102-514: Film Socialisme (alternative French title Socialisme ; English: Socialism but often referred to as Film Socialism ) is a 2010 French postmodern drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard . The film was first screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival , to a widely varying reception, and released in France two days later, on 19 May 2010. It screened at
204-557: A dime store area of New York's Lower East Side , where he blurred the line between art and commerce by producing and selling brightly painted plaster replicas of hamburgers and cans of soda, dresses, underwear, and other everyday objects: "Museum in b[ourgeois] concept equals store in mine". Oldenburg was one of the most recognizable sculptors identified with postmodernism, a group that included Jeff Koons , Eva Hesse , Louise Bourgeois , Anish Kapoor , Damien Hirst , Rachel Whiteread , and Richard Serra . Postmodern theater emerged as
306-437: A nihilistic form of relativism . In this sense, it has become a term of abuse in popular culture . "Postmodernism" is "a highly contested term", referring to "a particularly unstable concept", that "names many different kinds of cultural objects and phenomena in many different ways". It is "diffuse, fragmentary, [and] multi-dimensional". Critics have described it as "an exasperating term" and claim that its indefinability
408-436: A "wonderful, eternal alternation between enthusiasm and irony", between "creation and destruction", an "eternal oscillation between self-expansion and self-limitation of thought", a "reciprocal play ( Wechselspiel ) between the infinite and the finite", it is "the pulse and alternation between universality and individuality"—no matter how the contrasting pairs may be articulated. In this way, according to Schlegel, irony captures
510-426: A 2011 museum exhibition, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990 : "Anything could be mixed and matched – or mashed up, as is said today – and anything was fair game for inspiration.” The composer Jonathan Kramer has written that avant-garde musical compositions (which some would consider modernist rather than postmodernist) "defy more than seduce the listener, and they extend by potentially unsettling means
612-553: A Postmodern Literature . According to scholar David Herwitz, American writers such as John Barth (who had controversially declared that the novel was "exhausted" as a genre), Donald Barthelme , and Thomas Pynchon responded in various ways to the stylistic innovations of Finnegans Wake and the late work of Samuel Beckett . Postmodern literature often calls attention to issues regarding its own complicated connection to reality. The postmodern novel plays with language, twisted plots, multiple narrators, and unresolved endings, unsettling
714-474: A cause for aesthetic celebration. Their further influence on the conversation about postmodernism, however, would be largely mediated by French poststructuralism . ) If literature was at the center of the discussion in the 1970s, architecture was at the center in the 1980s. The architectural theorist Charles Jencks , in particular, connected the artistic avant-garde to social change in a way that captured attention outside of academia. Jenckes, much influenced by
816-453: A certain kind of literary imagination so that pre-modern texts such as Euripides ' Orestes or Cervantes ' Don Quixote count as postmodern. According to scholar Louis Menand , "Postmodernism is the Swiss Army knife of critical concepts. It’s definitionally overloaded, and it can do almost any job you need done." From an opposing perspective, media theorist Dick Hebdige criticized
918-495: A concept of irony that is not a mere "artistic playfulness", but a "conscious form of literary creation", typically involving the "consistent alternation of affirmation and negation". No longer just a rhetorical device, on their conception, it refers to an entire metaphysical stance on the world. It is commonplace to begin a study of irony with the acknowledgement that the term quite simply eludes any single definition. Philosopher Richard J. Bernstein opens his Ironic Life with
1020-572: A critique of modern philosophy with roots discernible in Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger 's critique of metaphysics . Although few themselves relied upon the term, they became known to many as postmodern theorists. And, while their ideas exerted a great influence on debates about the postmodern, they themselves did not intervene or attempt to provide their own definitions of the postmodern. Irony Irony , in its broadest sense,
1122-510: A departure from French Impressionism . Similarly, the first citation given by the Oxford English Dictionary is dated to 1916, describing Gus Mager as "one of the few 'post' modern painters whose style is convincing". Episcopal priest and cultural commentator J. M. Thompson, in a 1914 article, uses the term to describe changes in attitudes and beliefs in the critique of religion, writing, "the raison d'être of Post-Modernism
SECTION 10
#17330859968501224-527: A matter of dispute. Various authors place its beginnings in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. In the mid-1970s, the American sociologist Daniel Bell provided a general account of the postmodern as an effectively nihilistic response to modernism's alleged assault on the Protestant work ethic and its rejection of what he upheld as traditional values. The ideals of modernity, per his diagnosis, were degraded to
1326-465: A new literary form. Also in the arts, the term was first used in 1949 to describe a dissatisfaction with the modernist architectural movement known as the International Style . Although these early uses anticipate some of the concerns of the debate in the second part of the 20th century, there is little direct continuity in the discussion. Just when the new discussion begins, however, is also
