Modernism and Postmodernism – What’s the difference?
The table below is taken from David Harvey’s Condition of Postmodernity (in turn taken from Hassan 1985). Harvey suggests that its a useful tool which helps us to see how postmodernity is, in some ways, a reaction to modernity. I cut out a few of the more hectic comparisons and left in the easier to understand ones (having said that, it’s still pretty hectic!)
| Modernism
romanticism/ symbolism form (conjunctive, closed) purpose design hierarchy mastery/ logos
art object/ finished work distance creation/ totalisation/ synthesis
presence centring genre/ boundary semantics paradigm metaphor selection
root/ depth interpretation/ reading signified narrative/ grand history master code type genital/ phallic paranoia
origin/ cause God the Father metaphysics determinacy transcendence |
Postmodernism
paraphysics/ Dadaism antiform (disjunctive, open) play chance anarchy exhaustion/ silence
process/ performance/ happening participation decreation/ deconstruction/ antithesis
absence dispersal text/ intertext rhetoric syntagm metonymy combination
rhizome/ surface against interpretation/ misreading signifier anti-narrative/ small history idiolect mutant polymorphous/ androgynous schizophrenia
difference-difference/ trace The Holy Ghost irony indeterminacy immanence |
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