- Published: September 14, 2022
- Updated: September 14, 2022
- University / College: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Language: English
- Downloads: 14
Despite the fact that postmodernism is a challenging term to generalize, there also exists numerous common features that can be said to characterize various aspects of postmodern art forms. It becomes evident that, the aspect of intersexuality is a prominent characteristic in most of the art forms as depicted by the arguments put forth by Lyotard and Jameson. In most forms of art that describes postmodernity, the works of art or literature are known to refer to each other through the method of pastiche or parody. In the case of parody, a particular work is imitated with the playful satire, and in regard to pastiche, it imitates a particular work so as to make use of its original style. Additionally, self-reflexivity is another characteristic that is common in most of postmodern works that explicitly refer to themselves in order to portray how aware they are of their own constructive behavior. In this part of the paper, I will expound further on the characteristics of postmodernism as explained by Lyotard and Jameson, and also address three aspects of postmodernism typology according to the same authors.
How does Lyotard define the postmodern? What does he mean by the term ” metanarrative”? Give some examples of how ” metanarratives” work. How do they function with respect to knowledge?
In critical theory, particularly on the topic of postmodernism, a metanarrative is considered to be the abstract idea that is usually consisted of a comprehensive explanation about a historical experience or knowledge. According to scholars such as John Stephens, metanarrative is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schedule that is responsible for explaining experience and knowledge. Therefore, in simple terms, Stephens seems to explain that a metanarrative is generally a story about a story that encompasses and explains other little stories within totalizing schemes. In his works, The postmodern condition, Jean Lyotard refers to the notion that he describes as the postmodern condition. According to Lyotard, the postmodern condition is characterized as increasing cynicism toward the totalizing nature of metanarratives.
There exist many examples that can be used to demonstrate postmodernism. One of them is the popular Christianity belief about human nature since their fall due to their characteristical sin in the Garden of Aden. Nonetheless, on the other hand, there is the chance or a possibility of redemption and experiencing a new phase in regard to eternal life in heaven. Therefore, it becomes evident that, this example represents a belief in the concept of universal rule and telos for humankind. Another example that can be used to illustrate this concept of metanarratives as perceived by Lyotard is the enlightenment that is manifested by theorists who believe that rational thought , which is allied to scientific reasoning , would lead inevitably towards social, ethical and moral progress. Lytord simplifies the whole issue to the extreme by defining postmodern as the incredulity towards metanarratives.
According to Lyotard, what is the primary commodity of the postmodern economy and what implications does the exclusive focus on this commodity contain for society as a whole?
Lyotards philosophy about postmodern is considered ambivalent in three distinct ways. Firstly, postmodernism it is considered ambivalent because its products are known to bring both good and evil in equal measures. He explains this commodity by arguing that, the technology adopted for nuclear power would not be in existence without the technology of nuclear bombs. He considers ambivalence to being the primary factor of postmodernism economy. Insofar as ambivalent is concerned, Lyotard has the understanding that the word postmodern ought to apply to a range of contemporary culture, art and the everyday social life science. Logically, the implications of ambivalence and postmodernism in general is that, if postmodernism is considered to be a stage for some other periods in the philosophy of Lyotard, it is nonetheless not beneficial to his lifework. This is because he claims that it enables him to think about his presently developed philosophical ideas.
What does Jameson mean by ” the waning of affect”? How is this related to Lyotard’s conception of ” intensities”? Can you cite some contemporary examples of this phenomenon in popular mass media? Why might these be negative cultural developments?