1428-508: A new sense of "an intended simulation which the audience or hearer was meant to recognise". More simply put, it came to acquire the general definition, "the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect". Until the Renaissance , the Latin ironia was considered a part of rhetoric, usually a species of allegory , along
1530-683: A political dimension. One manifestation of postmodernism in fashion explored alternatives to conventional concepts of elegance. Rei Kawakubo ’s Spring/Summer 1997 collection featured "dresses asymmetrically padded with goose down, creating bumps in unexpected areas of the body". Issey Miyake ’s 1985 dreadlocks hat "offered an immediate, yet impermanent, ' multi-culti ' fashion experience". Vivienne Westwood took "an extremely polyglot approach", from early work with copies of 1950s clothes, to exploration of historic modes and cultural influences: her first runway show, "Pirate", merged British history, 18th- and 19th-century dress, and African textile design, with
1632-508: A prime example of postmodernism. The setting is a future dystopia where "replicants", enhanced android workers nearly indistinguishable from humans, are hunted down when they escape from their jobs. The film blurs boundaries between genres and cultures, and fuses disparate styles and periods: futuristic visuals "mingle with drab 1940s clothes and offices, punk rock hairstyles, pop Egyptian styles and oriental culture." The blending of film noir and science-fiction into tech noir illustrates
1734-525: A rap and ethnic music soundtrack. Postmodern film aims to subvert the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization , and to test the audience's suspension of disbelief . Typically, such films also break down the cultural divide between high and low art and often upend typical portrayals of gender , race , class , genre , and time with the goal of creating something that does not abide by traditional narrative expression. Certain key characteristics are used to separate
1836-420: A reaction against modernist theater. Most postmodern productions are centered on highlighting the fallibility of definite truth, instead encouraging the audience to reach their own individual understanding. Essentially, thus, postmodern theater raises questions rather than attempting to supply answers. In the 1970s, a disparate group of French theorists – often grouped together as "poststructuralists" – developed
1938-431: A rhetorical perspective means to consider it as an act of communication. In A Rhetoric of Irony , Wayne C. Booth seeks to answer the question of "how we manage to share ironies and why we so often do not". Because irony involves expressing something in a way contrary to literal meaning, it always involves a kind of "translation" on the part of the audience. Booth identifies three principal kinds of agreement upon which
2040-752: A rhetorically complex phenomenon. Admired by some and feared by others, it has the power to tighten social bonds, but also to exacerbate divisions. How best to organize irony into distinct types is almost as controversial as how best to define it. There have been many proposals, generally relying on the same cluster of types; still, there is little agreement as to how to organize the types and what if any hierarchical arrangements might exist. Nevertheless, academic reference volumes standardly include at least all four of verbal irony , dramatic irony , cosmic irony , and Romantic irony as major types. The latter three types are sometimes contrasted with verbal irony as forms of situational irony , that is, irony in which there
2142-411: A universal truth about the human situation. Even Booth, whose interest is expressly rhetorical, notes that the word "irony" tends to attach to "a type of character — Aristophanes' foxy eirons , Plato's disconcerting Socrates — rather than to any one device". In these contexts, what is expressed rhetorically by cosmic irony is ascribed existential or metaphysical significance. As Muecke puts it, such irony
SECTION 20
#17330859968502244-465: A variety of pseudonyms. Scholar K. Brian Söderquist argues that these fictive authors should be viewed as explorations of the existential challenges posed by such an ironic, poetic self-consciousness. Their awareness of their own unlimited powers of self-interpretation prevents them from fully committing to any single self-narrative, and this leaves them trapped in an entirely negative mode of uncertainty. Nevertheless, seemingly against this, Thesis XV of
2346-462: A writer is a romantic ironist if and when his or her work commits itself enthusiastically both in content and form to a hovering or unresolved debate between a world of merely man-made being and a world of ontological becoming. Similarly, metafiction is: "Fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions (esp. naturalism) and narrative techniques." It
2448-399: Is absolute because Socrates refuses to cheat. In this way, contrary to traditional accounts, Kierkegaard portrays Socrates as genuinely ignorant. According to Kierkegaard, Socrates is the embodiment of an ironic negativity that dismantles others' illusory knowledge without offering any positive replacement. Almost all of Kierkegaard's post-dissertation publications were written under
2550-601: Is "a truism". Put otherwise, postmodernism is "several things at once". It has no single definition, and the term does not name any single unified phenomenon, but rather many diverse phenomena: "postmodernisms rather than one postmodernism". Although postmodernisms are generally united in their effort to transcend the perceived limits of modernism, "modernism" also means different things to different critics in various arts. Further, there are outliers on even this basic stance; for instance, literary critic William Spanos conceives postmodernism, not in period terms, but in terms of
