What is the specific meaning of "postmodernism"?

The concept of "postmodernism" is used at three levels. If we don't make a distinction, it will cause confusion in understanding and make people confused. First, this concept is a generalization of the cultural situation or cultural tendency of the contemporary west, that is, the post-modern situation. The key issue involved in this level is whether it can be regarded as a concept of historical stages; The second is the post-modern world outlook and values, that is, post-modernism. Postmodernism is not a new value system and cultural principle discovered by westerners from the spiritual crisis, but that westerners have changed their positions, concepts and ways of thinking when exploring the way out in the crisis; Third, post-modernity, that is, post-modernism thinking mode and method and various representations of post-modernism. This is a deconstruction and subversion of tradition on the basis of linguistic turn and deconstruction philosophy.

Key words: post-modernism, post-modernity, post-modernism, historical stage.

Postmodernism is not a unified concept and proposition, not only because those postmodern theorists have different views and cannot be unified, but also because this concept is used by people at different levels. If it is not clarified, it will inevitably lead to a cognitive confusion. The author thinks that this concept is mainly used by people at three levels: First, the post-modern situation. This refers to the cultural situation of contemporary western society, or a cultural tendency. This is a level with the largest extension, the widest meaning and the widest coverage, and it is a summary of many so-called post-modern phenomena; Second, postmodernism. Being called ism will make people think of a complete ideological system. We dare not say that postmodernism is a complete ideological system, but postmodernism does have a unique world outlook and values; Third, post-modernity. This is the unique way of thinking and thinking of those post-modernists, and it is also the unique symbol of post-modern culture. This paper intends to make some superficial discussions on post-modern literature from three aspects.

one

Post-modern condition refers to the cultural condition of contemporary western countries. People generalize the cultural phenomena in the western world since the Second World War as postmodernism. IhabHassan raised this question when he was studying literature. He believes that there is a tendency of self-contradiction, self-doubt and self-denial in literature, which cannot be grasped by any modern cognitive framework. Then, from literature to the whole culture, it is believed that there is a paradox of self-contradiction and self-denial in post-modern culture.

Fredric Jameson regards this issue as an important issue on how to look at today's capitalist culture. He believes that since the 1950s, modernist culture has declined, and a popular, chaotic and heterogeneous culture has emerged, which is more accommodating to personal experience and gradually becomes the dominant culture. Therefore, he thinks that postmodernism is "the cultural logic of late capitalism". Lyotard cut into the discussion of postmodern issues from the status and situation of human culture and knowledge, and put forward postmodernism of "knowledge legitimacy crisis". In his view, in this era, the rationalization of knowledge has been questioned and the so-called narrative crisis has emerged. Those huge narratives, such as the identity of thinking and human liberation, have lost their original authority and been replaced by a limited range of pragmatics, so the disintegration of the rationality of knowledge discourse has become nothing more than a language game, a perspective problem not far from the language game. So he thinks that the simplest definition of postmodernism is to doubt all meta-narratives.

Although the theories of various schools are different, they all summarize some characteristics of western culture to some extent. However, the crux of the problem is not whether western contemporary culture has these postmodern characteristics, but whether postmodernism can be named as a historical stage. This is a major theoretical issue, and it involves a wide range. First, this means whether the western world has solved the spiritual crisis at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, and a new culture completely different from modernism has emerged. This new culture, that is, post-modern culture, appeared after modernism, so we can understand and grasp the modern western world from a higher angle and avoid and solve various drawbacks of the modern west.

The second is whether it is a historical necessity from modern to post-modern, that is, whether post-modern culture must appear after modern times. In this way, this phenomenon is far beyond the scope of the western world and has worldwide significance. So today we are realizing modernization, and tomorrow we will inevitably move towards post-modernism, so this is also the problem we will face. In this case, our research on post-modern cultural issues is not only a reference issue, but also closely related to solving our practical problems. Thirdly, whether postmodern theories stand behind or above modernity has higher theoretical generalization and perspective advantages, and we can further understand modernization and modern culture with the help of these theories.

