Difference Between Modernism And Postmodernism
Expert Answers. Postmodernism sought to move modernism to a new level by criticizing everything, including the form. The postmodernists believed in the ideas of fragmentation and disunity, but sought to explore the principles that lay underneath such a reality. This led to a complete overhaul of both content and manner in which it is presented.
‘Modernism’, in a broader sense, ismodern thought, character, or practice braking away with the rules, traditionsand existing ways of writing practiced by earlier authors. In art, modernismbreaks away with the ideology of realism and makes use of past through theuse of flashback, recapitulation, and incorporation. This rebellious attitude flourishesbetween 1900 and 1930 has, as its basis, the rejection of European culture forhaving become too corrupt and artificial.
Thisdissatisfaction with the moral bankruptcy of everything European led modernthinkers and artists to explore other alternatives, especially primitivecultures. In literature, ‘modernism’ grows out as a reaction to realism andnaturalism. Generally literary texts after World War I as well as belonging theabove qualities are considered as modern text. Modernism’ marks a strong andintentional break with tradition and it is also related to politics, religionetc. Though modernism becomes prominent after traditionalism so knowing thedifference between these two ‘ism’ is important.
Traditionalism, which is basedon tradition, is a dominant way of life. There are always pre-determined rules,explanations for people and their life in traditionalism. Objectivism isanother important point in traditionalism. There is one truth for everything intraditionalism. High class people are more important than middle or low classpeople in traditionalism because it gives importance for elevated style. On theother hand, as modernism is a break with tradition, so this break includes astrong reaction against established religious, political, and social views.According to modernism, there is no such thing as absolute truth. All thingsare relative.
Another thing, where in traditionalism objectivism is animportant point, modernism gives importance to subjectivism. Championship of the individualthrough the celebration of inner strength is one of the most prominentcharacteristics of modernism and in this regard it differs from realism. This ‘inner strength’ of the individual is expressed through four literary ‘isms’- subjectivism,impressionalism, expressionalism and surrealism.
Realism attempts to portrayexternal objects and events as the common or middle class people see them inevery day life, impressionalism tries to portray the psychological impressionthat these objects and events make on characters, emphasizing the role ofindividual perception and exploring the nature of conscious and subconsciousmind. Whereas realism attempts to portray external objects and events,expressionalism tries to explain the inner vision, emotion or spiritualreality. Whereas, realism attempts to portray external objects and events asthey are verisimilituded, surrealism tries to liberal the subconscious to seeconnection overlooked by the logical mind. In this regard, we can mention JamesJoyce’s Ulysses (1922), A portrait of the artist as a Young Man,Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of ThingsPast, Dorothy Richardson’ Pilgrimageand Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, To ALighthouse. First of all, a new emphasis onimpressionalism and subjectivism, that we mentioned earlier, which focus on how we see rather what we see. In this regard a new literary technique, stream ofconsciousness’, is employed by James Joyce and his followers such as VirginiaWoolf in their writings.
Then, regarding narrative technique modernist literarytexts are away from the apparent objectivity provided by such features as:omniscient external narration, fixed narrative point of view. However, languageis also an important device of modernism to differentiate a literary text fromother texts.
In modern literary text emphasizes on colloquial language ratherthan formal language. Finally, a newliking for fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives are obvious in modernistliterary texts. For example- Waitingfor Godot by Samuel Beckett, The Waste Land by T.S.
Eliot are superb examples of fragmentedforms. Post-modernismis the term used to suggest a reaction or response to modernism in the latetwentieth century. So, postmodernism can only be understood in relation toModernism. At its core, Postmodernism rejects that which Modernism champions.While postmodernism seems very much like modernism in many ways, it differsfrom modernism in its attitude toward a lot of these trends. Modernism, forexample, tends to present a fragmented view of human subjectivity and history,but presents that fragmentation as something tragic, something to be lamentedand mourned as a loss.
Postmodernism, in contrast, doesn't lament the idea offragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but rather celebrates that. Inliterature, it used to describe certain characteristics of post–WorldWar II literature, for example, onfragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.
And a reaction against ideas implicit in. Likemodernism, postmodernism also believes the view that there is no absolute truthand truth is relative. P ostmodernism asserts that truth is not mirrored in humanunderstanding of it, but is rather constructed as the mind tries to understandits own personal reality. So, facts and falsehood are interchangeable. Forexample, in classical work such as King Oedipus there is onlyone truth that is “obey your fate”.