2652-504: Is "total" in its denunciation of a figure actually intended to preserve "our openness to a systematic philosophy". Yet, it is Hegel's interpretation that would be taken up and amplified by Kierkegaard , who further extends the critique to Socrates himself. Thesis VIII of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's dissertation, The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates , states that "irony as infinite and absolute negativity
2754-536: Is Godard's first in HD video and the 16:9 aspect ratio , as well as his first in several decades not be photographed with an intended aspect ratio of 4:3. Though Godard was one of the first major directors to shoot and edit on video, and has incorporated video footage and editing into most of his work since the mid-1970s, this is the first theatrical release from him to be shot entirely in a digital format . As with many of his films, Godard's partner Anne-Marie Miéville worked on
2856-460: Is Socrates, who " knew that he knew nothing ", yet never ceased in his pursuit of truth and virtue. According to Schlegel, instead of resting upon a single foundation, "the individual parts of a successful synthesis formation support and negate each other reciprocally". Although Schlegel frequently does describe the Romantic project with a literary vocabulary, his use of the term "poetry" ( Poesie )
2958-564: Is a bore". The term "postmodern dance" is most strongly associated with the Judson Dance Theater located in New York's Greenwich Village during the 1960s and 1970s. Arguably its most important principle is taken from the composer John Cage 's efforts to break down the distinction between art and life. The Judson dancers "[stripped] dance of its theatrical conventions such as virtuoso technique, fanciful costumes, complex storylines, and
3060-822: Is a common denominator to all these postmodernisms, it is that of a crisis in representation: a deeply felt loss of faith in our ability to represent the real, in the widest sense. No matter whether they are aesthestic [sic], epistemological, moral, or political in nature, the representations that we used to rely on can no longer be taken for granted. In practical terms, postmodernisms share an attitude of skepticism towards grand explanations and established ways of doing things. In art, literature, and architecture, this attitude blurs boundaries between styles and genres, and encourages freely mixing elements, challenging traditional distinctions like high art versus popular art . In science, it emphasizes multiple ways of seeing things, and how our cultural and personal backgrounds shape how we see
3162-497: Is a dual distinction between and among three grades and four modes of ironic utterance. Grades of irony are distinguished "according to the degree to which the real meaning is concealed". Muecke names them overt , covert , and private : Muecke's typology of modes are distinguished "according to the kind of relationship between the ironist and the irony". He calls these impersonal irony , self-disparaging irony , ingénue irony , and dramatized irony : To consider irony from
Film Socialisme - Misplaced Pages Continue
3264-408: Is a play within a play set in a lunatic asylum, in which it is difficult to tell whether the players are speaking only to other players or also directly to the audience. When The Herald says, "The regrettable incident you've just seen was unavoidable indeed foreseen by our playwright", there is confusion as to who is being addressed, the "audience" on the stage or the audience in the theatre. Also, since
3366-454: Is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, thereby exposing the fictional illusion. Gesa Giesing writes that "the most common form of metafiction is particularly frequent in Romantic literature. The phenomenon is then referred to as Romantic Irony." Giesing notes that "There has obviously been an increased interest in metafiction again after World War II." For example, Patricia Waugh quotes from several works at
3468-493: Is also given metaphysical significance in the work of Søren Kierkegaard , among other philosophers. Romantic irony is closely related to cosmic irony, and sometimes the two terms are treated interchangeably. Romantic irony is distinct, however, in that it is the author who assumes the role of the cosmic force. The narrator in Tristam Shandy is one early example. The term is closely associated with Friedrich Schlegel and
3570-409: Is both a philosophical conception of the universe and an artistic program. Ontologically, it sees the world as fundamentally chaotic. No order, no far goal of time, ordained by God or right reason, determines the progression of human or natural events […] Of course, romantic irony itself has more than one mode. The style of romantic irony varies from writer to writer […] But however distinctive the voice,
3672-509: Is closely linked with the writings of critic-turned-architect Charles Jencks , beginning with lectures in the early 1970s and his essay "The Rise of Post-Modern Architecture" from 1975. His magnum opus , however, is the book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture , first published in 1977, and since running to seven editions (in which he famously wrote: "Modern architecture died in St. Louis, Missouri, on 15 July 1972 at 3:32 p.m. (or thereabouts) when
3774-403: Is its highest form, but in no way its only form. Irony is not the only literary term to which Schlegel assigns extra-literary significance. Indeed, irony itself is presented as the uneasy synthesis of allegory and wit . Summarized by scholar Manfred Frank : "As allegory, the individual exceeds itself in the direction of the infinite, while as wit the infinite allows the unity that breaks from
3876-449: Is no ironist; so, instead of " he is being ironical " we would instead say " it is ironical that ". Verbal irony is "a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed". Moreover, it is produced intentionally by the speaker, rather than being a literary construct, for instance, or the result of forces outside of their control. Samuel Johnson gives as an example