Lyota, Ihab. Both Hassan and Fredric Jameson clearly advocate installment payment. Fredric jameson pointed out in Postmodernism and Consumer Society: "It is not just another discourse used to describe a certain style. At least in my usage, it is also the concept of a period ... ". In the article "Postmodernism, or Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism", it is said: "To talk about postmodernism, we must first agree to make the following assumption, that is, from the end of 1950s to the beginning of 1960s, some radical and drastic changes have taken place in our culture".

Jurgen habermas is firmly opposed to this staging. He believes that post-modernity is impossible because the subject has not been fully developed. Rationality has not been completely dispelled since the Enlightenment, and modernity is still an unfinished plan, so modernists must never push cards and give up. He admits that due to the infinite expansion of instrumental rationality, the social system has deteriorated, the modernity marked by rationality has gone wrong, and western culture is facing a crisis. However, he believes that modernity must be rebuilt, and proposes to establish a new rational schema-that is, to exchange rational views.

Other theorists either advocate staging or not, but their words and attitudes are moderate and less nervous. From the literary point of view, since World War II, absurd plays, new novels, black humor and Latin American literature have exploded in the western world, which is called post-modern literature or post-modern literature, and some new features different from modernist literature have indeed appeared. Opinions on these characteristics vary. Like Flederick. In the last chapter of Modernity and Modernism, R Karl pointed out that the artistic features of postmodern literature have already appeared in modernist literature, and there is nothing novel. There are also some critics who believe that post-modern literature is mainly manifested in the world outlook and way of thinking, such as Brian. McHale pointed out in the article "Theme Evolution from Modernist Literature to Postmodern Literature" that Modernist literature takes epistemology as the theme, Postmodern literature takes ontology as the theme, and so on.

Such a post-modern society with different opinions can't help but make people confused in China. Is it conceived in the mother's womb of modernism, and once the conditions are ripe, it will be pulled out of the mother's womb to lead a new period? Or did western academic circles change their positions and methods and re-examine the crisis of traditional and modern western spiritual culture?

two

Postmodernism, that is, its unique world outlook and values, is called Marxism, but we can't think that it is a systematic thought with certain rationality. We just regard it as the sum of postmodern theories and ideas. However, is this a new idea, a way out, a new spiritual home and a value standard that can give meaning and order to the world after the spiritual crisis in the western world? Sheng Ning believes that "postmodernism" is put forward because modern cognitive paradigm can not only accommodate many new cultural phenomena that people face, but also cannot explain these things, so we need to re-examine it and even establish a new frame of reference and a new cognitive framework. This is postmodernism. In this way, we can thoroughly investigate the various phenomena we are facing again according to actual needs. Therefore, the post-modern problem is that the western intellectual community once again falls into the confusion of humanistic spirit and reflects on it in order to get out of this confusion.

In other words, postmodernism is not a new set of value standards, but the western academic circles have entered a dead end when exploring the way out of the crisis and have to change their positions and strategies. This road is impassable and needs another way out. That is, when we re-examine and reflect on the traditional and contemporary western cultural conditions, we re-establish our own position and starting point. This needs to be discussed in combination with modernism.

19 At the end of the 20th century, the western world fell into a spiritual and cultural crisis. Nietzsche said: God is dead! The spiritual home on which people depend for survival and life has been lost. Westerners are confused, hesitant, lonely and lost because they can't find the meaning and value of life, so people with lofty ideals begin a difficult exploration, and modernist literature shows this process. For example, Eliot's The Waste Land comprehensively and systematically explores the waste land phenomenon of western spiritual culture and its roots, and explores the way to save this waste land. He integrated modern wasteland phenomenon into historical experience. The author quotes a few words from 58 classic works, and introduces primitive myths and the three matrixes of religion, Christianity and Buddhism, forming a strong historical consciousness. As a reference, he investigated the phenomenon of modern wasteland and questioned the significance of modern westerners' life. But he found that the modern wasteland phenomenon was incomprehensible. Therefore, in the first sentence of the poem, the author summed up the phenomenon of modern wasteland with an extremely abrupt sentence: "April is a cruel month, and lilacs grow on the wasteland ...".

