Is it simply true that we live in a post-modern era?
The meaning of ‘post-modernism’ is difficult to define, but it can refer to ideas that exist together, (or a world view), and is a way of thinking or viewing the world; it can be a style or concept in art. Many people consider today’s society to be a post-modern era in which everyone is a part of without realising it: from things such as idolising to Lady Gaga to the way we are taught in school.
Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek states; ‘We live in the “postmodern” era in which truth- claims as such are dismissed as an expression of hidden power-mechanisms’. This means that there are not standard ‘universal truths’ but truths that are created by us instead of learnt or being told it is in fact true.
So according to Zizek’s statement it is simply true that our era is post-modern society, however some may argue that how would it be possible to be something that most of us couldn’t define? There is even confusing over the true spelling of the word due to it being such a new idea, and many sociologists do not support the concept of post-modernity, but a significant amount still use the concept of modernism.
Gary E. Gilley said ‘To the modernist, truth can be found in reason and science. To the postmodernist truth is not found, it is created’. This links in with Slaboj Zizek’s notion of a post-modern era. He states that although official surveys show that a large majority of people can’t define post-modernism most people are part of it in some way or another without realising, and just because we can’t put something into words doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
It is thought that we as a society encounter post-modernism everywhere; for example in education. In schools, it is thought teachers no longer pass on information to their students, but rather the children are merely facilitated and are able to build their own knowledge from that. It is also seen in literature; audiences are able to gain personal and diverse meanings from the same texts, so what might mean something for one person, may have a completely different effect on someone else.
Post-modernity has a varied meaning, in relation to modern day icons relatively new Lady Gaga is seen as a very post-modern figure. Lady Gaga has a concept in art in a form of pop music and her songs have intertextuality in the form of pastiche which is a recreation of an earlier art; in this case of music. Her songs are often compared to that of 80s icon Madonna and are even seen to have references and likenesses to that of Michael Jackson, Elton John and ABBA who were all also hugely idolised in their time and even now.
To conclude, although some may not agree it seems that we have become a post-modern era for the word has such a vague yet wide meaning it is highly likely most of us are involved in something post-modern whether it’s something as obvious as the music we like, or in subtle things like the way we interoperate things.
