POSTMODERNISM, My notes arranged

Aim of these lessons: To make students selves aware of what is going on and why, in the novel The hours

 

The other tiger

The other tiger is a poem written by Borges. The other tiger means the alter. Another poem focused on the tiger as an animal, is Blake’s one. So why both of them are attracted but at the mean time even terrified by the tiger? Because of the concept of sublime.

Then, poet’s best is to reflect about creation, on what are the limits and if they really exist. But, obviously limits are linked to creator’s limits and the other tiger is an example: an alter tiger which is different from the original and goes over its.

Postmodernism art is difficult to understand because is abstract therefore it asks a lot from its audience, demanding an analysis full of audience’s involving. And the main difficult is the combination of things that haven’t got anything in common apparently. But this gives art the possibility to create something devoided of concrete reference points because it exists in artist’s mind as an abstract potential and possibility. So the other tiger is linked to postmodernism art too: the original tiger and the alter one are in poet’s mind, they’re born there. In particular, the tiger is experience’s symbol which brings out our compete.

 

The students’ revolution at Berkely and Sourbonne Universities.

A revolution happened in 1968, when students showed they were against teachers. The main point regards authority’s concept, pointed in doubt during the 60s, because its meaning is to explain what is right and the contrary. So, because this original meaning disagree with the current’s one, this concept was taken down, and no longer the author carried on his appellative: play write, novelist,  poet,.. are more suitable because author implies his works has been created out of nothing. But this is impossible because each work of art has surely an origin in itself, but intertextuality existed too, in order to create a silent dialogue between different texts from different artworks being production of different cultures.

Hence, human condition is very precarious and there are no defencies weapons of everyone on of us can manage. Therefore, we must find our own way: global local has no boundaries and there’s no one able to tell us what’s right and what’s not.

Also postmodernism thought defeated the concept of centre because it represents authority’s concept, and in particular Christian culture puts God in that place. Technology has to be thanked, having given a great hand for postmodernism enquiring: it has created a reflection of the concept of central, reinforcing the idea there’s no one centre, but rather many ones. Technology gave an idea of global system and net brakes therefore implying interconnection and intertextuality as an icon of the way relationships are born. There are different words to create the system together since you know you create sense.

All things above are strictly connected with food for thought: for this new kind of the world, all artists had to revise their works. And from having put in discussion the concept of authority, followed the question of the concept of truth by a philosophical prospective: it must provide security points on which everyone could refer to. So every form of high and low art were rejected.

 

Postmodernism

All thing considered, what does Postmodernism mean?

Firstly, focusing on a language analysis, the word could be conventionally divided in three parts. Post means after and is the prefix. On the other hand ism represent the negative attitude that had this movement coming out, and modern refer both to something which is new and to the previous human period.

Then, up to now there’s no a definition, it’s possible just to make a list of its specific features.

There’s no longer difference between high and low art because different works can be a dialogue with themselves even if people aren’t aware of it. Therefore art becomes inclusive and a work of art (an art fax) has no origins, this means no artist can create a work from nowhere. And all could be summarized with the word intertextuality or the concept of hybrid: like a collage, things without apparently relations could be fixed together. This creates complex society too, in which people aren’t able to find links between all that, seeing by a traditional point of view.  

In our society we try to communicate saying something. A text is a form of communication which is in a context, the place where it existed. All this regards to with the instability of signifies and signified, which slip according to the context. This means language is unstable and dynamic. There’s no one single meaning: relativism, one of Postmodernism’ main point.

Moreover, there’s to consider reader’s position: he depends on his cultural encyclopedia. So if I give common people no points of reference, they might feel lost in such a complexity. This is linked to the decentralization of individual’s position, that becomes relative. Indeed it’s not casual research goes together with discover and they seem to put human being in a not stable position. In particular, out of audience’s field, each one has to find his own way subjecting aesthetic appearance and remembering we must die.

There’s only production, repetition of the same things in a massive world. Our art is all a “re” of something because we are living in a circular movement. But  even if we produce, human being is never in full grasp of his/her identity because it slips away. And what makes us aware of our identity is our speech’s parts which only the receiver can understand, during our communication of our mind’s ideas.

People are afraid of difference because it’s something which perturbates the system, and you have to look at reality by a prospective which isn’t the normal one.

 

So, what has all this to do with literature? How does it affected it?

There are no origins and there’s only production and we produce ourselves in language. Indeed we are not what we speak, but what speaks us: many times we put lots of importance in what we’ve said, but what worth is the message we’ve send. This concept is known as semiotic materialism.