MODERNISM
and
postmodernism
Modernism
Approx. 1880s to WWII
General Tenets of Modernism
• Challenged tradition
• Stylistic experimentation
• Critique of mimesis or realism in
how we represent the world
• Experiments in perception and
representation
“The Treachery of Images” (1929)
–RENÉ MAGRITTE
Tenets of Modernism
• Abandonment of traditional “rules”
for creating art, music, and literature
MARC CHAGALL
“I and the Village” (1911)
Tenets of Modernism
• Fragmented representations of time, meaning,
and human nature
VINCENT VAN GOGH – “The Starry Night” (1889)
MARCEL DUCHAMP
“Nude Descending a
Staircase, No. 2” (1912)
PABLO PICASSO
“Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”
(1907)
Tenets of Modernism
Sense of loss, alienation, abandonment, and
disillusionment
EDVARD MUNCH – “Evening on Karl Johan” (1892)
Tenets of Modernism
Subjectivity, the importance of “I,” of my
thoughts and feelings and experiences
Tenets of Modernism
Urge toward nostalgia: longing for some
“better” time, “the good old days”
CATALYSTS OF MODERNISM
Modernism was largely brought about
by the convergence of several factors:
WAR - The devastation caused in Europe
after World War I, when the most
enlightened and advanced nations on the
earth came together to kill each other in
staggering numbers.
Karl Marx
 Asserted that human
moral, cultural, and
religious values were
caused not by any
inherent sense of
good or evil but by
the requirements of a
particular (economic)
system.
Charles Darwin

Discovered that the
evolution of species
was the result of
“natural selection”
and competition
rather than through
any special act of
purposeful creation
(vs. G-d).
Friedrich Nietzsche
 Identified the moral and
cultural crises facing Western
civilization.
 Viewed artists as purveyors
of culture.
 Dismissed Christian morality
(“God is dead”) and
profferred the morality of
the Superman and the Slave.
 Warned of the dangers of
embracing nihilism.
Sigmund Freud
 Asserted that most
elements of the
human personality
were the result of
various psycho-sexual
traumas experienced
in infancy and early
childhood and stored
in the subconscious
mind.
In literature…
oAuthors made the interior their stage 
emphasized the individual and the subjectivity
of perception.
o Experimented with new uses of language and
imagery and new narrative structures:
o stream-of-consciousness narration
o multiple points of view
o fragmented, non-sequential plots.
Introducing…
POSTMODERNISM
Everything is
beautiful. Pop is
everything.
POSTMODERNISM
–Andy Warhol
POSTMODERNISM
MARILYN
MONROE
Andy Warhol
(1962)
POSTMODERNISM
Modernity
Postmodernity
The alienation of the “I” 
subjectivity
Multiculturalism (voice
of“the Other”)
Serious, idealisticchange
the world through art
Cynical, mockingno
hope, so we might as
well laugh at the horror
Image culture / Society
of the spectacle
Age of Literacy
Elitist, formal
Breakdown between
“high” and “low”art
Belief in “meta-narrative”
Disconnect from myth/
meta-narrative
Tenets of Postmodernism
Extreme self-reflexivity:
objectification of structure;
artist/author reflects upon own
processes of creation
• pomos more so than mods
• more playful, irreverant 
• Examples: The Scream series
of movies has characters
debating the generic rules
behind the horror film.
Frank Gehry, Nationale-Nederlanden Bui
Tenets of Postmodernism
Irony and parody  sense of playfulness;
ironic interfacing between character(s) and
author
DROWNING GIRL
Roy Lichtenstein
(1963)
Tenets of Postmodernism
A breakdown between high
and low cultural forms.
Modernism: focus upon “high” art
Pomo: embraces both “high” and
“low” arts (like comic books)
Pomos often employ pop and massproduced objects in more
immediately understandable ways,
even if their goals are still often
complex (eg. Andy Warhol's
commentary on mass production and
on the commercial aspects of "high"
art through the exact reproduction of
a set of Cambell's Soup cans ).
200 Campbell’s Soup Cans
Andy Warhol (1962)
Tenets of Postmodernism
Nostalgia as pastiche:
- Fascination with styles and fashions from the
past, but often used completely out of their
original context, and in juxtaposition
(pastiche).
- Examples: recycled TV shows of the past that
are then given new life on the big screen
(Scooby-Doo, Charlie's Angels, and so on).
- May be a symptom of our loss of a
connection with the past….
Tenets of Postmodernism
Visuality (visuals, pictures) vs. temporality
(linear time)
- Gravitation towards visual forms, as in "cartoons“ and
animated films.
- A general breakdown in narrative linearity and
temporality. Many point to the style of MTV videos as a
good example.
“The transformation of
reality into images…”
(HYPER)REALITY
“The Treachery of Images” (1929)
–Frederic Jameson
Hyper-reality, image saturation,
simulacra seem more powerful
than the "real”
Sense of fragmentation
and decentered self;
multiple, conflicting
identities.
Illusions of individuality
RENÉ MAGRITTE
Tenets of Postmodernism
Secondary Orality: reliance of a largely
functionally illiterate society upon oral media
sources for information (TV, radio, film, etc.)
 reversal: literacy rates had been rising steadily
from the introduction of print through the modern
period, but postmodern society has seen a drastic
reversal in this trend -- pomo culture still relies
on print to create these media outlets (hence the
term secondary orality); however, increasingly
only a professional, well-educated class has
access to full print- and computer-literacy. An
ever larger percentage of the population merely
ingests orally the media that is being produced
(passive response).
Tenets of Postmodernism
Sense of fragmentation and
decentered self; multiple,
conflicting identities.
Sense of
disillusionment
Illusions of
individuality
Tenets of Postmodernism
Questions of truth and
subjectivity first
proposed in
Modernism, gave rise to
the belief in multiple
truths and multiple
subjectivities in
Postmodernism.
It’s Pomo… You know,
Post-modern… Weird for
the sake of weird.
(Episode “Homer the Moe”)
Tenets of Postmodernism
Disorientation:
Pomo works attempt to
disorient the subject in time
and space.
 alternating narrators
(Faulkner)
 fragmented chronology
(Vonnegut)
Dr. Who
Tenets of Postmodernism
Intertextuality (in both mod and pomo) –
references within one work to outside texts
Tenets of Postmodernism
Late capitalism: a general sense that the
world has been so taken over by the values of
capitalist acquisition that alternatives no
longer exist.  paranoia narratives .
Minority Report