Whatever Happened to Postmodernism?

From utopian dreams to ironic memes—how we got stuck on the island of PoMo.

This week we will do three things

1. Explain why the allure of modernism was fading

2. Offer a pocket guide to postmodernism 

3. Consider the strange non-death of postmodernism

Modernism running out of steam

By the late 1950s and early 1960s the utopian idealism of modernism was beginning to run out of steam; the grand blueprints didn’t create a bright, new future.

Once electrifying, pure conviction in progress from modernists made them seem out of touch, or even dangerous. The rise and fall of totalitarian regimes in WW2 also made humanity rightly more cautious about simplistic, totalising visions of reshaping the world in a single image or ideal.

Mad, sad or bad: Various speakers from Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, London (religious left, political right). Their conviction was comparable to the modernists’. (credits: BBC / Philip Wolmuth / Denis Hudson)

Even if the political dimension could be put the one side, the continued seriousness of the theorists for new world orders was starting to earn a snigger, a groan and a sigh - at the very least, ambivalence from the generation that was coming up after them.

Cruise stop 2: 🛥️ Postmodernism

Okay, so we’re navigated out of the stormy shores of modernism. Onward into the mist we go.

We arrive at the island and upon landing, the flora and fauna are unpredictable; the noises unfamiliar;  strange new shapes begin to appear. It's all a tad disconcerting, no doubt. Sure, we're out of the storms, but what the hell is this place? 

Welcome, reader, to the rocky tropics of postmodernism.

The Island from the TV show Lost, 3D-rendered by Jubran via Atlas of Ice and Fire