Post-modernism

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Revision as of 15:36, 17 October 2012

Since the ’60 postmodernism dominates in the literature, arts and architecture. In the late 1980’s the postmodernism became a trend in human geography. Postmodernism is a theoratical approach to human geography. This approach is born as an critique approach against the modernism. The postmodernism rejects the theory of the modernism. That means that the postmodernism doesn’t believe in the absolute truth and that every person has it’s own truth. Nobody is able to doubt about others truth because life-experiences and personal visions create a personal truth. This is for every person different. In short postmodernists seemed to throw reason itself into doubt. Everything is a subjective truth. Science is a matter of faith just as much as anything else.

There are tree major practitioners of postmodernism: - Jean-François Lyotard - Michel Foucault - Zygmunt Bauman

As told before the postmodernism is a critique approach against modernism. Modernism exist since the 17th century and is also called as the enlightment. The modernistic peoples are interested in the working of the world en they think that they can understand the world as an absolute truth. Own experiences and reasons to believe in a own truth are rejected bij the modernism.

Postmodernism doesn’t follow modernism in a chronologic order, modernism and postmodernism exists next to each other, but there is no conflict between the two trends. You can say that postmodernism is the deconstruction of modernism. It looks at the intersubjectivity instead of the objectivity, which modernism is focused on.

The postmodernist is convinced about the “fact” that everybody is equal. The postmodernist people are concerned about the world around us. The way people use the world is not the right way, the economical system is not fair and the ratio between the poor and the rich people is wrong. Concludes can be said that in many ways the postmodernism is an apposite approach against the modernism.

There is also a specific approach which is focused on structures, namely the Post-structuralist approach. Post-structuralists say that all truths are constructions . Structures are not fixed, but dynamic and they are also not universal, but contextual. They think structures are the outcomes of our actions.

In the explanation about post-modernism above, there is told about what post-modernism is. But if we look at this as a real postmodernist, you have to doubt all of this, because there is never one truth.

Example

This example refers to abolition of the binary thinking in post-mordernism. The binarity between centre and periphery is not existing according to post-modernism. There is not a clear distintion between the two concepts, because there are also places that are neither of them, or opposite, both of them. Think about a place like Amsterdam, for the Netherlands this is the big centre, but on worldscale, this isn't a centre. Another example is 'black and white', according to post-modernists everthing isn't one thing or the other, but something in between. Like in black and white, this is something colourful.

References:

Aitken S, Valentine G,2010, Approaches to Human Geography, California, London, New Delhi, Singapore,Sage

Postmodernisme, wat is de waarheid?, http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/dutch/postmodernisme.htm, 11 october 2010

Verhoeven M,Glossarium, http://www.verhoevenmarc.be/PDF/Glossarium.pdf, 11 october 2010.

Published by Robbert Vossers (4080939)

Edited by Fenki Evers and Anton de Hoogh

Edited by Malou van Woerkum, 17-10-2012