postmodern Hear it!

postmodern Definition

post·mod·ern (pōst′mäd′ərn)

adjective

  1. coming after, and usually in reaction to, modernism in the 20th century, esp. in the arts and literature; specif., of or relating to a diffuse cultural and artistic trend or movement, esp. in art, architecture, and writing, since the 1950s, characterized by eclecticism in style and content, freedom from strict theoretical constraints, indifference to social concerns, etc.
  2. designating or of various theories used widely in criticism and interpretation, which question or reject claims of absolute certainty, objective truth, and, as in language or works of art, intrinsic meaning, regarding such claims instead as assertions of privilege, political power, etc.

postmodern Related Forms
post′·mod′·ern·ism′ noun post′·mod′·ern·ist adjective, noun
postmodern Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • explore: The purpose of this meeting was to explore postmodern generational issues and their effect on the world mission movement.
  • define: Lyotard defines the postmodern as the process of developing a new epistemology that responds to new conditions of knowledge ( Kellner 1990 ).
  • include: His research interests include postmodern and contemporary literature and literary theory.
  • make: Knowing these images are empty makes the practice postmodern.

Adjective modifier

  • first: What does Lyotard mean when he claims that ' a work can become modern only if it is first postmodern ' ?

Modifies a noun

  • relativism: Here Halsey's own perspective, of what I take to be a postmodern relativism, comes to the fore.
  • critique: The postmodern critique reminds us all that the future is not in the past!
  • sociology: The first three appeared in the 60s - alas, the 60s also had to be the years for postmodern sociology to appear.
  • irony: Love the postmodern irony of the Tesco's tissues.
  • feminism: Rather than reversing the dualism, postmodern feminism seeks to dissolve the distinction.
  • theorist: For postmodern theorists, change is above all transformation.

Noun used with modifier

  • eratio: He lives in New York City where he edits the online journal, eratio postmodern poetry.

Possessives

  • ethic: His research interests include postcolonial theory, ' postmodern ' ethics, the critique of contemporary culture and all aspects of subjectivity.

Possessives

  • adjective: Certainly there should have been a chapter on Hayden White, the most significant historian who might qualify for the adjective ' postmodern ' .
  • today: The qualities for which he is celebrated by today's postmodern cultural magpies are the very ones that cost him half his career.
postmodern Quotes

The Aboriginal writer is a Janus-type figure with one face turned to the past and the other to the future while existing ina postmodern, multicultural Australia inwhich he or she must fight for cultural space.

—Narogin, Mudrooroo formerly  Colin Jackson