In contrast to classical work in postmodernwork such as in Waiting for Godot, there is no such thing as absolutetruth. All things are relative here. Post-modernism is the term used to suggest a reaction orresponse to modernism in the late twentieth century. Postmodernism has oppositecharacteristics to traditionalism, realism. Postmodernism believes in thepremise ‘irrational is real, real is irrational’. Moreover, unlike modernism,postmodernism celebrates the fragmentation instead of lamenting over it. Postmodernism does not care ground zero inits framework though traditionalism does.
There is no pre-determined rules,well-established and long-term principles. Events, activities, thoughts,manners do not exist for a long time in postmodernism. All of these issues aresubjected to change unlike traditionalism. Postmodernism argues that there isno absolute truth in the universe. Characteristics of literary works inpostmodernism are so broad. Rules of classical literary works are not valid inthese literary works. There is no unity of time, place and action in literaryworks in postmodernism. Unlike Classical literary works, there is no hero.However; characters of literary works in postmodernism are from middle or lowclass in other words they are ordinary man.
Subject of literary works are innerworld, thought and problems of these ordinary people. Endings of literary workscan be interpreted in many different ways. Outcome of literary works may changefrom person to person.
On the other hand, there is a close ending in classicalliterary works. There is only one lesson for everyone in classical works. Forexample, King Oedipus by Sophocles has a close ending and same lesson foreveryone. The lesson is: “obey the fate”. But in Waiting for Godot by SamuelBeckett we can not reach such definite conclusion. Postmodernauthors were certainly not the first to use irony and humor in their writing,but for many postmodern authors, these became the hallmarks of their style.Postmodern authors are very frustrated for World War II, the Cold War, conspiracytheories.
They try to amalgate it from indirect way so, irony, playfulness,black humor comes. In fact, several novelists later to be labeled postmodernwere first collectively labeled black humorists.:, etc.It's common for postmodernists to treat serious subjects in a playful and humorousway. Related to postmodern intertextuality, pastiche means tocombine, or 'paste' together, multiple elements. In Postmodernistliterature, many postmodernauthors combined, or “pasted” elements of previous genres and styles ofliterature to create a new narrative voice, or to comment on the writing oftheir contemporaries. F or example, uses science fiction, detective fiction, westerns; uses sciencefiction and fairy tales; ThomasPynchon, uses elements from detective fiction, science fiction, and warfiction. In 's 1977 novel, Coover mixeshistorically inaccurate accounts of Richard Nixon interacting with historicalfigures and fictional characters such as Uncle Sam and Betty Crocker.
Pastichecan also refer to compositional technique, for example the cut-up techniqueemployed by Burroughs. Another example is 's 1969 novel TheUnfortunates; it was released in a box with no binding so thatreaders could assemble it however they chose.
3.2.4.Metafiction:Many postmodern authors feature metafiction in their writing, which,essentially, is writing about writing, an attempt to make the reader aware ofits fictionality, and, sometimes, the presence of the author. Authors sometimesuse this technique to allow for flagrant shifts in narrative, impossible jumpsin time, or to maintain emotional distance as a narrator. Though metafiction isprimarily associated with and, but is found atleast as early as 'sand 's14th century. Some examples of metafictionliterary texts:by,'sand, 's, by,'s, by, by,by,by,and Cy Coleman's 1989 Tony Award best musical,. This is a common technique in modernist fiction:fragmentation and non-linear narratives are central features in both modern andpostmodern literature. Temporal distortion in postmodern fiction is used in avariety of ways, often for the sake of irony.
Difference Between Post Modern And Modernism
In this literary the author may jump forwards or backwardsin time, or there may be cultural and historical references that do not fit.For example, In Flightto Canada, dealsplayfully with anachronisms, Abraham Lincoln using a telephone for example.Time may also overlap, repeat, or bifurcate into multiple possibilities. Forexample, in 's 'TheBabysitter' from, the authorpresents multiple possible events occurring simultaneously—in one section thebabysitter is murdered while in another section nothing happens and so on—yetno version of the story is favored as the correct version. 3.2.8.Paranoia:Paranoia is thebelief that there's an ordering system behind the chaos of the world is anotherrecurring postmodern theme.
