postmoderns
Reject grand narratives
Postmoderns are people who embrace or practice postmodernism—the intellectual movement questioning universal truths, grand narratives, and fixed meanings.
The term often appears in cultural criticism and academic contexts: The postmoderns rejected the idea of objective reality.
It can carry dismissive overtones when used by critics of the movement.
Imitative artistic tribute
- ironyMeaning opposite to words
- appropriationUnauthorized claiming or allocation
- collageAssembled mixed-media artwork
- kitschTasteless, garish art
fragmentation · hybridity · self-referential · parody · bricolage · eclecticism · sampling · remix
Meaning opposite to words
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
- consumerOne who acquires goods
- simulacrumImitative stand-in for reality
- hyperrealityRepresentations supplanting the genuine
pastiche · surface · depthlessness · fragmentation · identity · multiculturalism · globalization · mass media
Philosophy questioning stable meaning
- deconstructionAnalysis exposing self-contradiction
- DerridaGrammatology's French author
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
anti-foundationalism · metanarrative · incredulity · Baudrillard · simulacra · hyperreality · discourse · genealogy
Literature aware of itself
- intertextualityConnections between written works
- unreliable narratorStoryteller whose credibility wavers
- PynchonPostmodern American novelist
- BarthGermanic family name
DeLillo · fragmentation · nonlinear · self-conscious · maximalism · pastiche · parody · magical realism
Burial excavations in earth
- ornamentationDecorative additions to something
- historicismEra determines truth claims
- contextualismBelief justification varies situationally
- facadeDeceptive outward appearance
eclecticism · symbolism · ironic · vernacular · populist · decoration · complexity · contradiction
pastiche
Imitative artistic tribute
- ironyMeaning opposite to words
- appropriationUnauthorized claiming or allocation
- collageAssembled mixed-media artwork
kitsch · fragmentation · hybridity · self-referential · parody · bricolage · eclecticism · sampling · remix · multimedia
irony
Meaning opposite to words
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
- consumerOne who acquires goods
- simulacrumImitative stand-in for reality
hyperreality · pastiche · surface · depthlessness · fragmentation · identity · multiculturalism · globalization · mass media · commodification
poststructuralism
Philosophy questioning stable meaning
- deconstructionAnalysis exposing self-contradiction
- DerridaGrammatology's French author
- FoucaultProminent French family name
relativism · anti-foundationalism · metanarrative · incredulity · Baudrillard · simulacra · hyperreality · discourse · genealogy · binary
metafiction
Literature aware of itself
- intertextualityConnections between written works
- unreliable narratorStoryteller whose credibility wavers
- PynchonPostmodern American novelist
DeLillo · Barth · fragmentation · nonlinear · self-conscious · maximalism · pastiche · parody · magical realism · Eco
Graves
Burial excavations in earth
- ornamentationDecorative additions to something
- historicismEra determines truth claims
- contextualismBelief justification varies situationally
facade · eclecticism · symbolism · ironic · vernacular · populist · decoration · complexity · contradiction · pluralism
postmodernstraditionalists
Upholders of established customs
modernists · moderns · objectivists · classicists · rationalists
- 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