I pretty much wrote this word for word in the exam, covering the histotical and philosophical context of Pomo. It is from my notes.
CONTEXT
POST- AS A PREFIX
• Post- (prefix)
The "post-" of postmodernism inevitably brings up the question of periodization. "Post-" clearly means "after," but it is usually interpreted as marking an abrupt and even violent break between the before and the post-. In some cases the post- is interpreted as "anti-" or against. With postmodernism, and to a lesser extent poststructuralism, the break between before and after is posited as quite radical, even a revolution or at least a subversion of modernism (and
Structuralism).
MODERNISM
• Modernism rejection
Postmodernism is an artistic, architectural, philosophical, and cultural movement or condition, said to arise after and in reaction to modernism. Whereas modernism frames itself as the culmination of the Enlightenment's quest for an authoritatively-rational aesthetics, ethics, and knowledge, postmodernism is concerned with how the authority of those would-be-ideals, sometimes called metanarratives, are subverted through fragmentation, consumerism, and deconstruction. Jean-François Lyotard famously described postmodernism as an "incredulity toward metanarratives" (Lyotard, 1984). Postmodernism attacks the notions of monolithic universals and encourages fractured, fluid and multiple perspectives and is marked by an increasing importance in the ideas from the Sociology of knowledge.
POST WWII AND THE 1960s
• Post 1960’s cultural perspective
Any of several artistic movements since about the 1960s that have challenged the philosophy and practices of modern arts or literature.
In literature this has amounted to a reaction against an ordered view of the world and therefore against fixed ideas about the form and meaning of texts.
• Existential Roots
Existentialism reacted against any kind of a universal system or ethical absolute (especially Hegel's metaphysical system) that stands above the individual. The existential psychologist Rollo May summarizes it aptly:
Existentialism means centering upon the existing person; it is the emphasis on the human being as he is emerging, becoming. The word "existence" comes from the root ex-sistere, meaning literally "to stand out, emerge." Traditionally in Western culture, existence has been set over against essence, the latter being the emphasis upon immutable principles, truth, logical laws, etc., that are supposed to stand above any given existence
After existentialism existence gains primacy over essence with the emphasis placed primarily on the individual actualizing his or her existence through choice. Truth is experienced as an inward passion or the recovery of Being as opposed to an immutable principle. As Kierkegaard put it, "An objective uncertainty held fast in an appropriation-process of the most passionate inwardness is the truth, the highest truth attainable for an existing individual" [italics his].1 I would argue that to the extent that existentialism has succeeded in overthrowing the universal or "essence," the demise of the idea of "absolute truth" has been the result. However, the loss of essence eventually results in the loss of existence with its resultant "unbearable lightness of being." Being no longer has meaning. This state naturally leads to philosophical relativism a condition which is exaggerated by the theories of language that follow. Gene Edward Veith rightly concludes, "Existentialism is the philosophical basis for postmodernism."
