Postmodernism

Strictly speaking, the postmodern is alleged to be a historical departure from the modern owing to the supposed collapse of the latter. Postmodernism is, in effect, a cultural and aesthetic style, or theory, thought to be necessary to the alleged postmodern dispensation. Postmodernism is, thus, put forth as a deviant parallel to late modernism and is to be distinguished from avant-garde modernism. In respect to consumer culture, it is possible to say that the avant-garde is one attempt to salvage a high modernist aesthetic from the fragmenting effects of mass culture, which is often assumed to be a prominent postmodern effect if not aesthetic. Properly speaking, one may use “alleged” to modify “postmodern” not because there is no merit to postmodernism but because it is ...