What is post modernism? How is it different from Modernism?

Post modernism literally means ‘after the modernist movement’. While “modern” itself refers to something “related to the present”, the movement of modernism and the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives. It is used in critical theory to refer to a point of departure for works of literature, drama, architecture, cinema, journalism and design, as well as in marketing and business and in the interpretation of history, law, culture and religion in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Post modernism and Post modernity are sometimes uses interchangeably. In fact, both terms denote different, though related meanings. While post modernity has been used to characterize the economic and social conditions of existence in contemporary developed societies, postmodernism denotes the philosophy which has now arisen after the in opposition to the philosophy of modernity.

Though postmodernism derives its definitions from many sources, the one common thread running through them is the critique of modernity. The major ideologues whose works constitute the corpus from which postmodernism is formulated are Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, Baudrillard, Deleuze, Guattari, White and Rorty. The targets of their criticism have been capitalism, historicism, humanism, scientism, and rationalism which constituted the modern world.

Postmodernism questioned the claims of the Enlightenment philosophers for universal knowledge. It also criticised the search for foundations of knowledge and the very idea of grand narrative besides truth beyond language which, in turn, is conditioned by the individual and local cultures. Thirdly, postmodernism also attacks the modernist organization of world and knowledge in binaries.

The process of modernity began in the European countries around the time of Renaissance. Its centre lay in the origins and growth of modern sciences which established a quest for certainty, truth, exactitude, general principles and universal laws. Its ultimate philosophical justification was achieved in the works of philosophers like Descartes, Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Montesquieu and Diderot, the German philosophers such as Kant and Hegel and many other philosophers and thinkers.

Modernity was said to herald the end of the Middle Ages or Feudalism in Europe, and usher in an era where Reason reigned supreme. The philosophers of modernity from Descartes to the post-Enlightenment thinkers to Marx and Weber denounced the medieval values, faiths and beliefs. Although some of them, like Marx, were critical of modernity, they upheld most of its values and norms. Apart from new philosophical principles, modernity also generated powerful material forces which gave rise to modern industries, capitalism, and an entirely new set of social relations in Europe by the nineteenth century.

This new industrial society was marked by urbanization, bureaucratization, individualism, commoditization, rationalization and secularization. By the mid- nineteenth century, the process of modernity had almost completely eliminated the economy, society and polity of the middle Ages in Western Europe and North America. Instead, it had given rise to a completely new economic, social and political order. As the modernity generated unprecedented progress, it also created enormous sufferings.

The peasantry, workers and artisans were all forced to go through terrible misery in the process of being modernized. Even more sufferings were due for the colonial territories in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Australia where the colonising Europeans eliminated the local people, occupied their lands and drained the economy for their own benefits attacking the all-encompassing, overarching ideologies that constitute some essential ingredients of modernity. Secondly, postmodernism Dribble burden on their resources debunks the claims of the science to achieve truth and takes nothing as absolute. Instead, it leans towards relativism, sometimes total relativism.

Furthermore, it rejects the claims of human and social sciences for representing the facts and the world. In the opinion of the postmodern theorists, there is no truth which is beyond or prior to linguistic intervention; it is language which constructs the reality and the world for the humans. It is, therefore, futile to search for this imperialist drive led to the death of millions in colonial territories, enormous distortion in their cultures and traditions.