Notes of November 30^th, 2011

 

Modernism and Postmodernism

 

Modernism and Postmodernism are two cultural movements. The first one developed during the first three decades of XX century, the second one spread in the 60s.

 

Modernism deals with the research of truth and the sense of life throughout metaphysical questions; it tries to find and to establish a centre of meaning, reconnecting fragmentations.

 

The modernist novel is different from the XIX century’s; at the beginning of the new century human beliefs have changed and the traditional values have fell into crisis. Man feels lost and starts to look for new elements which could supply his lack of meaning.

The meaning research appears as a formal and experimental research.

 

Modernist age brings a new conception of time and space, as a consequence of Einstein’s scientific discoveries. The result is a shift of point of view: time and space become subjective elements which change depending on the viewer.

 

Postmodernism, as opposed to Modernism, accepts fragmentation and the existence of many centres of meaning and believes there is no truth as a single and stable entity; furthermore it refuses the concept of authority and the Realism of XIX century.

 

Postmodernist movement evolves in line with the globalization which develops with the advent of technologies. On this view culture becomes more accessible.

 

N.B. Postmodernism is not the opposite of Modernism. It grows from Modernism and then goes beyond it.

 

 

 

MAIN POINTS ABOUT MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM

 

(from the text As Introduction To Modernism & Postmodernism)

 

 

• Literature is always strictly connected to the historical and social background it grows into.

 

• The literature of the modern period was born as a reaction to Realism.

 

• Modernism is made up of literary and artistic movements: impressionism, expressionism, surrealism and nihilism. All of them focuses a particular aspect of realism and develops its opposite.

 

• Modernist literature present specific features and its aim is to change how readers see the world.

 

• Though Postmodernism grows from Modernism, it differs from Modernism in several ways.