3978-405: Is non-standard. Instead, he goes back to the broader sense of the original Greek poiētikós , which refers to any kind of making. As Beiser puts it, "Schlegel intentionally explodes the narrow literary meaning of Poesie by explicitly identifying the poetic with the creative power in human beings, and indeed with the productive principle in nature itself." Poetry in the restricted literary sense
4080-425: Is one's pride. Nevertheless, even as it excludes its victims, irony also has the power to build and strengthen the community of those who do understand and appreciate. Typically "irony" is used, as described above, with respect to some specific act or situation. In more philosophical contexts, however, the term is sometimes assigned a more general significance, in which it is used to describe an entire way of life or
4182-553: Is that of "life itself or any general aspect of life seen as fundamentally and inescapably an ironic state of affairs. No longer is it a case of isolated victims.... we are all victims of impossible situations". This usage has its origins primarily in the work of Friedrich Schlegel and other early 19th-century German Romantics and in Søren Kierkegaard 's analysis of Socrates in The Concept of Irony . Friedrich Schlegel
Film Socialisme - Misplaced Pages Continue
4284-444: Is the juxtaposition of what appears to be the case on the surface and what is actually the case or to be expected. It typically figures as a rhetorical device and literary technique . In some philosophical contexts, however, it takes on a larger significance as an entire way of life. Irony has been defined in many different ways, and there is no general agreement about the best way to organize its various types. 'Irony' comes from
4386-494: Is the lightest and the weakest form of subjectivity". Although this terminology is Hegelian in origin, Kierkegaard employs it with a somewhat different meaning. Richard J. Bernstein elaborates: It is infinite because it is directed not against this or that particular existing entity, but against the entire given actuality at a certain time. It is thoroughly negative because it is incapable of offering any positive alternative. Nothing positive emerges out of this negativity. And it
4488-515: Is to escape from the double-mindedness of modernism by being thorough in its criticism by extending it to religion as well as theology, to Catholic feeling as well as to Catholic tradition". In 1926, Bernard Iddings Bell , president of St. Stephen's College and also an Episcopal priest, published Postmodernism and Other Essays , which marks the first use of the term to describe an historical period following modernity. The essay criticizes lingering socio-cultural norms, attitudes, and practices of
4590-500: The Enlightenment . It is also critical of a purported cultural shift away from traditional Christian beliefs. The term "postmodernity" was first used in an academic historical context as a general concept for a movement by Arnold J. Toynbee in a 1939 essay, which states that "Our own Post-Modern Age has been inaugurated by the general war of 1914–1918". In 1942, the literary critic and author H. R. Hays describes postmodernism as
4692-406: The contrary of which is known by observers (especially the audience, sometimes to other characters within the drama) to be true. Tragic irony is a specific type of dramatic irony. Cosmic irony , sometimes also called "the irony of fate", presents agents as always ultimately thwarted by forces beyond human control. It is strongly associated with the works of Thomas Hardy . This form of irony
4794-465: The early German Romantics , and in their hands it assumed a metaphysical significance similar to cosmic irony in the hands of Kierkegaard. It was also of central importance to the literary theory advanced by New Criticism in mid-20th century. Building upon the double-level structure of irony, self-described "ironologist" D. C. Muecke proposes another, complementary way in which we may typify, and so better understand, ironic phenomena. What he proposes
4896-409: The modernist movement . Even here, however, there continued to be disagreement about such basic issues as whether postmodernism is a break with modernism, a renewal and intensification of modernism, or even, both at once, a rejection and a radicalization of its historical predecessor. While discussions in the 1970s were dominated by literary criticism, these were supplanted by architectural theory in
4998-451: The 1950s. Their stance against modernist poetry – and Olson's Heideggerian orientation – were influential in the identification of postmodernism as a polemical position opposed to the rationalist values championed by the Enlightenment project. During the 1960s, this affirmative use gave way to a pejorative use by the New Left , who used it to describe a waning commitment among youth to
5100-460: The 1980s. Some of these conversations made use of French poststructuralist thought, but only after these innovations and critical discourse in the arts did postmodernism emerge as a philosophical term in its own right. According to Hans Bertens and Perry Anderson , the Black Mountain poets Charles Olson and Robert Creeley first introduced the term "postmodern" in its current sense during
5202-488: The 1990s, "postmodernism" came to denote a general – and, in general, celebratory – response to cultural pluralism . Proponents align themselves with feminism , multiculturalism , and postcolonialism . Building upon poststructural theory, postmodern thought defined itself by the rejection of any single, foundational historical narrative. This called into question the legitimacy of the Enlightenment account of progress and rationality. Critics allege that its premises lead to
SECTION 50
#17330859968505304-489: The 48th New York Film Festival in 2010, the 27th film that Godard has shown at the festival. According to the synopsis on the film's official website, the film is composed of three movements: Principal photography began in 2008, and the film was originally scheduled for a 10 January 2010 release, but an extended post-production delayed its release. Most of the film was shot around the Mediterranean Sea . The film
