Monologue On Postmodernism and Art - Part I
For anyone who cares to think about this issue, it seems that with the advent of postmodernism, Art in general has come to a crisis: it has been decentered. There is no longer a "natural" way of evaluating Art: as all criteria are human construct, all are arbituary and therefore are relative. Nothing is universal.
Many modern students and scholars love postmodernism. They think it is so much fun to undermine all values, reducing them to mere human cultural constructs, destroying them whenever they want. They will say: why isn't so-and-so a great poet just because he does not write volumes and volumes of epics, and instead writes in the style of "black-talk"? Why should we deny the voices of other non-popular groups? In Canadian literature, for example, why is it that we only get points of view from British Canadians? What about the Quebecois? Japanese-Canadians? Chinese-Canadians? First Nations? Postmodernists will say that we should embrace multiplicities, many voices; we should empower minorities, not in the sense of few people, but minorities in the mind (like women, for example).
That is postmodernism in a nutshell. While many people have grown to embrace that, I am having much difficulty with this idea. Yes, I agree that we should give our attention to people of all sex, nationality, cultural background, etc etc. But must we be decentered? The full consequences of postmodernism, if I may jump to such conclusion while hoping that I am politically correct, is the following:
1. There is no God, but only many gods.
2. There is no Art, but only many arts.
3. There is no Truth, but only many truths.
etc etc
God, Art, Truth...these are all centers which the postmodernist deconstructs (and I dare say, destroys). I cannot come to understand how anybody can live without centers. There is no ground; you cannot even center the world around you because, as Heidegger (who is not really postmodernist, mind you) said, language speaks, not you. You are spoken by language. And we know language is anything but Language. (There are only languages, no Language, as Wordsworth would like to believe.) Without ground, one is eternally falling: postmodernists seem not to mind - they are having fun with the groundlessness. I, on the other hand, cannot handle this groundlessness. Just imagine yourself falling into a bottomless cliff and never hitting the bottom. Never. Eternal falling...
Many modern students and scholars love postmodernism. They think it is so much fun to undermine all values, reducing them to mere human cultural constructs, destroying them whenever they want. They will say: why isn't so-and-so a great poet just because he does not write volumes and volumes of epics, and instead writes in the style of "black-talk"? Why should we deny the voices of other non-popular groups? In Canadian literature, for example, why is it that we only get points of view from British Canadians? What about the Quebecois? Japanese-Canadians? Chinese-Canadians? First Nations? Postmodernists will say that we should embrace multiplicities, many voices; we should empower minorities, not in the sense of few people, but minorities in the mind (like women, for example).
That is postmodernism in a nutshell. While many people have grown to embrace that, I am having much difficulty with this idea. Yes, I agree that we should give our attention to people of all sex, nationality, cultural background, etc etc. But must we be decentered? The full consequences of postmodernism, if I may jump to such conclusion while hoping that I am politically correct, is the following:
1. There is no God, but only many gods.
2. There is no Art, but only many arts.
3. There is no Truth, but only many truths.
etc etc
God, Art, Truth...these are all centers which the postmodernist deconstructs (and I dare say, destroys). I cannot come to understand how anybody can live without centers. There is no ground; you cannot even center the world around you because, as Heidegger (who is not really postmodernist, mind you) said, language speaks, not you. You are spoken by language. And we know language is anything but Language. (There are only languages, no Language, as Wordsworth would like to believe.) Without ground, one is eternally falling: postmodernists seem not to mind - they are having fun with the groundlessness. I, on the other hand, cannot handle this groundlessness. Just imagine yourself falling into a bottomless cliff and never hitting the bottom. Never. Eternal falling...
*End of Part I*
posted by Tristan at 11:11 p.m.
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