and with the progress and the promise of
after all writing in the wake of a certain French “post-Marxism”, that is an enormous reaction on
Modernity.
all letters against various Marxist and Communist traditions in France, whose primary target on
And Postmodernism, when we say ‘incredulity toward metanarratives’, it was also perhaps a
result of the progress in the sciences, after which one also begins to challenge all of these ideas
associated with modernity. In Lyotard’s own words towards the end of his work, he says: “A
work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not
Modernism at it is end, but in the nascent state and this state is constant”. This is something that
we need to keep in mind throughout our discussion of Lyotard because this also frames his idea
of Postmodernism and something that has emerged at a critical point when Modernism and
Modernity failed to deliver what it had promised at the outset.
Interestingly, Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition also bears foreword by Frederick Jameson,
the Marxist critic, it also helps us to contextualize the relevance of Lyotard's work. And here,
when Jameson talks about, when Jameson introduces this work, when Jameson writes a foreword
to Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition, we also get this impression, we also get this idea that
the philosophical level is the Hegel/Lukacs concept of totality often overhastily assimilated to
Stalinism, or even to the Leninist party on the political level. Lyotard's own philosophical break
with Marxism. He was a member of the important socialisme ou barbarie group in the 1950's
and the early 1960', largely antedates this more recent rather Mccarthyist moment in France,
itself Since overtaken by the unexpected Socialist landslide of 1981, but it clearly makes for a
situation in which Habermas can still stand in for the totalizing and dialectical German tradition,
while Lyotard's own philosophical relationship to the politicized French one, has become more
problematic and complex.”
Here, Jameson is trying to contextualize the essay not just in philosophical and political terms,
but also in the context of Lyotard's own personal convictions, his own political standpoints. This
also becomes very important in our understanding of the figuration of the Postmodern in
Lyotard's report.
Postmodernism was one of the things which are getting debated in the philosophical and
Right at the outset of his work, Lyotard offers us a very brief description of the object of the
intellectual circles of the 1690's, and the 1970's.
study, the object and methodology, and in the beginning itself he notes that the object of his
So, we also get an understanding that Lyotard was making an intervention in the many
Postmodern debates which were happening during the 1970's. And in his own words, he refers to
the title of the book with its fashionable theme of Postmodernism, and he also talks about
study is a condition of knowledge in most highly developed societies. And this condition, he
identifies with the term ‘Postmodern’ and which he also admits is not a new word that he uses;
this is also a term which is being currently used in America in the 1960's and 1970's .
“Postmodernism as it is generally understood, involves a radical break, both with the dominant
He also further attempts to identify the idea of Postmodern which is also a condition as he
culture and aesthetic, and with a rather different moment of socio-economic organization against
himself points out, it designates the state of a culture following the transformations which since
which its structural novelties and innovations are measured. A new social and economic moment
the end of the nineteenth century have altered the game rules for science, literature and the arts.
or even system which is variously been called media society “the society of the spectacle” by
And the intention of Lyotard's work is to place these transformations, to place these
Guy Debord, consumer society and the bureaucratic society of control, consumption by Lefebvre
transformations in the context of the crisis of narratives. So, this is a key term in Lyotard's
or “postindustrial society” by Daniel Bell.” Here, we are given to understand that Lyotard is not
figuration of the Postmodern.
inaugurating a discussion on Postmodernism, rather he is intervening in a series of debates, in a
series of discussions, which had been dominating in the Western advanced societies in the 1960's
and 1970's.
And in his introduction, he also talks about how science is in conflict with narratives, and how
science also has its own rules of legitimation through language games which also operates
through philosophy. Here we also find Lyotard talking about how scientific denotative
And before that it would be useful to take a look at the brief outline of Lyotard's work, it is
knowledge uses a various narratives utterances to legitimize itself. For example, in order to
divided into 14 different sections; the first one, being titled ‘The Field: Knowledge in
show, in order to illustrate that sky is blue, this is done in science through stories and
Computerised societies’. Secondly, ‘The Problem: Legitimation’- it is also an idea that he
explanations and through narratives, as well and to give an example from Jameson, in the
actively engages with throughout the discussion of this report.
foreword to Lyotard's work, he also talks about how science has its own rules and its own ways
of legitimation, “ ‘Doing science’, for instance involves, its own kind of legitimation (why is it
that our students do not do laboratory work in alchemy? Why is Immanuel Velikovsky
considered to be eccentric?)”
Thirdly, ‘The Method: Language Games’ and this is also something he borrows from
Wittgenstein and also forms the basis of many of the concepts and many of the philosophies that
he puts forward in connection to the definition, to the framing of The Postmodern Conditio .
Fourthly, ‘The Nature of the Social Bond: The Modern Alternative’, ‘The Pragmatics of
So, here, you know, he talks about the various ways in which science employs, its own kind of
Narrative Knowledge’, ‘The Pragmatics of Scientific Knowledge’, ‘The Narrative Function and
legitimation just like it operates in different other kinds of disciplines.
the Legitimation of Knowledge’, ‘Narratives of Legitimation of Knowledge’-- Here we find that
Moving ahead, right in the introduction itself, Lyotard also draws our attention to the teleological
illusions of human history which are not tenable in the contemporary, because of the
technological progress in the areas of communication, mass media and computer science, and he
is also, you may note, talking about this particular crisis in highly advanced societies. And here,
he extensively deals with the ideas of legitimation, which also becomes important in
understanding Lyotard's work. ‘Research and its egitimation hrough performativity’, ‘Education
and it is legitimation through performativity’, ‘Postmodern scientist as the search for
instabilities’ and ‘Legitimation by Paralogy’.
he is also talking about a shift to a linguistic and symbolic production as central elements and
So, we will not be able to take up any detail look at all of these 14 sections. We will be focusing
this is a particular element that he associates with post-industrial economy and the related
on particular aspects which have become Seminal, which have sparked off many other different
Postmodern culture, and he also talks about a timeframe from which these changes, these
debates. And we would also be talking about the important concepts that emerge across these 14
transformations are being witnessed that is from the 1950's onwards. And this idea of the
sections. We would also be talking about particular excerpts, which are more important for our
plurality of language games which he associates with the various ways in which scientific
understanding of Postmodernism and how those aspects would also eventually help us to analyze
legitimation, the process of scientific legitimation is being done, is also something that he
and to unpack different texts and contexts which are also products of the Postmodern theorem.
borrows from the philosopher Wittgenstein.
Very quickly, somewhat towards the end of this lecture, Lyotard's Postmodern Condition could
in the introductory remarks, he also talks about the idea of truth in science which is
be seen as a very major intervention as an important contribution to the Postmodern debate. And
replaced by ‘performativity’ and ‘efficiency’ in the service of the capital or the state, and how
this is also a work which talks about the crisis in the state of knowledge and also the function of
science produces paradoxical results undermining the science grand narrative. And he by
narrative within scientific discourse and knowledge. And here, one of his fundamental premises
extending these arguments from the field of science to the other kinds of arts and humanities and
that the Western societies and philosophies that operated on a modernist metanarrative on the
also society and culture, in general, he also talks about how he prefers this plurality of small
grand narrative has now lost it is credibility, leading to the emergence of a number of
narratives
micronarratives, as the emergence of plural stories and the absolute challenge and incredulity
And
in the place of the totalitarianism of grand narratives, and how he makes this
association from sciences to the other kinds of disciplines that he talks about. There is something
that we shall take a look at in detail in the next session.
towards one particular metanarrative. That is all we have for today's session.
Thank you for listening, and I look forward to seeing you in the next session.
Postmodernism in Literature
Dr. Merin Simi Raj
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Lecture - 13
taking a look at towards the end of this lecture, and in the course of his discussion, Lyotard also
reminds us that there is a connection between knowledge and power. And this is also a question
of a hierarchical relationship in which there are two questions which emerge, as very pertinent;
one, who decides what knowledge is and; secondly, who questions what needs to be decided.
And even when we set out to seek an answer for these questions, we would also realize that the
Hello everyone. Good morning and welcome to yet another session of the NPTEL course:
Postmodernism in Literature. In today's session, in continuation with our discussion of Lyotard's
text The Postmodern Condition,we shall be looking at how Lyotard intervenes in a culture,
driven by grand narratives and also how he challenges the ideology of the predominant regime
which also monopolizes knowledge.
