4. The Corrosion of Character “ What’s peculiar about uncertainty today is that it exists without any looming historical disaster; instead it is woven into the everyday practices of a vigorous capitalism. Instability is meant to be normal…‘No long term’ disorients action over the long term, loosens bonds of trust and commitment, and divorces will from behavior.” The supermarket self takes over – we are as we consume.
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Notas do Editor
Four of the above characteristics come from Giddens (1990) which calls the institutions of modernity. What are they: 1 industrialism 2 surveillance 3 capitalism 4 military power Describe contemporary examples of each of them. 1 industrialism … .. 2 surveillance 3 capitalism 4 military power
Modernism refers to the human cultural forms which are bound up with the process of modernisation – the promise that the transformations caused by industry, technology and communications would eradicate material scarcity. But there’s a downside. Comm Tech produce communications networks, infotainment, personalised services etc. etc. but they are also at the heart of weapons, surveillance systems etc. etc. Optimism of modernists doesn’t mean it is a culture of certainty – Giddens sees modernism as a ‘risk culture’ because the dynamism of modernity is premised on the notion of the perpetual revision of knowledge – all institutions are therefore founded on the principle of doubt. Risk culture = increased role of risk factor in the lives of institutions and individuals. The markers of cultural modernism ‘ tradition’ – things are as they are because they are as they should be. Self-identity is a question of social tradition. It is also a question of structures not surface appearance – metaphors of depth predominate. This is illustrated by Freud’s understanding of the unconscious and it place in identity formation. ‘ modernism’ – change is all-important, life-planning fundamental and reflexivity vital. Self-identity is a reflexive project. Identity is not fixed but dynamic and built-upon through the ‘reflexive reordering of self-narratives.’ (Giddens, 1991: 244)
Modernism – we can’t represent the real – representation is not mimetic/reflection but of conventionalised construction. In modernist literature there was the attempt to capture the deep reality of the world – the mytho-poetic real. This led to the concern of the place of language in the construction and a self-consciousness in its use. Expression of depth through fragmentation. Problem of realism. Accepts the idea of the meaningful real beneath or beyond the appearance. It rejects the idea that the real can be represented unproblematically. It can’t show what is real but only its own construction of the ‘real’. So modernists look for practices which reveal their own techniques of representation and allow – even demand – that the reader/viewer reflect on them. So modernist stories don’t follow the linear mode of causality – or if they do they put it into relief and make us reflect on it. Typically uses montage to do this. Jean-Luc Godard. The tension = between fragmentation/instability/the ephemeral and a concern for depth, meaning, universalism
A shift away from production and towards an economy, culture, identities and lifestyles based on consumption. this has happened rapidly – a generational time-frame A rejection of the enlightenment preoccupation with absolute truth and certainty. Truth, certainty and reality are provisional and relativistic. Knowledge is a commodity and a form of power, not an absolute truth. as a scientific and moral/political project the enlightenment philosophy sought universal truth – ie knowledge and moral principles that applied across time, space and cultural difference. illustrated by the philosophy of Rousseau/Hume and the ideas of Taylor and the organisation of production for maximum efficiency. ‘Instrumental rationality’. In postmodernity all truth claims are made in discourse – there are no universal philosophical foundations for human thought/action. All truth is culture-bound. Dominant cultural meaning has been replaced by a an individual search for meaning. Life-style is a matter of choice. based on the consumption economy. Ultimately uncertainty confusion and plurality will be all that’s left.
Not all believe we are into postmodernity – so would deny there is a postmodern aesthetic – see Habermas, Giddens (1990) and Bauman (liquid modernity). But the rate of social and cultural change enable us to refer to a postmodern era – a transitional period looking to the future rather than a radical break with the past.
The collapse of cultural boundaries ‘ the distinction between high and low culture is no longer valid – discuss. Bricollage/Intertextuality rearrangement and juxtaposition – MTV, Shrek, Ali G. self-conscious intertextuality – Twin peaks, Tarrantino The aestheticisation of everyday life. linked to identity projects – creation of lifestyles centred on consumption – houses, gardens, clothes, gadgets …
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