5406-498: The American architect Robert Venturi , celebrated a plurality of forms and encourages participation and active engagement with the local context of the built environment. He presented this as in opposition to the "authoritarian style" of International Modernism. In the 1970s, postmodern criticism increasingly came to incorporate poststructuralist theory, particularly the deconstructive approach to texts most strongly associated with Jacques Derrida , who attempted to demonstrate that
5508-458: The Black Mountain poets an exemplary instance of the new postmodern type, Hassan celebrates its Nietzschean playfulness and cheerfully anarchic spirit, which he sets off against the high seriousness of modernism. (Yet, from another perspective, Friedrich Nietzsche 's attack on Western philosophy and Martin Heidegger 's critique of metaphysics posed deep theoretical problems not necessarily
5610-456: The British magazine, "Design". A characteristic of postmodern graphic design is that "retro, techno, punk, grunge, beach, parody, and pastiche were all conspicuous trends. Each had its own sites and venues, detractors and advocates." In 1971, the American literary theorist Ihab Hassan made "postmodernism" popular in literary studies with his influential book, The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward
5712-548: The Greek eironeia ( εἰρωνεία ) and dates back to the 5th century BCE. This term itself was coined in reference to a stock-character from Old Comedy (such as that of Aristophanes ) known as the eiron , who dissimulates and affects less intelligence than he has—and so ultimately triumphs over his opposite, the alazon , a vain-glorious braggart. Although initially synonymous with lying, in Plato 's dialogues eironeia came to acquire
5814-488: The Western world. The Industrial Revolution , urbanization , secularization , technological advances , two world wars , and globalization deeply disrupted the social order. Modernism emerged in the late 1800s, seeking to redefine fundamental truths and values through a radical rethinking of traditional ideas and forms across many fields. Postmodernism emerged in the mid-20th century with a skeptical perspective that questioned
5916-490: The already converted." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 64 out of 100, based on 13 reviews. Michael Phillips , film critic for the Chicago Tribune , gave the movie three stars out of four, writing, "Those receptive to Godard's sense of humor will find Film Socialisme an elusive yet expansive provocation. Those less receptive will find it elusive, period". British film critic Mark Kermode attended
6018-441: The arts in general, it instead turned to address the more general problems posed to society in general by a new proliferation of cultures and forms. It is during this period that it also came to be associated with postcolonialism and identity politics . Around this time, postmodernism also began to be conceived in popular culture as a general "philosophical disposition" associated with a loose sort of relativism . In this sense,
6120-464: The conventional idea of the novel as faithfully reflecting the world. In Postmodernist Fiction (1987), Brian McHale details the shift from modernism to postmodernism, arguing that postmodern works developed out of modernism, moving from concern with what is there (" ontological dominant") to concern with how we can know it's there (" epistemological dominant"). McHale's "What Was Postmodernism?" (2007) follows Raymond Federman 's lead in now using
6222-622: The deconstruction of both cinema and genre. The film can also be seen as an example of major studios using the "mystique and cachet of the term 'postmodern' as a sales pitch", resulting in Hollywood movies that "demonstrate all the postmodern characteristics". From another perspective, "critical responses to Blade Runner fall on either side of a modern/postmodern line" – critical analysis from "modernist" and "postmodernist" approaches produce entirely different interpretations. Early mention of postmodernism as an element of graphic design appeared in
SECTION 60
#17330859968506324-559: The dilemma irony is introduced to resolve. Already in Schlegel's own day, G. W. F. Hegel was unfavorably contrasting Romantic irony with that of Socrates. On Hegel's reading, Socratic irony partially anticipates his own dialectical approach to philosophy. Romantic irony, by contrast, Hegel alleges to be fundamentally trivializing and opposed to all seriousness about what is of substantial interest. According to Rüdiger Bubner , however, Hegel's "misunderstanding" of Schlegel's concept of irony
6426-399: The dissertation states that "Just as philosophy begins with doubt, so also a life that may be called human begins with irony". Bernstein writes that the emphasis here must be on begins . Irony is not itself an authentic mode of life, but it is a precondition for attaining such a life. Although pure irony is self-destructive, it generates a space in which it becomes possible to reengage with
6528-925: The film, other people credited as collaborators being Fabrice Aragno and Louma Sanbar, who also have worked with Godard before. The cruise ship is the Costa Concordia , sailing around the Mediterranean Sea . This ship was wrecked in real life in January 2012. The shooting aboard the cruise ship was documented in Film catastrophe by Paul Grivas. Reviews for Film Socialisme were mixed. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 58%, based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 5.37/10. The website's consensus reads, "Godard continues to explore new modes of expression in Film Socialisme , an avant garde essay on societal decay that will resonate strongest among
