Form plays an important role in postmodern art. Definition of postmodernism

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

Leslie Fiedler's 1969 article, "Cross the Border, Fill in the Ditches", defiantly published in Playboy magazine, is considered the "beginning" of postmodernism. The 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 Jenks. In the book The Language of Postmodern Architecture, he noted that although the word itself was used in American literary criticism in the 1960s and 1970s to refer to 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 traditions, and an emphasis on the communicative role of architecture. Justifying his anti-rationalism, anti-functionalism and anti-constructivism in his approach to architecture, C. Jencks insisted on the primacy of the creation of an aestheticized artifact in it. Subsequently, the content of this concept is expanded from an initially narrow definition of new trends in American architecture and a new trend in French philosophy (J. Derrida, J.-F. Lyotard) to a definition covering 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 until recently seemed unshakable that "... tradition has exhausted itself and that art should look for another form" (Ortega y Gasset) - a demonstration in the current art of eclecticism of any form of tradition, orthodoxy and avant-garde. "Citation, simulation, re-appropriation - all these are not just the terms of contemporary art, but its essence" - (J. Baudrillard).

At the same time, the borrowed material is slightly modified in the postmodern, 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 everyday or artistic form, first of all, is “... for him only a source of building material” (V. Brainin-Passek). Spectacular works by Mersad Berber with inclusions 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 Sots Art - all of these are typical manifestations of the everyday reality of postmodern art.

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

Irony is another typological sign of postmodern culture. The avant-garde attitude towards novelty is opposed by the desire to include in contemporary art the entire world artistic experience in the way of ironic quotation. The ability to freely manipulate any ready-made forms, as well as the artistic styles of the past in an ironic manner, appeal to timeless plots and eternal themes, which until recently was 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, synthesising the experience of the best world artistic tradition.

Thus, postmodern inherits from social realism synthetic or syncretism as a typological feature. Moreover, if in the socialist realist synthesis of various styles their identity, purity of features, separateness is preserved, then in postmodernism one can see an alloy, a literal fusion of various features, 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.

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 becoming a common cliché), postmodernism has received the characteristics 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 using any previous developments as a building material (Brainin-Passek), which means it is synthetic and most of all similar in structure to socialist realism ( Epstein) and, therefore, deeply traditional, proceeding from the position that “art is always the same, only certain methods and means of expression change” (Turchin).

Accepting 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 classics, which were actively defamed throughout the 20th century. Postmodernism proves its vitality by helping to reunite a culture's past with its present.

Rejecting the chauvinism and nihilism of the avant-garde, the variety of forms used by postmodernism confirms its readiness for communication, dialogue, to reach 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 adequate era forms of art, thanks to which "...distant constellations of future cultures will also become visible" (F. Nietzsche).

Notes

see also

• Postmodernism in literature

Literature

• Lyotard, J. F. Postmodern state = La condition postmoderne / Shmako N.A. (trans.) from French .. - St. Petersburg. : Aletheya, 1998. - 160 p. - (Gallicinium). - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-89329-107-7

• Aleinik R.M. The image of a person in French postmodern literature // Spectrum of Anthropological Studies. - M.: IF RAN, 2006. - p. 199-214.
• Andreeva E. Yu. Postmodernism. Art of the second half of the XX - beginning of the XXI century. - 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 the 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
• Mozheiko M. A. The Formation of the Theory of Nonlinear Dynamics in Contemporary Culture: A Comparative Analysis of the Synergetic and Postmodern Paradigms. - Minsk, 1999.
• Postmodernism: approaching the anti-world (Article by S. E. Yurkov from the collection "Aesthetics in the interparadigm space: perspectives of 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., Brickmon J. Intellectual tricks. Criticism of postmodern philosophy / Perev. from English. A. Kostikova and D. Kralechkin. Foreword 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. - (The world of encyclopedias).

