Postmodernism

Explanations > Critical Theory > Postmodernism

Description | Discussion | See also

Description

Postmodernism is a broad term that includes post-structuralism, deconstruction, multiculturalism, gender studies and literary theory.

It emphasizes the importance of power, relationships, personalization and discourse in the construction of truth and reality. Knowledge is situated in time, place and other factors and hence cannot be generalized. People construct their individual understanding from unique and separate situations.

Postmodernism thus takes a holistic, systemic view rather than a constructed, systematic view.

It breaks from the `philosophies of the Enlightenment, which seek a universal system of aesthetics, ethics, and knowledge.

Discussion

Postmodernism started in the 1920s and developed in the 1950s as a critique of positivism and other structural and 'scientific' methods.

It's anti-scientific, anti-establishment views can leave the reader bewildered as everything they hold true is challenged.

See also