6630-400: The fragmentary finitude of which contradicts the intended infinite content. Schlegel presents irony as the "structural whole" sought by these two "abstract" figures. It accomplishes this by "surpassing of all self-imposed limits". Frank cites Schlegel's descriptions from a variety of sources: Irony consists in a "constant alternation ( Wechsel ) between self-creation and self-destruction", in
6732-427: The human situation of always striving towards, but never completely possessing, what is infinite or true. This presentation of Schlegel's account of irony is at odds with many 20th-century interpretations, which, neglecting the larger historical context, have been predominately postmodern . These readings overstate the irrational dimension of early Romantic thought at the expense of its rational commitments—precisely
6834-465: The infamous Pruitt–Igoe scheme, or rather several of its slab blocks, were given the final coup de grâce by dynamite." ). Jencks makes the point that postmodernism (like modernism) varies for each field of art, and that for architecture it is not just a reaction to modernism but what he terms double coding : "Double Coding: the combination of Modern techniques with something else (usually traditional building) in order for architecture to communicate with
6936-546: The late 1970s and ’80s." Media theorist Dick Hebdige , examining the " Road to Nowhere " (1985) music video, said the group "draw eclectically on a wide range of visual and aural sources to create a distinctive pastiche or hybrid 'house style' which they have used since their formation in the mid-1970s deliberately to stretch received (industrial) definitions of what rock/pop/video/Art/ performance/audience are", calling them "a properly postmodernist band." According to lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter David Byrne , commenting for
7038-517: The late-20th century, avant-garde academics labelled American singer Madonna as the "personification of the postmodern" because "the postmodern condition is characterized by fragmentation, de-differentiation, pastiche, retrospection and anti-foundationalism", which they argued Madonna embodied. Christian writer Graham Cray also said that "Madonna is perhaps the most visible example of what is called post-modernism", and Martin Amis described her as "perhaps
7140-417: The level of consumer choice. This research project, however, was not taken up in a significant way by others until the mid-1980s when the work of Jean Baudrillard and Fredric Jameson , building upon art and literary criticism, reintroduced the term to sociology. Discussion about the postmodern in the second part of the 20th century was most articulate in areas with a large body of critical discourse around
7242-531: The lines between fine art and commercial design. His work, exemplified by the iconic Campbell's Soup Cans series during the 1960s, brought the postmodernist sensibility to mainstream attention. Criticism of postmodernist movements in the arts include objections to departure from beauty, the reliance on language for the art to have meaning, a lack of coherence or comprehensibility, deviation from clear structure, and consistent use of dark and negative themes. Scholarship regarding postmodernism and architecture
7344-557: The lines established by Cicero and Quintilian near the beginning of the 1st century CE. "Irony" entered the English language as a figure of speech in the 16th century with a meaning similar to the French ironie , itself derived from the Latin. Around the end of the 18th century, "irony" takes on another sense, primarily credited to Friedrich Schlegel and other participants in what came to be known as early German Romanticism . They advance
7446-418: The mind; accuses other men not only of wrong beliefs but of being wrong at their very foundations and blind to what these foundations imply[.] This is why, when we misunderstand an intended ironic utterance, we often feel more embarrassed about our failure to recognize the incongruity than we typically do when we simply misunderstand a statement of fact. When one's deepest beliefs are at issue, so too, often,
7548-403: The most postmodern personage on the planet". She was also suggested by literary critic Olivier Sécardin to epitomise postmodernism. Sculptor Claes Oldenberg , at the forefront of the pop art movement, declared in 1961: "I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical … I am for an art that embroils itself with everyday crap and still comes out on top." That year, he opened The Store in
7650-422: The notion of universal truths and reshaped modernist approaches by embracing the complexity and contradictions of modern life. The term "postmodernism" first appeared in print in 1870, but it only began to enter circulation with its current range of meanings in the 1950s—60s. The term "postmodern" was first used in 1870 by the artist John Watkins Chapman, who described "a Postmodern style of painting" as
7752-525: The observation that a survey of the literature on irony leaves the reader with the " dominant impression" that the authors are simply "talking about different subjects". Indeed, Geoffrey Nunberg , a lexical semantician , observes a trend of sarcasm replacing the linguistic role of verbal irony as a result of all this confusion. In the 1906 The King's English , Henry Watson Fowler writes, "any definition of irony—though hundreds might be given, and very few of them would be accepted—must include this, that
7854-409: The past tense when discussing postmodernism. Others argue that postmodernism in literature utilizes compositional and semantic practices such as inclusivity, intentional indiscrimination, nonselection, and "logical impossibility." Music critic Andy Cush described Talking Heads as "New York art-punks" whose "blend of nervy postmodernism and undeniable groove made them one of the defining rock bands of
7956-584: The play within the play is performed by the inmates of a lunatic asylum, the theatre audience cannot tell whether the paranoia displayed before them is that of the players, or the people they are portraying. Muecke notes that, "in America, Romantic irony has had a bad press", while "in England...[it] is almost unknown." In a book entitled English Romantic Irony , Anne Mellor writes, referring to Byron , Keats , Carlyle , Coleridge , and Lewis Carroll : Romantic irony
