POSTMODERNISM AND MODERNITY

This essay examines modernism and postmodernism using several thinkers. Additionally, it focuses on the subject of graphic novels and the usage of pictures as illustrations. There is also exploration of some of the major facets of the modern arena. These modern fields, in particular, cover the digital age, globalization, and environmental concerns. There have been many schools of thought over the course of human history, with postmodernism and modernism being the most influential and applicable to individuals today (Wollaeger 2013). By definition, modernism refers to a movement or school of thought that occurred in the early 20th century and late 19th centuries. This kind of reform movement involved literature, music as well as the applied art. Modernism was based on the scientific process, rational thinking, and logic. Moreover, it aimed to create a rational and clear view of the world. According to modernism, mankind can grow and advance through reason and science (Smythe 2015). For this reason, it played a significant role in advocating the belief that the present can benefit from the various lesson of the past.

A belief that life has a purpose was supported by the modernism. In this case, modernism had to be viewed objectively. Additionally, it had an optimistic view regarding the world. Furthermore, it believed that some ethics and values have to be followed. Amazingly, they thought more about significant things without being very concerned about the politics. This era marked the time of literature and artistic advancement. Undoubtedly, literature and art’s great works were abundant. Other things that were abundant include architecture, science, music, as well as poetry (Wollaeger 2013). The work of modernism was admired by many for their elegance and simplicity.

Conversely, the postmodernism refers to a movement or school of thought that occurred after the World War II. However, it becomes popular in the 1960s. This era was quite chaotic, making it hard to appraise and comprehend. The belief that there is no universal truth was advocated by the postmodernism. Also, it used some approaches to life that are not scientific and believed that things are not rational. In fact, postmodernists believed in both transience and chance (MacDonald 2008). In most cases, they question the modernism's rationality its thinking and principles.

According to the postmodernists, the events of the past and the present are not connected. In other words, the events of the past are irrelevant in the present. The era of postmodernist was characterized by the technology advancement as well as its use in the art, music, and literature. During this time, very few artists original work can be found. Previous works were copied (Wollaeger 2013). The artists of postmodernist get their basis and inspiration from the modernist artists’ original work. Various theorists such as Martin Heidegger, Michael Foucault, Fredrick Jameson, and Jacques Derrida explains the definition of the modernism and postmodernism further.

Martin Heidegger

This theorist, Martin Heidegger rejected the basis of the philosophy of concepts of "objectivity" and "subjectivity." Instead, he asserted that in logic, similar grounding opposition eventually refers to one another. Heidegger suggests that people should embrace the admission of this paradox in searching for understanding through an active elucidation process known as "hermeneutic circle." While simultaneously advocating the immanent necessity apprehension, he stressed the cultural and historicity construction of concepts. For this reason, he further asserted that it was the contemporary philosophy’s task for recovering the openness to (or question of) present (MacDonald 2008). This procedure was to be carried out, in part, by forgetfulness through the philosophy’s history or tracing the Dasein’s record sublimation which required the need for asking what constitute the conditions for grounding in in the world and people for the affinity between “being” and “being’s” usage in philosophy.

However, doing this requires that a self-referential and a non-historical engagement with whatever feelings, set of ideas, or practices allow the such a continuity. This kind of continuity is to permit the possible existence, experience, and all the difference as they are tended and appeared to develop (Baackmann and Craven 2008). Heidegger departed from his teacher’s phenomenology as a result of such conclusion. In the same way, an affinity of Heidegger is shared with Friedrich Nietzsche (Romantic philosopher). They argued that facts exist either separately or outside from the speaking and thinking process. Regarding his related admission, the possibilities of scientific and philosophical discourse are wrapped up in the expectations and practices of the society. Here, the fundamental and concepts constructs are some of the expressions of a traditional exercise that is life (Smythe 2015).

Jacques Derrida

Some of the writing fundamentals, as well as its consequences on the philosophy in general, are re-examined by Jacques Derrida (Harbour 2017). These fundamentals of writing seek to undermine the metaphysics or the language of “presence” in an analytical technique. Just like Heidegger, Derrida utilized reference to the Greek notions of philosophy that is associated with the Skeptics.

In the first place, John Watkins Chapman came up with a suggestion on the painting’s style of postmodern (Sidhe 2011). This exercise acted as a way of departing from the impressionism of French. In his article of 1914, J. M. Thomson used the word postmodernism for describing variations in both beliefs and attitudes in the critique of religion. Between 1921 and 1925, the term postmodernism was greatly used for describing new forms of music and art. Subsequently, in 1942 H. R. Hays explained it as a new form of literature. As a general theory for a movement of history, however, the term was used for the first time in 1939 by Arnold J. Toynbee. “The general was of 1914 to 1918 has inaugurated our own post-modern age” (Wollaeger 2013).

Walter Anderson

In the recent times, the term postmodernism was described by Walter Anderson to mean the belonging to one of our common views of the world. Anderson identifies these views as the scientific rationale, neo-romantic, postmodern ironist, and the social structured. The postmodern ironist helps in seeing the truth as socially constructed. In the same way, the neo-romantic helps in finding the truth by attaining harmony with spiritual inner self-exploration and nature (Sidhe 2011). Scientific rational uses the discipline injury and methodological to find the truth. Finally, the social tradition uses the heritage of Western and American civilization to find the truth.

In philosophy, the ideas of postmodernism and the analysis of society and culture expand the critical theory's importance (Smythe 2015). It has also been the departure’s point for the works of architecture, literature, and design, in addition to being visible in the business and marketing and the law, history, and culture’s interpretation starting in the later 20th century. In some case, the term poststructuralism is used interchangeably with postmodernism. To understand postmodernism fully, one has also to demand the concepts of poststructuralism.

Theme Graphic Novel and the Use of Images

Serious challenges are posed by the postmodernism to any person who attempts to explain some of its major precepts straightforwardly (Harbour 2017). Therefore, it is essential to make a clear distinction between the postmodernist theory and the culture of postmodern. In history, the present period is referred to as the age of postmodern. For this reason, many of the contemporary critics are seen to be developing interests to make sense of the time in which they are living. Even though the endeavor is admirable, these critics run into problems given the living's sheer complexity in history. It is hard to tell some of the elements that the culture can win out. However, people always fail to recognize the insistent ways that keep on changing in the society and affect the ways of being in the world and thinking (Smythe 2015). One of the symptoms of the complexity that is present is the way the critics are divided on the postmodern question of culture. Some of the critics lament the enslavement while others celebrate the liberation. In an attempt of keeping the distinction between the postmodernism and modernism, each of the sets has to include the modules.

Oral Culture

Thinking about how the way of people’s thinking about the world has been changed by the printed word is one of the ways of understanding the transformative. However, these transformative changes that are affected by technology in most cases go without being noticed. Understanding these transformative is helpful to people as they make it possible for them to think about the postmodern technologies such as television, computer, the production of the mechanical image, and film. However subtle, there is a fundamental change in the way people think about the surrounding world (Sidhe 2011).



Figure 1: A Description of an Oral Culture (Source: Wollaeger 2013)

Failure to have a book of rules for establishing a precedent, the only possible way of determining justice is on a case by case manner and competing accounts. Again, knowledge mainly relies on the things that are currently present. For this reason, the stories that the rhapsodies told changes with the change in the situations of the society (MacDonald 2008). Often, it is possible to find some clue regarding the early times through the elements of the story that persists even after the new technologies transformed the society of the Greece. For example, in the Odyssey, it is possible to detect the archaeology layers (some of the elements from the age of bronze and iron).

Normally, there is no author in the sense of modern in the oral society because the passing of stories take several years as it passes different rhapsodes generations. There is also no private life. In this case, the direction of subjectivity appears outward to performative situations (Sidhe 2011). The atrium structure is also favored by the classical culture that is oriented to the public spaces with little privacy and no doors. Some of the critics are characterizing this public-oriented privacy’ culture as "shame culture." There are no inalienable rights of a human. Punishment is severe.

In some cases, there is no money. One cannot buy more than he/ she already has. It was possible to understand production, money, labor, as well as the consumption of the abstract quantities that could be sold after being bought on the open market. Instead, the individual craftsmen are paid directly through barter, and in turn through a direct valuation of the particular product of the laborer (Harbour 2017). Within the society of the gift, an economy of barter in most cases depends on the gift for stability.

Renaissance

Even though some are still in the period of transition, most people witnessed the movement beginning into the "culture of guilt" in the Renaissance. This transition includes the system of monotheistic belief. The movement into the culture of literature aids this kind of transition. Obviously, the renaissance is significant as it introduces the production of print. Markedly, the period of production of print, in some cases is referred to as the revolution of Gutenberg (Sidhe 2011). This man, John Gutenberg is credited with the printing press intervention. Practically, the Bible achieves the performance effect as one can print the scriptures after writing them down. Such performance should not be changed or represented, according to the belief. However, the publication of the scripture after writing it down in vernacular also brings religion to the individual reader.



Figure 2: Renaissance (1550 – 1660)

Also, the renaissance is a time for both scientific discovery and questioning, as well as a time of revolutionary politics. The movement into the system of monolithic belief is another significant shift from the culture of oral, and hence the internalization beginning of the values of epic. On the other hand, the culture of guilt makes the identity to suddenly become "vertical" existing on the internal struggle’s deep scale. Noticeably, there is an invention of the private self. People are already guilty in this post-Christian culture. It is possible to see this kind of transition in the movement to sacrificing Christ in the New Testament from the "jealous God" in the Old Testament. At various points, the New Testament has to actively embark on writing such passages in the Old Testament more evocative of the culture of the older shame (Harbour 2017).

Enlightenment/ Restoration

To a large extent, this was a retrenchment time. In 1660, for example, the monarchy of England was restored (Wollaeger 2013). After that, some literature including the press is censored in addition to outlawing some religious sects. Seemingly, this culture subscribes more to the "shame culture's" values instead of the "guilt culture." Even the represented situations of the family underline the performative and the formal aspects of what is evident of the scene with complete stage and curtain.



Figure 3: The Fourth Duke and Duchess of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1660 – 1789)

Romanticism

The period of romanticism is characterized by transformative changes as well as other several revolutions in the society (Baackmann and Craven 2008). For example, 1775 marked the beginning of the American Revolution. The following year, 1776 also marked the drafting of the declaration of independence. In the same way, 1789 marked the year of French revolution which led the country to the king's execution. This period also contributed into the middle classes subsequent rise. In fact, the French revolution made several people in England to fear the same kind of revolution in Britain. The King George’s developing madness in England in the entire period was not helpful to bolster the aristocracy’s image in the English’s mind (Sidhe 2011).



Figure 4: The Snowstorm of J. M. W Turner (exhibited in 1842)

The middle classes started to rise in America and England. In effect, the two countries increasingly relied on each other for their wealth on business and industry. As a result of this fact, the capitalism rose as the predominant way of conceiving of the relations of business. In Britain, such rise resulted in the 1832 British Reform Bill, which extended the vote to the middle classes’ richest members (Douglas 1998). The vote would gradually be extended to all people over the course of the 19th century. Some of the changes including the industrial revolution that occurred in the physical world’s scientific exploration ushered in the science and medicine’s modern forms.



Figure 5: The 1817 Bard of John Martin (Source (Wollaeger 2013)

Various industries become the major sources of making money as a result of urbanization in the 19th century. Farm labor was also made less necessary with the introduction of the new machines. In effect, the majority of people moved to cities in search of jobs in the sweatshops and factories. More people started to read hence increasing their rates of literacy. This reading audience’s expansion made it easy for the possibility of the modern mass market.

Key Aspects of the Contemporary Arena

The understanding of the meaning of modernism makes the term postmodern to make some sense. Usually, the term modernism is used to mean enlightenment and neo-classical assumptions that concerns the rationality, the sole reason, or scientific reasoning. Basically, the postmodernism aims at challenging some of the basic assumptions of the modernism (Sidhe 2011). This section of the paper explores the globalization and capitalism, digital age and the issues of the environment.

Globalization and Capitalism

Globalization and capitalism are some of the historical importance issues; are substantive and meta-national. The only question is whether globalization and capitalism should be conceived as a set of processes. These processes may include economic, cultural, as well as political which stretches over time and place. Markedly, one should not understand globalization and capitalism as either a linear process or a single condition. However, it has to be viewed as a phenomenon which is multi-dimensional. This multi-dimensional phenomenon includes various technological, cultural, political as well as the environmental denominations (Douglas 1998). Also note that each of such spheres includes relations, the amplitude of patterns, and other activities.

Globalization, by definition, means the methods involved in increasing the interconnection between societies or countries. At this point, the events in the different parts of the world or society have more significant effects compared to the other parts. It can also be noted that globalization and capitalism are the world’s intensification of the social relation for linking the various distant localities. In this case, the events that occur in far distance away contribute to the shaping of the local happenings. In the scientific thought, the concept of globalization and capitalism began in the 1960s. Currently, these concepts are expressed into a total of five uses (Baackmann and Craven 2008).

These uses include the internationalization which means extension and development in the field of international exchanges (Smythe 2015). Liberalization is the second use, which means the free trends of the economy that has minimal interference from the government (integration and economic). Third, there is what is called universalism. The universalism means it has to be interpreted by the use of special programs and goals for the human system (integration of culture). Finally, the use of globalization and capitalism include the westernization. Westernization means merely the influence of the culture of the West on the locals. In other words, they transfer the Western culture into other countries.

The dynamism of the modernism’s social structure is impacted by the globalization and capitalism. In this case, the modernism may include rationalism, bureaucracy, and industrialism. These globalization and capitalism institutions make other countries to change. Also, the power of the State in the economic and cultural aspects are evident to be reduced by the economy in the context of globalization and capitalism. Corporation and collective capitals, with the utilization of constitutional and scientific management, has maximum scope to increase the output and benefits for the system of capitalism. Active states are created by the capital corporations of capitalism that are based on a set of criteria and rules. Moreover, they play a significant role in creating whatever the necessary conditions to provide the needed support for making an inroad into the transnational and global financial markets (Douglas 1998).

