Differentiate Modernism from Post Modernism
Michael Garuba
Differentiate Modernism from Post Modernism
Modernism, in literature, is the basic concept of new methods through new reasoning. During the renaissance period of English history, the traditional values of Western civilization, which the Victorians had only begun to question, came to be questioned seriously by a number of new writers who saw society breaking down around them. The world was being looked at from a new perspective, mostly scientifically. Traditional literary forms were often discarded and new ones succeeded them as writers sought fresher ways of expressing what they took to be new kinds of experiences, or experience seen in new ways.
Modernism, through theology and philosophy, attempts the same objective. However, instead of just writers, scholars and church officials attempt to reinterpret Christian doctrine to fit the scientific thought of the 19th century. Ideas and ideals were used to promote social re-engineering within the law and government so as to tackle such issues as gender, race inequality, corruption, injustice, marriage and state affairs, all of which were anti-traditional. To fully understand what Modernism is, is to accept one word, Modern. To be modern is to be anti-traditional. It is to have belief in the progress of mankind through science and technology. It is to be anti-faith, because faith here means to have belief in something unverified by science. It is to believe that reason is the only tool at the disposal of man and to have belief that truth is knowledge.
Post Modernism, on the other hand, is ‘after modernism’, and in many ways postmodernism constitutes an attack on modernist claims about the existence of truth and value, claims that come from the European enlightenment of the 18th century. In disputing past assumptions postmodernists generally display a preoccupation with the inadequacy of language as a mode of communication. One such famous postmodernist theorist is French philosopher Jacques
Derrida, who originated the philosophical method of deconstruction, a system of analysis that assumes a text has no single or fixed meaning because of the inadequacy of language to express the author’s original intention and because of the reader’s understanding of the text is culturally conditioned - that is, they are influenced by the culture in which the reader lives. Therefore, texts have many possible legitimate interpretations brought about by the ‘play’ and ‘use’ of language, aspects found only in literature and traditionally disregarded in philosophy. If we look at Post-Modernism, through philosophy, only renowned German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche can help us understand the deconstructionist method attributed by postmodernists. He spoke and illustrated his theory of the Superman or Overman in his work; ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’. In which the Superman was an individual who overcame what Nietzsche termed the ‘slave morality’ of traditional values, and lived according to his own morality. Nietzsche also postulated that ‘God was dead’, and that traditional morality was no longer relevant in people’s lives. Although he argued this statement constantly, he still believed that science did not guarantee the future of the world but only peace; hence he is one of the most controversial post modernist to date, forever seeking a method to question the truth of truths.
Differentiate Modernism from Post Modernism
Modernism, in literature, is the basic concept of new methods through new reasoning. During the renaissance period of English history, the traditional values of Western civilization, which the Victorians had only begun to question, came to be questioned seriously by a number of new writers who saw society breaking down around them. The world was being looked at from a new perspective, mostly scientifically. Traditional literary forms were often discarded and new ones succeeded them as writers sought fresher ways of expressing what they took to be new kinds of experiences, or experience seen in new ways.
Modernism, through theology and philosophy, attempts the same objective. However, instead of just writers, scholars and church officials attempt to reinterpret Christian doctrine to fit the scientific thought of the 19th century. Ideas and ideals were used to promote social re-engineering within the law and government so as to tackle such issues as gender, race inequality, corruption, injustice, marriage and state affairs, all of which were anti-traditional. To fully understand what Modernism is, is to accept one word, Modern. To be modern is to be anti-traditional. It is to have belief in the progress of mankind through science and technology. It is to be anti-faith, because faith here means to have belief in something unverified by science. It is to believe that reason is the only tool at the disposal of man and to have belief that truth is knowledge.
Post Modernism, on the other hand, is ‘after modernism’, and in many ways postmodernism constitutes an attack on modernist claims about the existence of truth and value, claims that come from the European enlightenment of the 18th century. In disputing past assumptions postmodernists generally display a preoccupation with the inadequacy of language as a mode of communication. One such famous postmodernist theorist is French philosopher Jacques
Derrida, who originated the philosophical method of deconstruction, a system of analysis that assumes a text has no single or fixed meaning because of the inadequacy of language to express the author’s original intention and because of the reader’s understanding of the text is culturally conditioned - that is, they are influenced by the culture in which the reader lives. Therefore, texts have many possible legitimate interpretations brought about by the ‘play’ and ‘use’ of language, aspects found only in literature and traditionally disregarded in philosophy. If we look at Post-Modernism, through philosophy, only renowned German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche can help us understand the deconstructionist method attributed by postmodernists. He spoke and illustrated his theory of the Superman or Overman in his work; ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’. In which the Superman was an individual who overcame what Nietzsche termed the ‘slave morality’ of traditional values, and lived according to his own morality. Nietzsche also postulated that ‘God was dead’, and that traditional morality was no longer relevant in people’s lives. Although he argued this statement constantly, he still believed that science did not guarantee the future of the world but only peace; hence he is one of the most controversial post modernist to date, forever seeking a method to question the truth of truths.