Atdtda22: [42.1i] Modern poetry, 607

[David Morris]

On Nov 13, 2007 1:38 PM, Paul Nightingale <isread at btinternet.com> wrote:
> However, more generally, modernism/modernist discourse isn't/wasn't 'just' about culture: it included the notion of social change/mass society, social theory (Weber and Simmel coming up soon), the whole field of what is now called social science, social status, the role of the nation state, capital v labour, including rationalisation/time-management, bureaucracy, not to mention colonialism. (All of which perhaps explains why I would prefer 'modernist discourses' or 'discourses of modernism'.)

Me:
And this is where our discussion of Modernism disconnects.  I think
this is where post-modernist theory makes the artwork irrelevant.
This Wikipedia description I think demonstrates how the term became a
catch-all, eventually losing any relevance in the context in which it
was coined (art/culture):

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism

 When the idea of a reaction to - or even a rejection of - the
movement of modernism (a late 19th, early 20th centuries art movement)
was borrowed by other fields, it became synonymous in some contexts
with postmodernity. The term is closely linked with poststructuralism
(cf. Jacques Derrida) and with modernism, in terms of a rejection of
its bourgeois, elitist culture

The term was coined in 1949 to describe a dissatisfaction with modern
architecture, leading to the postmodern architecture movement. Later,
the term was applied to several movements, including in art, music,
and literature, that reacted against modern movements, and are
typically marked by revival of traditional elements and techniques.
Postmodernism in architecture is marked by the re-emergence of surface
ornament, reference to surrounding buildings in urban architecture,
historical reference in decorative forms, and non-orthogonal angles.
It may be a response to the modernist architectural movement known as
the International Style.

If used in other contexts, it is a concept without a universally
accepted, short and simple definition; in a variety of contexts it is
used to describe social conditions, movements in the arts, and
scholarship (incl. criticism) in reaction to modernism.

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