It should be said that Eliot is the representative of modernism. He is not only a poet, but also created the theoretical tradition of new criticism, and literary criticism articles are also very influential. Eliot's exploration and thinking are representative. He used his rich sense of history and the cultural traditions he accepted to understand and grasp the world, or used the past to explain the present, trying to restore order here. This kind of effort is also the same characteristic of modernists. They see the development and changes of social life, and the old value system can no longer adapt. When social disorder factors begin to appear, they hope to rebuild a set of value standards and give society order. Therefore, Nietzsche should re-evaluate all traditional values and put forward his superman philosophy; Freud put forward the theory of psychological unconsciousness; Sartre came to the proposition that existence precedes essence and people can choose freely. Modernists are looking for a new universal and effective principle and value standard to restore the order of modern society and give new meaning and value to modern people's life.

After more than half a century of exploration and efforts, people not only failed to find a way out, but fell into crisis more and more. Therefore, after World War II, western academic circles had to change their original intention and start to know, understand and grasp the world again. The writers of the New Fiction School have revealed for us a world of things and an irresistible fate made up of various accidental events. Absurd drama shows us the absurdity of this world and that modern people have exhausted their lives in boring waiting; Black humor literature shows us a world without order, meaning, contingency and absurdity. Latin American magic realism literature has brought us from the center of European culture to the edge of Latin American consciousness. Postmodernists saw that the development and change of society could not be grasped by any unified value standard, so they gave up this effort. In other words, they saw the absurdity of the world, accepted the fact and treated the world with a pure personality experience and game attitude. So they want to dissolve all the meaningful things and treat it as a language game, but the rules are different.

McHale's modernism takes epistemology as the theme, and postmodernism takes ontology as the theme. Although this argument is debatable, he summed up a basic fact. In other words, modernists regard the birth and uncertainty of this world as only a phenomenon, and think that there is an essence behind the phenomenon. As long as we can understand and grasp this essence, we can make these chaotic phenomena orderly. So they tried to explore the essence of this phenomenon; Postmodernists believe that phenomenon is the essence, and the world is so absurd and unpredictable in ontology that we don't need to look for it any more, and we can't find anything essential at all. We know the world from various complicated phenomena and grasp and solve specific problems. Therefore, Sheng Ning said that postmodernism is a re-conception and re-examination of the western humanistic tradition so far, and it is a re-integration and rewriting. This is the deconstruction and construction of discourse as a cultural code at the language level, and it is also the decoding and recoding of discourse.

So postmodernism is not a systematic ideological theory. But only as a problem. It is very meaningful to clarify this point. In 1990s, postmodernism was very popular in China. Some people always call it post-modernism and think that there is a new theoretical thought in the west that can solve many problems in modern society. Therefore, they spare no effort to publicize, imitate and eagerly introduce it, thinking that only in this way can they keep up with the development of the western world. And we understand that this is not a systematic idea, but just a problem, that is, westerners fall into a kind of spiritual and cultural confusion again, and take the initiative to change their position, change their way of thinking, and re-recognize the tradition, then we will not blindly follow others' ass to sell.

three

Post-modernity, this is the most difficult problem to say clearly. It refers to the unique quality of various complicated post-modern cultural phenomena, and it is also the unique way of thinking and way of thinking of those post-modernists. After the post-modernism changed its position, it did show a new way of thinking and method, and set up a new foothold for examining the problem. Ihab。 Hassan summed up the main characteristics of 1 1 postmodern culture, among which the negative aspects are: uncertainty; Disorder; Non-principle; No ego, no depth; Five aspects: meanness and inexpressibility. The attributes belonging to reconstruction are: irony; Hybrid; Carnival; Action, participation; Constructivism; Intrinsic and so on. Fredric jameson summed up the characteristics of post-modern culture in this way, that is, first, the flat sense of depth mode; The second is the rupture after the disappearance of historical consciousness; The third is fragmentation after the disappearance of the subject; The fourth is the disappearance of the sense of distance brought by replication. David. Rocky emphasizes the characteristics of post-modern opposition principle, such as substitution, continuous interruption, extreme and short circuit.

Although these are not the same, what we can learn from them is that most of these characteristics can not be regarded as cultural characteristics in the past, but such as lack of depth, fragmentation and uncertainty are precisely the anti-cultural or non-cultural characteristics that people want to criticize and deny. Now it is proudly displayed as a cultural feature, which shows that people's concepts and positions are changing, and their ways of thinking and habits are also changing.

