Difference Between Modernism And Postmodernism

Each person has his own beliefs and philosophy in life, and each has a
mindset of his own. When he meets other individuals with the same
views as his own, they can create a school of thought and share a
common philosophy, belief, opinion, and discipline. Throughout
mankind’s history, several schools of thought existed with modernism
and postmodernism being more relevant and influential to the people of
today.
Modernism is a school of thought or a movement that took place in the
late 19th century and early 20th centuries. It involved a reform movement
in art, music, literature, and the applied arts. It was based on rational
thinking, logic, and the scientific process. It aimed at creating a clear and
rational view of the world; believing that through science and reason
mankind can advance and grow. It advocated the belief that there is much
to learn from the past that could be beneficial to the present.
Modernism supported the belief that there is a purpose for life and that it
should be viewed objectively. Modernists had an optimistic view of the
world and believed that there are values and ethics that need to be
followed. They were not very concerned about politics and gave more
thought to significant things. The era of modernism was a time of artistic
and literary advancement. Great works of art and literature were abundant
as well as of music, architecture, poetry, and science. Modernist works
were admired for their simplicity and elegance.
Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a school of thought or a movement
that took place after the Second World War, but it gained popularity in
the 1960s. It was a chaotic era hard to comprehend and apprise. It
advocated the belief that there is no universal truth. It used an unscientific
approach to life and believed that all things are irrational. Postmodernists
believed in chance and transience. They questioned the rationality of
modernism, its principles and thinking. They believed that there is no
connection between the past and the present and that past events are
irrelevant in the present.
The postmodernist era was characterized by the advancement of
technology and its use in music, art, and literature. Very few original
works of artists can be found during this time, and previous works were
copied. Postmodernist artists get their inspiration and basis from the
original works of modernist artists.
Summary:
1.Modernism is a school of thought that took place in late 1800s and early
1900s while postmodernism is a school of thought that took place after
World War II.
2.Modernism advocated rational thinking and the use of science and
reason for the advancement of man while postmodernism believed in the
irrationality of things.
3.The modernist era was characterized by the simple and elegant original
works of gifted artists while the postmodernist era was characterized by
the advancement in technology and its use in different media.
4.Modernists believed in universal truth while postmodernists did not.
5.Postmodernists were very political while modernists were not.
#POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against the ideas and
values of modernism, as well as a description of the period that
followed modernism's dominance in cultural theory and practice
in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. The
term is associated with scepticism, irony and philosophical
critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.
The term was first used around 1970. As an art movement
postmodernism to some extent defies definition – as there is no
one postmodern style or theory on which it is hinged. It
embraces many different approaches to art making, and may be
said to begin with pop art in the 1960s and to embrace much of
what followed including conceptual art, neo-expressionism,
feminist art, and the Young British Artists of the 1990s.
#POST_MODERNISM_AND_MODERNISM
Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism. Modernism
was generally based on idealism and a utopian vision of human
life and society and a belief in progress. It assumed that certain
ultimate universal principles or truths such as those formulated
by religion or science could be used to understand or explain
reality. Modernist artists experimented with form, technique and
processes rather than focusing on subjects, believing they could
find a way of purely reflecting the modern world.
While modernism was based on idealism and reason,
postmodernism was born of scepticism and a suspicion of
reason. It challenged the notion that there are universal
certainties or truths. Postmodern art drew on philosophy of the
mid to late twentieth century, and advocated that individual
experience and interpretation of our experience was more
concrete than abstract principles. While the modernists
championed clarity and simplicity; postmodernism embraced
complex and often contradictory layers of meaning.
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(((((((Post Modernism)))))))
Post-Modernism is the term used to suggest a reaction or
response to modernism in the late twentieth century. So
postmodernism can only be understood in relation to
Modernism. At its core, Postmodernism rejects that which
Modernism champions. While postmodernism seems very much
like modernism in many ways, it differs from modernism in its
attitude toward a lot of these trends. Modernism, for example,
tends to present a fragmented view of human subjectivity and
history, but presents that fragmentation as something tragic,
something to be lamented and mourned as a loss.
Postmodernism, in contrast, doesn't lament the idea of
fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but rather
celebrates that. In literature, it used to describe certain
characteristics of post–World War II literature, for example, on
fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc. and a
reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist
literature.
Characteristics of Post Modernism in comparison with
Modernism
1. Because of some similar characteristics of modernism and
postmodernism, critics some time become confuse to
differentiate one from the other. It would be more helpful if we
discuss the characteristics of post-modernism in compare and
contrast to modernism.
2. Like modernism, postmodernism also believes the view that
there is no absolute truth and truth is relative. Postmodernism
asserts that truth is not mirrored in human understanding of it,
but is rather constructed as the mind tries to understand its own
personal reality. So, facts and falsehood are interchangeable. For
example, in classical work such as King Oedipus there is only
one truth that is “obey your fate”. In contrast to classical work in
postmodern work such as in Waiting for Godot, there is no such
thing as absolute truth. All things are relative here.
3. Whereas Modernism places faith in the ideas, values, beliefs,
culture, and norms of the West, Postmodernism rejects Western
values and beliefs as only a small part of the human experience
and often rejects such ideas, beliefs, culture, and norms.
4. Whereas Modernism attempts to reveal profound truths of
experience and life, Postmodernism is suspicious of being
"profound" because such ideas are based on one particular
Western value systems.
5. Whereas Modernism attempts to find depth and interior
meaning beneath the surface of objects and events,
Postmodernism prefers to dwell on the exterior image and
avoids drawing conclusions or suggesting underlying meanings
associated with the interior of objects and events.
6. Whereas Modernism focused on central themes and a united
vision in a particular piece of literature, Postmodernism sees
human experience as unstable, internally contradictory,
ambiguous, inconclusive, indeterminate, unfinished,
fragmented, discontinuous, "jagged," with no one specific
reality possible. Therefore, it focuses on a vision of a
contradictory, fragmented, ambiguous, indeterminate,
unfinished, "jagged" world.
7. Whereas Modern authors guide and control the reader’s
response to their work, the Postmodern writer creates an "open"
work in which the reader must supply his own connections,
work out alternative meanings, and provide his own (unguided)
interpretation
Characteristics of Post Modern Writings
As in postmodernism, all ideas are new, so sometimes it
becomes difficult and confusing to properly understand these
terms.
Irony, playfulness, black humor:
Postmodern authors 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, conspiracy
theories. They try to amalgate it from indirect way so, irony,
playfulness, black humor comes. In fact, several novelists later
to be labeled postmodern were first collectively labeled black
humorists. : John Barth, Joseph Heller, William Gaddis, Kurt
Vonnegut, Bruce Jay Friedman, etc. It's common for
postmodernists to treat serious subjects in a playful and
humorous way.
Some examples of texts that bear the above features--Roland
Barthes’s The Pleasure of the Text. The central concept of
Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is the irony of the now-idiomatic
"catch-22", and the narrative is structured around a long series
of similar ironies. Thomas Pynchon in particular provides prime
examples of playfulness, often including silly wordplay, within
a serious context. The Crying of Lot 49, for example, contains
characters named Mike Fallopian and Stanley Koteks and a
radio station called KCUF, while the novel as a whole has a
serious subject and a complex structure.