In the course of his discussion, having laid out the context for the need to talk about the
Postmodern condition in advanced societies, particularly, the computerized societies Lyotard
says: “This is what the Postmodern world is all about, most people have lost the nostalgia for the
lost narrative. It in no way, follows that they are reduced to barbarity. What saves them from it is
their knowledge that legitimation can only spring from their own linguistic practice and
communicational interaction, science ‘smiling into its beard’ at every other belief has taught
them the harsh austerity of realism.”
So, at multiple levels, Lyotard's discussion is also a historical understanding of the Postmodern
condition where he locates Postmodernism as a departure from the methods of Realism and also
from the methods and the ideas celebrated by Modernity and Modernism. To recall some
premises that Lyotard talks about, The Postmodern Condition is the study of the status of
knowledge in advanced computerized societies. He also reminds us that this is a term- ‘the
Postmodern’ is a term which is being currently used in the 1970’s, in the Western context and he
also talks about the technical and technological advancements since the Second World War and
how they all had a radical effect on the status of knowledge in advanced societies and he
particularly draws our attention to the process of computerization.
And here he chooses to focus on one particular problem, one variable in the status of knowledge
is that of legitimation and how Lyotard differs in his approach towards the idea of legitimation
from that of Habermas who spoke about the crisis of legitimation, is something that we shall be
question of knowledge is intermittently connected to the question of government. So, there is a
very different kind of relationship which gets established over here in the Postmodern condition
where knowledge gets quite intimately connected with the systems of government. So,
knowledge also moves beyond the realm of truth, beyond the realm of seeking truth, and it
moves into a question of government where it is also under particular kinds of governances and
particular kinds of control.
And Lyotard does not talk about knowledge in a very general term, he focuses on one particular
thing which is science. He reminds us how science is tightly interwoven with government and
administration in the information age, in the computerized age and there is also reason that he
provides for-- this is also because enormous amounts of capital and installations are needed for
research, in the contemporary, in the information age, in the computerized age and this
particularly is a problem as he points out right at the outset of the essay- a problem that is fraught
within modern advanced societies which are also computerized .
And this leads us to this question: what exactly is a legitimate knowledge and he also gives us an
example of digital databases quoting the example from IBM which we shall be shortly taking a
look at. While talking about digital databases, he asked: who decides what knowledge is worth
storing, who has access; who will determine what kind of data is forbidden- is it the state or is
the state reduced to being just one among the many users- and these are some of the questions
Lyotard tells us that we need to engage with, in The Postmodern Condition because the idea of
knowledge, the idea of control over information, control over knowledge
has a radically
changed; and it is not just about a person or a set of people pursuing the idea of truth, but it has
also been part of governments and big corporate agencies and he gives this example of IBM.
When he talks about, suppose for example, that affirms such as IBM is authorized to occupy a
belt in earth’s orbital field and launch communications satellites or satellites housing data banks,
who will have the access to them, who will determine which channels or data are forbidden- the
with the mixing of Philosophy with concepts and methods from other discipline, he is also
state, or will the state simply be one user among others? New legal issues will be raised.
displaying a very characteristic trait of Postmodernism in his very own approach, in his very own
So, this is something extremely important that we need to pay attention to in the Postmodern age
method of investigation into the Postmodern condition.
when the systems of knowledge, the systems of hierarchies change, there are also new questions
And there are various implications which are connected with these identifications of language
and new challenges being posed leading us to a pertinent need to engage with noble legal
games, with the development of Postmodernity, one of those include the examination of the
questions and noble ways of engaging with particular problems and finding solutions-- this entire
political and epistemological aspects of knowledge which Lyotard also seeks to undertake in this
process, Lyotard undertakes through a particular method of inside investigation and that is
work he also then illustrates, how the nature of the social bond also has changed because as and
primarily through language games.
when the nature of knowledge changes, as and when the games, as and when the language games
And here is where we find a very typical Postmodern mind at work, when we read Lyotards The
Postmodern Condition. He is bringing in the methods, he is bringing in concepts and aspects
associated with “doing science” changes because as and when the language rules associated with
various aspects of knowledge undergo a change, social bond also undergoes a radical change.
from various disciplines and he is bringing them together to engage with the contrasting and the
Because social bond is also composed of language ‘moves’, though Lyotard talks at length in
paradoxical ideas of Postmodernism. And here, he talks about developments in Postmodernity
determining how the language rules are at work and how these games play a very determining
and he shows us how these developments are largely concerned with language, in his own words:
role in identifying particular kinds of knowledge systems and also the underlying hierarchies, he
“It is fair to say that for the last forty years the leading sciences and technologies have had to do
with language, phonology and theories of linguistics, problems of communication and
cybernetics, modern theories of algebra and informatics, computers and their languages problems
of translation and the search for areas of compatibility among computer languages, problems of
information storage and data banks so on and so forth.”
also then leads us to the major point of his discussion which is also; what is at stake in the
character of modern science, even when the discussion pertains to rather broad and loose areas
such as knowledge and language games and the general
idea of Postmodernity in the
contemporary, Lyotard always narrows down the discussion to the character of modern science,
and this is also something that he identifies it to be at stake in the Postmodern age, under the
Postmodern condition, under the changing systems of knowledge in the computerized societies
And here, something needs to be highlighted with a particular focus that language ceases to be
and here, he also seeks to make a distinction between two kinds of knowledge which is narrative
understood in a very conventional sense, it also becomes a kind of development that the
knowledge; and scientific knowledge and this distinction is based on the kind of legitimation that
Postmodern societies are more concerned about. Here Lyotard is also making a very
both of these systems of knowledge seek and in the case of narrative knowledge, there is no
unconventional comparison across disciplines such as Linguistics and Philosophy and also the
recourse to legitimation on the other hand, scientific knowledge seeks legitimation by scientific
technology and the Sciences.
criteria.
There are three observations that Lyotard goes on to make in terms of the language games.
So, there are these two systems which he identifies and the distinction of one from the other is
Firstly, the rules of language games do not carry with them their own legitimation. Secondly, if
made on the basis of what kind of legitimation is required; what kind of legitimation is needed or
there are no rules, there is no game and moves or utterances that do not follow rules are not part
not needed and here, in this process Lyotard also reminds us how eventually the dominance of
of the particular game. Thirdly, every utterance is a move in a game and this needs to be read in
scientific knowledge over narrative knowledge has also become the order of the day especially,
continuation with one of the first things that Lyotard talks about in his work that Postmodernism
with the wake of modernity. The promise of progress that modernity had provided to the modern
is also something that alters the game rules of every discipline in the contemporary and here,
world was also an offshoot of the dominance of scientific knowledge over narrative knowledge.
So, in some sense, it would not be wrong to say that Lyotard’s work could be seen as a defence
So, it does not become of fruitful method, a fruitful kind of legitimation after the metanarrativs
of narrative knowledge from the increasing dominance of scientific knowledge, there are a
have been displaced, the alternative Lyotard says lies in paralogy. ‘Para’ means beyond, and
number of critics who have had a problem with this kind distinction and also with the kind of
‘paralogy’, in that sense means beyond against an established way of reasoning. So, by calling to
premises that Lyotard had put forward, but nevertheless, it also becomes quite seminal in the
move beyond the ideas of beyond the traditional ideas of reason, Lyotard is arguing that the
understanding of The Postmodern Condition, especially, since the binaries were drawn and
alternate legitimating method for science perhaps lies in moving beyond all kinds of rational and
promoted from the Modernist period onwards. Lyotard’s text also gives us a very brief point
reason-based activities associated with science and herein, it is in this context that Lyotard also
toward how how in modernity the narrative of science was legitimated by a number from
associates Postmodern science with the search for instabilities.
metanarratives.
