When did artistic postmodernism begin to take shape? The main directions of postmodernism in art: complex, important and interesting

Some researchers associate the emergence of literary postmodernism with the publication of J. Joyce’s book “Finnegans Wake” (1939). The characteristic features of postmodernism are manifested in the works of D. Barthelme (“Come back, Doctor Caligari”, “City Life”), R. Federman (“At your discretion”), W. Eco (“The Name of the Rose”, “Foucault’s Pendulum”), M . Pavich (“Khazar Dictionary”). The phenomena of Russian postmodernism include, for example, the works of A. Zholkovsky, “Endless Dead End” by D. Galkovsky, “The Ideal Book” by Max Frei.

Postmodernism has had a great influence on the art of cinema. The general public is familiar with postmodern cinema, in particular from the works of American film directors W. Allen (“Love and Death”, “Deconstructing Harry”), K. Tarantino (“Pulp Fiction”, “From Dusk Till Dawn”). The films of the late J. L. Godard (“Passion”, “History of Cinema”) represent an example of “intellectual” postmodernism.

In the visual and theatrical arts, the influence of postmodernism is expressed in the elimination of the distance between the actors (artwork) and the viewer, in the maximum involvement of the viewer in the concept of the work, in the blurring of the line between reality and fiction. In postmodern art, various actions (“action”) flourish: performance, happenings, etc.

The spirit of postmodernism continues to penetrate all spheres of human culture and life. The utopian aspirations of the former avant-garde were replaced by a more self-critical attitude of art towards itself, a war with tradition - coexistence with it, fundamental stylistic pluralism. Postmodernism, rejecting the rationalism of the “international style,” turned to visual quotations from the history of art, to the unique features of the surrounding landscape, combining all this with the latest achievements of construction technology.

"INTERNATIONAL STYLE" in architecture. 20th century, a direction dating back to the strict rationalism of L. Mies van der Rohe. The geometric structures of the “international style” made of metal, glass and concrete are distinguished by elegance and high technical perfection, however, especially when mass copying of its samples, they ignored the originality of local landscapes and historical buildings (for example, the faceless parallelepipeds of the Hilton hotels, the same in anywhere in the world). Criticism of the international style was the most important stimulus for the formation of architectural postmodernism.

The visual creativity of postmodernism (of which pop art became an early frontier) proclaimed the slogan of “open art”, which freely interacts with all old and new styles. In this situation, the previous opposition between tradition and avant-garde has lost its meaning.

Individual harbingers of postmodernism arose more than once among the former avant-garde (for example, in Dada), but the first stylistic milestone was postmodernism in architecture (which contrasted pure functionalism with various ironic dialogues with tradition), as well as pop art.

FUNCTIONALISM, a direction in architecture of the 20th century, requiring strict compliance of buildings and structures with the production and domestic processes (functions) occurring in them. Functionalism arose in Germany (Bauhaus school) and the Netherlands (J. J. P. Oud); The search for constructivism in the USSR is in many ways similar. Using the achievements of construction technology, functionalism gave reasonable methods and norms for planning residential complexes (standard sections and blocks, “line-by-line” development of blocks with the ends of buildings facing the street).

POP ART (English pop art, abbreviated from popular art - public art), a modernist artistic movement that arose in the 2nd half. 1950s in the USA and UK. Refusing conventional methods of painting and sculpture, pop art cultivates a seemingly random, often paradoxical combination of ready-made everyday objects, mechanical copies (photography, dummy, reproduction), excerpts from mass printed publications (advertising, industrial graphics, comics, etc.).

Here, and also, somewhat later, in video art and photorealism, all remnants of former aesthetic taboos, all distinctions between “high” and “low,” the habitually beautiful and the habitually ugly, were removed.

VIDEOART (eng. video art), a direction in fine art of the last third of the 20th century, using the capabilities of video technology. Unlike television itself, designed for broadcast to mass audiences, video art uses television receivers, video cameras and monitors in unique happenings, and also produces experimental films in the spirit of conceptual art, which are shown in special exhibition spaces. With the help of modern electronics, he shows, as it were, the “brain in action”, a clear path from an artistic idea to its implementation. The main founder of the movement is considered to be Korean-American Nam Yun Paik.

HYPERREALISM (photorealism), a movement in the fine arts of the last third of the 20th century, combining the extreme naturalness of images with the effects of their dramatic alienation. Painting and graphics here are often likened to photography (hence its second name); sculpture is a naturalistic, tinted cast of living figures. Many masters of hyperrealism (for example, painters C. Close and R. Estes, sculptors J. de Andrea, D. Hanson in the USA) are close to pop art with its parodies of photographic documents and commercial advertising; others directly continue the line of magical realism, preserving the more traditional structures of easel composition.

Old means of expression (that is, traditional types of painting, graphics, sculpture, etc.) entered into unprecedentedly close communication with new technical means of creativity (in addition to photography and cinematography, video recording, electronic sound, lighting and color technology), appearing primarily in pop art and kineticism. This electronic-aesthetic synthesis has reached particular complexity in the “virtual images” of computer devices of the latest generation.

The art of happenings has renewed the relationship between the visual arts and theatre.

HAPPENING (English happening, from happen - to happen, to occur), a direction in postmodernism that has moved from the creation of aesthetic objects to work-processes, that is, to “artistic events” carried out either by the artist himself, or by assistants and spectators acting on his plan; This is how this work-event itself or “action” is called. Its harbingers were the deliberately mysterious, “abstruse”, sometimes scandalous actions of artists and poets of futurism, Dadaism, and the OBERIU group, which often accompanied their public performances.

Happenings, closely related in spirit to the theater of the absurd, can be unique micro-performances with plot elements and complex props, or more abstract rhythmic, dynamic or stable compositions. They invariably emphasize the free “space of play”, which the viewer-participant must feel. They gained particular popularity from the period of the emergence of pop art and conceptual art, often including elements of video art, feminism, and joining various kinds of socio-political and environmental movements as visual propaganda. Closely related to happenings are body art and performance art, which are often identified with it.

Finally, conceptual art, as the most important stage of postmodernism along with pop art, representing the creativity of “pure” ideas, opened up new opportunities for dialogue between visual and verbal forms of artistic culture.