Links

• Postmodern architecture on Buildings.ru
• Bizeev A. Yu. Transition and transitivity in postmodern culture. Philosophizing of postmodernism and modern culture // Electronic journal “Knowledge. Understanding. Skill ». - 2009. - No. 4 - Culturology.
• Boldachev A.V. The decrepit daddy of postmodernity - Philosophical pamphlet
• Vorontsova T. I. The Letters of John Barth as a Postmodern Novel
• Ermilova G.I. Postmodernism as a Cultural Phenomenon of the Late 20th Century
• Khazin M. L. Postmodern - reality or fantasy? - Postmodern in economics

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

2.2. Postmodernism in painting

Postmodernism in painting arose somewhat later than in architecture. The turn to it began only in the 70s, however, having begun later, it quickly came to an end. This was evidenced by a number of exhibitions held in European countries at the very beginning of the 80s. In London, the exhibition "The New Spirit in Painting" (1980), in Berlin - "The Spirit of the Times" (1981), in Paris - "Baroque-81" (1981), in Rome - "Avant-garde and transavant-garde" (1982), in Saint-Etienne - “Myth. Drama. Tragedy "(1982).

The aforementioned and other exhibitions spoke eloquently of the fact that modernism and the avant-garde had exhausted themselves, that they almost imperceptibly and inaudibly left the art scene, and their departure did not cause much regret, much less tragedy or catastrophe, that postmodernism took their place.

The work of the French artist Gerard Garoust deserves special mention in postmodern painting. His example most clearly shows not only the features and characteristics characteristic of all postmodernism, but also the profound changes that have taken place in the position of art in the postwar period.

Even at the beginning of our century, when modernism was already quite widespread and more and more transformed into the avant-garde, the well-known formula "art requires sacrifice" was addressed mainly to the artists themselves. In particular, this concerned precisely the new, progressive trends, on which society looked very indifferently. Artists lived in communes, settled in poor quarters, in Montmartre, in the rooms of the upper floors intended for servants, or in attics, ate from hand to mouth. For the sake of art, they sacrificed their whole lives. For many of them, it has developed tragically. As an example, one can point to the fate of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Modigliani and others.

In all these parameters, J. Garouste is the exact opposite. His appearance is fashionable and marked by dandyism: he wears a hat, a formal suit, the pocket of which is decorated with a handkerchief, and a tie.

J. Garust quickly achieved significant success. At the age of 42, he got the opportunity to arrange a solo exhibition at the Pompidou Center, which testified to the highest recognition of his work. Currently, he is one of those French artists who have achieved the greatest international fame.

It was Garust who gave one of his canvases the name “Deja vu” (“Already seen”), which has become a kind of sign or symbol of all postmodern art. In relation to other types of art, it acts as “already read”, “already heard”: in the work of postmodernists, a large place is occupied by parodies, imitations, imitations, quotations and borrowings. It is necessary to note another feature of postmodernism - excessiveness. The passion for using a variety of styles and mannerisms from a variety of eras knows no bounds.

When studying the masterpieces of postmodernism, one gets the impression that as models for their work, postmodernists set themselves masterpieces of recognized masters, copies or imitations of which they intend to make. However, while doing this, they dip their brush not only into paints, but also into acid. Acid is known to make a beautiful face. As applied to painting, it corrodes, burns signs of good taste, beauty and harmony. The resulting result is not amenable to unambiguous interpretation and evaluation.

In general, postmodernism in painting demonstrates the already familiar eclecticism, a mixture of styles and manners, a passion for quoting and borrowing, irony and parody, a rejection of forecasts for the future, an appeal to mythology and the past, and at the same time their dissolution in the present.

2.3. Postmodernism in literature

As noted above, postmodernism in literature and literary criticism originally emerged in the United States in the late 1950s. The critic I. Howe was the first to announce its appearance, having done so in 1959 in the article "Mass Society and Postmodern Literature" and initiating a heated discussion about postmodernism, which continues to this day. Howe's reaction to the new literature was generally negative and pessimistic. He notes that, unlike the great modernist literature of Elista, Pound, and Joyce, postmodern literature is characterized by lethargy, depletion of innovative potential and striking power. This literature gives less chance for the manifestation of creative individuality. At the same time, Howe points to the quite natural and necessary nature of the emergence of postmodern literature, recognizing that mass society finds a more adequate reflection in its leveling images than it was in the literature of modernism.

