POSTMODERNISM

WHAT IS POSTMODERNISM?

• Postmodernism is a late 20th-century style and concept in the

arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure

from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use

of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic

styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

CONTINUED…

• Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of

scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. In essence, it

stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in

human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the

mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality.

• In the postmodern understanding, interpretation is everything;

reality only comes into being through our interpretations of

what the world means to us individually.

GLOSSARY

• Reinvent – Recreate something to make it better then it was before.

• Surrealism - a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

• Self reflexive - The definition of self reflexive is someone making reference to their own artificiality. An example of a self reflexive critique is a politician who goes back over her life and reflects on where she may not have been totally honest in what she said or did.

• Intertextuality – When one media text refers to another.

• Parody - Mocking something in an original way.

• Pastiche – Imitating the style of someone's work. E.g. Picasso

• Bricolage – The construction or creation from a diverse range of available things.

• Homage – Honoring or respecting someone's work publicly.