Post-Modernism

Post-Modernism denotes an aesthetic movement in the second half of the 20th Century towards a style that is more ornamental than Modernism, and which is not afraid to borrow from previous artistic and architectural styles, often in a playful or ironic fashion. The term originated in architecture (literally "after the modern"), but came to be used in art, music, literature and philosophy for any pluralistic style that is a reaction against the pretensions of high Modernism. It tends to lack a clear central hierarchy or organizing principle, and often embodies extreme complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, diversity and inter-connectedness or inter-referentiality. It is typically marked by a revival of traditional elements and techniques.

Some see Post-Modernism as just another phase in the continued unfolding of Modernism; some see it as a complete replacement for, and backlash against, Modernism. Either way, it is if anything even more difficult to define than its predecessor. With the current wide availability of the Internet, mobile phones, interactive television, etc, and the instantaneous, direct, shallow and often superficial participation in the culture they allow, some commentators have even posited that we are now entering the Post-Post-Modern period.

Post-Modern Philosophy is generally viewed as an openness to meaning and authority from unexpected places, so that the ultimate source of authority is the "play" of the discourse itself. Deconstructionism, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism are all considered Post-Modernist philosophical movements, and its most famous contributors are Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard (1924 - 1998), Richard Rorty (1931 - 2007), Jean Baudrillard (1929 - 2007) and Roland Barthes (1915 - 1980).

The movement of Post-Modernism began with architecture, as a reactionary movement against the perceived blandness and hostility present in the Modernism movement, with its pursuit of an ideal perfection, harmony of form and function, and dismissal of frivolous ornamentation. Post-Modern architecture rejects the notion of a "pure" form or "perfect" architectonic detail, instead conspicuously drawing from all methods, materials, forms and colors available to architects.

The burgeoning anti-establishment movements of the 1960s can be considered as the constituting event of Post-Modernism in a more general sense.