CONCEPTUAL ART, conceptualism, a type of postmodernism that developed towards the end of the 1960s. and which set as its goal the transition from material works to the creation of artistic ideas (or so-called concepts) that are more or less free from material embodiment. Creativity is conceptualized here as close in spirit to happenings and performances, but, unlike them, the process of involving the viewer in the play of such concepts recorded in a stable exhibition. The latter can be represented by fragments of textual and visual information, in the form of graphs, diagrams, numbers, formulas and other visual-logical structures, or (in more individualized versions of conceptual art) in the form of inscriptions and diagrams, declaratively telling about the artist’s intentions.

Researchers note the duality of postmodern art: the loss of the heritage of European artistic traditions and excessive dependence on the culture of cinema, fashion and commercial graphics, and, on the other hand, postmodern art provokes thorny questions, requiring no less thorny answers and touching on the most pressing problems of morality, which completely coincides with the original mission of art as such (Taylor, 2004).

Postmodern art abandoned attempts to create a universal canon with a strict hierarchy of aesthetic values ​​and norms. The only indisputable value is considered to be the unrestricted freedom of self-expression of the artist, based on the principle “everything is permitted.” All other aesthetic values ​​are relative and conditional, not necessary to create a work of art, which makes possible the potential universality of postmodern art, its ability to include the entire palette of life phenomena, but also often leads to nihilism, self-will and absurdity, adjusting the criteria of art to the creative imagination of the artist , blurring the boundaries between art and other spheres of life.

Baudrillard sees the existence of modern art within the framework of the opposition of reason and the elements of the unconscious, order and chaos. He argues that reason has finally lost control of the irrational forces that have come to dominate modern culture and society (Baudrillard, 1990). According to Baudrillard, modern computer technology has transformed art from the sphere of symbols and images, which have an inextricable connection with true reality, into an independent sphere, virtual reality, alienated from true reality, but no less spectacular in the eyes of consumers than true reality and built on endless self-copying.

Currently, we can already talk about postmodernism as an established art style with its own typological characteristics.

The use of ready-made forms is a fundamental feature of such art. The origin of these ready-made forms is not of fundamental importance: from utilitarian household items thrown in the trash or bought in a store, to masterpieces of world art (it doesn’t matter whether it’s Paleolithic or late avant-garde). The situation of artistic borrowing up to the simulation of borrowing, remake, reinterpretation, patchwork and replication, adding one’s own to classical works, which was added to these characteristic features by the “new sentimentality” in the late 80s and 90s, is the content of the art of the postmodern era.

Postmodernism turns to the ready-made, the past, which has already taken place in order to compensate for the lack of its own content. Postmodernism demonstrates its extreme traditionalism and contrasts itself with the unconventional art of the avant-garde. “The artist of our days is not a producer, but an appropriator... since the time of Duchamp, we know that the modern artist does not produce, but selects, combines, transfers and places in a new place... Cultural innovation is carried out today as the adaptation of cultural tradition to new life circumstances, new technologies of presentation and distribution, or new stereotypes of perception” (B. Groys).

The postmodern era refutes the postulates that seemed unshakable until recently that “...tradition has exhausted itself and that art must look for another form” (Ortega y Gasset) - by demonstrating eclecticism in modern art of any form of tradition, orthodoxy and avant-garde. “Quotation, simulation, re-appropriation - all these are not just terms of modern art, but its essence,” (J. Baudrillard).

Baudrillard's concept is based on the assertion of the irreversible depravity of all Western culture (Baudrillard, 1990). Baudrillard puts forward an apocalyptic view of modern art, according to which it, having become a derivative of modern technology, has irretrievably lost touch with reality, has become a structure independent of reality, has ceased to be authentic, copying its own works and creating copies of copies, simulacra of simulacra, like copies without originals , becoming a perverted form of genuine art.

The death of modern art for Baudrillard occurs not as the end of art in general, but as the death of the creative essence of art, its inability to create something new and original, while art as an endless self-repetition of forms continues to exist (Baudrillard, 1990).

The argument for Baudrillard’s apocalyptic point of view is the assertion of the irreversibility of technological progress, which has penetrated into all spheres of public life and has gotten out of control and liberated the elements of the unconscious and irrational in man.

In postmodernism, the borrowed material is slightly modified, and more often it is extracted from the natural environment or context, and placed in a new or unusual area. This is his deep marginality. Any household or artistic form, first of all, is “...for him only a source of building materials” (V. Brainin-Passek).

Spectacular works by Mersad Berber with the inclusion of copied fragments of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, electronic music, which is a continuous stream of ready-made musical fragments connected by “DJ summaries”, compositions by Louise Bourgeois from chairs and door panels, Lenin and Mickey Mouse in a work of social art - all these are typical manifestations of the everyday reality of postmodern art.

The paradoxical mixture of styles, trends and traditions in postmodern art allows researchers to see in it not “evidence of the agony of art, but creative soil for the formation of new cultural phenomena that are vital for the development of art and culture” (Morawski, 1989: 161).

Postmodernism, in general, does not recognize pathos; it ironizes at the world around it or at itself, thereby saving itself from vulgarity and justifying its original secondary nature.

Irony is another typological feature of postmodern culture. The avant-garde focus on novelty is contrasted with the desire to include in contemporary art the entire world artistic experience through the method of ironic quotation. The ability to freely manipulate any ready-made forms, as well as artistic styles of the past in an ironic way, turning to timeless subjects and eternal themes, until recently unthinkable in avant-garde art, allows us to focus on their anomalous state in the modern world. The similarity of postmodernism is noted not only with mass culture and kitsch. Much more justified is the repetition of the experiment of socialist realism, noticeable in postmodernism, which proved the fruitfulness of using and synthesizing the experience of the best world artistic tradition.

Thus, postmodernity inherits syntheticism or syncretism from socialist realism as a typological feature. Moreover, if in the socialist realist synthesis of various styles their identity, purity of characteristics, and separateness are preserved, then in postmodernism one can see an alloy, a literal fusion of various characteristics, techniques, features of various styles, representing a new author’s form. This is very characteristic of postmodernism: its novelty is a fusion of the old, the former, already in use, used in a new marginal context. Any postmodern practice (cinema, literature, architecture or other forms of art) is characterized by historical allusions.

