Postmodernism

[Orrex]

[RandomKoolzip]

1. Definition: whipping boy of the religious right and the lazy left

[southpaw]

2. In one of my senior-level lit classes

a student made the suggestion that the last paragraph of any deconstructionist essay could be pretty effectively switched with the last paragraph of any other deconstructionist essay.

The professor said that just such a proposition had been made by one or other notable post-postmodernist critic.

I was a lit major, and postmodernism, post-structuralism and pretty much any diliberately obtuse critical theory damn near killed my love of literature.

[RandomKoolzip]

3. Really?

As a current English major, I can't get enough of them goofy critical theories, especially deconstruction. In fact, I'm constantly getting into trouble with my instuctors because I apply those theories in summary papers.

I don't think I'd be particularly interested in literature without theories with which I can tear it apart and expose its guts. But that's just me, I guess.

[southpaw]

4. Don't get me wrong...

I quite enjoyed digging deep into works of literature and really uncovering the intracacies of interconnected meaning, historicity, authorial intent vs. authorial psychology... I was a HUGE William Faulkner fan...

Much of critical theory seemed to minimize the literary/authorial/historical aspects of the work in question, focusing instead on the imperfect connection of a word to the idea it represents, or the inability of any symbol to adequately convey the depth of meaning it was intended to convey.

Language isn't perfect. There is no transcendent signifier. All linguistic systems rely on more or less arbitrary signifier/signified relationships that evolve over time and are influenced by cultural trends.

My love of literature is inspired by how artfully a writer uses the imperfect tools at hand to create works at once aesthetically beautiful and culturally significant.

[Orrex]

6. Here's a snipped that I recently posted elsewhere on DU

Writing about the instructor of an English course I took in spring of 1998:

He had a total stiffy for postmodernism, to the point that he literally never answered a question the entire semester. And I mean "literally" literally, as opposed to "figuratively." I don't need to have my survey course spelled out for me word for word, but when I'm plunking down a couple thousand bucks for the credits, it would be nice to have some evidence that the asshole running the course has some real idea of what's going on.

Anyway, he asserted as fact the idea that there are no absolutes, not even such theoretical absolutes as mathematical truths. In a certain culture (unnamed, of course) two plus two actually doesn't equal four.

I've had other brushes with hardcore PoMo devotees, all pretty much cast from the same mold.

I can't get enough of them goofy critical theories, especially deconstruction. In fact, I'm constantly getting into trouble with my instuctors because I apply those theories in summary papers.

The all-too-common problem in that case is that the student more often than not attempts simply to outfox the instructor rather than engaging the text.

If that's not your goal, then props to you, but that's where the "pseudointellectual masturbation" comes in (among many other places).

[RandomKoolzip]

7. Relax, dude.

No. MY goal is to become a better critic, indulge my interest in grammar and linguistics, get a degree, then move on to Library Science and then a career as a librarian. Alls I'm saying is that in the interim, them theories we use to dissect and interrogate texts excite me.

And there ARE no absolutes, execpt that Lenny Kravitz absolutely fuckin' sucks.

[southpaw]

8. Yeah...

Let's deconstruct Kravitz.

Literally.

I'll bring the power tools.

[Orrex]

9. Well, I had hoped to exclude you from my diatribe

Sorry if you were caught in the blast-zone.

And FWIW we are in complete agreement on the Kravitz issue. Worthless.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. Do you know Alan Sokal's hoax? -nt

[Dr. Strange]

15. My Favorite Hoax!

Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity

[AnotherGreenWorld]

19. What made you want to be a librarian?

[RandomKoolzip]

21. Hard drugs

[CGowen]

5. The Abbreviation is Pomo not Porno n/t

[Orrex]

16. You're no fun at all

:mad:

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. "Postmodernism" implies that nothing can ever be modern again.

[AnotherGreenWorld]

20. "Post" isn't used temporally.

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. I'll give you that because your ID is an Eno album title.

[StrongBad]

11. What I've Found

I've found that the term has pretty much become a comprehensive adjective (with hopes its use will make the speaker sound intelligent and well-read) to describe any phenomenon that is new, modern, or unexplainable.

[tjwmason]

13. Not yet here.

Post-modernism is moving on from the 'modern' era (which we really should get around to renaming), at the moment it is more 'ultra-modernism' and to a great extent merely seeks to define itself by reference to modernism. I have seen a number of professed post-modernists define it as being the rejection of the 'enlightenment', there will be a true post-modernism once it moves from being defined by what it is not.

Come back in about 50 years time and all will have settled down, probably.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Everybody needs to read this:

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/nyu_forum.html

[Deja Q]

17. Are we talking about 'Family Guy' again?

:evilgrin:

[Orrex]

18. I am *NEVER* talking about Family Guy

Except to decry it as the nadir of animated entertainment.

[SteppingRazor]

22. Postmodernism is yet another proof that we have lost any and all originality.

Why must what follows Modernism by termed "Postmodernism?"

How come the generation following Generation X must be "Generation Y?" (or worse, "echo boomers")

For God's sake, have we just run out of ideas?

[Taverner]

23. It means everything has been done

And all art is found art

Nothing more, nothing less.

[mikeytherat]

25. "It's Po-Mo." (blank stares) "Post-Modern." (blank stares)

"OK: weird for the sake of weird."

mikey_the_rat

[ellisonz]

26. Pomocrap.

[TZ]

27. First choice is a good start but....

I think you are being a bit too polite for my tastes...what is the first part of my sig line but a polite way of saying "fuck you Pomo anti-intellectual bullshitters.."

[Orrex]

28. You're such a delicate flower!

Q: Is that any way for a lady to talk?

A: Hell no, and I applaud you for it! :applause:

[TZ]

29. You have no idea...

I talk exactly the same in real life as I do on my posts.I'm no lady- I'm a wo-MAN! (oh yeah- and thats why I will NEVER be a manager either)

AND I am a bit warped from too much time in health/GD...I never really knew what postmoderism was until I started hanging out there...:banghead: