Postmodernity was the epochal shift from modernity through which the emergence of social totality with distinct organising principles emerged (Featherstone, 2007). Previously, within modernity, the method of creating knowledge was scientific, developed through a logical and rational process. In comparison, postmodernity continually questions information, rejecting the objective truth, causing a loss of confidence in the rational (Jackson and Carter, 2000). Rationality is a process that endeavours to conceal the contradictions at the heart of human existence and is based upon ‘problemizing’ answers, rather than finding solutions to problems. The notion of language is critical to postmodern thought, with the awareness that it is through the shared language that individuals know the world through discourse (Hassard, 1993). This shared language is developed through language-games, however with their continual development of meaning; it can be difficult to adhere to a single term. Lyotard (1984) developed the term language-game, the approach to knowledge based upon several discourses, each with a set of rules and structures. Fragmentation and discontinuity are linked with postmodernism, supported by Foucault (1983) who instructs individuals to “develop action, thought and desires by proliferation, juxtaposition and disjunction” (xiii), allowing individuals to select their own identities within the fragmented culture. The notion of meta-narratives was repressed by postmodernists, arguing that all things cannot be connected, with Lyotard (1984) emphasising the disregard towards meta-narratives. Postmodernists reject the notion that reference can be a univocal relation between an object and forms of representation within the external wor...
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...nowledge and subjectivity. Foucault had a variety of influences when writing; post-structuralist, post-modernist, feminist and post-Marxist (Mills, 2003), Therefore, his writings portray this variety of influence. Foucault never claimed to focus on one paradox, denying that he was a postmodernist, however, throughout his writing there are significant links to postmodernism. His continual questioning and disregard for objective truth provide evidence that postmodernism influenced his writings. However, within his earlier writings, there were fewer links, favouring a modernist approach. When Foucault began to investigate the notions of power and knowledge, his writings were influenced more by post-modernism. In relation to the organisation, many organisations still adopt a modernist approach, preferring structure rather than flexibility and a multi-skilled workforce.
Macey, David. “Postmodernity.” The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. London: Penguin Books, 2001. 307-309. Print.
Jameson, Frederick. "Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" New Left Review. 146 (July-August 1984) Rpt in Storming the Reality Studio. Larry McCaffrey, ed. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1992.
Derrida uses the term ‘postcapitalist appropriation’ to denote the rubicon, and eventually the futility, of pretextual society. But the premise of subcultural discourse states that discourse is created by communication.
(Flynn 1996, 28) One important aspect of his analysis that distinguishes him from the predecessors is about power. According to Foucault, power is not one-centered, and one-sided which refers to a top to bottom imposition caused by political hierarchy. On the contrary, power is diffusive, which is assumed to be operate in micro-physics, should not be taken as a pejorative sense; contrarily it is a positive one as ‘every exercise of power is accompanied by or gives rise to resistance opens a space for possibility and freedom in any content’. (Flynn 1996, 35) Moreover, Foucault does not describe the power relation as one between the oppressor or the oppressed, rather he says that these power relations are interchangeable in different discourses. These power relations are infinite; therefore we cannot claim that there is an absolute oppressor or an absolute oppressed in these power relations.
REFERENCESJean Baudrillard Simulations--1983 Semiotext[e]. America--1988 (English Edition) Verso. Seduction--1990 (English Edition) St. Martin’s Press. The Illusion of the End--1994 (English Edition) Stanford University Press. Simulacra and Simualtion--1994 (English Edition) University of Michigan Press. Jean-Francois Lyotard The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge--1984 (English Edition) University of Minnesota Press. The Postmodern Exaplained--1993 (English Edition) University of Minnesota Press. Michel Foucault Madness and Civilization--1973 Vintage Books. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison--1977 Vintage Books. The History of Sexuality--1980 Vintage Books. Linda Hutcheon A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Thoery Fiction--1988 Routledge. The Politics or Postmodernism--1989 Routledge.
Over the past thirty years, generations understand the world around us is made up of worldly views and patterns of thoughts that inform the culture. Postmodernism informs more of the current culture than of the past, and plays a major role in media, politics, and religion. Postmodernism relies more on experience rather than specific principles, knowing that the outcome of one’s experience will be relative than universal. Postmodernism implies a shattering of innocent confidence in the capacity of the self to control its own destiny. These are some characteristics that researchers find important?