Game is a fundamental feature of postmodernism as its response to any hierarchical and total structures in society, language and culture. Whether it is Wittgenstein's “language games” (Wittgenstein, 1922) or the game of the author with the reader, when the author appears in his own work, such as the hero of Borges’s novel, “Borges and I” or the author in the novel “Breakfast of Champions” by K. Vonnegut . The game assumes multivariate events, excluding determinism and totality, or, more precisely, including them as one of the options, as participants in a game where the outcome of the game is not predetermined. An example of a postmodern game can be the works of W. Eco or D. Fowles.

An integral element of the postmodern game is its dialogical and carnival quality, when the world is presented not as the self-development of the Absolute Spirit, a single principle as in Hegel’s concept, but as a polyphony of “voices”, a dialogue of “first principles”, fundamentally irreducible to each other, but complementary and revealing themselves through another, not as a unity and struggle of opposites, but as a symphony of “voices” that are impossible without each other. Without excluding anything, postmodern philosophy and art include the Hegelian model as one of the voices, an equal among equals. An example of a postmodern vision of the world is the concept of dialogue by Levinas (Levinas, 1987), the theory of polylogue by Yu. Kristeva (Kristeva, 1977), the analysis of carnival culture, criticism of monological structures and the concept of the deployment of dialogue by M. Bakhtin (Bakhtin, 1976).

The criticism of postmodernism is total in nature (despite the fact that postmodernism denies any totality) and belongs to both supporters of modern art and its enemies. The death of postmodernism has already been announced (such shocking statements after R. Barthes, who proclaimed the “death of the author”, are gradually taking on the form of a common cliche), postmodernism has received the characteristic of second hand culture.

It is generally accepted that there is nothing new in postmodernity (Groys), it is a culture without its own content (Krivtsun) and therefore uses as building material any previous developments (Brainin-Passek), and therefore synthetic and most similar in structure to socialist realism ( Epstein) and, therefore, deeply traditional, based on the position that “art is always the same, only individual techniques and means of expression change” (Turchin). Contemporary art has lost touch with reality, lost its representative function and ceased to reflect, even to the slightest extent, the reality around us (Martindale, 1990). Having lost touch with reality, contemporary art is doomed to endless self-repetition and eclecticism (Adorno, 1999).

Because of this, some researchers argue about the “death of art”, the “end of art” as an integral phenomenon with a common structure, history and laws (Danto, 1997). The separation of modern art from reality, classical aesthetic values, its closure within itself, the erasure of its boundaries leads to the end of art as an independent sphere of life (Kuspit, 2004). Some researchers see a way out of the semantic impasse in the works of the “new old masters”, who combine in their creativity the artistic tradition with innovative techniques for realizing an artistic concept (Kuspit, 2004).

While accepting the largely justified criticism of such a cultural phenomenon as postmodernism, it is worth noting its encouraging qualities. Postmodernism rehabilitates the previous artistic tradition, and at the same time realism, academicism, and classicism, which were actively denied throughout the twentieth century, serves as a universal experimental creative platform, opening up the possibility of creating new, often paradoxical styles and trends, making possible an original rethinking of classical aesthetic values ​​and the formation of a new artistic paradigm in art.

Postmodernism proves its vitality by helping to reunite a culture's past with its present. Denying the chauvinism and nihilism of the avant-garde, the variety of forms used by postmodernism confirms its readiness for communication, dialogue, to achieve consensus with any culture, and denies any totality in art, which should undoubtedly improve the psychological and creative climate in society and will contribute to the development of era-appropriate forms of art, thanks to which “...distant constellations of future cultures will become visible” (F. Nietzsche).

Postmodern- this is the era in which we live, and postmodernism is the culture of this era. Postmodern = “after modernity.” Modern - the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, awareness of modernity, separation of oneself from the Middle Ages, change in the value system. From God to Man. Progress, the ascent of reason, responsibility and freedom of man (no one imposes a way of life and faith, a person decides for himself). Modernity is always in crisis; it always needs to assert itself “here and now.” There is a person, before he had a certain authority over him, norms, rules, reason was turned off there. This has all been eliminated; the decision whether to believe in God remains with the person. We turned on our minds. But when it was turned on, something else awakened, and this very other thing rebels against reason (Freud “it”, Foucault marginals). Postmodernity is an attempt to move from reason in the highest authority to “another reason.”

Postmodern- a sociological, historical and philosophical concept of the perception of the world in the era of post-industrialism, based on distrust of traditional realistic concepts and the truth of the reflection of reality by human senses.

Postmodernism as a specific phenomenon in history and sociology was identified by Western sociologists in the late 1980s. The understanding of postmodernism was developed by French poststructuralist philosophers: M. Foucault, J. Derrida, J. Baudrillard, based on the concept of the predominance of “fear and trembling” in the mentality of a resident of post-industrial civilization.

Postmodernity as a stage in the development of society, as a cultural “era” is associated with the destruction of irreconcilable social confrontation, with the fall of ideological, national, religious barriers, with the era of the creation of an information society and universal communications.

Postmodernism is not a formalized, systematized philosophical or scientific school; rather, it is a new worldview, worldview and worldview, manifesting itself as a trend in literature, art, science, literary criticism, philosophy, and sociology.

Postmodernity is an attempt to move from reason in the highest authority to the “other mind.” God--> Man --> It The border of modernity - man ends, his mind is powerless. Postmodern - Borges, Eco, Calvino. Bart, Kristeva.

The postmodern mindset bears the stamp of disappointment in the ideals and values ​​of the Renaissance and Enlightenment with their faith in progress, the triumph of reason, and the limitlessness of human possibilities. What is common to various national variants of postmodernism can be considered its identification with the name of the era of “tired”, “entropic” culture, marked by eschatological moods, aesthetic mutations, diffusion of great styles, and a mixture of artistic languages. That is eclecticism. The avant-garde focus on novelty is opposed here by the desire to include in contemporary art the entire experience of world artistic culture by ironically quoting it. Intertextuality.