The merit of postmodern literature is that it abolishes the former division into art for the "educated" and "under-art" for the "uneducated", which took place in a class society. The new literature also bridges the gap between professionalism and amateurism in the realm of art, between the artist and the public. It combines the most diverse motives and artistic attitudes, ceases to be only intellectual and elitist and becomes simultaneously romantic, sentimental and popular. Postmodern literature removes the old boundaries between high and low, reliable and incredible, ordinary and wonderful, real and fantastic. She teaches and entertains, gives pleasure.

The postmodern writer acts as a "double agent". He equally well feels both in the technologized reality, and in the world of miracles. He willingly makes forays into the space of the world and into the sphere of eroticism. There are no restricted areas for him. His literature is multilingual. It combines elite and popular tastes. It is characterized by radical pluralism.

The ideal novel of postmodernism must somehow rise above the struggle of realism with irrealism, formalism with "content", pure art with the biased, elitist prose with mass prose. The main functions of literature are entertaining and gaming. Its purpose is to amuse the audience and give it pleasure. Barth views literature as a "form of pleasure".

The main figure of all literary postmodernism is the Italian writer Umberto Eco. He became such thanks to his novel The Name of the Rose (1980), which brought him worldwide fame and glory. Even America could not resist him, where it is extremely difficult for a foreign author to achieve recognition.

The success of the novel exceeded all expectations, it became an international bestseller. "The Name of the Rose" has all the features characteristic of a postmodernist work. The book begins in the manner of a police detective - with a murder. The declared intrigue is supported by new crimes. In the seven days during which the action of the novel unfolds, seven murders occur. Moreover, each subsequent one becomes more and more cruel and sophisticated, which allows you to keep the reader's attention and keep him in constant suspense. In its genre, The Name of the Rose is not only a detective story, but also a historical novel, which is also very popular among the reading public.

The novel is accessible to all people and all ages, giving them pleasure and enjoyment. It meets all requirements and all tastes. Hence its immense popularity: the total circulation today has reached 17 million copies.

Unfortunately, in the literature of postmodernism, the novel "The Name of the Rose" is still an exception. The vast majority of postmodern literature is more about popular culture than true art and high culture.

2.4 Postmodernism in cinema

Postmodernism penetrates cinema later than other art forms. This takes place in the second half of the 1970s. For the 80s. there is a flourishing of postmodernism in cinema, after which a certain decline occurs. The German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of the first in whose work the features of postmodernism appear quite clearly. In his work "The Marriage of Mary Brown", staged in 1978, the features of postmodernism manifested themselves most clearly. This work of Fassbinder is close to postmodernism in that it debunks the desire for big goals, which most often turn out to be illusory. As they approach them, they turn into their opposite and, instead of satisfaction, cause deep disappointment. To an even greater extent, the eclecticism present in the film comes from postmodernism, a mixture of different types of narration - from a criminal chronicle to a classic story, a combination of completely heterogeneous things - subtle taste and bad taste, unexpected transitions from tangible reality to its fake ephemerality, the presence of contrasting quotes and references, overlaying Beethoven's music on the whistling and hooting of football fans.

Nevertheless, American cinema occupies a significant place in postmodernism. This is not surprising, since the consumer society has found its most complete and adequate embodiment in America. Again, it was in America that the "psychopathology of abundance", which became one of the main social sources of postmodernism, received the greatest development. As a rule, the protagonist of American postmodern films is a yuppie, into whose measured and prosperous life a turbulent, vortex-like event unexpectedly breaks into.

The film "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" by the famous director S. Spielberg was one of the first, in which many features of postmodernism are visible. He demonstrates an underlined asociality and apoliticality, combines purely American technical tricks and American humor with oriental exoticism and black magic, and is filled with consumer hedonism. In general, the tape turned out to be too overloaded and amorphous.

The main figure of postmodernism in cinema is the English director Peter Greenaway. He is rightly called the "English Fellini". He has a professional education as a painter and began his career as an artist. Soon he became interested in cinema, seeing in it much more artistic possibilities than in painting. Greenway believes that "cinema is the most sophisticated medium of expression of the 20th century."

