English 67

Jameson in “Post Modern Consumer Society” shows how unresponsive to and unconcerned with issues of gender and ethnicity most Post Modern discourse can be.  Under his rubric of “the death of the subject” we find that Post Modernity is characterized by a supposed “death” of individualism as it had been previously experienced for most of [...]

While attempting to find a piece of postmodern art for Friday’s class, I stumbled upon the Portland Public Service Building. I’ve passed this building many times to and from work, but I never carefully looked at its unique architectural design. Apparently, the building is a prominent example of postmodern architecture. Some of its distinctive characteristics [...]

I thought that fashion and clothing might be a good example of postmodern cultural production, because many current styles draw from the past (retro, etc.). I also just typed fashion and postmodern into Google, and it came up with a journal article called “Urban style clothes and urban cultural production in Milan: Postmodern identity and [...]

In a postmodern society, the definitions of orginality are blurred, or maybe completely erased. Jameson argues that pastiche has eclipsed parody, and has become one of the pillars of postmodernism. He claims we live “in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles.” Using [...]

I would like to raise a question about something in the Lyotard reading: “Art, Lyotard suggests is one place where that which resists being fully captured within any existing signifying system can make its existence felt… we must cultivate an appreciation of the sublime, of that which exceeds calculation and understanding.” I think that [...]

Reading Lyotard’s text, I was impressed by the humanism of postmodernism. As opposed to modernism, which aims at transforming the world as a whole and imposing (violently and with force when necessary) uniform sets of norms for human existence, postmodernism advocates smaller, local transformation of human space. It celebrates non-uniformity and difference and, thus, its [...]

The most powerful message that I extracted from our Lynn reading on New Criticism was “show, don’t tell.”  Without ever using those words, the implication of this high school teacher cliche was prominent throughout the chapter.  New Criticism calls for a peom to be seen as an object, or, in the words of T. S. Eliot, [...]

Brooks is very clear is defining what criticism is (as somewhat of an objective science), but is unclear and contradictory as to how it should be carried out.  In defining the role of the critic, Brooks emphasizes the separation of the study of the text from other disciplines such as biography, historical context, psychology, or [...]

I agree that in this day in age we all tend to lean toward what is easier or more efficient. Our technology is a double edged sword in that it gives us the power to get vast amounts of information quickly and effectively, but it also leaves ignorant to what true knowledge is. In this [...]

Postmodernism stresses on difference and rejects similarities, or uniformity. It seems to be a fashionable way of thinking to reject normatives, especially social norms such as gender. The correlating entailment is the valuation of the margins and minorities — to be inclusive and embrace pluralism. However, the process of assimilating the margins and minorities appears [...]