Formed in the era of the predominance of information and communication technologies of the early 20th century, postmodernism bears the stamp of pluralism and tolerance, which in artistic manifestation resulted in eclecticism. Its characteristic feature was the combination within one work of styles, figurative motifs and techniques borrowed from the arsenal of different eras, regions and subcultures.

Artists use the allegorical language of classics, baroque, and symbolism of ancient cultures that had not been used before. The works of postmodernists represent a playful space in which free movement of meanings occurs. But, having included in your orbit experience of world artistic culture, postmodernists did this through jokes, grotesque, parody, widely using the techniques of artistic quotation, collage, and repetition. Following the path of free borrowing from various artistic systems, postmodernism as if equalizes them, creating a single global cultural space.

Postmodernism, putting everything in a playful form, levels the distance between the mass and elite consumers, reducing the elite to the masses

The state of loss of value orientations is perceived positively by theorists of postmodernism. “Eternal values” are totalitarian and paranoid, idefixes that hinder creative realization. The true ideal of postmodernists- Thischaos.

There are two principles reigning in the world: the schizoid beginning of creative development and the paranoid beginning of a suffocating order.

Guattari and Deleuze paid attention schizophrenia- this is the main principle of thinking in modern society. Consciousness is split - you can be anyone at the same time. Different ideals are not in conflict. The old culture is a culture of paranoia. In modern world man - nomad wanderer, he has no goal, he just moves all the time, there is no homeland.

At the same time, postmodernists affirm the idea of ​​“the death of the author,” following Foucault and Barthes. Any semblance of order needs immediate deconstruction - the liberation of meaning, through the inversion of the basic ideological concepts that permeate the entire culture.

The main method of understanding the world is deconstructivism. Kristeva, Derrida. The essence: the text reveals internal inconsistency, the metaphorical nature of any sign. It is necessary to scatter the text, destroy the structure. It must be shown that it gives rise to a variety of meanings. We find another center, the meaning shifts. Deconstruction is the discovery of multiple meanings. It's at the same time destruction and deconstruction text. The world is structured by human activity. Post-structuralism denies structuralism.

An important feature of postmodernity is the playful nature of culture in general and theatricalization, which covers all areas of life today. Almost all events of any significance take the form of a bright and spectacular performance or show.

Baudrillard- “simulacrum” is a symbolic entity that does not refer to reality but replaces reality. Significant in itself, it changes reality. There is no authenticity. There will be no war in the Gulf. An example of a simulacrum is the events of September 11 - what is important is that it is a catastrophe, horror, death, fire - it is not the fate of people that is important, but this simulacrum that triggers political processes. Reality crisis. There are only simulacra around.

The essence of postmodernism is the feeling of an accomplished death, the play of death masks. There is no authenticity, there is no meaning. The mind doesn't work. End of story.

Fukuyama "The end of history?“- there will be no more history, there will be no novelty, the world will not fundamentally change. Nothing will change paradigmatically. There is no culture, only a museum of human history.

Huntington "The End of Humanity?"

Why did the world fall apart, only constructs remained? When the highest principle is removed, then Everything can be deconstructed. All society is an exchange according to Strauss, but you can exchange as long as you keep something. There is always something that is not exchanged - these are sacred things. In the modern world, there are fewer and fewer things that can be exchanged.

Social constructionism - all knowledge and ideas that are perceived as natural and obvious, the essence of invention or artificially created cultural artifacts - social constructs.

"The Crisis of European Culture" (1917). In 1934, in his book Anthology of Spanish and Latin American Poetry, literary critic F. de Onis uses it to indicate a reaction to modernism. In 1947, Arnold Toynbee in his book “Comprehension of History” gives postmodernism a cultural meaning: postmodernism symbolizes the end of Western dominance in religion and culture.

The declared “beginning” of postmodernism is considered to be Leslie Fiedler’s 1969 article, “Cross the Border, Fill the Ditch,” defiantly published in Playboy magazine. American theologian Harvey Cox, in his works of the early 70s devoted to the problems of religion in Latin America, widely uses the concept of “postmodern theology.” However, the term “postmodernism” gained popularity thanks to Charles Jencks. In the book “The Language of Postmodern Architecture,” he noted that although the word itself was used in American literary criticism in the 60s and 70s to designate ultramodernist literary experiments, the author gave it a fundamentally different meaning. Postmodernism meant a departure from the extremism and nihilism of the neo-avant-garde, a partial return to tradition, and an emphasis on the communicative role of architecture. Justifying his anti-rationalism, anti-functionalism and anti-constructivism in his approach to architecture, Charles Jencks insisted on the primacy of the creation of an aestheticized artifact. Subsequently, the content of this concept expands from an initially narrow definition of new trends in American architecture and a new movement in French philosophy (J. Derrida, J.-F. Lyotard) to a definition that covers the processes that began in the 60-70s in all areas of culture, including feminist and anti-racist movements.

Basic interpretations of the concept

Currently, there are a number of complementary concepts of postmodernism as a cultural phenomenon, which are sometimes mutually exclusive:

The difference between postmodernism and modernism

The postmodern era refutes the postulates that seemed unshakable until recently that “...tradition has exhausted itself and that art must look for another form” (Ortega y Gasset) - by demonstrating eclecticism in modern art of any form of tradition, orthodoxy and avant-garde. “Quotation, simulation, re-appropriation - all these are not just terms of modern art, but its essence,” (J. Baudrillard).

At the same time, in postmodernity the borrowed material is slightly modified, and more often it is extracted from the natural environment or context, and placed in a new or unusual area. This is his deepest marginality. Any household or artistic form, first of all, is “...for him only a source of building materials” (V. Brainin-Passek). Spectacular works by Mersad Berber with the inclusion of copied fragments of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, electronic music, which is a continuous stream of ready-made musical fragments connected by “DJ summaries”, compositions by Louise Bourgeois from chairs and door panels, Lenin and Mickey Mouse in a work of social art - all these are typical manifestations of the everyday reality of postmodern art.

Postmodernism, in general, does not recognize pathos; it ironizes at the world around it or at itself, thereby saving itself from vulgarity and justifying its original secondary nature.