And he says, there are several advantages for identifying, for locating an alternative in ‘paralogy’
Primarily the Hegelian and the Marxist frameworks and here it is useful to recall time and again,
because it also satisfies the desire for justice and also the desire for the unknown and Lyotard’s
how the “incredulity toward metanarratives” becoming useful in talking about the various ways
lead the perfect kind of “doing sciences”, perhaps the coming together of the desire for justice
in which the Postmodern period departs from the Modernist period, and if Postmodernity
and also the desire for the unknown without privileging one over the other. And the advantages
celebrates
the end of metanarratives, if we are called to display an “incredulity toward
of paralogy also ties up very well with the incredulity towards metanarratives that Lyotard talks
mentanarratives”, what legitimate assigns now, and this is a question that dominates most of the
about right at the outset of his work and this, he also feels, would lead to the emergence of the
discussions in the latter part of Lyotard's work and given that science is a system of knowledge
possibility, of the emergence of new and hybrid disciplines. Performativity, since it will terrorize
which always seeks some kind of legitimation or the other, it becomes imperative to identify a
the production of ideas will not encourage newer possibilities, encourage the emergence of a
new system of legitimation once the metanarratives are put to an end, once the metanarratives are
hybrid disciplines and this happens because there is no connection to the old epistemic traditions,
displaced, once our distrust towards the metanarratives have been developed; and the answer
because paralogy is beyond reason, beyond all established conventions of reason and hence it is
Lyotard gives is performativity, and performativity
in that sense becomes a technological
not bound to work according to the old epistemic traditions, and there is more freedom available
criteria for legitimating science, and legitimating the various activities which are labelled as
over here and there is also more hybrid ways of engaging and producing ideas as a corollary to
science and interestingly there is a crisis which is inherent in this act of performativity.
the various discussion about legitimating the science, legitimating various systems of knowledge.
Once, we identify a different kind of legitimation process rooted in performativity with respect to
science, there is a crisis which is inherent in it, because legitimation by performativity,
according to Lyotard, it is against the interests of research.
Here, it is important to note that Lyotard is not prioritizing the element of truth, the truth value
which is associated with the disciplines of science, he is not trying to invoke the metanarratives
of modernity to legitimate research either. On the other hand, he is trying to see the role of
research as a production of ideas and he also feels that when one privileges performativity as one
of the modes of legitimating science, it is also in some form or the other is marring this various
kinds of productions of ideas because performativity terrorizes the production of ideas.
Lyotard then focuses on the current perception of knowledge as a commodity as a saleable
commodity because of the production of knowledge in the Postmodern age, in computerized
advanced societies is no longer considered as an aspiration to truth and there has also been a
market shift in that sense from whether it is true or not, towards how useful is it, is it useful or
not .
So, this use value which would also be a seen perhaps in parallel with the idea of performativity
in legitimating science, this idea of use of value becomes also one of the parameters of judging
or valuing knowledge and here, we also find that the emphasis of knowledge has shifted from the
ends of human action to its means and this is something that he has associated very strictly with
the Postmodern age, with the Postmodern condition and this is certainly a departure from the
expect to be, for the purpose of improving their skills and chances of promotion, but also to help
Modernist ideas and from the ideologies related to modernity
them acquire information languages and language games allowing them both to widen their
And in his own words, “Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity, indispensable to
occupational horizons and to articulate their technical and ethical experience.”
productive power, is already and will continue to be a major, perhaps the major stake in the
The kind of functions knowledge had within a university space, the kind of transmission that
worldwide competition for power, it is conceivable that the nation states will one day fight for
knowledge had within a university space, within particular kinds of departments and institutions
control of information just as they battle in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for
have also begun to undergo a radical change, this is something that we can relate with, in a better
control of access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labour.”
way looking back at Lyotard from the contemporary .
So, here, he is not discounting the possibility of a nation, states waging wars with one another;
The English translation, the English version of Postmodern Condition which came out in 1984
fought fight for control of information- this nexus that Lyotard identifies between knowledge and
also had an appendix title What is Postmodernism. And here Lyotard also talks essentially, about
power, it does have very serious implications for the future of the world .
the importance of Avant-garde art and tells us how modern art presents the unpresentable as a
And this is also because knowledge is being increasingly identified with the various elements of
control. Production of knowledge is increasingly being influenced by a technological model,just
like during the Industrial Revolution, knowledge entered the economic equation and became a
force for production for the first time in the Postmodern age, in the age of Postmodernity, we
find that knowledge becomes a central force of production. It also becomes an economic a factor
missing content within a beautiful form whereas, Postmodern art puts forward the unpresentable
by foregoing beautiful form itself, denying the consensus of taste in Kantian terms and he also
gives the example of Marcel Proust and James Joyce as examples of Postmodern art and in this
appendix What is Postmodernism he is also drawing a parallel across various kinds of sciences
and also the idea of Avant-garde art .
and in that sense control of information is not just a matter of power, it is not just a matter of
And in his own words: “ those are ideas of which no presentation is possible therefore, they
control of knowledge, it is also a matter related to the economy of various nation-states and here,
impart no knowledge about reality or experience, they also prevent the free union of the
there is a kind of relationship that Lyotard identifies in the Postmodern period between
faculties which give rise to the sentiment of the beautiful and they present the formation and the
knowledge and power, the various forms of exercising control and eventually how all of this is
stabilization of taste, they can be said to be unpresentable.”
connected to the economic factor as well. This sort of seemingly bizarre connection that Lyotard
makes in the 1970’s, interestingly it has become almost like the order of the day a few decades
from then.
So, in some sense, Lyotard’s work as a celebration of the displacement of the metanarratives and
also in terms of art, a celebration of the presentation of unpresentable ideas. So, unlike the
modern, unlike the Modernist form of art in which the unpresentable was seen as a lack, unlike
And now, it no longer seems as an impossible kind of a proposition when we go back to Lyotard
the Modernist times, in the Postmodern times the presentation of the unpresentable seems to
and look at the various ways in which he talks about knowledge power control and economic
require no particular form and there is also no burden of reality which is being imposed on to this
factors associated with it.
presentation of the unpresentable.
He also draws our attention to how knowledge has been reduced to particular kinds of skills and
And in this context, it is also important to very briefly take a look at the idea of legitimation
also the kind of training and attributed in relation to that, in his own words, “knowledge will no
which Habermas presented in 1973. Many critics have pointed out that Lyotard's work could be
longer be transmitted en bloc, once and for all to young people,
before their entry into
seen, could be read in opposition to Habermas’ ideas of legitimation. Habermas spoke about
workforce: rather it is and will be served ‘a la carte’ to adults, who are either already working or
legitimation as a series of crises tendencies, within capitalist societies and he also illustrated how
these different kinds of crises make it impossible to maintain political stability through consent
And dwelling upon the idea of the avant-garde in continuation with an illustration that he began
alone and the focus of his work was on the contradictions and conflicts between the logic of
talking about in the beginning of the essay where he also talks about how certain avant-garde
Capitalist accumulation and the popular pressures that democratic politics unleashes on the other.
projects were also manifesting a number of anti-modern qualities. And he continues to dwell
In other words, it was about the pursuit of profit versus demands of social welfare and equality
upon the idea of the avant-garde and draws are attention to what is the meaning of this failure,
which in turn also challenged this stability of particular nation states.
does it signal of farewell to Modernity?
So, in that sense, Habermas located the absence of legitimation, the challenges upon legitimation
And here, Habermas also shows his discomfort in moving away from the idea of Modernity
as a crisis, as something that needs to be resolved, much in contradiction to what later Lyotard
because according to him, the project of modernity is not yet finished, thinking more generally,
writes about.
does the existence of a post Avant-garde mean there is a transition to that borader phenomenon
So, based on these contrastive ideas, a number of works have been published were researchers,
called Postmodernity?
where theorists have tried to locate the points of departure between Habermas and lyotard on
So, just because particular kinds of movements are there, particular kinds of art forms are there,
Postmodernity, and one of the most quoted essays in this aspect is Richard Rorty's work, Richard
calling in for the need to be labelled them as Avant-garde, Habermas is asking whether there is a
Rorty’s 1985 essay Habermas and Lyotard on Postmodernity .
need to move beyond modernity, whether there is a need to signal a farewell to modernity and
And Habermas also has written an essay in 1981, titled Modernity versus Postmodernity which
move to the broader aspect, the broader phenomenon called Postmodernity.