In a different context, Jameson locates postmodernism of the late capitalism in what he refers to as “ the wanning effect”. Jameson provides a vivid description of the wanning of effect through the process that forces the subject to lose its active ability to create a sense between past, future and any other forms of continuity that can organize and for temporal existence in the coherent experience. Apparently, this reduces his cultural production abilities to unreliable approaches that are random and considered to being piles of fragments. To further expound on this aspect, Jameson shows that the concept of expression manages to effectively presuppose the model of inside and out, where an individual’s inner and outside world. Additionally, Jameson holds that, postmodernism appears to reject traditional models of depth (deathlessness)
This is a typology in postmodernism that seeks to denote a sense of rejuvenation, newness and the outmoding a character that it is replacing. Jameson’s explains that modernism represents the period from 1890-1945. It a characteristically stage since it greatly symbolizes a sharp break from the past traditions. The fragmentation of the subject and other characteristics of postmodern introduced by Fredric culture Jameson includes characteristics such as imitation and deathlessness. Strongly question the notion of ” high culture” as opposed to popular culture. Jameson remarks how restrictions between high and low culture have been disobeyed in postmodern times with tastelessness and popular culture incorporating with types of high culture to produce one large, diverse consumer culture. Jameson argues that postmodernism is not only a cultural dominant; that is, the central form of cultural production but also it has turned into a major purchaser product, with the artistic production being incorporated into the broad production of consumer goods. The growing purpose to produce newer products ever now assigns a vital structural position to artistic uniqueness.
PART 2
Q1how does the title operate in the poem’s overall architecture? Is there a logic to making the title of the poem also its first line?
In regard to the title used in the poem, after reading over it, I also came not a conclusion that this title applies logic. Returning to a meadow entail the restoration of secure resources and the recovery of past intimacy. The meadow here is a memory to be populated; its emotional implication is private and delicate. In his poem, Duncan sets up hierarchies and dichotomies such as mental and physical, youth and age, reality and dream, light and shadow and landscape and architecture which he then twists. He suggests divisions between artificial and organic natural and cultural as well as freedom and ownership. Here, meadow is reflected as a real location representing a pinnacle of metaphysical generalization. The poem’s title being its first line is resulting beginning conflicts slightly with the line’s strong assertion of composed renewal. The poem’s opening line serves as both a title and a summoning in an incantatory sense to enter the world of Duncan’s imagination.
Q2What does the poem mean by ” permission”? What is being permitted? Why must there be permission? To do what?
In response to this paper, it is evident that word permission here is used as a gesture of humility, undercutting any under toning of will or urgency. Approximately without effort, the speaker finds himself in the presence of this meadow. Meadow here implies a single pleasant and harmonious climate, as well as a place protected by its surroundings.
Q3 What kind of ” place” is the poem referring to and how are we to understand its function – literally, or symbolically? Are ” meadow,” ” pasture” and ” field” interchangeable synonyms, or is some subtle distinction implied by using these different terms to indicate ” the made place”?
Q4 Trace how sound works in the poem – what effect is created by the pattern of repetitions Duncan establishes? Do the various tonal effects deepen or enhance the meaning in significant ways? Do they blur distinctions between the poem’s dialectics of structure and dissolution – the made place of the mind/field and the dream of the grass blowing?
At the end of the opening stanza, there is a sense of uneasiness. Tonal variation in this case deepens the theme in Duncan’s poem as a celebration of the artist through a symbolic presentation of the preserves of art, the powers of art and the special ” meadows” and agents of inspiration which induce the architectures. The meadow resides the linguistic anxiety needed for the poem to resolve itself as completed statement. The net of sound and meaning keeps the meadow image coherent despite the associative digressions.
Q5Can we try to say what kind of relationship exists between the shadows, the forms and the architectures that the speaker of the poem evokes? Is each an instance of ” place”? Is it stable relationship, that is, does ” place” always refer to the same thing, or does its meaning shift with each use, from literal place to metaphor, for instance?
I enjoyed reading on how differences in the perception of the field, meadow, or pasture” as a shared place consisting of different interacting living communities, and also to the human community, establishes the poem to follow in the choric custom of Duncan’s forerunners. It transverse from the individual statement of the title to the communal vision of a secret we see in a children’s game. As it is implied in Duncan’s poem, the secret can be valued and respected only in the framework of a larger society of concerns. In his poem, The Opening of the Field reveals the desire he shares with his other main models to reach outside the concerns of a restricted, solipsistic, isolated, or hermetic lyric self to the requirements of an artistic community, or poetic or to the desires of a globe community of general ecological and spiritual concerns, and to the sense of community