The post-modern way of thinking comes from the turn of linguistics in the 20th century and the rise of deconstruction philosophy. It is generally believed that western philosophy has gone through three milestone stages, namely, the ontological stage of ancient Greece, the epistemological stage of modern times and the linguistic stage now. Since the 20th century, the language problem has become an overwhelming problem, which has profoundly affected the academic development in the 20th century. Later, deconstruction philosophy also developed on the basis of linguistics and philosophy of language. People give meaning to language ontology, and regard it as a self-sufficient system and the home of human existence, so many problems are analyzed from the perspective of language. Since Saussure put forward the difference between signified and signifier of language, people have questioned whether there is an inevitable connection between language and what it represents, and further believe that language itself is a self-sufficient and highly formalized system, following its own laws or rules of the game. So the truth was dissolved and the world was hidden. No matter history or philosophy, only words are left, and words rule everything.

Lyotard analyzed postmodern knowledge in this way. In his view, the traditional legalization is invalid because of the passage of time, and only through the solution of legalization can we move towards the legalization of post-modern discourse games. In other words, the "meta-narrative" of judging all differences and unifying all discourses by a single standard has collapsed, and scientific truth is only one of many discourses, and it is no longer an absolute truth. Therefore, postmodern knowledge is not seeking common ground, but seeking differences. It breaks the consistency of centralism and expert style in the rules of the game, tolerates inconsistent standards with deeper tolerance, and creates postmodern knowledge rules with diversified finite element discourses.

Lyotard's theoretical method is the representative of postmodernism. Although other thinkers did not explicitly use this model and framework to analyze problems like him, their way of thinking and habits were also deeply influenced by it. They regard everything as a kind of discourse, despise any rules and authority, and doubt all meaning and value. Not only that, they also doubt the traditional practice of establishing a unified value standard and meaning system, taking reality as the reference and phenomenon as the noumenon, and comprehensively cleaning up, examining and deconstructing traditional concepts and Logocentrism.

According to this line of thinking, everything is a text and everything is a discourse. There is no supreme judge, no God, and no only truth in this world. Everything is a language game with different rules. In this way, it opens up the possibility of full liberation for people's thinking, so that people can explore things that belong to their unique experience without scruple, and examine and doubt everything. Therefore, on the one hand, postmodernism continues its pioneering experiment in artistic form, on the other hand, it is manifested in the thorough deconstruction and subversion of traditional value norms and rational principles, and the establishment of other logocentrism.

The protagonist in Beckett's novels has no identity, no name, no occupation, only an abstract pain, and becomes inhuman after the subject is dissolved; Gogo and Diddy in Waiting for Godot are bored waiting for Godot's arrival, which shows that people can no longer take any positive actions to deal with this absurd world. Allen. Robert Geyer wrote about the diversity and complexity of the world in Eraser, which makes people unable to grasp it. It is full of accidents, and every accident can erase and rewrite the history of things. But everything can be accidental, and all kinds of accidents have pieced together necessity, which is an irresistible fate; In Lolita, Nabokov truly wrote how an adult's ecstasy and sincerity were destroyed by a girl's curiosity and games. Donald barthelme's Snow White completely subverts the meaning of truth, goodness and beauty in Grimm's fairy tales through parody. This is an era when grand narrative is replaced by discourse games, rules are tried to be replaced, knowledge is replaced by individual experience, and unity is replaced by pluralism. Heller's latest work "The Last Scene" In the 1990s, when the president was playing video games in the office, he suddenly pressed the wrong button, which aroused the nuclear strike force all over the world and brought the end of the world. It is more meaningful to end the plot, whether the game becomes life or life becomes a game. Maybe the game is life, and life is the game. Then why do our predecessors still cling to the so-called highest judgment, or the unified value scale, that is, the only truth?

However, the problem is that when you subvert and deconstruct with confidence, it is also the time for you to construct. What does postmodernism construct when it deconstructs and subverts tradition? Is pluralism feasible? When we talk about pluralism, we seem to be bystanders in life.