also had an alternate title Modernity— an Incomplete Project, quite often than not in the context
And he, rather categorically, then states: “I think that instead of giving up modernity and its
of Lyotard's definition of the Postmodern and as ‘incredulity toward metanarratives’-- the ideas
project as a lost cause, we should learn from the mistakes of those extravagant programs which
proposed by Habermas about modernity being an incomplete project has been discussed. And in
have tried to negate modernity. Perhaps the types of reception of art may offer an example which
this essay, Modernity versus Postmodernity, Habermas begins to give an example, an illustration
at least indicates the direction of a way out” and he talks about at least two different ways in
from the contemporary times
and he talks about how Postmodern presents itself as
which one could begin to talk about alternatives when one begins to move away from the project
anti-Modernity and with this statement of negation, he goes on to define the term ‘modern’ in
of modernity and certainly, for Habermas giving up on modernity is not the only option, and
historical and intellectual contexts, he talks about the various kinds of definitions attributed to
there could be other alternatives that one could figure out by engaging with Avant-garde art
the term ‘modern’ including the romantic notion of the modern, including the enlightenment idea
which has departed from the idea of modernity in some form of the other, and here we also
of the modern.
wonder whether Habermas is directly in conversation the Lyotard when he says: “according to
He continues to situate the term ‘modern’ with a focus on the changing definitions and the
changing scheme of things and eventually he begins to talk about the discipline of aesthetic
modernity, quoting the example of Baudelaire and in this context, he also engages with the term
‘avant-garde’ and says, ”The avant-garde understands itself as invading unknown territory,
exposing itself to the dangers of sudden, of shocking encounters, conquering an as yet
unoccupied future.The avant-garde must find a direction in a landscape into which no one seems
to have yet ventured.”
one thesis, science, when properly understood, has become irrevocably meaningless for the
orientation of the life-world. A further thesis is that politics must be kept as far aloof as possible
from the demands of moral practical justification, and a third thesis asserts that the pure
imminence of our disputes that it has a utopian content and points to its illusory character in
order to limit the aesthetic experience to privacy.” And he also towards the end of his essay, he
says: “But with the decisive confinement of science, morality and art to autonomous spheres,
separated from the life world and administered by experts what remains from the project of
cultural modernity is only what we could have if we were to give up the project of modernity
record and document the unpresentable and also to activate the differences and engage with
altogether.”
them, rather than ignoring them or overlooking that.
So, throughout this essay, we also get this impression that Habermas is not in favour of giving up
So, to some up in today's lecture, we have taken and look at the ways in which Lyotard talks
on the project of modernity, but he calls in for a need to engage with alternatives, rather than
about the changing notions of knowledge especially in the context of incredulity toward
moving into the broader areas of Postmodernity which he also thinks is the stance of
metanarratives, and we have also seen how he departs from the other ideas of legitimation put
anti-modernity without giving the fair chance which was accorded to modernity in the first place.
forward by Habermas and also the other notions about the departure from modernity that
But in respective of the various kinds of discussions that one could continue to have on the
‘incredulity toward metanarratives’ and also the prices of legitimation, Lyotards perhaps, we
Habermas and other critics talk about and this also, I believe has laid a foundation to talk about
the other critics of Postmodernism.
could say has the last word over here, and he continues to call for a break with the tradition of
And from the next lecture onwards, and in the next session, we shall be engaging with the ideas
the modern because also trying to read Lyotard’s and Habermas’ work together, we can also find
of hyperreality put forward by Baudrillard, we will also be taking a look at how a continuity
Lyotard's opposition to Habermas’ ideas
could be built in these various discussions, in the context of Postmodernism articulated by
when he says, “the modern project of realizing
universality has not been abandoned or forgotten but destroyed, liquidated.”
different theorists from different disciplinary paradigms, That is all we have for today.
So, unlike what Habermas proposes to give some more time for the project of modernity to get
Thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you in the next session.
completed rather than moving away, rather than entirely abandoning it to wait for the project of
modernity to reach its completion, Lyotard feels that nobody had abandoned or forgotten the
project, but it is on it by itself, it got destroyed and liquidated. So, there is an inevitability to
move towards the Postmodern condition, because the sciences, the systems of knowledge has
already begun to do so.
So, there is no going back from these computerized systems of knowledge, from these kinds of
governances, with these kinds of control over information which has taken over advanced
societies and Lyotard's essay, Lyotard’s work ends with this note: “Let us wage a war on totality.
Let us be witnesses to the unpresentable, let us activate the differences and save the honour of
the name.”
So, this is something very important, the last word that Lyotard has over here is very important
because in the continuing discussions about Postmodernism and the various manifestations of
Postmodernism in different forms of arts, texts and other contexts; we would see that there is a
war which is being waged on the ideas of totality on the claims of totalizing explanations and
experiences, and also there is a tendency to present the unpresentable, tendency to celebrate and
Postmodernism in Literature
Dr. Merin Simi Raj
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Lecture - 14
because the Postmodern condition, the Postmodern representations, make it rather impossible for
us to know the real for real, we only have certain simulations, which are accessible to us in the
form of not reality, but hyperreality. In Baudrillard’s own words: “There is an escalation of the
true, of the lived experience; a resurrection of the figurative where the object, and substance have
disappeared.”
Hello and welcome to today's session of the NPTEL course: Postmodernism in Literature.
We have been taking a look at the various aspects of Postmodernism, particularly the ways in
which Postmodernism is defined as a philosophical and cultural theory that rejects totalizing
narratives in favour of partial fragmented and incomplete ones. In today's session, we shall also
be focusing on how the idea of the Postmodern challenges and questions the very idea of the
aspect of reality behind and beyond representations. And in the various facets in which
Postmodernism is being represented, we shall also be further analyzing how the general idea, the
When we begin to talk about jean Baudrillard, one of the first and foremost things that comes to
our mind is that he is a French Poststructuralist thinker and interestingly, he is also classified as a
Postmodern theorist by Raman Selden. And he is someone who questions the tenets of both
Marxism and Structuralism; in that sense, we can find a number of common traits across these
Poststructuralist thinkers who are also being identified as Postmodern thinkers. We saw a similar
characteristic being reflected in the writings and in the ideologies, put forward by Lyotard as
well.
general condition of Postmodernism is suspicious of truth and focuses on the production of truth
And we find that Baudrillard at a later stage, turning to a critique of technology in the era of
in language and narrative. And this is again something that we have already taken a look at in
media reproduction. And again, we also realize that just like Lyotard talks about the Postmodern
our previous discussions, ranging from Barthes’ The Death of the Author.
societies as advanced computerized societies, we find Baudrillard talking about the advanced
And we have also noticed a very strong Poststructuralist stance, especially, in the early stages of
defining and framing Postmodernism. And this is particularly evident in the works of Lyotard,
Deleuze and Baudrillard. And there is also a general distrust of finalizeable meaning that we can
find in their approaches towards Postmodernism. And something that we could identify as being
society as a contemporary Postmodern society, as a society dominated by the technology of
media reproduction. A number of Baudrillard’s writings have been identified as provocative and
apocalyptic. And that since he has also enjoyed an intellectual cult status in the Postmodern
period.
common to all of these theorists is a fact that they have all extended the concerns of
At the same time when we analyze the writings of Baudrillard, it is also important to note that he
Poststructuralism about science, meaning and context of meaning production in order to make
does not provide solutions through his discussions, rather he remains as a critical observer of the
sense of what Postmodernism is, and in order to make sense of the various Postmodern
contemporary of the Postmodern condition, and also analyzes and critiques how the technology
representations regardless of genre, media and the context.
and the media of the Postmodern period has affected human lives, culture, and the notion of
The objective of today's lecture is to particularly take a look at Baudrillard, and has work on
reality, and history in general .
hyperreality, and how that has come to define the various aspects of contemporary Postmodern
Perhaps the most significant work of Baudrillard is Simulacra and Simulation published in 1981.
representations. If we try to approach Baudrillard in a rather simplified manner, it would not be
This is also considered as the first influential work written by him. And in this work, he talks
wrong to say that Baudrillard had compiled a theory of representations arguing that nothing
about the depthless world of unreflecting images, and also about the image creating Postmodern
exists outside representation. And according to him hyperreal is a world of simulations and
communication, technologies, particularly he talks about the television, and the various
excessive signs, and it is also the only real world according to him that we will ever know,
self-generating images across the Postmodern surface. And according to Baudrillard, the
The first, in this series, was titled in The Gulf-war will not Take Place, the second one, The
television is a strategic site, a gigantic simulator.
