Introduction
Provider:
Kate Liu / 劉紀雯
I. A Distinction of
the terms: Postmodernism and Postmodernity
Generally, Postmodernity
refers to the socio-political conditions of postwar/contemporary period
("new forms of social, political and economic arrangement; new mode
of thinking" Connor) and postmodernism refers to the cultures produced
under those conditions. Just as the two terms are controversial
and variously defined, the relations between the two also vary from
one cultural field (e.g. music industry and literature) to another (See
examples of definitions).
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II.
General Characteristics of Postmodernism
- As "intellectual/political
movement"
- "post" - Modernity/Modernism:
post =
- after and
because of (Hutcheon)
- "taking leave
of" (Vattimore) beyond
- the future
(post) anterior (modo)(Lyotard)
- 'after' just
now--or sometimes beyond, contra, above, ultra, meta,
out-side-of (Jencks)
(see quotes)
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- constructionism
- anti-foundationalism
(de-totalization)
- de-centering, boundary-crossing
- depthlessness
(Mcrobbie
p. 2-5) "At that time there were two approaches to postmodernism,
each of which raised important questions for sociologists.
From architecture to fine art, from remakes of B movies to the
cinema of David Lynch, from Talking Heads to Laurie Anderson,
what was becoming increasingly apparent was indeed a concern with surface, with meaning being paraded
as an intentionally superficial phenomenon (what Jameson
labeled
'waning in affect' or depthlessness). Not only
was meaning in art or in culture all there, for all to see,
stripped of its old hidden elitist difficulty, but it also,
again as Jameson pointed out, seemed already familiar, like
the faint memory of an old pop song, a refrain, a chorus, a
tune, a 'cover version' of an original which never was.
(e.g. Jameson)
The second way of looking at postmodernism back in the
1980s was to consider it as an anti-foundationalist form
of anti-social theory--that is, a form of criticism which
interrogated and exposed the (cruel) foundations upon which
modern social thought had been based. This approach, which
became more familiar in the late 1980s, suggested that there
could no longer be one theory of society, no one 'big picture'.
At best there were a number of snapshots of the same view, each
aware of the limits of its own field of vision. Here,
too, we detect a playfulness, a disrespect for the meta-narratives
of history, a refusal to play the game of philosophy and a desire
instead to enjoy a willful breaking of the rules in favour of
epithet, contingency, discontinuity. (e.g. Lyotard,
Baudrillard)" |
- As style: uncertainties
(undecidability); exhaustion--replenishment; parody (pastiche); self-reflexiveness;
double-ness, eclecticism; crisis in representation.
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III. Different Stages and Different Fields
(H. Bertens on postmodernisms
from his "Introduction")
1)" a complex anti-modernist
artistic strategies which emerged in the 1950s and developd
momentum in the course of the 1960's.
e.g.--architecture;
For Robert Venturi, ...Charles Jencks and other theorists,
modernist architecture is the purist self-referential architecture
of the Bauhaus .. .and of the corporate architecture of the
postwar international style. Postmodern architecture turns
away from this self-absorbed and technocratic purism and turns
to the vernacular and to history, thus reintroducing the
humanizing narrative element that had been banned...
e.g. -for many
of the American literary critics that bring the term postmodernism
into circulation in the 1960's and early 1970's, postmodernism
is the move away from narrative, from representation..
a move toward radical aesthetic autonomy, towards pure formalism
e.g. photography--anti-representational,
anti-narrative, deconstructionist photography"
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(S. Connor)
"two strands:
1) it embraced the enlarged condition of possibility apparently
released by the fading of modernism--critical pluralist
2) attempts to go beyond modernism by revealing the inability
within it --oppositional, exploratory"
two extremes--
anti-representational --------------------representational and
narrative
two attitudes
positive--Charles Jencks,
negative--Jameson, Baudrillard
1960--the
avant-garde attacj ib art-as-institution is broadened and raised
to socio-political level.
1970--postmodernism was gradually drawn into a poststructuralist
orbit.
Like poststructuralism,
this postmodernism rejects the empirical idea that language
can represent reality, that the world is accessible to us because
its objects are mirrored in the language that we use.
--two moments within this poststructuralist postmodernism
1)the later 1970s
and the early 1980s, derives from Barthes and Derrida and is
linguistic, that is, textual, in its orientation.
2) the other moment. . . derives from Foucault and, to a lesser
extent, Lacan. It belongs to the 1980s rather than the 1970s,
although it is difficult to pinpoint its appearance. Like
the early deconstructionist postmodernism, this later poststructuralist
postmodernism assumes a reality of textuality and signs, of
representations that do not represent. Here, however,
the emphasis is on the workings of power, and the constitution
of the subject.
. . . This postmodernism
interrogates the power that is inherent in the discourses that
surround us--and that is continually reproduced by them--and interrogates
the institutions that support those discourses and are, in turn,
supported by them. against the hegemony of any single discursive
system . . . in its advocacy of difference, pluriformity, and
multiplicity. (e.g. liberal humanism)" |
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IV. The Postmodern Debate
Positive
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Negative
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Subversive of mainstream
systems; Empowering the margins
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Apolitical, complicitous,
imperialistic
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Anti-foundationalism,
Pluralism |
Skepticism,
Relativism |
Boundary-breaking |
Overall
commodification, lack of critical distance; |
Constructing
subjectivity |
Death
of the subject |
Parody |
Pastiche,
kitsch |
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Events related to Chinese/Taiwanese Modernity and
Postmodernity: An Unfinished Chronicle
What makes Taiwan's postmodernism different from the U.S.'s?
