A brief overview.

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By: Mohsina Fatima

2. INTRODUCTION
Jean Francois Lyotard says;
“Simplifying to the extreme, I define
postmodern as incredulity toward
metanarratives.”
 Postmodernism is typically defined by an
attitude of scepticism or distrust toward grand
narratives, ideologies, and various tenets of
Enlightenment rationality.
 Instead it asserts that knowledge and truth are
the product of unique systems of social,
historical, or political discourse.
 It is a culture that emphasizes that ‘there is a
better world than the modern one.’

3. ETYMOLOGY
 Postmodernism is composed by two parts,
“post” and “modernism.”
 Post is Latin for “after” and modernism
refers to the “modern period.”
 This means the era or time period after
modernism.

4. HISTORY
 The history of postmodernism dates back to
the mid of 20th century when it actually
started to develop.
 The two decades, particularly, 1970s and 80s
marked the development of postmodern
forms in literature, poetry, painting and
architecture.
 It was a reaction to aesthetic modernism
which emerged just after WW2.
 The strength of unification and dying thought
of objectivity brought this era.

5. Characteristics of
Postmodernism
 RELATIVISM: It is the position where one has left the belief in
absolute truth, and instead embraced the idea that knowledge is
dependent on one’s perspective.
 NO GRAND NARRATIVE: This is the another feature which depicts
postmodernism.
 REJECTION OF THE ULTIMATE FAITH IN SCIENCE:
Postmodernists deny this Enlightenment faith in science and
technology as instruments of human progress.
 GLOBALIZATION OR MULTICULTURALISM: Because of huge
globalization, different cultures tend to get mixed.
“In a multicultural, diverse society there are countless ways in
which people negotiate the everyday lived experience of reality and
diversity.”

6. ISLAM AND POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism can aid as well as undermine Islamic belief.
 The limit of human knowledge:
“And Allah knows, while you do not.” [24:19]
 Pluralism/ Multiculturalism:
“Had Allah willed, he would have made a single
community of people, but (He did not).” [5:48]
 Gender equality:
“Women have rights similar to what they owe in
recognized manner.” [2:228]
 Questioning: Islam includes a set of standards that applies to all people,
which is something a postmodernist would reject. They would question
why is something so or it happened to be in the past.

7. POSTMODERNITY IN ART
Postmodernity in Art is something to be seen observed and somehow
appreciated as well. Postmodern paintings came right after the end of Pop
Art. Postmodern artists were known as Neo-expressionists whom use vivid
colour to express objects and human beings.
Modern Art

8. POSTMODERNITY IN ARCHITECTURE
The Utopian, International style of buildings were part of the modern era.
But the buildings created in postmodern era are totally different. They
don’t have any specific purpose, identity or mystery but they seem
ultra-modern and a step ahead of those typical buildings.
Modern era
buildings
Postmodern era buildings

9. POSTMODERNITY IN LITERATURE
Literature is the vital and most prominent component of
any culture in the world.
These literary theorists actually diminished the difference
between high and low culture with the employment of pastiche.
One such example was a play, “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel
Beckett.

10. PROS AND CONS
 Postmodernism was born, putting a cynical edge on
reality.
 Science and technology are considered more as the tools
of destruction than betterment.
 Postmodernism likes to deconstruct other media texts so
they can be reconstructed through use of parody and
Spoofs using intertextuality.
 This can be seen as a negative aspect of postmodernism
as by merging these texts, we lose sight of the original
genre or text.
 The ideas that there are no absolute truth and belief in
social construction may end in nihilism and disrespect for
that which can help human civilization make progress.

11. CONCLUSION
 Postmodernism has given us many ideas which are
important.
 We are getting tremendously influenced by the activities of
the media and thus in our subconscious, a virtual world is
being created and in most of the cases we are living both in
the real and the virtual world simultaneously.
 Multiculturalism is becoming a common matter.
 Such a multidimensional society that belongs to
multidimensional people with differences in their choices is
difficult to analyze.
 So we should try to understand from postmodern thinking
and learn what we can from postmodern approach.

12. THANKYOU !
Any questions are most welcome from you !
Presented to: Ma’am Sanam Habib