MAPPING POSTMODERNISM AND MODERNISM

Modernism is a cultural movement began in the 1890s and lasted till about 1945. Postmodernism began after the Second World War, especially after 1968.

The name postmodernism is made up of :

•1.    the prefix POST meanings something  that comes after modernism.

•2.    the suffix ISM that is negative because implies that new movements aren't welcomed why people are scared by the new.

•3.    MODERN remembers the previous cultural movement.

The most important concept of postmodernism is that it questions the idea of authority ,truth and the centre. These concepts are different from modernism which still seams to believe in the possibility of finding a truth something to believe in.

Furthermore postmodernism doesn't believe in the existence of an absolute meaning because meaning is never stable, it is always slippery ,still to come.

Also postmodernism abolished the difference between low and high art. People no longer believed in art and literary works bearing one unique meaning; they rather believed in deriving their own meanings from pieces of art and literature. Interactive media and Internet led to distribution of knowledge. Music like Mozart, Beethoven, which was appreciated during modernism became less popular in the postmodern era. For example in sixties born pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular''). It is an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology. This is realy differently from the modernist era, in which art and literary works were considered as unique creations of the artists. People were serious about the purpose of producing art and literary works.

Postmodernism approach was based on subjectivity while Modernist approach was objective, theoretical and analytical.

Postmodernism denied the application of logical thinking. Thinking during the postmodern era was based on unscientific, irrational thought process. On the other hand Modernism was based on using rational, logical means to gain.

Postmodernist thinking defies any truth in the text narrating the past and renders it of no use in the present times. Instead, Modernist thinking believes in learning from past experiences and trusts the texts that narrate the past.