Irony- another typological feature of postmodern culture. The avant-garde focus on novelty is contrasted with the desire to include in contemporary art the entire world artistic experience through the method of ironic quotation. The ability to freely manipulate any ready-made forms, as well as artistic styles of the past in an ironic way, turning to timeless subjects and eternal themes, until recently unthinkable in avant-garde art, allows us to focus on their anomalous state in the modern world. The similarity of postmodernism is noted not only with mass culture and kitsch. Much more justified is the repetition of the experiment of socialist realism, noticeable in postmodernism, which proved the fruitfulness of using and synthesizing the experience of the best world artistic tradition.

Thus, postmodernity inherits from socialist realism synthetic or syncretism- as a typological feature. Moreover, if in the socialist realist synthesis of various styles their identity, purity of characteristics, and separateness are preserved, then in postmodernism one can see an alloy, a literal fusion of various characteristics, techniques, features of various styles, representing a new author’s form. This is very characteristic of postmodernism: its novelty is a fusion of the old, the former, already in use, used in a new marginal context. Any postmodern practice (cinema, literature, architecture or other forms of art) is characterized by historical allusions.

The criticism of postmodernism is total in nature (despite the fact that postmodernism denies any totality) and belongs to both supporters of modern art and its enemies. The death of postmodernism has already been announced (such shocking statements after R. Barthes, who proclaimed the “death of the author”, are gradually taking on the form of a common cliche), postmodernism has received the characteristic of second hand culture.

It is generally accepted that there is nothing new in postmodernity (Groys), it is a culture without its own content (Krivtsun) and therefore uses as building material any previous developments (Brainin-Passek), and therefore synthetic and most similar in structure to socialist realism ( Epstein) and, therefore, deeply traditional, based on the position that “art is always the same, only individual techniques and means of expression change” (Turchin).

While accepting the largely justified criticism of such a cultural phenomenon as postmodernism, it is worth noting its encouraging qualities. Postmodernism rehabilitates the previous artistic tradition, and at the same time realism, academicism, and classicism, which were actively defamed throughout the twentieth century. Postmodernism proves its vitality by helping to reunite a culture's past with its present.

Denying the chauvinism and nihilism of the avant-garde, the variety of forms used by postmodernism confirms its readiness for communication, dialogue, to achieve consensus with any culture, and denies any totality in art, which should undoubtedly improve the psychological and creative climate in society and will contribute to the development of era-appropriate forms of art, thanks to which “...distant constellations of future cultures will become visible” (F. Nietzsche).

Notes

see also

• Postmodernism in literature

Literature

• Lyotard, J.F. The state of postmodernity = La condition postmoderne / Shmako N.A. (trans.) from French.. - St. Petersburg. : Aletheia, 1998. - 160 p. - (Gallicinium). - 2000 copies.

• Study of Postmodernism In Russian
• Aleynik R. M. The image of man in French postmodern literature // Spectrum of anthropological teachings. - M.: IF RAS, 2006. - p. 199-214.
• Andreeva E. Yu. Postmodernism. Art of the second half of the 20th - early 21st centuries. - St. Petersburg, 2007. Berg M. Yu.
• Literaturocracy (The problem of appropriation and redistribution of power in literature). - Moscow: New Literary Review, 2000. Ilyin, I. P.
• Postmodernism from its origins to the end of the century: the evolution of a scientific myth. - M.: Intrada, 1998. Mankovskaya N. B.
• Aesthetics of postmodernism. - St. Petersburg. : Aletheia, 2000. - 347 p. - (Gallicinium). - 1600 copies.- ISBN 5-89329-237-5
• Postmodernism: approaching the anti-world (Article by S. E. Yurkov from the collection “Aesthetics in the interparadigmatic space: prospects for the new century. Proceedings of the scientific conference on October 10, 2001”, Symposium Series, issue 16.
• Skoropanova I. S. Russian postmodern literature. - Moscow: Flinta, 1999.
• Sokal A., Brickmont J. Intellectual tricks. Criticism of postmodern philosophy / Transl. from English A. Kostikova and D. Kralechkin. Preface by S. P. Kapitsa - M.: House of Intellectual Books, 2002. - 248 p.

• Stanley Trachtenberg, Ed. The Postmodern Moment. A Handbook of Contemporary Innovation in the Arts. - Westport-London., 1985.

• Postmodernism: Encyclopedia / Gritsanov A.A., Mozheiko M.A.. - Mn. : Interpressservice; Book House; Yandex, 2001; 2006. - 1040 p. - (World of encyclopedias).

Links

• Postmodern architecture on Zdaniya.ru
• Bizeev A. Yu. Transition and transitivity in postmodern culture. Philosophizing postmodernism and modern culture // Electronic magazine “Knowledge. Understanding. Skill ». - 2009. - No. 4 - Culturology.
• Boldachev A.V. Decrepit postmodern daddy - Philosophical pamphlet
• Vorontsova T. I. John Barth's Letters as a Postmodern Novel
• Ermilova G. I. Postmodernism as a cultural phenomenon of the late 20th century
• Khazin M. L. Postmodernity - reality or fantasy? - Postmodernism in economics

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Synonyms a multi-valued and dynamically mobile complex of philosophical, epistemological, scientific-theoretical and emotional-aesthetic ideas depending on the historical, social and national context. Postmodernism acts as a characteristic of a certain mentality, a specific way of perceiving the world, worldview and assessment of both the cognitive capabilities of a person and his place and role in the world around him. Postmodernism went through a long phase of latent formation, dating back approximately to the end of the Second World War, and only from the beginning of the 1980s was it recognized as a general aesthetic phenomenon of Western culture and theoretically reflected as a specific phenomenon in philosophy, aesthetics and literary criticism. Postmodernism as a direction in modern literary criticism (main theorists: the Frenchman J.F. Lyotard, the Americans I. Hassan, F. Jameson, the Dutch D.V. Fokkema, T. Dan, the English J. Butler, J. Lodge, etc.) is based on the theory and practice of post-structuralism and deconstructivism and is characterized as an attempt to identify at the level of organization of a literary text a certain ideological complex in a specific way of emotionally charged ideas.