Postmodernism manifests itself in Greenway primarily in his interest in the past, the boundaries of which he pushes further and further back: at first they reached the 17th century, and in the last film - up to the 10th century. Like other postmodernists, Greenway is not interested in the past in itself, he looks at it through the prism of the present. In the art of the past, he was attracted primarily by the baroque, and with it - feeling and sensuality. He is also interested in classicism and mannerism. Postmodernism is also determined by Greenway's view of man. He refuses any elevation of a person, his aspirations and motives of behavior. In such a high concept as love, he sees mainly biological and physiological foundations, the Darwinian concern for procreation, which people have learned to cover up with all sorts of decorations.

Postmodernism is also evidenced by Greenway's willing adherence to the "pleasure principle". Hedonism, sensual pleasures and pleasures, including sexual ones, occupy a special, privileged place with him. In this regard, in his paintings there is another characteristic feature: a tendency to extremes and excess.

The postmodern beginning allows Greenway to include many elements of mass culture and kitsch in his films: murder, cruelty, violence, sex, etc. This makes them spectacular, fills them with inner dynamism, they keep the viewer in constant tension, giving him the desired pleasure and entertainment. In this regard, The Contract of the Draftswoman seems to be the most successful, which, apparently, has become the best film of the director.

It seems that the work of P. Greenaway is a “postmodern worthy of respect”, which J.-F. Lyotard. However, the predominant part of postmodernism in cinema leaves much to be desired.

Humanitarian, but also natural science knowledge: among them such problems as the problem of non-linearity, rethinking of the phenomenon of determinism in modern culture, a fundamentally new interpretation of the phenomenon of temporality, etc. can be named. 3. Game in postmodernism. Derrida's philosophical style seeks to bring together the play of language and the play of thought. Thus, the opposition is largely erased ...

The author “trusts” him to say the very words-codes that he himself cannot pronounce due to his “detachment” from the written text. II.VII. The Buddhist concept of Liberation and Absolute Void, intertextually revealed by V. Pelevin. The category of Emptiness in Russian postmodernism, in contrast to Western postmodernism, takes on a different direction. So, for example, for M. Foucault, emptiness is a kind of almost ...

Postmodernism is a phenomenon in art that appeared in the West in the 70s of the twentieth century, and spread in Russia in the 90s. It is opposed to both classical realism and modernism, more precisely, it absorbs these trends and gives them a mockery, violating their integrity. It turns out the ubiquitous eclecticism, which many people cannot get used to. The word "postmodernism" for many is something scandalous, obscene, but is it really so?

The origins of postmodernism are the 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 the prejudices of older generations. Religion and traditional morality are in crisis, all canons and foundations require revision. However, they are not indiscriminately denied, as in the era of modernism, but are rethought and embodied in new forms and meanings. This is also due to the fact that a person has received almost unlimited access to all kinds of information. Now, wise with experience and burdened with knowledge, he is old from birth. Everything that the ancestors took seriously, he sees in the light of irony. This is a kind of protection against the information that was previously skillfully masked and kept back 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 is to reduce everything to laughter, to take nothing seriously.

Attitudes towards nature and society were also changing by the end of the 20th century: a person felt almost omnipotent in nature, but at the same time he was a cog in the entire social system, one of millions. However, revolutions, wars, natural disasters have shown people that not everything is so simple. The elements take over the helpless earthlings, and the state can be bypassed using the secret nooks and crannies of the global network. 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 ended and a new one began - postmodernity, where the incongruous peacefully coexists 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 United States, it was there that pop art, beatniks and other postmodern movements developed. The initial beginning is in the article by L. Fidner "Cross the borders - fill in the ditches", where the author calls for the rapprochement of 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 incongruous). Postmodernists do not create anything new, they whimsically cross what has already been, 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, and even 60 years ago, such an outfit could shock passers-by.
• Pluralism of cultural languages. Postmodernism denies nothing, it accepts and interprets everything in its own way. It peacefully coexists the tendencies of classical culture with modern forms taken from modernism.
• Intertextuality- the global use of quotations and references to works. There is art that is completely and completely cobbled together from extracts and replicas of another author, and this is not considered plagiarism, because the ethics of postmodernism are very humane in relation to such trifles.
• Decononization of art. The boundaries between the beautiful and the ugly were erased, in connection with this, the aesthetics of the ugly developed. Freaks win the attention of thousands of people, crowds of fans and imitators form around them.
• Irony. Within this phenomenon there is no place for seriousness. For example, tragicomedy appears instead of tragedy. People are tired of worrying and getting upset, they want to protect themselves from the aggressive environment of the world in humor.
• Anthropological pessimism. There is no faith in progress and humanity.
• Shoutization 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 a positive result from progress. Civilization, while developing, at the same time destroys itself. This is its 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 beginning, makes its works universal: the general reader will see an entertaining, sometimes scandalous and strange story, while the elite reader will see a philosophical content.