8058-477: The political ideals socialism and communism . The literary critic Irving Howe , for instance, denounced postmodern literature for being content to merely reflect, rather than actively attempt to refashion, what he saw as the "increasingly shapeless" character of contemporary society. In the 1970s, this changed again, largely under the influence of the literary critic Ihab Hassan 's large-scale survey of works that he said could no longer be called modern. Taking
8160-407: The postmodern from modernist cinema and traditional narrative film. One is an extensive use of homage or pastiche , imitating the style or character of other artistic works. A second is meta-reference or self-reference, highlighting the relation of the image to other images in media and not to any kind of external reality. Viewers are reminded that the film itself is only a film, perhaps through
8262-403: The premiere screening at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival , describing it later as the worst film of the festival. Kermode would include Film Socialisme in his list of the worst ten films of 2011, as well as including it on his list of the 10 worst films released between 2008 and 2018. Roger Ebert described the film as "an affront. It is incoherent, maddening, deliberately opaque and heedless of
8364-475: The prevailing narratives of beauty and objectivity common to Modernism. Author on postmodernism, Dominic Strinati, has noted, it is also important "to include in this category the so-called ' art rock ' musical innovations and mixing of styles associated with groups like Talking Heads , and performers like Laurie Anderson , together with the self-conscious 'reinvention of disco ' by the Pet Shop Boys ". In
8466-412: The public and a concerned minority, usually other architects." In their book, "Revisiting Postmodernism", Terry Farrell and Adam Furman argue that postmodernism brought a more joyous and sensual experience to the culture, particularly in architecture. For instance, in response to the modernist slogan of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe that "less is more", the postmodernist Robert Venturi rejoined that "less
8568-720: The sentence, " Bolingbroke was a holy man" (he was anything but). Verbal irony is sometimes also considered to encompass various other literary devices such as hyperbole and its opposite, litotes , conscious naïveté, and others. Dramatic irony provides the audience with information of which characters are unaware, thereby placing the audience in a position of advantage to recognize their words and actions as counter-productive or opposed to what their situation actually requires. Three stages may be distinguished — installation, exploitation, and resolution (often also called preparation, suspension, and resolution) — producing dramatic conflict in what one character relies or appears to rely upon,
8670-665: The successful translation of irony depends: common mastery of language, shared cultural values, and (for artistic ironies) a common experience of genre. A consequence of this element of in-group membership is that there is more at stake in whether one grasps an ironic utterance than there is in whether one grasps an utterance presented straight. As he puts it, the use of irony is An aggressively intellectual exercise that fuses fact and value, requiring us to construct alternative hierarchies and choose among them; [it] demands that we look down on other men's follies or sins; floods us with emotion-charged value judgments which claim to be backed by
8772-595: The surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same." A consequence of this, he observes, is that an analysis of irony requires the concept of a double audience "consisting of one party that hearing shall hear & shall not understand, & another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more & of the outsiders' incomprehension". From this basic feature, literary theorist Douglas C. Muecke identifies three basic characteristics of all irony: According to Wayne Booth , this uneven double-character of irony makes it
8874-808: The term also started to appear as a "casual term of abuse" in non-academic contexts. Others identified it as an aesthetic "lifestyle" of eclecticism and playful self-irony. Postmodernism encompasses a wide range of artistic movements and styles. In visual arts, pop art , conceptual art , feminist art , video art , minimalism , and neo-expressionism are among the approaches recognized as postmodern. The label extends to diverse musical genres and artists: John Cage , Madonna , and punk rock all meet postmodern definitions. Literature, film, architecture, theater, fashion, dance, and many other creative disciplines saw postmodern expression. As an example, Andy Warhol 's pop art across multiple mediums challenged traditional distinctions between high and low culture, and blurred
8976-454: The top of her chapter headed "What is metafiction?". These include: The thing is this. That of all the several ways of beginning a book […] I am confident my own way of doing it is best Since I've started this story, I've gotten boils […] Additionally, The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction says of John Fowles 's The French Lieutenant's Woman , "For the first twelve chapters...the reader has been able to immerse him or herself in
9078-461: The traditional stage [and] drew on everyday movements (sitting, walking, kneeling, and other gestures) to create their pieces, often performing them in ordinary spaces." This was developed in particular by the American dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham , Cage's partner. In the 1980s and 1990s, dance began to incorporate other typically postmodern features such as the mixing of genres, challenging high–low cultural distinctions, and incorporating
