Post-Modernism

Postmodernism can be relevant to the arts, philosophy, literature and sociology, and refers to (although this is under much debate) the 20th and early 21st century, however the term post modernism  was actually 1st used in the 1870's.

"Reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it" - This to me indicates that post-modernism is the practise of questioning the general opinions and ideologies of society. It contains many aspects of surrealism and the abstract.

I feel that the idea of post-modernism is to challenge the norm, and from this theories such as feminism have risen. My interpretation of  post-modernism compared to modernism is that the period of modernism was about unity and change of culture, where as I feel post-modernism is about being different and standing out from the crowd.

I feel that post-modernism includes elements of 'shock culture', which is an attempt to challenge mainstream media globalisation. For example playwrites such as Henrik Ibsen encorporated feminist subplots within his plays, of which A Dolls House 1879 is an obvious reference. Although Ibsen is credited as a 'Modernist' playwrite, I feel that his ways of sneaking in many 'ism's' into the plots of his plays were very before his time and gave a more post-modernist twist.