Editing Postmodernism (section)

== Definitions ==
"Postmodernism" is "a highly contested term",{{sfn|Buchanan|2018}} referring to "a particularly unstable concept",{{sfn|Bertens|1995|p=11}} that "names many different kinds of cultural objects and phenomena in many different ways".{{sfn|Connor|2013|p=567}} It may be described simply as a general mood or ''[[Zeitgeist]]''.{{sfn|Spencer|2011|p=217}}{{efn|A sampling from other scholars: It is "diffuse, fragmentary, [and] multi-dimensional".{{sfn|Herwitz|2008|loc=Historical and Conceptual Overview}} Critics have described it as "an exasperating term"{{sfn|Bertens|1995|p=3}} and claim that its indefinability is "a truism".{{sfn|Aylesworth|2015|loc=Introduction}} Put otherwise, postmodernism is "several things at once".{{sfn|Bertens|1995|p=3}} It has no single definition, and the term does not name any single unified phenomenon, but rather many diverse phenomena: "postmodernisms rather than one postmodernism".{{sfn|Brooker|2003|p=204}}{{sfn|Vanhoozer|2003|p=3}}{{sfn|Connor|2004|p=17}}}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jin |first=Huimin |date=Sep 2023 |title=Postmodernism in the 21st Century Pros and Cons |url=https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/publications/4m90f310d |journal=Journal of East-West Thought |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=19}}</ref>

Although postmodernisms are generally united in their effort to transcend the perceived limits of modernism, "modernism" also means different things to different critics in various arts.{{sfn|Bertens|1995|pages=4–5}} Further, there are outliers on even this basic stance; for instance, literary critic [[William Spanos]] conceives postmodernism not in period terms but in terms of a certain kind of literary imagination so that pre-modern texts such as [[Euripides]]' ''[[Orestes]]'' or [[Cervantes]]' ''[[Don Quixote]]'' count as postmodern.{{sfn|Bertens|1995|p=46}}

According to scholar [[Louis Menand]], "Postmodernism is the [[Swiss Army knife]] of critical concepts. It's definitionally overloaded, and it can do almost any job you need done."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Menand |first=Louis |date=Feb 15, 2009 |title=Saved from Drowning |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/02/23/saved-from-drowning |access-date=Nov 5, 2024 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref> From an opposing perspective, media theorist [[Dick Hebdige]] criticized the vagueness of the term, enumerating a long list of otherwise unrelated concepts that people have designated as postmodernism, from "the décor of a room" or "a 'scratch' video", to fear of [[nuclear armageddon]] and the "implosion of meaning", and stated that anything that could signify all of those things was "a buzzword".<ref name="Hebdige">{{cite book |first=Dick |last=Hebdige |chapter=Postmodernism and "the other side" |title=Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A reader |editor-first=John |editor-last=Storey |location=London |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |date=2006}}</ref>

All this notwithstanding, scholar Hans Bertens offers the following:

<blockquote>If there is a common denominator to all these postmodernisms, it is that of a crisis in representation: a deeply felt loss of faith in our ability to represent the real, in the widest sense. No matter whether they are aesthestic [sic], epistemological, moral, or political in nature, the representations that we used to rely on can no longer be taken for granted.{{sfn|Bertens|1995|page=10}}
</blockquote>

In practical terms, postmodernisms share an attitude<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Stephen |date=2006 |title=Recycling Postmodern Marketing |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2016131 |journal=The Marketing Review |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=214 |doi=10.1362/146934706778605322 |ssrn=2016131 |via=[[SSRN]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jin |first=Huimin |date=Sep 2023 |title=Postmodernism in the 21st Century Pros and Cons |url=https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/publications/4m90f310d |journal=Journal of East-West Thought |volume=13 |issue=3 }}</ref> of skepticism towards grand explanations and established ways of doing things. In art, literature, and architecture, this attitude blurs boundaries between styles and genres, and encourages freely mixing elements, challenging traditional distinctions like [[High culture|high art]] versus [[Popular culture|popular art]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191872112.001.0001/acref-9780191872112 |title=The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-187211-2 |editor-last=Hart |editor-first=James D. |edition=2 |language=en |chapter=postmodernism |doi=10.1093/acref/9780191872112.001.0001 |editor-last2=Martin |editor-first2=Wendy |editor-last3=Hinrichs |editor-first3=Danielle}}</ref> In science, it emphasizes multiple ways of seeing things, and how our cultural and personal backgrounds shape how we see the world, making it impossible to be completely [[Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy)|objective]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Heise |first=Ursula K. |title=Science, technology, and postmodernism |date=2004 |work=The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism |pages=136–167 |editor-last=Connor |editor-first=Steven |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-postmodernism/science-technology-and-postmodernism/7DB89463B7564CFED387E95223F365A0 |access-date=2024-11-13 |series=Cambridge Companions to Literature |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/ccol0521640520.008 |isbn=978-0-521-64052-7}}</ref> In philosophy, education, history, politics, and many other fields, it encourages critical re-examination of established institutions and social norms, embracing diversity, and breaking down disciplinary boundaries.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gantt|2024}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Ermarth |first=Elizabeth Deeds |title=Postmodernism |date=2016 |encyclopedia=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/postmodernism/v-1 |access-date=2024-10-07 |edition=1 |place=London |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780415249126-n044-1 |isbn=978-0-415-25069-6 |quote=Although diverse and eclectic, postmodernism can be recognized by two key assumptions: first, the assumption that there is no common denominator – in 'nature' or 'truth' or 'God' or 'time' – that guarantees either the One-ness of the world or the possibility of neutral, objective thought; second, the assumption that all human systems operate like language as self-reflexive rather than referential systems, in other words systems of differential function that are powerful but finite, and that construct and maintain meaning and value.}}</ref> Though these ideas weren't strictly new, postmodernism amplified them, using an often playful, at times deeply critical, attitude of pervasive skepticism to turn them into defining features.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Klages |first=Mary |date=Dec 6, 2001 |title=Postmodernism |url=https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~sflores/KlagesPostmodernism.html |access-date=Oct 15, 2024 |website=[[University of Idaho]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McGrath |first=Alister E. |title=A passion for truth: the intellectual coherence of evangelicalism |publisher=Apollos |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-85111-447-7 |edition=1. publ |location=Leicester |pages=184}}</ref>