At least two features characterize the western culture in the era of modernity. These features include the globalization and the general culture. They are promoted as one attitude of the liberal humanity. Things such as special culture are also influenced by the Western culture. For this reason, the globalization and capitalism appear to be one of the postmodernism phenomena. However, various scientists hold viewpoints that are different regarding the globalization and capitalism history (Smythe 2015). One group believes that capitalism and globalization is a recent process which started to unfold about three decades ago. The other group, however, thinks that globalization and capitalism have been a process that is ongoing. They think the process has been continuing for the past four centuries.

Environmental Issues

Presently, the modernism and post-modernism challenge some of the human interpretations of social science and science. It also explores the way individuals study and understands both the environmental and global change. Even though this issue can be fascinating and liberating to others, it is also absurd and irritating to other people. Each individual has to respond differently to some of the environmental issues. A lot of questions are being directed to the alternative ways of understanding the environmental issues as well as the role of science (Sidhe 2011). These issues are questioned by the approaches of post-modern. The advances of post-modern are being resisted and instead reasserting the agenda of modernist and some of the grounds in which the exciting new opportunities are offered by the post-modernism. These opportunities need to be grasped.

The relationship between the biophysical environment and the society were ignored by the traditional sociology (MacDonald 2008). However, the core of every sociological theory that existed previously has remained fundamentally intact. The process of extension is what has resulted in the modifications. Some of the notable modifications resulted from the integration of the concerns that were ignored previously into the fabric of the existing theories. Currently, the environmental sociologists are embracing the orientation of biology towards scarcity. Environmental sociologists are charged with the responsibility of exploring the environmental issues social aspects as well as their problems (Douglas 1998).

The environment has several functions. Some of these functions include esthetic, scientific, survival, as well as the economic. In particular, the survival function comprises water, food, shelter, and air. Scientific function mainly includes technological, development, and innovation. Economic functions involve some of the inputs to consumption and production and the waste outputs. Finally, the esthetic functions are the recreation, enjoyment, and leisure (MacDonald 2008). The modernism and the postmodernism ideas of the environmental issues aim at looking at nature from the critical cultural and social perspective rather than scientific one.

The Digital Age

It is possible to appropriate the modernist and the postmodernist views of the society as lenses for analyzing the digital technology's personal use. In this case, the Web-based content consumers tend to search nomadically and randomly as a result of the multi-directional, multi-layered hyperlinked media’s nature. This procedure aligns neatly with the majority of the post-modern theory. The community is always left to decide things that are important to learn. As a consequence, it becomes the curriculum (Smythe 2015).

Conclusion

Overall, this paper has succeeded to explain both the modernism and postmodernism by the use of some theorists. In particular, the theories used in this case include the one of Martin Heidegger, Walter Anderson, and Jacques Derrida. It has also managed to touch on the theme graphic novels as well as the use of images for illustrations. Some of the key aspects of the contemporary arena are also explored effectively. In particular, these contemporary arenas include the environmental issues, globalization and capitalism, and the digital age.

This paper also reveals/ shows that the kind of modernism reform movement involved literature, music as well as the applied art. Modernism was based on the scientific process, rational thinking, and logic. Moreover, it aimed to create a rational and clear view of the world. According to modernism, mankind can grow and advance through reason and science. A belief that life has a purpose was supported by the modernism. In this case, modernism had to be viewed objectively. Additionally, it had an optimistic view regarding the world. Furthermore, it believed that there are ethics and values that have to be followed. Amazingly, they thought more about significant things without being very concerned about the politics. This era marked the time of literature and artistic advancement. Undoubtedly, literature and art's great works were abundant. The work of modernism was admired by many for their elegance and simplicity.

It is noted that the era of postmodernism was quite chaotic, making it hard to appraise and comprehend. The belief that there is nothing like the universal truth was advocated by the postmodernism. Also, it used some approaches to life that are not scientific and believed that things are not rational. In fact, postmodernists believed in both transience and chance. In most cases, they question the modernism's rationality its thinking and principles. Also, the era of postmodernist was characterized by the technology advancement as well as its use in the art, music, and literature. During this time, very few artists original work can be found. Previous works were copied. This work/ study was quite enlightening.



References

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Harbour, K. (2017). A Comparison and Contrast between Modernism and Postmodernism-Is Postmodernism a Logical Outcome of Modernism? Motifs: An International Journal of English Studies, 3(1), p.7.

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