Postmodernism emerged in the late 20th century as a critique of modernism. It rejects the idea of grand narratives and absolute truths, instead embracing ambiguity and plurality of perspectives. Postmodern thinkers like Lyotard, Jameson, and Baudrillard analyzed how society has become dominated by images and media, lacking a clear sense of shared reality. While postmodernism highlighted diversity, it is criticized for being too pessimistic and for potentially undermining goals of modernity like democracy, freedom, and rational policymaking.

1. Postmodernism:
A Theoretical Perspective
Vijaya Tamla
Kathmandu,
Nepal
2015
Fundamentals
of Sociology
(SOC 101)

2. WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
George Orwell
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3. Postmodernism
• Coined by English historian, Arnold Toynbee in
1938 to mean the declining influence of Christianity
and the Western nations post 1875
• both the continuation of Modernism and its
transcendence’ (Charles Jencks, 1986)
• self-critique of Modernity or demise of Modernity?
• Amplification of modernity
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4. March 7, 2015 Postmodernism 4

5. (Post)Modernism
• Modernism: Late 19th century to 1960s
• increasing individualization
• Postmodernism: 1960 onwards
• End of ideology, art or social class
• The crisis of Lennism, Social democracy or Welfare State
• extinction of the hundred-year-old modern movement
(Jameson, 1991)
• Supports theoretical perspectives such as Critical
Management Studies
• Foundation for being ‘sociologists of organizations’
(Giddens, 2009)
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6. Postmodern Society
• Highly pluralistic and diverse
• Circulation of images; myriad films, videos &
websites
• Everything: constantly in flux;
Bauman (2000; 2007)’s ‘Liquid
Modernity’
-(Giddens, 2009)
• Celebrates diversity: in multiculturalism, plurality of
religions, life-styles, identities, discourses…
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7. “There are no longer any
‘grand narratives’ or
‘metanarratives’ – overall
conceptions of history or
society – that make any sense”
-(Lyotard, 1985, as cited in Giddens, 2009)
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8. Metanarratives in decline
• The Great Depression
• The World War I and The World War II
• Holocaust and The Atom Bombs!
• Science continues in the wake of Ebola, global Climate
Change, and global biodiversity loss
• Technologies develop; increasing smartphones at hands
• but, so are undernourishment, famine, inequalities and poverty
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9. (Non)sense of Absolute ‘Truth’
• Plurality of worldviews
• Metanarratives; religion, science; only sensible to
those who believe on it
• Lack of certainty; Ambiguity
• Absurdity
• Illusions and Delusions
• Deconstruction
• Multiple ontologies rather than universal meaning
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10. What is Fact and what is Fiction?
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11. March 7, 2015 Postmodernism 11
“…it was indeed from architectural debates that my own conception of
postmodernism initially began to emerge…” - (Jameson, 1991)

12. Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism
• American literary critic and Marxist political theorist
• Described the postmodern condition as:
- “a new kind of flatness, of depthlessness, a
new kind of superficiality in the most literal sense”
• Described the loss of reality in historical writing –
“we can no longer represent the historical past; but can only
‘represent’ our ideas and stereotypes about the past”
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(Jameson, 1991)

13. Jane Baudrillard’s Postmodernism
• Jane Baudrillard (1929-2007); French Postmodernist
• Media-dominated age; destroyed our relationship to
the past and created a chaotic, empty world
• Social life driven by signs and images
• Our world: Make-believe universe
• Responding to media images rather than real persons or
places
• ‘Dissolution of life into TV’
• Death of Princess Diana in 1997;
?were people mourning at real person?
(Giddens, 2009, p. 97)
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14. Baudrillard’s Hyperreality
• Mass media defines what world in which we live
• Ultimate guarantor of authenticity and reality
• Growth of celebrity culture;
• success and significance: appear on tv or in glossy
magazines, have thousands of followers in
networking sites
• Border between reality and representation:
collapsed
• Hyperreality: ‘more real than the real’
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15. Disneyland: Living in Hyperreality
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DisneylandChristmasCastle
Source:disney.wikia.com

16. Criticism
• Do not give up on ‘project of modernity’
• Modernity: an incomplete project
• Extend it: more democracy, more freedom and
more rational policies
(Jurgen Habermas, 1983, as cited in Giddens, 2009)
• Postmodernists: Pessimists and losers
• Postmodernism: weakening due to theories such as
globalization
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17. Criticism to Baudrillard’s postmodernism
• Are the mass of people passive recipients of media?
• Media-savvy social movement: create another
(hyper)reality
• Greenpeace’s environmental activism
• Nepal’s Jana Andolan II
• There is still a real world beyond the media saturated
hyperreality
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18. References
Giddens, A. (2009). Sociology (6th ed.). Malden, MA:
Polity Press.
Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism or, The Cultural
Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
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19. Thank you!
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