Postmodernism in music represented more than youthful values of the 1960s, but rather the intellectual idea that there is no need for perfect orchestration in music, or that every composition needs to fill a certain length of time or particular genre. (Dorsten, 1) Certainly the fundamentals of music never changed, but the intent of the musician had, and therefore postmodern music launched a plethora of creative ideas and individuals into the music world
The modernist image was partly formed due to the technological advances of the time, those being microwaves, radio waves, greater manipulation of iron, greater trade, the creation of the Interstate highway system, as well as the discovery and subsequent controlling of nuclear technology, both as a weapon and as a source of energy. (Evans, 1) These ideas all melded into a vision for the world as an optimistic place, which can be 'corrected' if scientific measures are adapted, and the hierarchy of society remains intact
Postmodernism reached into the core beliefs of home ownership, individuality, and the concept of the automobile as the ultimate expression of freedom, which came to define the baby boomer generation as a whole. (Hurd, 1) This period changed the way cities looked, as suburban cities grew tremendously, and urban centers were vacated and left to rot
Instead, sculpture became emblematic of feeling, of design, of industrial capability, and represented the streamlined thought process of the postmodern mind, without sacrificing the creativity inherent in any postmodern piece. (Rybczynski, 1) Every city in the world has several postmodern buildings to point to, from the largest metropolises to the smallest suburbs, reflecting on just how widespread the ideas of postmodernism were
In the modern age, consumerism is far more important than the individuality and self-expression of postmodernism. (Winkler, 1) In conclusion, postmodernism was a period of struggle and expression, a total rejection of the past and an honest attempt at reshaping the future, whether in the realm of Architecture, Art, Literature or Philosophy
This is not to say that the two novels critiqued in this paper will have the literary and emotional clout that works by Pope and Swift still have; but the Pynchon and DeLillo writings will be sustained through their reflections on culture during the time they were front and center. Thomas Pynchon and Postmodernism Thomas Pynchon has been more than a substantial, innovative and revered literary figure in recent American history -- he actually is noted because his writing marked the "passage from modern to postmodern literature and culture" (Best, et al
Caton, Gladney isn't the only character showing signs that the educational system is spurious at best. The cars that students drive "…as a stream of machines slowly weaving through a pastoral landscape" suggests that the students attending the college are cookie cutter creatures, products of "…an assembly-line culture" (Caton, 1997, 1)
Beyond those links, Duvall references critic Paul Cantor who believes White Noise is in a very real way "…concerned with showing parallels between German fascism and contemporary American culture" (188). Critic Mark Conroy believes that Jack Gladney's life is coming apart -- and has been "in severe drift for many years" -- because it needs what Conroy terms "several registers of traditional authority in order to stay together" (Conroy, 1994, 1)
Postmodernism & Two Novels Retired professor of English Robert Murray Davis explains that literary postmodernism -- "at least as a visible force" and "at least in the U.S." -- is over (Davis, 2001, p
It is a bizarre tale, and in some ways it satirizes American society, which is one of the fairly consistent themes in postmodernism. Meanwhile, critic Mark Decker understands why critics have suggested that Pynchon's novel the Crying of Lot 49 could be thought of as an "exuberant ribbing" of all things California in the Sixties -- pop culture turned to music and decadence, and the "wreckage of taste that our machinery produces in abundance" (Decker, 2000, p
Eventually Jack kills the man Babette was having liaisons with. White Noise was published in 1985, which makes DeLillo something of a clairvoyant because the author reflects on "…the way the mediations of television map the realm of desire in the space of the supermarket and the shopping mall" -- and today's Home Shopping Network offers exactly "…the intertwined spheres of desire that DeLillo's novel so suggestively connects" (Duvall, 2003, 188)
She doesn't know the real truth of Trystero, so she settles for believing it could be a number of things; it could be a hallucination, a true historical phenomenon, a fantasy, or even "an elaborate plot mounted by Inverarity" (Decker, 5). Critic Paula Geyh sees some great "icons of postmodernism" early in the novel, as Oedipa stands on a high hill overlooking "San Narciso" (San Francisco), surveying a "vast sprawl of houses" (Geyh, 2003, p
The concept of plurality arises from postmodernism, and will be used to analyze the stand of the Mormon Church on controversial global issues later on in this text. Modernism: dates back to the renaissance period and is characterized by the conviction that humans must discover the secrets of nature as this is the only way they can exercise power over it (Brantley n
This trend is depicted in a number of instances in which they appear to consider their faith more superior to that of their neighbors. To begin with, Mormons believe that American Indians advanced from the rebellious non-believing Lamanites, and needed to convert to Mormon because only then, would God's Kingdom be built on earth (Santos A12)
In doing so, Beyond the Black Rainbow becomes a modernist film. Andras Kovacs writes that post-war modern cinema has "its narrative forms are based on interactions unknown or rarely apparent in both classical Hollywood and art cinema because they are based not in physical contact but in different forms of mental responses" (Ford 158)
Beyond the Black Rainbow aims to create a unique psychological response without obviously referencing other works of art and film, which may be construed as a failure to be a successful postmodern film, or to at least be intertextual. However, it may be argued from a structuralist perspective that the film's failure to elicit an immediate response from its audience is based on their unfamiliarity with the 1970s and 1980s science fiction and horror films that Cosmatos references and was inspired by (Nelson)
For postmodernists, all ideas are relative. "Ideas such as God, freedom, immortality, the world, first beginning, and final end have only a regulative function for knowledge, since they cannot find fulfilling instances among objects of experience" (Aylesworth 2012)
But while postmodernism may be fairly obvious in art, to understand what postmodernism 'is,' philosophically speaking, the definition of modernism must be clarified, given that it was this philosophical movement to which postmodernism was reacting against. First and foremost, modernism advocated the idea that there was the "existence of stable, coherent 'self', independent of culture and society" (Drake 2012)
It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. (Borges 1) This is very obviously an example of Borges stressing a universal emotional challenge to self, how so often the individual gets lost in the public image and fails to integrate the internal thoughts to public expectations
It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. (Borges 1) This is very obviously an example of Borges stressing a universal emotional challenge to self, how so often the individual gets lost in the public image and fails to integrate the internal thoughts to public expectations