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What Is Postmodernism?

What Is Postmodernism?. HIST300: Historiography Fall 2012. The “Ages” of Western Historiography . Definitions of Postmodernism.

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What Is Postmodernism?

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  1. What Is Postmodernism? HIST300: Historiography Fall 2012

  2. The “Ages” of Western Historiography

  3. Definitions of Postmodernism 1. Postmodernism is a philosophical and intellectual worldview that rejects absolute truth, because “reality is unrepresentable;” we must question objectivity and embrace subjectivity, particularly as it pertains to language

  4. Definitions of Postmodernism 1. Postmodernism is a philosophical and intellectual worldview that rejects absolute truth, because “reality is unrepresentable;” we must question objectivity and embrace subjectivity, particularly as it pertains to language 2. Postmodernism insists on “subverting, resisting, opposing, or countering features of modernism,” which includes “suspicion and rejection of ‘master narratives’”

  5. Michel FoucaultLeading Frenchintellectual, historian, psychologist, and philosopher

  6. Two of His Key Contributions 1. Power and knowledge as social constructions

  7. Two of His Key Contributions 1. Power and knowledge as social constructions 2. Discourse as the defining force in shaping human behavior

  8. Definition of Discourse 1. A message imbedded in language that claims to be truth in such a way as to become obviously true to the viewer, and in so doing, this message has power over cultures and societies 2. A “system of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak”

  9. Postmodern Challenges • Is all data ultimately textual and, if so, what are its implications? • Should history be written primarily according to literary rules and, if so, what are they? • What is the significant difference between literary and figurative speech in history and how does it create historical meaning? • Can history ever exist beyond discourse? • Is history what happened, or what historians tell us happened? Alun Munslow, “What History Is,” 2001

  10. Summary of Key Points • The “linguistic turn” signaled the coming of postmodernism • Postmodernists… …Consider “authorial presence” to be a significant force …Emphasize the importance of language (i.e. semiotics) …Believe in the absence of one, absolute truth …Are suspicious of “meta-narratives” …Believe that our worldview (i.e. discourse) inescapably shapes our interpretations of events • Postmodern thought has affected many disciplines, including history, literary criticism, psychology, philosophy, and others

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