The main concepts that the supporters of this direction operate with: “the world as chaos” and “postmodern sensitivity”, “the world as text” and “consciousness as text”, intertextuality, “crisis of authorities” and “epistemological uncertainty”, the author’s mask, double code and “parodic mode of narration”, pastigs, inconsistency, discreteness, fragmentation of narration (the principle of non-selection), “failure of communication” (or more generally, “communicative difficulty”), meta-story. In the works of postmodern theorists, the main postulates of poststructuralism and deconstruction were radicalized and attempts were made to synthesize the rival general philosophical concepts of poststructuralism with the practice of Yale deconstructivism, projecting them onto contemporary art. Thus, postmodernism synthesized the theory of poststructuralism, the practice of literary critical analysis of deconstructivism and the artistic practice of modern art and tried to explain this as a “new vision of the world.” All this allows us to speak about the existence of a specific poststructuralist-deconstructivist-postmodernist complex of general ideas and attitudes.

Initially taking shape in line with poststructuralist ideas, this complex then began to develop towards self-awareness as a philosophy of postmodernism. Thus, it significantly expanded the scope of its application and impact. If poststructuralism in its original forms was practically limited to a relatively narrow sphere of philosophical and literary interests, then postmodernism immediately began to lay claim to the expression of the general theory of modern art in general and a special postmodernist sensitivity, i.e. specific postmodern mentality. As a result, postmodernism began to be conceptualized as an expression of the spirit of the time in all spheres of human activity: art, philosophy, science, economics, politics. One of the consequences of philosophical postmodernism entering the theoretical forefront was a revision of those impulses of influence that had a significant impact on the very fact of the formation of poststructuralism. The phenomenon of “poetic language” or “poetic thinking” began to be considered as actually postmodern in nature. It is “poetic thinking” that is characterized by modern theorists of postmodernism as the main, fundamental sign of postmodern sensitivity. As a result, critics and literary theorists act primarily as philosophers, and writers and poets as art theorists. Everything that is called the “postmodern novel” by J. Fowles, J. Bart, A. Rob Grillet, R. Sukenik, F. Sollers, H. Cortazar and others includes not only a description of events and the depiction of the persons involved in them, but also lengthy discussions about the very process of writing this work. Introducing theoretical passages into the fabric of the narrative, writers of postmodern orientation often directly appeal to the authority of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and other theorists of poststructuralism and postmodernism, declaring the impossibility of writing in the “old” way in the “new conditions,” i.e. in a traditional realistic manner.

Such a symbiosis of literary theorizing and artistic fiction can also be explained by the purely practical needs of writers who are forced to explain to the reader, brought up in the realistic tradition, why they resort to an unusual form of narration. However, the problem is much deeper, since the essayistic nature of the presentation, whether it concerns fiction, or philosophical, literary, critical literature, has generally become a sign of the times, and the tone here was set from the very beginning by the philosophers Heidegger, Blanchot, Derrida and others. Theorists of postmodernism constantly emphasize the crisis nature postmodern consciousness, believing that its roots go back to the era of disruption of natural scientific concepts at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the authority of both positivist scientific knowledge and rationalistically based values ​​of the bourgeois cultural tradition was significantly undermined. The very appeal to common sense, so typical of the critical practice of Enlightenment ideology, began to be seen as a legacy of the “false consciousness” of bourgeois rationalism. As a result, everything that is called “European tradition” is perceived by postmodernists as a rationalist tradition, or, more accurately, a bourgeois-rationalist tradition, and thus as unacceptable. In these conditions, practically, according to the unanimous opinion of postmodern theorists, only one perspective is possible for a “serious artist” - an imaginary deconstruction of the “politics of language games”, which allows us to understand the “fictitious nature” of linguistic consciousness. Hence the specificity of postmodern art, which brings to the fore the unrepresentable, the indescribable in the image itself.

Starting from the concepts of Lyotard and Hassan, Fokkema tried to project the ideological preconditions of postmodernism onto his artistic style. Postmodernism for him is, first of all, a special “view of dehumanization”. If in the Renaissance, in his opinion, conditions arose for the emergence of the concept of an anthropological universe, then in the 19th and 20th centuries, under the influence of sciences - from biology to cosmology - it became increasingly difficult to defend the idea of ​​man as the center of the cosmos. Therefore, the postmodern "worldview" is characterized by the conviction that any attempt to construct a model of the world - no matter how qualified or limited by "epistemological doubts" - is meaningless. If artists allow the existence of a model of the world, then it is based only on maximum entropy, on the equiprobability and equivalence of all constitutive elements. One of the most common principles for determining the specifics of postmodern art is to approach it as a kind of artistic code, i.e. a set of rules for organizing the text of a work of art. The difficulty of this approach lies in the fact that postmodernism, from a formal point of view, acts as an art that consciously rejects any rules and restrictions developed by the previous cultural tradition. The ideological inconsistency of postmodern artists, their attempts to convey their perception of the chaotic nature of the world through the consciously organized chaos of a work of art, a skeptical attitude towards any authorities and, as a result, their ironic interpretation, emphasizing the conventionality of artistic and visual means of literature (“exposure of the technique”) are absolutized by postmodern criticism, transformed into the basic principles of artistry as such and are transferred to all world literature. The cognitive relativism of postmodern theorists forces them to pay special attention to the problem of “authority of writing,” since in the form of texts of any historical era it is for them the only concrete data with which they are ready to deal. This “authority” is characterized by them as the specific power of the language of a work of art, capable of creating a self-sufficient world of discourse by its internal means.

The main body of postmodern criticism at this stage of its development represents studies of various methods of narrative technique aimed at creating fragmented discourse, i.e. fragmentation of the narrative. Lodge, Fokkema, L. Heyman identified and systematized numerous “narrative strategies” of postmodern writing, that is, the purely conventional nature of artistic creativity. It was thanks to these “narrative tactics” of 20th century literature, Heyman believes, that a global revision of the traditional stereotypes of the naive reader brought up on the classic novel of the 19th century, that is, on the tradition of realism, was carried out. This anti-realistic tendency is characteristic for all postmodern theorists, seeking not only to generalize the experience of avant-garde literature of the 20th century, but also trying, from the standpoint of this artistic tradition, to give an aesthetic revaluation of the entire art of realism. W. Eco and Lodge believe that the emergence of the phenomenon of postmodernism is inevitable with any change of cultural eras, when there is a “breakdown” of one cultural paradigm and the emergence of another on its ruins.

postmodernism came from English postmodernism, French postmodernisme, German Postmodernismus.

