Modernism & Post-Modernism - WordPress.com · –Rationing ended and a baby boom ensued ......
Transcript of Modernism & Post-Modernism - WordPress.com · –Rationing ended and a baby boom ensued ......
Post-Modernism(1945-today)
Whatever you thought you knew about everyone, throw it out the window and start over with what each person knows
about himself.
Historical Background• 1945 – WWII ended
– America is the most powerful nation on earth– Patriotism flourished and pride in defeating the bad
guys (Axis Powers)– Rationing ended and a baby boom ensued– United Nations bon to prevent future wars– 1947 (Jackie Robinson first black in MLB)
• 1949 - NATO founded in response to Soviet threat – Communism flourishes behind the “iron curtain”
• 1950-1955 – Turman sent troops into South Korea to fend off Communist North Korea
• 1954 – Segregation “ended”• 1952 – First Hydrogen Bomb
– Nuclear Age begins and launches the Cold War
• 1953 – DNA discovered
• 1957 –Sputnik launched
• 1960’s– JFK elected
• promised man on the moon by the end of the decade
• 1962 - Involved US in Vietnam Conflict, began withdrawal before his assassination Nov. 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald
– Lyndon B Johnson • halted withdrawal and increased presence in Vietnam
• Instituted government programs in his “War on Poverty” –Medicare, welfare, food stamps,etc…
– Protests of Vietnam (Kent State & Woodstock ‘69)
– Civil Rights Movement• Civil Rights Acts of 1963 & 1964
• 1968 MLK, Jr. Assassinated
• Nixon Elected (‘68)
– Ended Vietnam involvement in 1973
– Watergate Scandal overshadowed achievements
• 1st Man on the Moon (‘69)
• 1970s
– Gerald Ford takes over after Nixon’s resignation in ’74
– Civil Rights Movement continues
– Feminism takes center stage
– ‘78 Jimmy Carter - ridiculous inflation and Iran hostage crisis
– Test tube baby born (‘78)
• 1980s– Reagan elected
• Began to turn economy around
• Inspired incredible patriotism
• ‘89 - “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” – collapse of the USSR
– ‘81 AIDS changes everything about “free love”
• 1990s– ‘91 Internet (World Wide Web) established
– George H. Bush• ‘91 Desert Storm – Iraq invaded Kuwait
– Bill Clinton• .coms – economic boom (unstable)
– 1995 – OJ Trial
– 1996: First cloned sheep – “Dolly”
• 2000s– 2001 - Sept. 11th Terrorist Attacks &
American/British led Afghanistan war begins
– 2003-11? - Second Gulf War
– 2004 – Facebook launched
– 2005 Hurricane Katrina
– 2008 – Obama elected President
– 2010 – Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) passed
– 2013 – Boston Marathon terrorist attack
Post-Modernism
• Criticized universal truths & assumptions
– Denied things like human nature and human experience
• Scientific Discovery changes everything!
– Reflects the Enlightenment’s faith in progress and rational solution
– Interesting combination of importance on individualism and quest for progress and rational solutions to the world’s problems
• There are NO universal truths
Post-Modernism
• Recognizes writer’s & reader’s own prejudices and influences on reactions
• There is no true reality only perceived reality
• Text should reflect its own theme
• Completely rejected the idea of “objectivity”
Theories, Movements, & “isms”• Positivism
– Scientific method could define everything including human society• Like Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory – Schrödinger's Cat
• Darwinism– Evolution and Natural selection
• Marxism– Economic needs dictate ALL aspects of society
– Capital vs labor
– Materialism defined human history
• Psychoanalysis– Freudian idea that sexual desire and gender roles
define everything we do as human beings
Existentialism• Phenomenology – study of things as they
appear– Study of the structures of subjective experience
and consciousness
• Everything should be studied/examined within its context
• There are NO preexisting truths, values, or general laws
• Interpreted as thrown into a sea to drown or cast out and allowed to shape its own destiny
• Attempt to recover clear vision