Gulf-war is not really Taking Place, and the third one, The Gulf-war did not Take Place. And
And much of Baudrillard’s work concerns the ways in which technology and particularly media
and television-- how they act as an interface to present reality to the contemporary audience, and
also how they mediate the reality in such a way that it becomes almost impossible to know the
difference between the media projected reality and the reality as it is experienced every day. And
what Baudrillard finds interesting and rather alarming is also the fact that, after a point it
becomes almost impossible to experience reality without this mediation by these
here we find Baudrillard not limiting himself to certain abstract critical of theoretical figurations,
but he moves on to a different level altogether, critiquing the contemporary media culture and the
notions of history and reality. And he also engages in a rather political discourse by using the
theoretical and intellectual frameworks of Postmodernity; particularly, the aspects of simulation,
simulacra and hyperreality that he coined. About the Gulf-war, Baudrillard made this rather
provocative statement; “It is an unreal war without the symptoms of war”.
And in his own analysis, the war was conducted as a media spectacle, and he also argued that the
technology-dominated sites .
The other important works of Baudrillard were published in the late 1980s and 1990s. And they
are titled, The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures, America, In the illusion of the End, and
The Conspiracy of Art, there are a number of other works also that Baudrillard composed and
there are also a number of critical commentaries available from the 1990s onward. And
interestingly, all of these works were originally written in French and they were translated into
English at a later point.
real violence was thoroughly overwritten by the electronic and narrative by simulation. And he
also argued in the context of the Gulf-war that the media had set the agenda of the narrative of
the war, and which was also made possible through a number of propaganda imagery. And this is
not to say that Baudrillard denied, the happenings of the war or contested whether the war
actually happened or not, on the other hand, what he was trying to critique was the aspect that,
the entire scenario was an atrocity which was masqueraded as war, and this was being made
possible only because of the media intervention, because according to him this was a carefully
And across these works, we find that Baudrillard sees Postmodernity repeatedly in terms of the
scripted media event. In reality, it was a virtual war, because the details of the war were always
disappearance of meaning
propagatated, were always were always given to the public, through the eyes of the West,
of inertia, of exhaustion, and endings whether of history or
subjectivity. And this is how Raman selden talks about the contributions of Baudrillard to the
ideas of Postmodernity. And according to Baudrillard, in the contemporary, in the Postmodern
period everything is obscenely on display.
through the view point of the West.
There was no way through which one could know what really happened at the waterfront, except
through these mediated narratives which were presented to us through the electronic media. And
So, much of his work in that sense, continues to engage with the various aspects of reality as it is
this; obviously, had invited a number of critiques from various other political theorists and also
being represented, as it is being made available to the public.
from other critical theorists. Nevertheless, this continues to be seen as a very prominent example,
Quite interestingly many of Baudrillard's observations were also considered quite controversial
in the contemporary, especially, this article titled The Gulf War did not Take Place, had also
in which Baudrillard talks about the various interventions being made in the aspect of reality
through the various Postmodern devices.
drawn a lot of flak from a number of critics. Nevertheless, this work needs to be located as a
And here, it becomes important to talk about these 2 notions that Baudrillard introduces in his
significant work in analyzing, the Gulf War situation against the Postmodern condition . And this
work, Simulacra and Simulation . And at some level, it would be possible to say that Baudrillard
essay is, in fact, a part of a series of 3 articles that he published between January and March
actually provides us with both a theory of how we construct and simulate reality, and also offers
1991, the original was published both in French and English, in a French newspaper titled
a social and cultural critique of the contemporary. And this is evident in the way he talks about
Liberation and in the British Guardian.
the Gulf war situation, and when he talks about reality, and it was not at a metaphysical level.
On the other hand, he draws from sociology, media studies semiotics, history, and philosophy in
And this leads us to the term ‘hyperreality’, which Baudrillard uses to talk about the division
that since it is an interdisciplinary, rather a multidisciplinary approach that he takes in his
between the viewer and the simulated object. And hyperreality becomes a reality when the
critique of reality we talked. About the pragmatic critical aspects of their work related to
distinction or the division between the real and the simulation has collapsed. Because an illusion
Simulacra and Simulation that we can also say that Baudrillard uses this framework to criticize
of an object is no longer possible, and the real object is no longer there as we have already noted
the various aspects of American culture, the consumer culture, the intervention of television into
in the case of Disneyland.
the contemporary about capital, about science and about politics in general.
And also, he gives the examples television and photography to talk about how there is no way to
So, this is the idea of simulacra, simulation and hyperreality could be seen at 2 levels, as merely
access to any reality beyond the image itself, because we are caught up in the world of image and
as a theory as an intellectual framework, and also as a framework to critique contemporary
its of copies and that it is no longer possible to distinguish the real from the copy. And this crisis
socio-cultural scenario.
and this confusion of the contemporary is designated as a hyperreal situation. We can see this
And if we try to differentiate between these 2 terms ‘simulacra’ and ‘simulation’,‘Simulation’ is
a process in motion, it is a process in which a representation of something comes to replace the
thing which is actually being represented, to such an extent that, the thing which is being
represented becomes more real than the real thing.
So, here, we also enter into a confusion as to which object is the real one whether they
represented object, or the object which is being represented through various media. And on the
other hand, ‘simulacrum’ or plural being ‘simulacra’, refers to a more static image in comparison
process getting manifested in a number of contemporary events, including a number of movies
such as Matrix and Inception, but also in various other contexts which are being dominated by
the electronic digital media. This interestingly, though is the reality of the contemporary, there is
a way in which we can trace its intellectual tradition.
And it is quite fascinating to know that Baudrillard himself quotes in his work from Borges’
work, a 1935 short story which is in fact, just a paragraph story that Borges had written about On
Exactitude in Science.
with simulation which is a process , and here we find that the sign loses its relation to reality.
So, let us read out this short story together,”… In that empire, the art of cartography attains such
And the ‘simulacra’ becomes a copy of reality which has already lost its presence, eminence and
perfection that the map of a single province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the
meaning.
empire the entirety of a province. In time those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and
And there is also the possibility of the existence of a copy without an original; the most popular
example being one of Disneyland. Here, we also note that this term ‘simulacra’ was originally
used by plato to talk about a false copy of an art form. And when we talk about ‘simulacra’, and
when we give the example of Disneyland there is also, a challenge which is being posed to
various notions of reality because earlier there was this notion- art being something that reflected
reality, but here, in the Postmodern period with the intervention of technology, with the
the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and
which coincided point of a point with it. The following generations, who were not so fond of the
study of Cartography as their forebears had been, saw that the vast Map was useless, and not
without some pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the inclemencies of Sun and
Winters. In the deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map inhabited by
animals and beggars in all the land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.”
intervention of media, we have reached a condition where it becomes impossible to differentiate
Here, Borges tells a story about an empire for which a map was built which also occupied the
the real from the copy. And we also reach the next stage which is being projected in the example
province in an entirety. And as and when the empire decayed, we also notice that the map was
of Disneyland; where we also have a copy without an original. The copy itself becomes a
also found in ruins and in tatters, and here in Borges’ story, it becomes rather impossible to see
meaning rather than a representation of something else which originally had a meaning.
whether the map is a copy or an original of the empire. Because there is a way in which the map
and the empire collapses into one and it becomes almost indistinguishable from one another.
ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being
Baudrillard uses this idea from Borges and talks about the various aspect of simulacra and
based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice - politics.”
simulation, and interestingly this is something that we continue to see in the contemporary.
Certainly, it will be a useful exercise to read all of these text together, in order to see how there is
For instance, we see a number of images in which the copy becomes the original, whether it is a
an inherent connection in the intellectual traditions which are emerging, and how the
painting by Raja Ravi Varma which adorns a calendar, or it is the image of Che Guevara which
contemporary society, the changing nature of technology effects the ways in which art is being
is portrayed in a tshirt, or even a Nike swoosh which is reproduced in a locally manufactured
conceived and also how the ideas of authenticity, and as we saw in the previous lecture, how the
product. We find that it becomes difficult to say whether these images are being cloned or copied
ideas of legitimation also undergoes a radical change with these innovative technological
from an earlier copy, or whether these images by themselves are originals.
practices.
And the Postmodern in fact, becomes characterized by this endless circulation of the copies as
The example that Walter Benjamin gives about photograph, about the inability to identify the
Pramod Nayar puts it. And we also find that it is a rather difficult task to delineate the copy from
authentic print, and how that is a futile and a useless exercise also related to the various things
the original, and eventually, the copy itself becomes the original. Because it becomes a rather
about reality, hyperreality, simulation and simulacra that Baudrillard foregrounds.
futile task to go on a pursuit to identify the original from these endless circulation of the copies,
and it really does not make any difference in the meaning-making process either.
