The French Lieutenant's Woman - Postmodernism Flashcards
Postmodernism - Element 1
Postmodernism is generally defined by an attitude of skepticism, irony or rejection toward what it describes as the grand narratives and ideologies associated with modernism, and their role in maintaining political or economic power.
Quotes - Postmodernism, Element 1
“Forced her out of her own class, but could not raise her to the next”
“Where am I not ill-placed?”
Postmodernism - Element 2
Postmodern thinkers frequently describe knowledge claims and value systems as socially-conditioned, products of political, historical, or cultural discourses and hierarchies.
Quotes - Postmodernism, Element 2
“Deception was in its very nature, and it was not human, but a machine”
“Duty is but a pot. It holds whatever is put in it, from the greatest evil to the greatest good”
Postmodernism - Element 3
Common targets of postmodern criticism include universalist ideas of objective reality, morality, truth, human nature, reasons, science, language and social progress
Quotes - Postmodernism, Element 3
“You stay in prison, what your time calls duty, honour, and self-respect, and are comfortably safe.”
“He seemed as he stood there to see all his age… as the great hidden enemy of his deepest yearnings.”
Postmodernism - Element 4
Accordingly, postmodern thought is broadly characterized by tendencies to self-consciousness, self-referentiality and pluralism.
Quote - Postmodernism, Element 4
“Whichever is second will seem the final, ‘real’ version”
“All to be recommenced, all to be learned again”
“A faith in himself, a true uniqueness”
“I am at last arrived, where I belong”
Postmodernism Context
The 1960s had been defined by anti-authoriarian
protests. The Civil Rights and Feminist movements were at their height, and clashes between
protesting students and police often became violent.
Postmodern Theorist
Jean-Francois Lyotard, author of ‘The Postmodern Condition’
“Postmodernism is incredulity towards meta-narratives - overarching stories that put all of our knowledge in a single framework”
“Postmodern science is about the generation of new ideas rather than the efficient application of existing knowledge”