Haralambos & Holbron (2004:84) determined that postmodern societies distinguish themselves through four key figures: culturalism, fragmentation, autonomization and resignifcation. Postmodernism theorizes that class is dead due to our consumer culture that allows infinite freedom of choice, taste, lifestyle and fashion; therefore, everyone has the ability to shape themselves and create their own identity. Globalization and media influence has spread the idea of individualism is the key that divides society subsequently provoking no definite class exclusivity—People no longer identify themselves through their social class, occupation or their background, rather they do so through their leisure (realsociology, n.d). Postmodernism encourages the idea that if perceptions are acted upon they can be achieved through a person’s willingness to pursue their personal development and desires (Pakulski & Waters,1996:121:120). Literary critic Frederic Jameson argued from a Marxist perspective that society is divided because despite having a superstructure that is constantly changing (culture and society), there is still an economical base (the relation of productions and exchange) which is what ultimately shapes society (Clark, 2008);
Problems with Foucault: Historical accuracy (empiricism vs. Structuralism)-- Thought and discourse as reality? Can we derive intentions from the consequences of behavior? Is a society without social control possible?
Theory: Michel Foucault argues a number of points in relation to power and offers definitions that are directly opposed to more traditional liberal and Marxist theories of power. Foucault believed that power is never in any one person's hands, it does not show itself in any obvious manner but rather as something that works its way into our imaginations and serves to constrain how we act.... ... middle of paper ... ... Giddons, A. (2007). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
Sarah Snyder Professor Feola Gov’t 416: Critical Theory Assignment #2 On Foucault, “Truth and Juridical Forms” Michel Foucault may be regarded as the most influential twentieth-century philosopher on the history of systems of thought. His theories focus on the relationship between power and knowledge, and how such may be used as a form of social control through institutions in society. In “Truth and Juridical Forms,” Foucault addresses the development of the nineteenth-century penal regime, which completely transformed the operation of the traditional penal justice system.
At this point we can determine the purpose of Foucault’s question, “what is critique”? Foucault’s definition of critique provides a tool to find cracks in power-knowledge relationships by analyzing the genealogy of a power knowledge relationship. Foucault states “we have to deal with something whose stability, deep rootedness and foundation is never such that we cannot in one way or another envisage, if not its disappearance, then at least identifying by what and from what its disappearance is possible” (65). Foucault believes that using his method of critique a power and knowledge relationship is not permanent. Questioning and knowledge can be used to remove the leash from authority.
One of the first things that has always caught my attention with the concepts of Deconstruction has to do with the representation of reality and truth through language. Since we learned via Saussere's structuralist linguistics that the word as we know it is arbitrary and dependent on signification for meaning, how can we be assured that the signification and contexts we are using are the right ones to convey reality? The readings this week of Jacques Derrida, Jonathan Culler, and others shed light upon how the process of deconstruction works to identify the structural assumptions we make when deriving meaning, and how those can be exposed through the deconstructive process to critically examine what represents experience and reality.
In Foucault’s analysis, the concept of Panopticon is developed based on the manipulation of knowledge and power as two coexisting events. He believes that knowledge is obtained through the process of observation and examination in a system of panopticon. This knowledge is then used to regulate the behaviors and conduct of others, creating an imbalance in power and authority. Not only can knowledge create power, power can also be used to define knowledge where the authority can create “truth”. This unbalance of knowledge and power then marks a loss of power for the ends being watched, resulting in an unconditional acceptance of regulations and normalization.
In the 1950s, authors tended to follow common themes, these themes were summed up in an art called postmodernism. Postmodernism took place after the Cold War, themes changed drastically, and boundaries were broken down. Postmodern authors defined themselves by “avoiding traditional closure of themes or situations” (Postmodernism). Postmodernism tends to play with the mind, and give a new meaning to things, “Postmodern art often makes it a point of demonstrating in an obvious way the instability of meaning (Clayton)”. What makes postmodernism most unique is its unpredictable nature and “think o...
Postmodernism assumes an ontology of fragmented being. Where modernism asserts the primacy of the subject in revealing universal truth, postmodernism challenges the authority of the subject and, thus, universal truth based on it. Modernism and postmodernism, however, draw upon distinctly different epistemological modes: critical and dogmatic.