And subsequently, we are also left with an impossibility to know the reality, apart from this
image the copy or the photograph which is being made available to us. The endless circulations
And if we extend the analogy of Borges’ ‘Maps’ in the Postmodern age, we find that the maps of
of copies eventually become not just one of the ways, but the only way through which we can
reality-television and film becoming more real than our real lives itself. And we also have seen a
access reality because we are also at a loss to figure out what constitutes our knowledge of
number of occasions where the television characters emerge as being more alive than the real
reality.
person who is playing the character. And this eventually leads to the death of the real, and the
condition of ‘hyperreality’ which Baudrillard begins to lament in his works, but we also see that
there is no escape from this condition of ‘hyperreality’ from this death of reality as we have been
seen in the Postmodern age.
In connection to this, it is also useful to recall a work by Walter Benjamin published in 1935, an
article entitled The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, and here, Benjamin
engages with a series of changes that had come about in the age of mechanical reproduction;
particularly, in the aspects related to art and the way in which art is being engaged with; and the
art is being analyzed and judged. And to quote his own words, “for the first time in world
And also, it leads us to this question whether we know anything other than the image or the copy
which is being made available to us. And this process of image-making, which Baudrillard also
terms as ‘simulation’, becomes more important than the real, because how do we know the real?
Or is there no real, we have only copies of what we deem as the real.
Maybe an inevitable banality of this process is that we cannot any longer distinguish between the
real and the copy that becomes rather impossible or futile task because the real has already been
overwritten by the hyperreal through the interventions, through the mediations of the technology
and the various forms of new advancements.
history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on
We can perhaps use a number of examples from the contemporary to show how the aspect of
ritual. To an ever greater degree, the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed
hyperreality gets manifested in our everyday life. For example, a number of commentators a
for reproducibility. From a photographic negative for example, one can make any number of
number of journalists have referred to the 9/11 attack, like a movie, to quote from a news report;
prints; to ask for the “authentic” print makes no sense. But instant the criterion of authenticity
“It was the television commentators as well as those on the ground who resorted to a phrase book
culled from cinema: ‘It was like a movie’, “It was like ‘Independence Day.’ “ [the Hollywood
practice to that product which is being mediated through various technologies, various
movie], ‘It was like “Die Hard’ “ “No,’Die Hard 2.’” ‘Armageddon.’ “ “
representations, and various forms of technological enhancements.
So, here, we find that one of the most horrifying events of the twentieth century is being
compared to a movie like situation; because the knowledge of horror, the knowledge of certain
horrifying and terrifying offense is also based on our knowledge of particular movies, and the
images that have been in circulation; because even in the reportage of this horrifying event, the
9/11 attack, the image-making, the superior technology, the embittered journalist, all of this take
the appearance of a cinema. And this is something that are we need to engage with because there
is no way in which one could escape from these ways through which reality is being overwritten
by hyperreal images.
And similarly, at the home front we also saw how the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, we are also being
framed in a similar way, because our knowledge of commando action of 26/11 is based on a
simulation of it, that we have seen in films or in televised images. And here, the reality that we
grasp is also circulated through the media images which are being made accessible to us, it could
be real images or even the images which were in circulation through various other recorded
televised means. And many of these instances could be used to talk about the excessive influence
of the media and screen cultures, and the ways in which they have begun to mediate our access
to reality and also our knowledge of reality to very large extent.
And coming back to our discussion on Baudrillard and his notion of hyperreality, he also
identifies a Capitalist link, an Urban capitalist link to this entire act of mediation. Because Urban
capitalism as Baudrillard puts it, has been successful in concealing the inequalities of society
behind images of production, prosperity and efficiency.
And in that sense, we are left with such a situation that we know only the finished product. We
do not know what is behind it. We do not know what is real, behind the finished product. For
example, in the modern Capitalist sense, if we talk about a mango drink or the advertisements the various aspects of its production which are being foregrounded, we know that our knowledge
of the mango, the mango drink or even the mango plantation is through the sign or the
representation of the mango on the bottle. It has got nothing to do with the real as we know is
behind the representation, because we do not and cannot attach a history, a culture or a specific
And in that sense, we could also I talk about the example of a Christmas tree, a decorated
Christmas tree in a living room, in which we are taking something real with an original and a
natural quality, and then exaggerating it into a perfection. Because one does not aspire to have a
real pine tree, in place of this decorated Christmas tree; which is only a copy of the real pine tree
from the forest, weathered over the years. And this aspiration for the exaggerated perfect image
is also something which the Postmodern mediation of technology does to our ideas of reality, and
our ideas of engaging with the real which is out in the world.
Having said that, it is again important to reiterate the fact that the idea of hyperreality, the notion
of simulation and simulacra, they do not exist merely as a theoretical and as intellectual
framework but they do have a bearing on the way the society is being mediated in the
contemporary, in the Postmodern period. So, in the next session, we shall be taking a look at the
various other aspects in which hyperreality is being talked about, the other critics and the other
artists who also found this as a useful term to engage with; to talk about contemporary reality.
So, on that note we shall also be winding up today’s lecture. Thank you for listening, and we
look forward to seeing you in the next session.
Postmodernism in Literature
Dr. Merin Simi Raj
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Lecture - 15
sessions and here we can also see that this is represented, this is reflected in movements such as
Constructivism and Minimalism which is also more evident in diverse fields such as architecture.
And in the third stage, there is a crisis of representation which is being presented as a
non-presentation which also calls for an absolute abandoning of the aesthetic process; and here
we find that here is perhaps a shift from Modernism to Postmodernism becomes complete or
rather, in certain other critical framework, this is also the beginning of Postmodern art where
Hello, everyone. Good morning and welcome to yet another session of the NPTEL course:
Postmodernism in Literature. In today's lecture we shall be continuing the discussions on
conceptual art which borders on the ideas of crisis of representation as well as non-representation
being manifested.
hyperreality and the Postmodern idea of representations. We began talking about how
So, in these three stages which are also predominantly Modernist, we can see traces of
Baudrillard introduces the concept of ‘simulacra’ and ‘simulations’ to talk about the various
Postmodern art, traces of Postmodern representation emerging in varying degrees. It is in this
changing notions, the shifting trends in the understanding of the notion of reality in the
final stage of abandoning the aesthetic process, that we also see various other kinds of crisis
contemporary.
emerging including the challenges upon the various notions such as a text or author, the
So, before we proceed with the discussions, it is also important to understand the different stages
in the idea of a progress of Modernism which is also related to our understanding of
representations. Since Postmodernism is also an offshoot, a departure from the various concerns
emergence of the reader, the various critical reading processes, and also the complete departure,
the complete detachment from
every conventional form of
reading or critiquing art and
literature.
related to Modernism, the idea of representation also has a bearing on the way in which it departs
So, in that sense, if we try to locate the real Postmodern crisis, it is first of all, a dilemma of
significantly from the ways in which representation and reality were framed during the
reproducibility in the age of masconsumerism. This is something that we began to look at when
Modernist period. And, often especially, the discussion of Postmodern art it becomes rather
we spoke spoke about Baudrillard and also in that connection, Walter Benjamin's essay. But
impossible to draw an exact line which would separate modern art from Postmodern art and also
however, there is also a paradox which is inherent in this particular situation unlike the
Postmodern representations from that of the Modernist representations.
prediction of Walter Benjamin that in the age of mass reproduction, the age of technical
So, in order to trace a proper genealogy of these changing nature, the shifting nature of the mode
of presentation, it is important to see how there are different stages that we could identify in the
history, in the genealogy of Modernism’s progress. Firstly, it is possible to delineate a certain
reproduction, there is a possibility of art losing- the original art losing its aura, the original art
losing its value. We find that paradoxically in the contemporary, it has become more desirable to
own the original which is also exorbitantly priced.
kind of crisis in the representation of reality and this is also manifested in certain movements
For example; even though multiple copies of a Van Gogh painting is being available in cheap
such as Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. In the discussions related to Modernism, we could
posters and cheap postcards, we also find that the original is priced exorbitantly high and it also
even see evidences of these various kinds of crises in the representation of reality. This also
becomes a different kind of a commodity, the possession of which amounts to some amount of
reflects well in the various artistic trends and also in the literary critical movements as well.
prestige as well. And, secondly, as a consequence of this dilemma of reproducibility, we also
And, secondly, there is a mode of abstraction which also becomes inevitable due to the
presentation of the unpresentable. This is also an idea that we had taken a look at in our previous
find that a consumerist aura is being extended to anything with a halo of the relic.