G. Küng proposes to use this term in the "world-historical plane", 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 finiteness of all human ideas about the world (technology, science, culture, etc.). Everything repeats itself, but does not develop, so modern civilization will surely collapse, progress does not bring anything positive. Here are the main philosophical currents that feed our era:

• Existentialism is one of the philosophical currents of postmodernism, proclaiming being irrational, putting human sensations at the forefront. A person 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 currents of postmodernism, characterized by negative pathos regarding any positive knowledge, rational substantiations of phenomena, especially cultural ones. The main emotion in this current is doubt, criticism of traditional philosophy divorced from life.

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

Main features

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

Postmodernism is characterized by:

• paratheatricality- a set of new formats of visual representation of art: happening, performance and flash mob. Interactivity is gaining momentum: books, movies and paintings become the plots of computer games and part of 3-D performances.
• Transgender- No difference between the sexes. Especially noticeable in fashion.
• Globalization– loss of national identity of the authors.
• Quick style change- the speed of fashion breaks all records.
• Overproduction of cultural objects and dilettantism of authors. Now creativity has become available to many, there is no restraining canon, as well as the principle of the elitism of culture.

Style and aesthetics

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

Pastish is also characteristic, that is, fragmentation, inconsistency of the narration, this leads to communicative difficulty. The authors do not follow reality, but feign plausibility. Postmodernists play with text, language, eternal images and plots. The author's position is unclear, he withdraws himself.

Language for postmodernists 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 are guided by the plurality of interpretations. Reality is created with the help of language, which means that it can be used to control humanity.

Currents and directions

Here are the most famous examples of postmodernism.

• Pop art is a new trend in visual art that transforms banality into the plane of high culture. The poetics of mass production turns ordinary things into symbols. Representatives - J. Jones, R. Rauschenberg, R. Hamilton, J. Dine and others.
• Magic realism is a literary movement that mixes fantastic and realistic elements. .
• New genres in literature: corporate novel (), travelogue (), dictionary novel (), etc.
• The beatniks are a youth movement that has spawned an entire culture. .
• Fanfiction is a direction in which fans continue books or supplement the universes created by the authors. Example: 50 shades of gray
• The theater of the absurd is theatrical postmodernism. .
• Graffiti is a trend that mixes graffiti, graphics and easel painting. Here fantasy, originality combined with elements of subculture and art of ethnic groups. Representatives - Crash (J. Matos), Days (K. Alice), Futura 2000 (L. McGar) and others.
• Minimalism is a trend that calls for anti-decorativeness, the rejection of figurativeness and subjectivity. Differs in simplicity, monotony and neutrality in forms, shapes, colors, materials.

Topics and issues

The most common theme of postmodernism is the search for a new meaning, new integrity, guidelines, as well as the absurdity and madness of the world, the finiteness 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 tricks

1. Video art is a trend that expresses artistic possibilities. Video art is opposed to mass television and culture.
2. Installation - the formation of an art object from household items and industrial materials. The goal is to fill the objects with some special content that each viewer understands in his own way.
3. Performance is a show based on the idea of ​​creativity as a lifestyle. The art object here is not the work of the artist, but in itself his behavior and actions.
4. 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, trends, these are groups of texts. The defining features in literature are irony and "black" humor, intertextuality, collage and pastiche techniques, metafiction (writing about the process of writing), a non-linear plot and play with time, a penchant for technoculture and hyperreality. Representatives and examples:

• T. Pinchoni ("Entropy"),
• J. Kerouac ("On the Road"),
• E. Albee ("Three Tall Women"),
• U. Eco ("The 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, should answer only one question: "What is thinking?". D. Vattimo argued that being dissolves in language. Truth is preserved, but understood from the experience of art.