For the postmodernist, no ordering system exists,so a search for order is fruitless. Pynchon's,long-considered a prototype of postmodern literature, presents a situation whichmay be 'coincidence or conspiracy - or a cruel joke'. This oftencoincides with the theme of technoculture and hyperreality. For example, in by, the characterDwayne Hoover becomes violent when he's convinced that everyone else in theworld is a robot and he is the only human. We have already discussed modern andpostmodern elements with providing some examples of literary texts. Now, Iwould like to discuss an individual text elaborately to show how the modern andpostmodern elements are prevailing here.
In this regard, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is a superb examplewhere modern and postmodern elements are juxtaposed nicely. We have mentionedthat, there are some similar characteristics of modernism and postmodernism andSamuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot(1948) is an absurd play that falls into both the genre of modernism andpostmodernism. Considering its publishing period and other features such assubjectivism, fragmentation, paradox, existential crisis, identity crisis etc.we can see that the play bears the features of both modernism andpostmodernism. Moreover, this play is also a leading play in the ‘Theatre ofAbsurd’, a theatrical outcome of modernism, which was inspired by existentialphilosophy and its view that at the root of our being there is nothingness. Inthe play, two major characters Vladimirand Estragon are waiting on a country road, by a tree for Godot who nevercomes.
Through the barren setting and meaningless waiting the play actuallysymbolizes the psychological barrenness of modern people that arouse after twoworld wars. Modern people fall in the trap of waiting, a waiting that has nosolution except keeping on waiting. Prior to our main discussion, wemust know some background information and to do so we must look back to theevents that takes place during the first half of the twentieth century in theworlds of politics, literature, philosophy and religion. The early twentiethcentury witnessed two World Wars.
In literature it gives birth to tworecognizable literary styles: modernism and post-modernism and all thesehappenings paved the way for the theatrical tradition the absurd drama, as wementioned earlier, that it is an outcome of postmodernism. In fact it is areflection of the age.
The theatre of the absurd describes a mood, a tonetowards life, where man's existence is a dilemma of purposeless, meaningless,and pointless activity. It is complete denial of age-old values. It has noplot, no characterization, no logical sequence, and no culmination. SamuelBecket introduced the concept of absurdity, nothingness and meaninglessness oflife in his play Waiting For Godot. At first, the play celebrates thefragmentation in all dimensions.
The language, plot, character, setting, andtheme are presented in a fragmented form. It is as if the play were the supremeexample of the fragmentations. The difference between The Waste Land and Waitingfor Godot is that the former laments for the glory of the past which hasfallen apart, but the later never laments for the past. On the other hand, theplay celebrates the fragmentations. In this aspect the play is more tend tobear the postmodernist qualities than that of modernist. Another key characteristic of bothmodernism and postmodernism is that it holds the view that what is irrationalis real and what is real is irrational.
The play with its bizarrecharacteristics turns irrationality in the very rationality, the very unrealityinto the reality. To add more, characters (Vladimir, Estragon) are not from high-classbut ordinary man. The play is interested in their identity problem which is aninner problem. There is no plot as well as action in Waiting for Godot. So,nothing happens in the play. There is no order also in both modernism andpostmodernism.
It is a common characteristic in Waiting for Godot and both modernism and postmodernism. Waitingfor Godot, as we mentionedearlier, is concern with identity problem. We do not learn anything, about twomajor characters Vladimirand Estragon, such as their age, their status in society, their job etc.
Thoughthey have name, but we do not know them as they do not call their names. Vladimir calls Estragon as Gogo and Estragon calls Vladimir as Didi. Theirloss of memory is also associated with their identity crisis. The characterscannot remember their past.
Loss of memory loss of identity. In Act II, Pozzoappears as blind and he cannot remember that they had met Vladimir and Estragon the previous day. Waitingfor Godot is also a play inthe Theatre of Absurd, a theatrical outcome of modernism.
Through the portrayalof characters, Beckett asserts that at the root of our being there isnothingness. Vladimirand Estragon face existential crisis as life seems nothing to them.Thisfrustration is expressed through the repetation of the sentence, 'Nothingto be done” by Estragon. Almost all modern people after two world warsexperience the same feelings.
Life appears to them as absurd thing with full ofpureposeless, nothingness and meaninglessness.