Accordingly, we find the souvenirs of yesteryear’s ancient manufacture, emerging as particular
central problems of representation, reproduction and legitimation as we have been doing through
pieces of art, particular covetable artistic relics and for example, and antique gramophone
various critical frameworks in the last few sessions.
players, the coveted object of art in the contemporary, particularly because of the halo of relic,
associated with it. And, thirdly, we have the idea, the aspect of image consumerism where the
reproduced is taking the place of reality or even replacing it as hyperreality and this phenomenon
of the contemporary was brilliantly theorized by Baudrillard, in his text Simulation and
Simulacra which we started taking a look at in the previous session.
And, there is also a way in which we find within the same text, there is a possibility of
identifying different dialogues. For example, in Lyotard’s text when we spoke about
metanarratives, we also spoke about the idea of legitimation put forward by Habermas; when we
spoke about the idea of representation in
Baudrillard’s text, we also engage with Walter
Benjamin. So, here, we find an ongoing dialogue across disciplines and across these various
In these three aspects of the dilemma of reproducibility, the extension of the consumerist aura to
theorists even when they are engaging with similar frameworks of discussing these central
anything with the halo of a relic and also the image consumerism which reproduces a reality or
Postmodern problems.
even negate reality and substitute it with hyperreality. In these three aspects, we can locate the
real Postmodern crisis as many have pointed out.
So, if this is the case, how do we engage with the central problem of the threat of unreal
simulated hyperreality? I use the term ‘threat’ rather advisably, because the condition of
So, accordingly in continuation with the discussions that we have been having right from
hyperreality in the Postmodern period has also been identified as a fatal condition, as a condition
Barthes, Foucault, Lyotard and Baudrillard, it is possible to state that the central Postmodern
which poses a threat to the Postmodern society by a number of critics. And this condition
problems are related to the problems of 1. representation, 2. reproduction and 3. legitimation. We
emerges because there are no rules or categories by which one can judge the experimentally
have already engaged with the particular aspects of how various theorists have dealt with these
unfamiliar.
ideas of representation, reproduction and legitimation in the Postmodern contemporary society of
advanced technological methods.
And, this certainly leads to a crisis because whose power will legitimate what is done as a right
way of doing it? And in the contrary, there also emerges a phenomenon by which what is being
And, what also emerges as very interesting is the fact that there is no single way of looking at the
done itself emerges as the form of its own legitimation and in this process, if we keep aside the
idea of representation, there is no single way of critiquing or engaging with reproduction or
various issues related with legitimation, we also realize that in this process what gets legitimated
legitimation either. All of these theorists have spoken about the centrality of the Postmodern
are not the objects, but institutions. And here, we also find a way in which particular kinds of art
problems from different paradigms and also engaging with these crises, these are problems in
installations, particular kinds of images of art being projected, not centrally as objects of art but,
varied degrees, whether they all share the same worldview or whether they all try to place these
as parttakers of different institutions and different discourses and we have been given a
problems, address these concerns within similar or different frameworks is a matter of secondary
framework by Baudrillard to engage with these problems in the contemporary through the ideas
concern.
of hyperreality, simulation and simulacra.
What becomes more important to our understanding of the Postmodern crisis of the
And, coming back to a discussion of Baudrillard’s simulacrum and hyperreality, it is also
understanding of the Postmodern condition is that-- these three problems could be identified as
important to notice that in the discussion of hyperreality, in identifying, the various changing
the starting point of engaging with any of the issues related with Postmodernism and irrespective
discourses of a representation, we can also identify a genealogy of Postmodern art.
of genre, irrespective of disciplinary boundaries, we find that it is possible to engage with these
Also, recalling a point that we made a while back, the centrality of Postmodern problems is also
associated with representation, reproduction and legitimation, and here, when we try to delineate
when we try to a cull out the genealogy of Postmodern art, we also realize that this is possible
markers of contemporary art forms and markers of contemporary mass consumerism. The 1999
only with a form of disconnect with the modern theory of art, because after the modern theory of
movie Matrix is a very supreme example of this. This movie was a very succinct engagement
art, with the emergence of Postmodern theory of art, with the emergence of the Postmodern crisis
with the idea that there is no originality left and what seems real is just a simulation. The movie
of representation, legitimation, reproduction, what we are left with is an end of art, a negation of
Matrix was the representation of a dystopian world where anything is possible and though this
everything that the modern stood for, everything that various aspects of modernity embraced
engaged with a non-linear narrative and various forms in which it challenged reality, hyperreality
and endorsed.
being just one of those elements.
In that context, to further reiterate and underscore the major points of our discussion, we can also
The movie was widely acclaimed critically and it also enjoyed tremendous box-office
delineate four historic phases of representational image sign which would also enable a better
commercial success. It also led to the emergence of two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The
understanding of the transition from the Modernist idea of representation and art towards the
Matrix Revolutions. This movie also made it possible to talk about the Postmodern crisis of
Postmodernist negation of art within which the understanding of hyperreality and within which a
representations and also gave us the language to engage with the various crisis which are
new kind of approach towards art also lies.
embedded in the absence of reality or rather the substitution of reality by hyperreality. A number
In the first phase, representation was merely a reflection of basic reality and this is something
that we all are familiar with. In the second phase, we also saw a certain problematization of
representation in which representation masks and perverted a basic reality and we do find various
of hyperreal dystopian situations were introduced and there were ways in which many critics
engaged with the movie to find parallels with a number of Postmodern situations in the
contemporary.
forms in which this gets represented in different forms of art including literature. And in the
And, though there is a certain West-centric model to these various representations; it is also
third stage, what was being represented was the absence of a basic reality-it was not important to
possible to relate with the various themes engaged by these crises from different parts of the
talk about reality by representing what is real and representing the real situation, but it was also
world because there is a way in which globalizion and urbanization and vast technological
possible to engage with reality by marking an absence of a basic reality and in the final stage
developments have become a way of the world, regardless of the geographical location.
which is also the contemporary stage, we find that representation bears no relation to any reality
whatsoever, and it becomes its own pure simulacrum and here is where we situate the
discussions related to hyperreality and the Postmodern representations, rather the Postmodern
crisis of representations.
There certain interesting images in the movie Matrix which allows us to make a comparison with
Baudrillard’s text Simulacra and Simulation. There is a particularly interesting scene in the
beginning of the movie where one character Neo stashes his illegal software inside a hollowed
out copy of Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, and here we are also being told in a very
So, with the arrival of hyperreality, we find that distinction between the real and the image has
self-reflexive and self-referential way that movie is engaging with the notions of simulacra,
collapsed, the border between art and reality has completely vanished and both have collapsed
simulation and hyperreality through its various forms of representation.
into the universal simulacrum. So, in that sense, reality also becomes a redundant concept giving
a way to the various forms of discussions of hyperreality in different situations, in different
Postmodern situations, especially, in advanced technological urban societies.
It is very much possible to now take our discussion away from mere theoretical frameworks to
certain Postmodern representations which have also become markers of contemporary media,
Also, another interesting element is a particular line delivered by the character in the movie,
Morpheus: “Welcome to the desert of the real” which is originally from Baudrillard’s text
Simulacra and Simulation.