Postmodernism is a phenomenon in art that appeared in the West in the 70s of the twentieth century, and spread to Russia in the 90s. It is opposed to both classical realism and modernism; more precisely, it absorbs these directions and makes a mockery of them, violating their integrity. It turns out to be an omnipresent eclecticism that many people cannot get used to. For many, the word “postmodernism” is something scandalous and obscene, but is it really so?

The origins of postmodernism are a natural historical process itself. The end of the 20th century is characterized by the rapid development of science and technology, because of this, many truths that seemed unshakable become prejudices of older generations. Religion and traditional morality are experiencing a crisis; all canons and foundations require revision. However, they are not indiscriminately denied, as in the era of modernism, but are rethought and found their embodiment in new forms and meanings. This is also due to the fact that people have received almost unlimited access to all kinds of information. Now, wise with experience and burdened with knowledge, he is old from birth. He sees everything that his ancestors took seriously in the light of irony. This is a kind of protection from information that was previously skillfully masked and kept under wraps by the media. A postmodern person sees and knows more than his ancestors, so he tends to be skeptical about everything that surrounds him. Hence the main tendency of postmodernism - to reduce everything to laughter, to take nothing seriously.

Attitudes towards nature and society were also changing by the end of the 20th century: man felt almost omnipotent in nature, but at the same time he was a cog in the entire social system, one out of millions. However, revolutions, wars, and natural disasters showed people that not everything is so simple. The elements take over helpless earthlings, and the state can be bypassed using the secret nooks and crannies of the World Wide Web. There is no longer a need for a permanent job; you can travel and develop your business at the same time. However, not everyone can switch to a new way, and therefore a crisis of worldview has arisen. People no longer fall for the old tricks of the authorities and advertising slogans, but they have nothing to oppose to this musty world. Thus, the period of modernity has ended and a new one has begun - postmodernity, where incompatible things peacefully coexist with each other in an eclectic dance on the grave of the past. This is the face of postmodernism in history.

The birthplace of postmodernism is the USA, where pop art, beatniks and other postmodern movements developed. The original beginning is in the article by L. Fidner “Cross borders - fill up ditches,” where the author calls for a rapprochement between elite and mass culture.

Basic principles

The analysis of postmodernism should begin with the basic principles that determine its development. Here they are in the most abbreviated version:

• Eclecticism(combination of incompatible things). Postmodernists do not create anything new; they intricately hybridize what already existed, but it was believed that these things could not form a single whole. For example, a dress and lace-up military boots are a cocktail familiar to our eyes, but 60 years ago such an outfit could cause shock among passers-by.
• Pluralism of cultural languages. Postmodernism does not deny anything; it accepts and interprets everything in its own way. It peacefully coexists the trends of classical culture with modern forms taken from modernism.
• Intertextuality– global use of quotations and references to works. There is art that is entirely cobbled together from excerpts and replicas by another author, and this is not considered plagiarism, because the ethics of postmodernism are very humane in relation to such trifles.
• Decononizing art. The boundaries between the beautiful and the ugly have blurred, and as a result, the aesthetics of the ugly has developed. Freaks gain the attention of thousands of people, crowds of fans and epigones form around them.
• Irony. There is no place for seriousness within this phenomenon. For example, instead of tragedy, tragicomedy appears. People are tired of worrying and getting upset; they want to protect themselves from the aggressive environment of the world through humor.
• Anthropological pessimism. There is no faith in progress and humanity.
• Showatization of culture. Art is positioned as entertainment; entertainment is highly valued in it.

Concept and idea

Postmodernism is a socio-psychological reaction to the lack of positive results from progress. Civilization, while developing, at the same time destroys itself. This is his concept.

The main idea of ​​postmodernism is the combination and mixing of different cultures, styles and trends. If modernism is designed for the elite, then postmodernism, characterized by a playful principle, makes its works universal: the mass reader will see an entertaining, sometimes scandalous and strange story, and the elitist will see philosophical content.

G. Küng proposes to use this term in a “world-historical plan”, not limited only to the sphere of art. Postmodernism is guided by the concept of chaos and decay. Life is a vicious circle, people act according to a pattern, live by inertia, they are weak-willed.

Philosophy

Modern philosophy affirms the finitude of all human ideas about the world around us (technology, science, culture, etc.). Everything repeats itself and does not develop, so modern civilization will certainly collapse, progress does not bring anything positive. Here are the main philosophical trends that fuel our era:

• Existentialism is one of the philosophical movements of postmodernism, which proclaims being irrational and puts human feelings at the forefront. The personality is constantly in a state of crisis, feeling anxiety and fear as a result of interaction with the outside world. Fear is not only a negative experience, but a necessary shock. .
• Poststructuralism is one of the philosophical movements of postmodernism; it is characterized by a negative pathos regarding any positive knowledge, rational justification of phenomena, especially cultural ones. The main emotion in this movement is doubt, criticism of traditional philosophy divorced from life.

A postmodernist person is focused on his body (the principle of body-centrism), all interests and needs converge in him, so experiments are carried out. Man is not a subject of activity and knowledge, he is not the center of the Universe, because everything in it tends to chaos. People do not have access to reality, which means they cannot comprehend the truth.

Main features

You can find a complete list of signs of this phenomenon .

Postmodernism is characterized by:

• Paratheatricality– a set of new formats for visual representation of art: happenings, performances and flash mobs. Interactivity is gaining momentum: books, movies and paintings are becoming the plots of computer games and part of 3-D performances.
• Transgender– no difference between the sexes. Especially noticeable in fashion.
• Globalization– loss of the national identity of the authors.
• Quick change of styles– the speed of fashion is breaking all records.
• Overproduction of cultural objects and the amateurism of the authors. Now creativity has become accessible to many; there is no restraining canon, as well as the principle of elitism of culture.

