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Social Theory - Between modernism and postmodernism Enlightenment and Romance

Sociology - Classics and Theoretical Directions


Author

Natalie Schuetz
1 Text

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Category
Essay
Institution / College
Universität
Grade
2,0

Social Theory
Essay
Natalie Schuetz
Trinity College Dublin
SoSe 2008
2
Between modernism and postmodernism Enlightenment and Romance
(Seminar question: Does Gilroy successfully steer a middle way between modernism and
postmodernism?)
The term "postmodern" has become a popular label for something about the life and thought
of recent decades in the most developed societies. It both refers to phenomena in the real
world, and to an intellectual movement. Representatives of the postmodern movement not
only express conflicting views, but are interested in barely overlapping subject matters such
as art, history, economics, politics, methodology and literature. What the term
"Postmodernism" actually means, has been the subject of a lengthy debate ever since its
emergence.
For some critics, postmodernism connotes the final escape from the stultifying legacy of
modern European theology, authoritarianism, colonialism, patriarchy, racism and domination.
Others simply see it as an attempt by left-wing intellectuals to destroy Western civilization.
The fact that this movement has caused such a wide-spread debate and the term has been so
widely used only goes to show that "postmodern" has been attached to so many different
kinds of intellectual, social and artistic phenomena that it can be subjected to easy ridicule as
hopelessly ambiguous or empty. Which in return only shows that it is a mistake to seek a
single, essential meaning applicable to all the term's instances.(Cahoone.2003:1)
When philosophers use the term "postmodernism" they usually refer to a movement that
developed in France in the 1960s, which could more precisely be called "post-structuralism",
along with subsequent and related developments. They have in mind that this movement
denies the possibility of "realist" knowledge, objective knowledge. They regard it as rejecting
most of the fundamental intellectual pillars of modern Western civilization. They may further
associate this rejection with political movements like multiculturalism, feminism, and the
critique of Eurocentrism, which regard the rejected notions as the ideology of a privileged
sexual, ethnic, cultural, economic group, and aim to subvert their privilege in favour of the
disenfranchised. However, it is important to mention, that not all the representatives who
engage in the postmodern movement can be politically characterised and certainly not all the
feminists or multiculturalists accept postmodernism (Cahoone.2003:1et seq.).
As far as any definition of the term "postmodernism" is at all possible, one could say that it
implies something about recent society since the 1960s which reveals a discontinuity with
earlier phases of the modern period, hence with the socio-cultural forms or ideas and methods
that are characteristic of the modern Western culture. However, postmodernism did not
3
develop in times of crisis, rather the contrary: it was the relative stability and unprecedented
prosperity of the era that became the background for the Western tradition`s deepest self-
criticism. The discontinuity may, for some, signal the end of the modern but it might also
merely indicate a novel phase within the modern.
Therefore Gilroy might not so much steer a middle way between modernism and
postmodernism but rather suggest a new and modified approach of modernism. This will be
discussed later on.
According to this, postmodernism is the latest wave in the critique of the Enlightenment, the
criticism of the principles characteristic of modern Western society that trace their legacy to
the 18
th
century but it is important to add that postmodernism does not exhaust the criticism of
modern thought!
In order to understand the postmodern criticism of modernism, it is essential to examine what
exactly is meant by the terms "modernism", "modernity" and "modern".
"Modernity" has a fixed reference in contemporary intellectual discourse. It refers to the new
civilisation that developed in Europe and North America over the last centuries and has
become fully evident in the early 20
th
century. "Modernity" implies that this civilisation is
modern in the non-relative sense that it is unique in human history. Not even the harshest
critics of modernity deny its achievements of new technologies and modes of industrial
production that have led to an unprecedented rise in material living standard. What makes
modernity a controversy though is the question of the inner nature, the probable destiny and
the validity of this new way of life. The positive self-image that modern Western culture has
often given to itself is a picture born in the Enlightenment. It is a picture of a civilisation
founded on scientific knowledge of the world and rational knowledge of value, which places
the highest premium on individual human life and freedom, and believes that such freedom
and rationality will lead to social progress through virtuous, self-controlled work, creating a
better material, political and intellectual life for all.
Some critics see modernity instead as a movement of ethnic and class domination, European
imperialism, anthropocentrism, the destruction of nature, the dissolution of community and
tradition, the rise of alienation and the death of individuality in bureaucracy.
Despite the divergence among the usage of the term "postmodern" there is a commonality
centering on a recognition of pluralism and a new focus on representation. Postmodernists
sought a return to the true, authentic, free and integrated human self as the centre of lived
experience. They did not mean to abandon or reject the achievements of modernism such as
industrialisation, advanced technology and secularisation of states. Their idea was a
Excerpt: 4 of 8 pages -  scroll top


Description

Title:
Social Theory - Between modernism and postmodernism Enlightenment and Romance
Event:
Seminar
Author:
Natalie Schuetz
Year:
2008
Pages:
8
Archive No.:
V117711
ISBN (eBook):
978-3-640-20892-0
DOI:
10.3239/9783640208920
File size:
141 KB
Language:
English

Tags:
Social Theory Between Enlightenment Romance Seminar

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Natalie Schuetz, 2008, Social Theory - Between modernism and postmodernism Enlightenment and Romance, Munich, GRIN Publishing GmbH

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