In architecture

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

• P. Eisenman (Columbus Center, Virtual Home, Holocaust Memorial in Berlin),
• R. Beaufil (airport and building of the National Theater of Catalonia in Barcelona, ​​head offices of Cartier and Christian Dior in Paris, skyscrapers Shiseido Building 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 dominated: 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 ("Wooden Virgin", "The King's Daughter Sees Iceland", "Hearts of the Revolutionaries: The Passage of the Planet of the Future"),
• F. Clemente ("Plot 115", "Plot 116", "Plot 117),
• S.Kia ("Kiss", "Athletes").

To the cinema

Postmodernism in cinema rethinks the role of language, creates an effect of authenticity, a combination of formal narrative and philosophical content, stylization techniques 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, introspection and irony, the desire to blur the boundaries between elite and mass art, and the mood of the end of culture dominates. Electronic music appears, the techniques of which stimulated the development of hip-hop, post-rock and other genres. Minimalism, collage technique, rapprochement with popular music dominate in academic 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 Theatre”), A. Schnittke (“First Symphony”), V. Martynov ("Opus posth").

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Postmodernism is 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 world perception, attitude and assessment of both the cognitive capabilities of a person and his place and role in the world around him. Postmodernism has gone through a long phase of latent shaping dating back approximately to the end of World War II, and only since the early 1980s has it been 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 trend in modern literary criticism (main theorists: Frenchman J.F. Lyotard, Americans I.Hassan, F.Jameson, Dutchmen D.V.Fokkema, T.Dan, Englishmen J.Butler, J.Lodge, etc.) relies 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 worldview complex of emotionally colored representations in a specific way.

The main concepts used by the supporters of this trend are: "the world as chaos" and "postmodern sensitivity", "the world as a text" and "consciousness as a text", intertextuality, "crisis of authority" and "epistemological uncertainty", author's mask, double code and "parodic mode of narration", pastigi, inconsistency, discreteness, fragmentation of narration (principle of non-selection), "failure of communication" (or more generally - "communicative difficulty"), metanarrative. In the works of postmodernist theorists, the main postulates of poststructuralism and deconstructivism were radicalized and attempts were made to synthesize the competing 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 contemporary 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 post-structuralist-deconstructivist-postmodern complex of general ideas and attitudes.

Initially taking shape in line with post-structuralist ideas, this complex then began to develop in the direction of realizing itself 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 claim to express a general theory of contemporary art in general and a special postmodernist sensibility, i.e. specific postmodern mentality. As a result, postmodernism began to be comprehended as an expression of the spirit of the times in all spheres of human activity: art, philosophy, science, economics, politics. One of the consequences of entering the theoretical proscenium of philosophical postmodernism was the 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 postmodernist in nature. It is “poetic thinking” that is characterized by modern theorists of postmodernism as the main, fundamental feature of postmodern sensitivity. As a result, literary critics and theoreticians 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. Syukenik, F. Sollers, J. Cortazar, etc., includes not only a description of the events and the image of the persons participating in them, but also lengthy discussions about the very process of writing this work. Introducing theoretical passages into the fabric of the narrative, postmodernist writers often directly appeal to the authority of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and other theorists of poststructuralism and postmodernism, declaring that it is impossible in the “new conditions” to write “old”, i.e. in the traditional realistic manner.

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

Based on the concepts of Lyotard and Hassan, Fokkema tried to project the ideological premises of postmodernism onto its artistic style. Postmodernism for him is, first of all, a special “view of dehumanization”. If in the Renaissance, in his opinion, the conditions arose for the emergence of the concept of the anthropological universe, then in the 19-20 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 "view of the world" 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 defining 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 all the rules and restrictions developed by the previous cultural tradition. The ideological inconsistency of postmodern artists, their attempts to convey their perception of the chaos of the world by deliberately 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 (“exposing the device”) are absolutized by postmodernist criticism, turn into the basic principles of artistry as such and are transferred to all world literature. The cognitive relativism of postmodernist theorists makes them pay special attention to the problem of the "authority of writing", since in the form of texts of any historical era it is for them the only concrete given that they are ready to deal with. This "authority" is characterized by them as the specific power of the language of a work of art, capable of creating a self-contained world of discourse by its internal means.

