Modernism
A response to Modernity
Postmodernism
A response to…?

Post...?
• Many critics and theorists have written
about so-called postmodernism
• Media students are expected to be aware of
postmodern theories
• But how is it possible to understand
postmodernism without knowing what
modernism is?
• Here is a rough guide!

in a nutshell
• Modernism is/was a cultural movement
which responded to changes in society.
• Modernism is a slightly different beast,
depending on whether you’re talking
about literature, architecture, art, music
or applied arts.

Tradition
• Modernists identified a crisis in
economics, politics, society and culture
which was caused by industrialisation,
modernisation, and their effects.
• For example, industrialisation (Ford-ism)
forced human beings to abide by “clock
time”, which meant that traditional cycles
of seasons and daylight were lost.

Crisis? Or Opportunity?
• In some modernist movements, the rebellion
was against traditional or classical forms, which
were seen as inadequate and out-dated.
• For example, modernism in architecture threw
away the rule book, insisting on new materials
and new forms (cast iron and poured concrete, or
glass and steel)
• Ugly?

Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France (Le Corbusier, 1954)

Romanticism
• The 19th C was the era of
Romanticism, a
movement which put the
emphasis on individual,
subjective experience
(Romantic individualism)
• It also saw “nature” as the
supreme subject of art.

Realism
• A response to romanticism,
realism argued that reality
was dominant over
subjective (individual)
impressions
• Realism put emphasis on
objective truth (as measured
by the scientific method) –
hence the growth of pseudo-
scientific movements
• Realism was succeeded by
Naturalism and influenced
(in art) by photography

Crisis
• At the end of the 19th Century, under the
influence of Darwinism, Marxism, and Ford-ism,
some artists and writers began to respond
differently to modernity.
• The miseries caused by city life and
industrialisation, and by the tyranny of clock-
time were shaking society to its roots.
• People began to lose their sense of any kind of
“objective” truth.

Total War
• Industrialisation and scientific progress had
their influence on warfare, and a new kind
developed: total war
• The whole nation was mobilised – women
replaced men in factories, and all attention was
on the front
• Propaganda posters were used to convince the
population to support the war of 1914-1918 (and
later 1939–45)

Modernism
• Whereas architects embraced new materials and
designs, artists and writers responded differently
to modernity.
• Some saw it as alienating and destructive, every
bit as frightening and disturbing as the “total
war” of WWI
• In 1919, W B Yeats wrote, in The Second Coming,
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”

The Waste Land
• TS Eliot’s response to the first world war was a
non-traditional poem built up of fragments and
quotations from both classical and popular works
• It was deliberately difficult to understand on a
first reading, requiring further study and
research to “get” all its references.

'What is that noise?' 'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in
your head?'
The wind under the door.
'What is that noise now? What is the wind But
doing?'
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—
Nothing again nothing.
120 It's so elegant
'Do
So intelligent
'You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do 130
you remember 'What shall I do now? What shall I do?'
'Nothing?' 'I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
I remember 'With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-
morrow?
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
125 'What shall we ever do?'

The Waste Land continued
• The Waste Land contains multiple references and allusions.
• There are many different voices, locations, and times.
• It alludes to and quotes texts by Homer, Sophocles,
Petronius, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Shakespeare, Spenser, Kyd,
Chaucer, Conrad, Milton, Baudelaire, Wagner, Huxley,
Whitman, and Bram Stoker as well as popular songs
• It refers to religious texts from Christianity, Buddhism,
Hinduism.
• It is a quintessentially modernist text, but if it was
published today...?

Legacy
• Modernism is always a response to modernity,
which is always with us
• Some critics talk of post-modernism, but more
often than not they’re referring to a form of
modernism
• On the other hand, some art forms simply resist
the modernist treatment.

Postmodernism
• Postmodernism isn’t a response to something
called postmodernity
• In some ways, it can be seen as a rejection of
modernism or a return to earlier forms.
• So, is it a phenomenon in its own right, or is it
just a form of something else that came before?
(for example, Romanticism)

Bricolage
• French critic Jean Baudrillard refers
to a process he calls bricolage - which
is sometimes translated as
“tinkering”
• You can also translate it as DIY or
do-it-yourself.
• Bricolage is the process of
assembling artefacts from bits and
pieces of other things
• Bricolage is often seen as
quintessentially postmodern.

Authenticity?
• The idea behind bricolage is that there’s no longer any
such thing as original or authentic work - everything is
based on something that came before.
• But – as any creative person will tell you – only God (if
he/she exists) is capable of making something from
nothing.
• Everybody else tinkers!
• And The Waste Land is a classic example of bricolage

Simulacra
• Arising out of the concept of bricolage, the idea of
the simulacrum is the “copy without an original”
– or the copy of a copy of a copy.
• But are we critiquing something that is a
degraded version of something that was once
authentic?
• Or are we celebrating something that frees us
from the tyranny of (conservative) reality?

Alienation
• For Marxists, the move away from
authentic experience is an example
of alienation
• The further we get from our
essential nature (i.e. social beings
making things that they need for
themselves), the more alienated we
are from our selves and each other.
• The simulacrum is the ultimate
capitalist artefact – completely
divorced from nature/reality.

Awkward?
• There’s an awkward fit between these (essentially
Marxist) critiques – the concepts of bricolage and
simulacra – and any distinctive idea of
postmodernism
• Because to be standing to one side offering a
critical review like this is basically a modernist
stance.

Grand Narratives?
• Another postmodern trope is the idea
that we no longer operate under
Grand Narratives – theories and
ideologies that can explain everything.
• Examples of Grand Narratives are
Marxism and Christianity – and other
all-encompassing theories
• Postmodernists argue that our
societies and cultures are too
fragmented to be pulled together in
this way.

Things fall apart
• But this same idea – that a single concept of society/
culture was no longer strong enough to “hold us
together” is also classically modernist:
• Yeats: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”
• Eliot: “These fragments I have shored against my
ruins”

Media Debates
• Are the media modernist in their approach to
representations and audiences?
• Do media producers use the process of bricolage to
create media texts?
• Do media institutions tend to promote a unifying Grand
Narrative?
• Are cultural artefacts now copies degraded to the point
where they are simulacra?

Media Studies
• Media Studies tends to highlight examples of
false or misleading representations (e.g. of an
“objective” truth) in the media
• Media critiques point out inequalities of power,
excluded portions of the (fragmented) audience,
and the unstable nature of meaning.

Film & TV
• For the most part, film is a realist art form
• There are “modernist”
• Television is even more
films, but traditional
conservative, tending to
Hollywood storytelling
imply objective as
is based on realist
opposed to subjective
principles - modernism
truth
(still) operates out of the
mainstream.

Graphic Design
• In graphic design, as in other fields, there are few leaders
and many followers.
•The classic clean “Swiss” look of much
contemporary design could be seen
as modern
•On the other hand, “vernacular” or
“grunge” typography and design
could be seen as postmodern

Useful?
• Whether you find such concepts as postmodernism
useful is up to you.
• Be wary of easy labels – remember that The Waste Land
might be called “postmodern” if it was published
tomorrow.
• The main thing to keep in mind is that you should
question and interrogate all media texts, representations,
and institutions – how are meanings created? What values
are being promoted? What contexts are influencing the
content?