postmodern
After the modern
Postmodern describes art, architecture, literature, and thought that reacts against modernism's faith in progress, universal truths, and clean aesthetics.
Where modernism sought clarity and grand narratives, postmodernism embraces fragmentation, irony, pastiche, and skepticism toward any single authoritative viewpoint.
In architecture, this might mean playfully mixing historical styles; in philosophy, questioning whether objective reality is knowable.
The building's postmodern design clashed columns with neon.
The term often carries either celebratory or dismissive overtones depending on the speaker.
Imitative artistic tribute
- bricolageConstruction from available materials
- collageAssembled mixed-media artwork
- appropriationUnauthorized claiming or allocation
- remixAltered version of recording
mashup · quotation · allusion · homage · montage · fragmentation · juxtaposition · kitsch
All-encompassing explanatory framework
- simulacrumImitative stand-in for reality
- hyperrealityRepresentations supplanting the genuine
- BaudrillardPhilosopher of simulated reality
- FoucaultProminent French family name
rhizome · deterritorialization · genealogy · discourse · Jameson · incredulity · contingency · historicism
Satirical imitation
- satireMockery exposing vice
- self-awarenessInsight into one's psyche
- detachmentSeparation or emotional uninvolvement
- sarcasmIrony used to mock
tongue-in-cheek · playfulness · subversion · mockery · wink · skepticism · knowingness · cynicism
Literature aware of itself
- PynchonPostmodern American novelist
- BarthGermanic family name
- RushdieFatwa-targeted novelist
- EcoItalian literary surname
DeLillo · Borges · fragmentation · nonlinear · maximalism · footnotes · digression · paranoia
Worldwide economic and cultural integration
- consumerismPreoccupation with acquiring goods
- spectacleVisually striking event
- commodificationTransforming into sellable goods
- neoliberalismPro-market, anti-regulation ideology
post-industrial · fragmentation · pluralism · relativism · multiculturalism · post-truth · hyperconnectivity
Grammatology's French author
- decenteringShifting away from self-focus
- signifierMeaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
dissemination · presence · absence · supplement · erasure · slippage · instability
Burial excavations in earth
- deconstructivismPhilosophy challenging textual certainty
- ornamentationDecorative additions to something
- historicismEra determines truth claims
- façadeFalse outward appearance
whimsy · decoration · contextualism · pluralism · wit · color · symbolism · populism
pastiche
Imitative artistic tribute
- bricolageConstruction from available materials
- collageAssembled mixed-media artwork
- appropriationUnauthorized claiming or allocation
remix · mashup · quotation · allusion · homage · montage · fragmentation · juxtaposition · kitsch · camp
metanarrative
All-encompassing explanatory framework
- simulacrumImitative stand-in for reality
- hyperrealityRepresentations supplanting the genuine
- BaudrillardPhilosopher of simulated reality
Foucault · rhizome · deterritorialization · genealogy · discourse · Jameson · incredulity · contingency · historicism · Guattari
parody
Satirical imitation
- satireMockery exposing vice
- self-awarenessInsight into one's psyche
- detachmentSeparation or emotional uninvolvement
sarcasm · tongue-in-cheek · playfulness · subversion · mockery · wink · skepticism · knowingness · cynicism · absurdity
metafiction
Literature aware of itself
DeLillo · Borges · Eco · fragmentation · nonlinear · maximalism · footnotes · digression · paranoia
globalization
Worldwide economic and cultural integration
- consumerismPreoccupation with acquiring goods
- spectacleVisually striking event
- commodificationTransforming into sellable goods
neoliberalism · post-industrial · fragmentation · pluralism · relativism · multiculturalism · post-truth · hyperconnectivity
Derrida
Grammatology's French author
- decenteringShifting away from self-focus
- signifierMeaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
trace · dissemination · presence · absence · supplement · erasure · slippage · instability
Graves
Burial excavations in earth
- deconstructivismPhilosophy challenging textual certainty
- ornamentationDecorative additions to something
- historicismEra determines truth claims
façade · whimsy · decoration · contextualism · pluralism · wit · color · symbolism · populism
- literary periodsRenaissance, medieval, Victorian, contemporary, ancient
- American Architecturecolonial, Craftsman, bungalow, ranch house, Cape Cod
- art adjectivesbold, bright, colorful, dark, delicate
- decor stylescontemporary, traditional, rustic, bohemian, minimalist
- erasera, epoch, age, bronze age, period
- design stylesart deco, Art Nouveau, art nouveau, Bauhaus, minimalism
postmodernmodern
Of recent times
modernist · premodern · classical · traditional · Victorian
postmodernpositivist
One trusting only observable facts
objectivist · rationalist · universalist · essentialist · empiricist
- postmodern artCreative work questioning modernism's assumptions
- postmodern fictionLiterature embracing fragmentation and irony
- postmodern designStyle embracing eclecticism, irony
- postmodern literatureSelf-referential, fragmentary contemporary fiction
- Postmodern eraPeriod questioning absolute truths