9180-469: The use of intertextuality , in which the film's characters reference other works of fiction. A third characteristic is stories that unfold out of chronological order , deconstructing or fragmenting time to emphasize the constructed nature of film. Another common element is a bridging of the gap between highbrow and lowbrow , . Contradictions of all sorts are crucial to postmodernism. Ridley Scott 's Blade Runner (1982) has been widely studied as
9282-407: The vagueness of the term, enumerating a long list of otherwise unrelated concepts that people have designated as postmodernism, from "the décor of a room" or "a 'scratch' video", to fear of nuclear armageddon and the "implosion of meaning", and stated that anything that could signify all of those things was "a buzzword". All this notwithstanding, scholar Hans Bertens offers the following: If there
9384-407: The very idea of what music is." In the 1960s, composers such as Terry Riley , Henryk Górecki , Bradley Joseph , John Adams , Steve Reich , Philip Glass , Michael Nyman , and Lou Harrison reacted to the perceived elitism and dissonant sound of atonal academic modernism by producing music with simple textures and relatively consonant harmonies, whilst others, most notably John Cage challenged
9486-410: The ways in which people watch movies." Film Socialisme was screened at numerous film festivals around the world including, Postmodern Postmodernism is a term used to refer to a variety of artistic , cultural , and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism . They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting
9588-422: The whole foundationalist approach to language and knowledge was untenable and misguided. It is during this period that postmodernism came to be particularly equated with a kind of anti-representational self-reflexivity. In the 1980s, some critics began to take an interest in the work of Michel Foucault . This introduced a political concern about social power-relations into discussions about postmodernism. This
9690-503: The wholeness of the series to appear selectively." According to Schlegel, allegory points beyond itself toward that which can be expressed only poetically, not directly. He describes wit as a "selective flashing" ( Aufblitzen ); its content, he says, is "always paradoxical", its unifications of the finite and the infinite are always fragmentary. These two figures cannot exist together at once. What allegory attains indirectly by conjoining, wit attains only momentarily by total individuation,
9792-540: The world in a genuine mode of ethical passion . For Kierkegaard himself, this took the form of religious inwardness. What is crucial, however, is just to in some way move beyond the purely (or merely) ironic. Irony is what creates the space in which we can learn and meaningfully choose how to live a life worthy ( vita digna ) of being called human. Referring to earlier self-conscious works such as Don Quixote and Tristram Shandy , D. C. Muecke points particularly to Peter Weiss 's 1964 play, Marat/Sade . This work
9894-576: The world, making it impossible to be completely objective . In philosophy, education, history, politics, and many other fields, it encourages critical re-examination of established institutions and social norms, embracing diversity and breaking down disciplinary boundaries. Though these ideas weren't strictly new, postmodernism amplified them, using an often playful, at times deeply critical, attitude of pervasive skepticism to turn them into defining features. Two broad cultural movements, modernism and postmodernism, emerged in response to profound changes in
9996-524: The world. Still, there is disagreement among experts about its more precise meaning even within narrow contexts. The term began to acquire its current range of meanings in literary criticism and architectural theory during the 1950s–1960s. In opposition to modernism's alleged self-seriousness, postmodernism is characterized by its playful use of eclectic styles and performative irony , among other features. Critics claim it supplants moral , political , and aesthetic ideals with mere style and spectacle. In
10098-468: Was also the beginning of the affiliation of postmodernism with feminism and multiculturalism . The art critic Craig Owens , in particular, not only made the connection to feminism explicit, but went so far as to claim feminism for postmodernism wholesale, a broad claim resisted by even many sympathetic feminists such as Nancy Fraser and Linda Nicholson. Although postmodern criticism and thought drew on philosophical ideas from early on, "postmodernism"
10200-405: Was at the forefront of the intellectual movement that has come to be known as Frühromantik , or early German Romanticism, situated narrowly between 1797 and 1801. For Schlegel, the "romantic imperative" (a rejoinder to Immanuel Kant 's " categorical imperative ") is to break down the distinction between art and life with the creation of a "new mythology" for the modern age. In particular, Schlegel
10302-468: Was only introduced to the expressly philosophical lexicon by Jean-François Lyotard in his 1979 The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge . This work served as a catalyst for many of the subsequent intellectual debates around the term. By the 1990s, postmodernism had become increasingly identified with critical and philosophical discourse directly about postmodernity or the postmodern idiom itself. No longer centered on any particular art or even
10404-475: Was responding to what he took to be the failure of the foundationalist enterprise, exemplified for him by the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte . Irony is a response to the apparent epistemic uncertainties of anti-foundationalism. In the words of scholar Frederick C. Beiser , Schlegel presents irony as consisting in "the recognition that, even though we cannot attain truth, we still must forever strive toward it, because only then do we approach it." His model
#849150