So, in that sense, the various discussions about hyperreality, simulacra and simulation- this
seems to be merely theoretical jargons, but on the contrary they have become, in a very typically
Postmodern condition, they also have become certain ways in which one could really talk about
Eco's Travels in Hyperreality was originally written in Italian and the first translation which
the contemporary reality.
came out in 1986 also had the title Faith in Fakes, but however, the 1995 edition that he had
In fact, there is also another book, an entire book titled “Welcome to the Desert of the Real”
brought about, it bore the current title Travels in Hyperreality.
which is a tribute to Baudrillard’s original work and written in the context of 9/11 attacks and
Eco's Travels in Hyperreality is basically, about America's obsession with simulacra and
this is also a Marxist and Lacanian analysis of ideological and political responses to the terrorist
counterfeit reality. This is also one of those rare instances in which we find a theory becoming
attacks.
rather parallel and very important to talk about certain kinds of reality that we find in the
So, there are a number of ways in which through art, through cinema and through certain
incomprehensible events at the contemporary, that hyperreality becomes perhaps the only
theoretical tool, perhaps the only framework which is available for us to make sense of the
contemporary period. It is important to get a sense of how Eco takes us through his Travels in
Hyperreality. It would also give us a sense of how hyperreality is manifested, how hyperreality is
a reality that we can conceive, that we can experience in the Postmodern period.
contemporary, rather to engage with the contemporary, even though meaning-making process
Let me read out certain introductory passages from Eco's Travels in Hyperreality : “There is,
remains as a distant promise.
then, an America of a furious hyperreality, which is not that of Pop art, or of Mickey Mouse or
A number of works, and a number of theories have engaged with the idea of hyperreality. There
are also a number of movies which used hyperreality as a prominent theme to talk about the
various crises and conditions of the Postmodern period.
So, here, I also draw your attention to Umberto Eco's Travels in Hyperreality which is a brilliant
work of cultural criticism, and in this work we find the combination of Postmodern philosophy,
travelogue and also sardonic representations that focus on the cultural shortcomings of America.
So, in that sense,in
this work which is also a narrative of the cultural life of Postmodern
America, we find Eco emerging as a social critic and the tour guide.
Hollywood movies. There is another more secret America or rather just as public, but snubbed
by the European visitor and also by the American intellectual; and it creates somehow a network
of references and influences that finally spread also to the products of high culture and the
entertainment industry . It has to be discovered.
And so we set out on the journey holding onto the Ariadne-thread and open-sesame that will
allow us to identify the object of the pilgrimage no matter what form it may assume. We can
identify it through typical slogans that pervade American advertising. The first, widely used by
Coca-Cola, but also frequent as a hyperbolic formula in everyday speech, is “the real thing”; the
second, found in print and heard on TV, is more-- in the sense of ‘extra’. The announcer does not
This work in fact, takes us across an American landscape that is being recreated in the image of
say for example, ‘the program will continue’, but rather that there is ‘More to come’. In America
fake history, fake art, fake nature and fake cities. He also gives prominent examples from
you do not say, ‘give me another coffee’, you ask for ‘More coffee’. You do not say that
different images that have been constructed. And Eco considered this as a pilgrimage, this work
cigarette A is longer than cigarette B, but that there is ‘more’ of it, more than you are used to
Travels in Hyperreality across Arabia across different American cities as a pilgrimage in search
having, more than you might want , leaving a surplus to throw away-- that is prosperity.”
of hyperreality in which he hoped to be able to engage with the world of the Absolute Fake
which he also terms as the “authentic fake”.
The paradox inherent in this term is very interesting and this also captures the essence of the
Postmodern crisis of hyperreality.
Here, Eco also gives us a sense of how hyperreality gets manifested in the various aspects of
using language as well, how there is a semiotic way of engaging with the notions of hyperreality
as well.
“This is the reason for this journey into hyperreality in search of instances where the American
imagination demands the real thing and to attain it, must fabricate the absolute fake where the
boundaries between game and illusion are blurred, the art museum is contaminated by the freak
contrary to that he is the only True Man who actually thinks he is living his own life, his own
show, and falsehood is enjoyed in the situation of ‘fullness,’ of horror vacui “ and he also then
reality, but he is only a part of a reality show.
takes us through various sites in which these forms of representations could be experienced,
could be witnessed and “The first stop is the museum of the city of New York.”
So, as complicated the narrative is, this is also a perfect rendition of the Postmodern condition of
hyperreality and we shall be coming back to this movie The Truman Show because this is also
And, in these discussions, in these travels through hyperreality, as Eco puts it, we are also being
one of the texts that we shall be engaging with, in order to talk about various kinds of
led to eventually a confusion of what is real and what is not, which is the real world that we are
Postmodernisms at work.
experiencing and which is the simulated world?
And he also talks about his journey through Disneyland and Disney World and Las Vegas and he
also identifies them as absolutely fake cities and tells us that these two sites are also reminders
that technology can give us more reality than nature can.
There have also been various other kinds of definitions, various other theorists who engaged with
Postmodernism; Perry Giles, he offers this rather said self explanatory comment on hyperreality.
Hyperrealism is often spoken of as something that involves images and is assumed to be more
real where the ability to discern the real from the unreal or image becomes impossible, and in
And, going through these cities of imaginations, he also identifies these two sites- Disneyland
many ways, insignificant. With computer technology it has become even more difficult to
and Las Vegas as the two capitals of this new culture of illusions and here we also identified this
discern the real from the image, making such distinctions in many more ways meaningless. In
extremely fascinating fact that it is a contemporary crisis of representation, it is the contemporary
fact, here, we also find that the idea of hyperreality becomes more of a reality itself to such an
need to simulate reality that actually gave rise to the various theoretical frameworks which
extent that even the pursuit of the “real”, quote unquote the “real” is being increasingly seen as
engaged with hyperreality, simulacra and simulation.
an impossible, insignificant and a meaningless pursuit.
And, here, theory also ceases to be something which is completely removed from everyday life,
In this argument, further Daniel Boorstin also famously remarked in 1992 that the Grand Canyon
but on the other hand, theory here, becomes an offshoot of how life is lived on an everyday basis,
has become a disappointing reproduction of the Kodachrome original, of the photographic
how life is rather mediated by technology on a daily basis and this is the significance of engaging
original and here he is also drawing attention to how the simulacral process is far too advanced
with hyperreality and the various notions of representation in order to understand the Postmodern
in the Postmodern period, in the age of technological advancement. Boorstin's views are
period and in order to engage with the various crises that dominate in the Postmodern age.
extremely important to us because it also anticipates the later works by Baudrillard on
And, if we could think of yet another example, it would be the movie The Truman Show which
hyperreality.
was released in 1998, and this also, we find that the movie is being reflective of the Postmodern
And because in 1961, he had published The Image: A Guide to Pseudo Events, in America in
condition of hyperreality, it also engages with the aspects of counterfeit production and
which he engaged with the various aspects of American life and also focused on the shifts in
stimulation through a narrative in which the lead character of the movie is unable to distinguish
American culture due to advertising.
between the reality of his life and the ways in which his own reality is being sold to a wider
audience in the form of a reality show. And also, there is also a play on words in this title
because in The Truman Show, though he is a character unknown to himself, though Truman is
the character of a reality show in which he himself is playing the real character, we find in
So, even before Baudrillard spoke about hyperreality and simulacra and simulation, he drew
attention to how in the American culture advertising had led to a challenge in the idea of reality.
And he also defines pseudo events as events or activities that serve little purpose than to be
reproduced through advertisements or other forms of publicity. And he also made this comment
that “Image has more dignity than the original” in the context of advertisements that were
prevalent in 1960's. And what emerges is extremely interesting as a factor whether it is
Boorstin’s work on American advertisements, or Baudrillard’s works on hyperreality, or Eco's
journeys through hyperreality; we find that there is an undercurrent of the consumerist culture
which also challenges the ideas of text, the ideas of author, even the ideas of the reader and the
critical practice itself and how there is a way in which the entire paradigms within which art was
conceived, within which art was approached has undergone a radical shift.
This is again not to say that the notions of hyperreality, the theories by Baudrillard and the others
have been received without any criticism. Many have dismissed these notions, these theories as
being intensely pessimistic because it also focuses a lot, it also relies a lot on technological
determinism. We shall not be going into the details of those right now, but nevertheless, it is also
important to remember that though Baudrillard draws our attention to the notion of hyperreality,
to such an extent that it also becoming a form of a frightening reality of the contemporary. We
can also simultaneously, think about various others such as Lyotard who also saw a possibility of
more liberty for the entire social system in a technologically determined world.
When we move away from the so-called set ideas of reproduction, legitimation and
representation, we are also being invited into, we are also participating in a new world which is
not limited by any of these criteria in which we can think about newer possibilities, we can think
about newer narratives and newer forms of world view.
So, with that note we also wind up today's lecture. That is all we have for today's session. Thank
you for listening and we look forward to seeing you in the next session.