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The Distinctions between Fact and
Fiction
If we watch the Real World, or Survivor,
or Cops or The Truman Show, we usually do not find ourselves
angrily proclaiming: BUT THAT'S NOT REAL.
It is entertaining to watch these shows
or films. It is more important than we enjoy them, than
that we believe them. The question of whether they are true
or not true is not the most important question we wonder
about. This is an example of postmodern thinking.
If we look at the list of
Modernism vs. Postmodernism, we might notice some inconsistencies.
For example, James Joyce is a famous modern writer. Yet,
his narratives explore "stream of consciousness,"
a fragmented view of human subjectivity, and other techniques
which break with "traditional" forms of narrative.
If we think of modernism as being linear and postmodernism
as being non-linear, we are stuck in a bind here. James
Joyce is non-linear, so how can be an example of modern
thinking?
Postmodernism differs from modernism
in its attitude toward a lot of these trends. Modernism,
for example, tends to present a fragmented view of human
subjectivity and history (think of The Wasteland, for instance,
or of Woolf's To the Lighthouse), but presents that fragmentation
as something tragic, something to be lamented and mourned
as a loss. Many modernist works try to uphold the idea that
works of art can provide the unity, coherence, and meaning
which has been lost in most of modern life; art will do
what other human institutions fail to do. Postmodernism,
in contrast, doesn't lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality,
or incoherence, but rather celebrates that, the surface
over the depth, the image over the "reality",
because to postmodern thinkers: reality is an illusion,
it is subject to our individual perspectives, cultural context,
social situation, historical moment, etc. Instead of looking
for the truth, postmodernism celebrates the image, the surface,
the style. The Postmodern view says:; The world is meaningless?
Let's not pretend that art can make meaning then, let's
just play with nonsense.
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