MODERN LITERATURE (1900-1961)

The term modernism refers to the radical shift in aesthetic
and cultural sensibilities evident in the art and literature of
the post-World War I period. The ordered, stable and
inherently meaningful world view of the nineteenth
century could not, wrote T.S. Eliot, accord with "the
immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is
contemporary history”. Modernism thus marks a distinctive
break with Victorian bourgeois morality; rejecting
nineteenth-century optimism, they presented a profoundly
pessimistic picture of a culture in disarray. This despair
often results in an apparent apathy and moral relativism.
Causes: Growth of science and technology, new and richer
life, new inventions upsetting old ways, became difficult to
find order in life, “machine age”, developments influenced
man’s thought, human behaviour was no longer easily
explainable, upheaval of ideas, religious controls and social
conventions were challenged.
Characteristics: Opposed to the general attitude of life and
its problem adopted by Victorians, became pessimistic and
experimental, out-raged by the Victorian self-
complacency, extremely fascinating , difficult to evaluate,
record of uncoordinated efforts, uneasy to divide, full of
adventures and experiments, bound up with new ideas.
Modern views:
Victorian age---hypocritical.
Victorian ideals---mean, superficial and stupid.
• Rebellious mood affected modern literature.
• Nothing was considered as certain; everything was
questioned.
• What was considered as honourable and beautiful by
Victorians, their children considered as mean and ugly.
Voice of authority and Rule of the Expert: Victorian
accepted the Voice of Authority and acknowledged the
Rule of the Expert in religion, politics, literature and family
life. Bernard Shaw attacked the old superstitions of
religion and new superstitions of science. He challenged
the Voice of Authority and the Rule of the Expert.
• The 20th century mind did not take anything for granted;
they questioned everything.
• Permanence of Institutions was replaced by new man’s
desire to probe and question, and by new minds that
nothing is fixed and final in this world. H.G.Well—“all this
world of ours being no more than the prelude to the real
civilization.
Modern Writers:
• They could no longer write in old manner.
• If they played on contempt for money, divine love,
natural beauty, home and life, classical scholarship,
communication with the spirit of past, they were running
the risk of striking a false note.
• If they treated the same themes in a different manner,
they had to evoke different thoughts and emotions.
• They had to cultivate fresh point of view and technique.
Changes: Field of literary technique, taste and form,
standards of artistic workmanship and of aesthetic
appreciations.
Disadvantage: No common ground for writers and readers
to meet.