From what I have gathered, postmodernism is the most current ‘era,’ one might say, of contemporary culture. The term, ‘postmodernism,’ is a play on the ‘modernist’ movement of objectivity and progress that is often related with the Enlightenment. Chronologically, the postmodern way of thinking and cultural forms of art, music, architecture, literature, etc., includes anything developed or created after the closing of World War II. If you thought about it, anything from Elvis Presley’s rock and roll repertoire, to J. K. Rowling’s fantastic wizard world of Harry Potter and the Hogwarts school, to the pop art works of Andy Warhol, or the creepy cinematic adventures of Alfred Hitchcock can all be collectively considered as ‘postmodernist.’ Another way to describe postmodernism is that it goes against modernism- it goes against the grain, you could say. “Stepping outside the box,” and not following the rules or guidelines previously set is what postmodernism is about. As we read in “Postmodern Architecture,” new age architects are said to have actually began the postmodernism movement, by going against the “retro, ancient, cluttered, nineteenth century styles. No more custom. No more inherited designs” would be followed. In doing this, they jet set a completely new style of culture that would inspire the rest of the art-world to follow. In this, I do believe that Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle should be considered a postmodernist text. Despite the fact that it was written in 1963, automatically ‘categorizing’ it as postmodern, since it followed World War II, the content of the book actually makes it postmodernist. For example, when Castle is asked why he mentioned Jesus Christ just minutes before, he first didn’t recall the name, then went on to say, “People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order, so they’ll have good boxes in case there’s ever anything really meaningful to say.” In this, he is saying that people just talk to make sure they still can, because there is nothing important to say anymore. This is obviously going against the grain, but it still makes sense in displaying postmodernism, because it shows what may happen to society in the time to come, and makes a critique on ‘modernism,’ and what used to be the norm as opposed to what will be the norm.
PS: sorry about the beginning. I really needed to clarify to myself what postmodernism really is.
I really like how you explained what post modernism is. It gave me a better understanding what it really is.For example, you explained that "anything for Elivis Presley's rock and roll repertoire to J.k. Rowling's fantastic wizard world of Harry Potter and the Hogwarts school." It gave me a better insight to postmodernism because I did not know they were considered it. For your example for Cat's Cradle, I thought that it was good but you did not really elaborate on how it is considered post modernism. The example that you used was good but you need to demonstrate more on how it is showing post modernism. You wrote that it is "going against the grain, but it still makes sense in displaying postmodernism, because it shows what may happen to society in the time to come, and makes a critique on ‘modernism,’ and what used to be the norm as opposed to what will be the norm." How is the quote making a critique on 'modernism'? What used to be the norm? Sorry for writing such negative things because if I did not, I would not have anything to write at all. =(
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