What is it?

• A manner in which art (literature and visual art) is presented

• If modernism, itself, was a response to previous art forms, so too was postmodernism a response to modernism. Modernists viewed art as "above" most people and considered popular culture to be inferior.

• Postmodernism was a rebellion against modernism. It embraced popular culture and appropriated modernist works and "graffitied" them into new pieces of art. This is also known as 'appropriation.'

• Postmodernism incorporates:

  • • Appreciation of DIVERSITY and PLURALITY. This means that postmodern texts promote the expressions of voices other than those of dominant social groups.

    • Flexibility in the construction, style and form / format of texts. Rigid obedience to the accepted rules of a genre (or type of text) is not required.

    • Postmodern texts combine different styles and formats.

    • A critical attitude towards an 'all knowing' text or educational / social elite. The idea that any text can reflect a concrete (solid or absolute) truth about human beings or reality is changed by postmodern texts.

    • The obvious acknowledgement that texts are not 'real' but are reflections of the composer's 'reality' which is not necessarily true for everyone.

    • The composer includes devices or techniques to let the audience or responder know that the text is a creative work.