Thoughts on the post-modern paradigm. (1 Viewer)

[gonzalina]

At lunch today my friends and I were having a discussion on whether or not postmodernism really exists or not these days. I mean, has it not become so integrated in the popular culture of today, that how can it be recognised as postmodern, if everything we look at is postmodern.

If postmodernism challenges the conventions of particular textypes, is it possible to challenge the conventions of postmodernism?

Anyway, these are just afew questions, what do you think? Is it something that is highly recognisable, or something that is so widely done, that we just accept it, without thinking about what was orignially trying to be said to us? Has it lost it's value?

Well, if I just made any sense whatsoever, tell me what you think

 

[sif not 99]

dont confuse me im doing pomo and i thought i was fine until i read the post, well i think that when u say this

At lunch today my friends and I were having a discussion on whether or not postmodernism really exists or not these days. I mean, has it not become so integrated in the popular culture of today, that how can it be recognised as postmodern, if everything we look at is postmodern.

your point is pretty valid there i think

got 3unit in about 35mins not ready to think that hard yet =(

 

[Doylie]

I know what you mean gonzalina, in school we constantly make comments like 'thats so postmodern'.. it seems like we can constantly label anything that challenges conventions as postmodern..

about challenging the conventions of postmodernism, thats the whole paradox behind the philosophy.. Postmodernism asks us not to adopt any belief systems, whilst attempting to convince us of this value system.. if u follow me...

I think its getting harder to brand something as post-modern, as the line that used to exist is becoming blurred.. But isn't that why there has been a movement towards neo-modernism? We've decided that nothing can come out of postmodernism except endless critique and analysis, thus we have reverted to some absolute truths, whilst attempting to not lose the lessons that postmodernism has tought us, about being cautious about value systems..

Anyways thats just my two cents on the topic...

 

[gonzalina]

yes, i know what you mean about always saying everything is postmodern. Who out there doing pomo does not? How many families has the new syallabus driven crazy? That's how our conversation started in the first place.

There is a neopostmodern movement? ohhh...exciting!

 

[Coffee_Fan]

hmmm

hey guys,

well it's the smae at my school, since we've been doing postmodernism, it's like everything we see on tellie or read is "oh migod that's postmodern". Friends who don't study extension 1 look at me weird but hey who cares?? Go the multiple perspectives!!

ummmm personally i think that pm contradicts itself: "there are no absolute truths, just multpiple perspectives" but hang on couldn't we view p-m as an absolute truth in itself??

am i making sense??

 

[Doylie]

Re: hmmm

Originally posted by Coffee_Fan
hey guys,

well it's the smae at my school, since we've been doing postmodernism, it's like everything we see on tellie or read is "oh migod that's postmodern". Friends who don't study extension 1 look at me weird but hey who cares?? Go the multiple perspectives!!

ummmm personally i think that pm contradicts itself: "there are no absolute truths, just multpiple perspectives" but hang on couldn't we view p-m as an absolute truth in itself??

am i making sense??

Yeh you're exactly right Coffee_Fan, its the postmodern paradox..

Im not too sure how developed the neo-modernism movement is, but if you think about it postmodernism is inevtiably going to move towards that kind of a philosphy...
Good thread by the way, bringing out all the postmodernists out of the woodwork

 

[miss_bloom]

many people say that postmodernism culminated in sept11 just like the enlightenment period ended in the Holocaust.. so maybe postmodernism is indeed over and we're in something like a postpostmodernism period.. whats everyones thoughts on this?

 

[Coffee_Fan]

hey miss_bloom

not sure what u mean, can u please expand?

 

[gonzalina]

sorry miss bloom, dont get what you mean!

yes, it is a paradox, they teach us that everything is valid, and shouldn't be compared and stuff, but what is the HSC all about???

its like the whole creative writing aspect of it. How can they ask us to write a sustained peice of postmodern writing, when you cant try to write something postmodern, as it doesn't really work that way. Shovelling a whole bunch of techniques into it is not the way it is supposed to work! or somesuch...

