For readers new to
postmodernism, the last chapter of "The Postmodern Turn" should have
been the first. True, the first chapter refers to the end of grand narratives
and the loss of faith in universal explanations found in postmodern theory. It is in the last chapter, however, that the major themes of postmodernism are fully
outlined: the rejection of unification in favor of complexity; the renunciation
of fixed meaning for ambiguity; the abandonment of truth for relativity, and
the breakdown of rigid boundaries of knowledge for interdisciplinary study.
"The Postmodern Turn" delineates the difference between the modern and the postmodern, while
asserting that we are living in a transitional period between the two.
Modernism saw the artist as an isolated genius whose creations were original
and monumental and whose purity of style was rooted in the "high
arts." These pillars of modernism are denied in postmodern literature: "Instead
of deep content, grand themes and moral lessons...postmodernists...are
primarily concerned with the form and play of language..."
The grand
spiritual and emotional themes in the modernist abstract expressionist painting
of the 1950s were forsaken by pop artist Andy Warhol, who emphasized commercial
culture, and by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, who appropriated everyday
objects and broke the barriers between "high" and "low"
art. In architecture, the purity of the International Style, characterized by
minimalist glass and steel boxes, gave way to buildings that eclectically
borrowed from different periods. In the sciences, quantum physics and chaos
theory introduced a measure of indeterminacy in place of a mechanistic view of
the universe.
Politically, the
rejection of universal schemes to save humanity resulted in a fragmentation of
social movements. In identity politics, previously marginalized groups, such as
gays, minorities and women, asserted their own historical narrative: "Identity politics bears the
influence of postmodern theory, which is evident in its critique of modern
reductionism, abstract universalism, and essentialism, as well as in its use of
multiperspectival strategies that legitimate multiple political voices."
Best and Kellner also emphasize how the existentialists,
with their attack on absolutism in philosophy, were
precursors to the postmodern thinkers. The authors provide illuminating insights into the ways in which
postmodernism evolved into a contemporary cultural force.
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