Postmodernism is a trend in philosophy and art of the second half of the 20th century. Postmodernity is characterized by its atypicality, in comparison with the stages and phenomena preceding it in the mental and cultural life of society.
It is interesting that postmodernism positions itself as distancing itself from both classical and non-classical traditions, being rather postmodern or post-non-classical.
From the history of the term
It is believed that the emergence of postmodernism took place in the 60s and 70s of the twentieth century. It arises as a logical reaction to the crisis of the ideas of the modern era. The impetus was also served by the so-called “death” of super-foundations: God (Nietzsche), the author (Barthes), man (humanitarianism).
The very same term was first used in the era of the First World War in the work of R. Panvits, 1917, entitled "The Crisis of European Culture." Later, in 1934, the term was taken up by the literary critic F. de Onis in his work on an anthology of Spanish and Latin American poetry. Onis used the term in the context of a response to the principles of modernism. However, they managed to give the concept even a general cultural meaning, as a symbol of the end of Western domination in religion and culture (Arnold Toynbee "Comprehension of history").
So, postmodernism appeared in opposition to modernism, accessible and understandable only to a select few representatives of society. Simply put, putting everything in the notorious, playful form, postmodernism achieves a leveling of the differences between the mass and the elite, that is, it casts down the elite into the masses.
Philosophical postmodernism
Postmodernism in philosophy is characterized by a pronounced gravitation not towards the scientific aspect, but towards art. The philosophical concept not only begins to occupy marginal positions in relation to everything scientific, it demonstrates total conceptual chaos.
The "renewed philosophy" is discouraging with its all-denying. According to the philosophy of postmodernism, the very idea of objectivity and reliability is absurd. It is for this reason that postmodernism is perceived as a marginal and irrational discourse, behind which, as a rule, nothing stands.
According to Baudrillard, classical aesthetics was based on such fundamental principles as: education, indisputable authenticity and reliability, as well as transcendence and the established system of values. The subject is identical to the creator, he is the source of imagination and the "embodiment" of the idea. The essence of postmodernism is in the aesthetics of simulacrum ("a copy that does not have an original in reality"). It is characterized by artificiality and superficiality, anti-hierarchy and the absence of any deep implications.
Postmodernism in art
There is a certain duality with regard to art. On the one hand, there is a clear loss of artistic traditions, which excludes any continuity. On the other hand, there is a genuine relationship with fashion, film culture and commercial graphics. The only and indisputable value affirmed the artist's freedom, absolute and unlimited.