Style and aesthetics

The style and aesthetics of postmodernism is, first of all, the decanonization of everything, an ironic revaluation of values. Genres change, commercial art, which is a business, dominates. In the wild chaos of life, laughter helps to survive, so another feature is carnivalization.

Pastiche is also characteristic, that is, fragmentation, inconsistency of the narrative, this leads to communication difficulties. The authors do not follow reality, but feign plausibility. Postmodernists are characterized by playing with text, language, eternal images and plots. The author's position is unclear, he withdraws himself.

For postmodernists, language is a system that interferes with communication; each person has his own language, so people are not able to fully understand each other. Therefore, the texts have little ideological meaning; the authors focus on multiple interpretations. Reality is created with the help of language, which means that humanity can be controlled with its help.

Currents and directions

Here are the most famous examples of postmodernism.

• Pop art is a new movement in visual art that transforms banality into the plane of high culture. The poetics of mass production makes symbols out of ordinary things. Representatives - J. Jones, R. Rauschenberg, R. Hamilton, J. Dine and others.
• Magical realism is a literary movement that mixes fantastical and realistic elements. .
• New genres in literature: corporate novel (), travelogue (), dictionary novel (), etc.
• The beatniks are a youth movement that gave birth to an entire culture. .
• Fan fiction is a direction in which fans continue books or complement the universes created by the authors. Example: 50 Shades of Gray
• Theater of the Absurd – theatrical postmodernism. .
• Graffitism is a movement that mixes graffiti, graphics and easel painting. Here there is fantasy, originality combined with elements of subculture and the art of ethnic groups. Representatives - Crash (J. Matos), Daze (K. Alice), Futura 2000 (L. McGar) and others.
• Minimalism is a movement that calls for anti-decoration, a rejection of figurativeness and subjectivity. It is distinguished by simplicity, uniformity and neutrality in shapes, figures, colors, materials.

Topics and issues

The most general theme of postmodernism is the search for new meaning, new integrity, guidelines, as well as the absurdity and madness of the world, the finitude of all foundations, the search for new ideals.

Postmodernists pose problems:

• self-destruction of humanity and man;
• averageness and imitation of mass culture;
• excess information.

Basic Techniques

1. Video art is a movement that expresses artistic possibilities. Video art opposes mass television and culture.
2. Installation is the formation of an art object from household items and industrial materials. The goal is to fill objects with some special content, which each viewer understands in their own way.
3. Performance is a show based on the idea of ​​creativity as a lifestyle. The art object here is not the artist’s work, but his behavior and actions in itself.
4. A happening is a performance with the participation of the artist and the audience, as a result of which the boundary between the creator and the public is erased.

Postmodernism as a phenomenon

In literature

Literary postmodernism– these are not associations, schools, movements, these are groups of texts. The defining features in literature are irony and “black” humor, intertextuality, techniques of collage and pastiche, metafiction (writing about the writing process), nonlinear plot and play with time, a penchant for technoculture and hyperreality. Representatives and examples:

• T. Pincioni (“Entropy”),
• J. Kerouac (“On the Road”),
• E. Albee (“Three Tall Women”),
• U. Eco (“Name of the Rose”),
• V. Pelevin (“Generation P”),
• T. Tolstaya (“Kys”),
• L. Petrushevskaya (“Hygiene”).

In philosophy

Philosophical postmodernism– opposition to the Hegelian concept (anti-Hegelianism), criticism of the categories of this concept: one, whole, universal, absolute, being, truth, reason, progress. The most famous representatives:

• J. Derrida,
• J.F. Lyotard,
• D. Vattimo.

J. Derrida put forward the idea of ​​blurring the boundaries of philosophy, literature, criticism (the tendency to aestheticize philosophy), created a new type of thinking - multidimensional, heterogeneous, contradictory and paradoxical. J.F. Lyotard believed that philosophy should not deal with any specific problems, but should answer only one question: “What is it to think?” D. Vattimo argued that being dissolves in language. Truth is preserved, but is understood based on the experience of art.

In architecture

Architectural postmodernism is caused by the exhaustion of modernist ideas and social orders. In the urban environment, preference is given to symmetrical development taking into account the characteristics of the environment. Features: imitation of historical models, mixing styles, simplifying classical forms. Representatives and examples:

• P. Eisenman (Columbus Center, Virtual House, Berlin Holocaust Memorial),
• R. Beaufil (airport and the building of the National Theater of Catalonia in Barcelona, ​​head offices of Cartier and Christian Dior in Paris, Shiseido Building skyscrapers in Tokyo and Dearborn Center in Chicago),
• R. Stern (Central Park West street, Carpe Diem skyscraper, George W. Bush Presidential Center).

In painting

In the paintings of postmodernists, the main idea was dominant: there is not much difference between a copy and an original. Therefore, the authors rethought their own and other people’s paintings, creating new ones based on them. Representatives and examples:

• J. Beuys (“The Wooden Virgin”, “The King’s Daughter Sees Iceland”, “Revolutionary Hearts: Passage of the Future Planet”),
• F. Clemente (“Plot 115”, “Plot 116”, “Plot 117”),
• S.Kia (“Kiss”, “Athletes”).

To the cinema

Postmodernism in cinema rethinks the role of language, creating the effect of authenticity, a combination of formal narration and philosophical content, techniques of stylization and ironic references to previous sources. Representatives and examples:

• T. Scott (“True Love”),
• K. Tarantino (“Pulp Fiction”).

In music

Musical postmodernism is characterized by a combination of styles and genres, self-examination and irony, the desire to blur the boundaries between elite and mass art, and is dominated by the mood of the end of culture. Electronic music appears, the techniques of which stimulated the development of hip-hop, post-rock and other genres. Academic music is dominated by minimalism, collage techniques, and a rapprochement with popular music.

1. Representatives: Q-Bert, Mixmaster Mike, The Beat Junkies, The Prodigy, Mogwai, Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky, J. Zorn.
2. Composers: J. Cage (“4′33″”), L. Berio (“Symphony”, “Opera”), M. Kagel (“Instrumental Theater”), A. Schnittke (“First Symphony”), V. Martynov (“Opus posth”).

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