Postmodernism
Ironic cultural movement
Postmodernism, when capitalized, treats the movement as a specific historical and cultural period rather than a general tendency.
Some scholars use it to mark a distinct era beginning roughly in the 1960s or 1970s, distinguished from Modernism as a prior period.
The capitalization signals that the writer considers it a defined epoch comparable to the Renaissance or the Enlightenment: Postmodernism represented a fundamental break with Enlightenment assumptions. (Lowercase postmodernism is the more common form, used for the broader intellectual tendency.)
Break from traditional forms
- EnlightenmentEra prioritizing reason over dogma
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- epochDistinct historical period
- eraDistinct historical period
Modernism
Break from traditional forms
- EnlightenmentEra prioritizing reason over dogma
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- epochDistinct historical period
era · twentieth century · 1960s · 1970s · periodization
- art stylesimpressionism, surrealism, cubism, realism, pop art
- paintingoil painting, watercolor, acrylic paint, oils, oil paints
- architecture stylesart deco, Art Nouveau, minimalism, modernism, Modernism
- art historyart history, Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism, modern art
- art termspainting, sculpture, drawing, portrait, landscape
- Design HistoryArt Nouveau, Bauhaus, mid-century modern, Modernism, Functionalism
PostmodernismModernism
Break from traditional forms
modernity · classical humanism · Renaissance humanism · classicism · Victorian values
Postmodernismfoundationalism
Knowledge rests on basics
objectivism · essentialism · positivism · realism · universalism
Postmodernismsincerity
Honest, unfeigned genuineness
earnestness · authenticity · straightforwardness · literalism · Romanticism