The main body of postmodern criticism at this stage of its development is the study of various methods of narrative technique aimed at creating a fragmented discourse, i.e. fragmentation of the story. Lodge, Fokkema, L. Heyman identified and systematized the numerous "narrative strategies" of postmodern writing, that is, the purely conditional nature of artistic creativity. It is thanks to these “narrative tactics” of 20th century literature, Heyman believes, that the traditional stereotypes of the naive reader, brought up on the classic 19th century novel, that is, on the tradition of realism, were globally revised. This anti-realist 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 reassessment of the entire art of realism. W. Eco and Lodge consider the emergence of the phenomenon of postmodernism inevitable with any change in cultural epochs, when one cultural paradigm “breaks down” and another emerges on its ruins.

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

Postmodern is the era in which we live, and postmodernism is the culture of this era. postmodern = "after modern". Modern - the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the awareness of modernity, separation of oneself from the Middle Ages, a change in the value system. From God to Man. Progress, ascent of the mind, responsibility and freedom of a person (no one imposes a way of life and faith, a person decides for himself). Modern 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, the mind was turned off there. All this has been eliminated, the decision whether to believe in God remains with the person. Mind turned on. But when it was turned on, something else awakened, and this very other thing rebels against reason (Freud's "it", Foucault's outcasts). Postmodern is an attempt to move from the mind in the highest instance to the "other mind".

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

Postmodernism as a specific phenomenon in history and sociology was singled out 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 a post-industrial civilization.

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

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

Postmodern - an attempt to move from the mind in the highest instance 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 the Enlightenment with their belief in progress, the triumph of reason, the limitlessness of human possibilities. 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, a mixture of artistic languages. i.e. eclecticism. The avant-garde attitude towards novelty is opposed here by the desire to include in contemporary art the entire experience of world artistic culture by quoting it ironically. Intertextuality.

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

Artists use the allegorical language of the classics, the baroque, the symbols of ancient cultures that had not been used before. The works of postmodernists represent a playful space in which there is a free movement of meanings. But, including in its orbit experience of world art culture, postmodernists did it by means of jokes, grotesque, parody, widely using the techniques of artistic quotation, collage, repetition. Following the path of free borrowing from various artistic systems, postmodernism as if equalizes them, creating a single global cultural space.

Postmodernism, dressing everything in a game form, levels the distance between the mass and elite consumer, reducing the elite to the masses.

The state of loss of value orientations is perceived positively by postmodernist theorists. "Eternal values" are totalitarian and paranoid, idefixes that hinder creative realization. The true ideal of the postmodernists- this ischaos.

Two principles reign in the world: the schizoid principle of creative development and the paranoid principle of a suffocating order.

Guattari and Deleuze paid attention schizophrenia- this is the main principle of thinking of modern society. Consciousness is split - you can be anyone at the same time. Different ideals are not in conflict. The old culture is the culture of paranoia. In modern world man - nomad wanderer, he has no purpose, 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 release of meaning, by inverting the basic ideological concepts that permeate the entire culture.

The main method of knowing the world is deconstructivism. Kristeva, Derrida. Essence: the text reveals internal inconsistency, metaphorical nature of any sign. It is necessary to scatter the text, destroy the structure. It must be shown that it generates 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 significant events take the form of a bright and spectacular performance or show.

Baudrillard- "simulacrum" - a sign entity that does not refer to reality but replaces reality. Significant in itself, changes reality. There is no authenticity. There will be no Gulf War. An example of a simulacrum is the events of September 11 - it is important that this is a catastrophe, horror, death, fire - it is not the fate of people that matters, but this simulacrum that launches political processes. Crisis of reality. There are only simulacra around.

The essence of postmodernism is the feeling of a completed death, the play of death masks. There is no authenticity, there is no meaning. Mind doesn't work. End of story.

Fukuyama "End of History?“- there will be no more history, there will be no novelty, the world will not fundamentally change. Paradigmally, nothing will change. There is no culture but only a museum of human history.

Huntington "The End of Mankind?"

Why did the world fall apart, only constructs remained? When the highest principle is withdrawn, then Everything can be deconstructed. The whole 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.