 

[ghostrider]

post modern creative writing?

yeah,
when i did my creative writing for post modern i found it preety damn hard.
how is it possible to write a sophisticated piece in the paradigm?

it seems everyone just throws in the techniques .ie. multiple endings, subjective realisties, metafiction, omnipotent composer parody.
\
basically i feel like its bloody hard to write anything in the style that has any sense of logic.
by challenging the logic of the tradtional juedo-christian narrative i just write crap (i guess im just stuck in my tepid liberal humanism)
for my creative i tried to write a piece parodying the postmodern paradigm ( basically a story on the p/m paradox) i felt it was preety crap.

any good suggestions on how to tackle the p/m creative writing with a sense of logic... or something that seems to make any sense...

cheers.

 

[sif not 99]

yeah well its not so hard, well i was pretty intimidated at first,

for me I just take an issue related to pomo, well for the catholic trial i pretty much harked on equity of races, sex and whatever else i could come up with (hey the exam was a while ago) then write using flair with a number of postmodern techniques whenever you can.

fundamentally as I understand it you need to impress upon the marker that you really DO understand what postmodernism is, and what it is about through the creative section, hence u take an issue, as most postmodernist texts do, and critique it through ur creative writting

 

[ghostrider]

how'd u go.
good mark?

 

[gonzalina]

i didn't say i found writing it hard...it's kinda fun in a way... its just STUPID, mwahahaha! but i didnt say i was good at it either

i got 15/25 for our'creative writing' section in our trial... which i was pretty happy with, cause i dont care about being at the bottom of ext, cause i never had intended to do it in yr12 back when i chose it in yr 10! but now i like it better than english

but, our the teacher who marked the section is an idiot. the question went along the lines of taking two characters from seperate prescribed texts, and makng them have a discussion on postmodernism, but nowhere when she marked them, did she have anything to say about characterisation for the characters...as in, all that really mattered was that you had their names....oh, stupid teachers, dont you love them?

i'm just thankful that my extension, home, and the teacher i had for transformations, are the three best english teachers in the school! lucky me. whereas i know people who have this crappy teacher for 4units of english!

 

[Powerpuff Girl]

What assessments did u have to do besides ur trials??
its just that a couple of u have mentioned that in the trial u have had to either do a one on one thing with two characters from the txts or do a creative piece of writing and i've had to do them as separate assessments.
We had to do a presentation which discussed "postmodern texts sacrifice deep understanding of all characters, events and relationships for the radical effect of multiple perspectives and ever changing contexts" for 20 mins which was worth 40%. then we had to write a portfolio which was worth 30% and included creative writing, personal reflection, dialogue between characters from each text and interview of folwes and potter.
Then we had our trial the othe week and it said we had to write a response to a letter written tothe editor in response to an article published and also an essay about po mo.
is that basically what everyone else ahd to do?

 

[mercurydrinker]

Damnit!

I wish our school chose Post-Modernism instead of Revenge tragedy, it sounds pretty interesting...

 

[ghostrider]

it is

yeah revenge tragedy seems fun but postmodern i reckon is more interesting. its a whole new way of looking at texts and thinking-ha-straight from the slyabbus.

u hvae to decide though between three choices.
accept postmodernism and everything it says.
reject it completely as some academic meanderings from some stupid tossers.
or take upon some of PoMos ideas, reject the others, and stick with some of the original paradigm.

i chose the latter

 

[sif not 99]

yeah point 3 there is what ive done

interestingly the top 2 ppl in 3unit absolutely hate postmodernism and everything it stands for

 

[gonzalina]

that's crazy...how can u hate pomo and be comming first???

our ext assessments have been:
1. a 1500 word essay on dead white males (the question was something about values)
2. a speech on an allocated topic in flw (mine was to discuss the role of the narrator)
3. a creative writing task in which we were given a stimulus picture
4. our trial!

 

[sif not 99]

by getting 100% in the trials for both 2 and 3unit english
hes only 2nd in 4unit tho ahahah

 

[gonzalina]

well, think of it this way, that guys wont get 100% in the hsc, cause he'll be against not only his own school, but everyone in the state...so his school mark will probably be scaled down...

teachers at my school very rarely give full marks for that reason! better to have crappy school marks, that get pushed up because everyone does better in the hsc.

although, i do know people at my school who the english teachers love. i could name one or two people who's english assessments i have a BIG collection of!