- its position as a Third-World
nation with the experience of multiple colonization
- its experience of war
and unfinished national movements
China/Taiwan's "modernization":
interrupted by wars and dominated by the issues of national movements
(even till now).
|
U.S.
and the World
|
China |
Taiwan
|
1911
1914 -
1919 |
1st World War
|
Rep. of
China
May
4 movement--Anti-Tradition |
the civil wars |
1895-1945
Japanese occupation |
1937-
1945 |
2nd
World War
1945--the explosion of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima
in Japan |
|
the 50's |
U.S. 50's--postwar
prosperity and conservatism; the US as the world power
1960 The U.S. GNP 33% of the world's, and Japan,
3%
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1949 KMT
came to Taiwan
1950 Martial Law |
1955 American
Army in Taiwan.
American Force Network Taiwan 美軍電台 (re-named International
Community Radio Taipei in 1979--ICRT) |
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the cold
war between the U.S. and Russia
fear of
nuclear annihilation culminating in the Cuban missile crisis
of 1962
|
|
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Taiwanese
Modernization and Postmodernization
U.S. |
U.S. |
Taiwan:
National Events
|
Cultural
Events
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the 60's
idealism
and various kinds of rebellion
the 70's
70's and 80's--gradual return to conservatism
--the
rise of minorities' voices
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-the civil
rights movement
the assassination
of JFK (Nov, 1963)
The
Feminist Mystique 1963
360s computer
(3rd generation computer) by IBM 1965
the assassination
of Robert K. and Martin Luther King(1968)
Vietnam war (1965-1975?)
the killing
of four students by the National Guard at Kent State Univ. (1970)
the resignation
of Nixon (1974)
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1960 橫貫公路通車
1963 pg
業生產總額超過農業
1964 The first highway (北基)
1971
退出聯合國;釣魚台事件
1973 Ten Major Constructions
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I.
Western (U.S.) popular music
- 1965
Two radio programs:
PD>
ar Music 熱門音樂&
Songs of Youth青春之歌
- Dominant:
Shanghaiese songs in the 50's, and Taiwanese love songs
since mid 60's
- Subculture:Japanese_Taiwanese
songs since 50's,
- 1962
Emerging: Taiwan TV company
- 1963
瓊瑤《窗外》
II. Literary movements
- 1953
Modern Poetry Club現代詩社;
- 1960
Modern Literature magazine 現代文學雜誌;
- 1964
吳濁流 Wu Chuo-liou's Taiwanese Literature magazine,
台灣文藝
- 1970's
realist/nativist novels 鄉土文學
- 1975
Yang Hsuan: Modern Chinese Folksong Concert, making
songs with the poet Yu Kwang-chung's poems as lyrics(楊弦中國現代民歌)
- 1976
Li Shuang-tse's question, "Where are our songs?" in
Western Folksong Concert in Tamkang Univ.
- 1976
Folk painter Hong Tong's 1st exhibit 洪通
- 1975
Photocopying machine started to be popular.
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1975
The Fall of Saigon |
President
Chiang Kai-shek died |
1977
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Twelve Major
Constructions started. 12大建設 |
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- The
debate on "Native Taiwanese Literature" 鄉土文學論戰
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1978
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The U.S.
government established diplomatic relationship with mainland
China
1st test-tube
baby
|
economic
growth rate 14%; Export growth rate 35.7%
Chiang
Ching-huo elected president.
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- Separated
monthly and yearly top-10 charts for Taiwanese song from those
of Western pop music in radio program "Popular Music" ( 熱門音樂)?/font>?
- Folk
Wind album (1978-1981)民謠風
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1979
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7-eleven
introduced to Taiwan.
Beautiful
Island Event. 美麗島事件
The U.S./
Taiwan broke diplomatic relationship.
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- Sing
Our Own SongConcert 唱我們的歌演唱會
- "The
Descendants of the Dragon"龍的傳人
got popular
- "Beautiful
Island" & "Youth China" did not pass Information Bureau's
censorship.
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1980
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- New
Taiwanese Song Chart (a larger scale)
- Taiwan
New Cinema
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1981
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Reagan administration |
Chiang
re-elected chair of KMT
The mysterious
death of Chen wen-cheng.
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- Golden
Melody Award Stopped. (1977-1981)
- Personal
computer started to be popular.
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1983
|
|
Taiwan
became a supplier of computers. |
- Singer
Ho Te-chien 侯德健 went to mainland
China
- Two
singers (Lo Ta-yu and Su Rui) successfully put forth albums
which had a thematic unity.
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1984
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"We Are
the World" album |
Taiwan:
- the
investment of MacDonald's
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- Music
videos started to be popular.
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1985
|
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- The
first AIDS patient in Taiwan.
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- "Tomorrow
Will Be Better" 明天會更好album, which
sold 100,000 copies in a week.
- Anti-pirating
committee
- Imitation
was prevalent, when the music industry ran short of producers
and composers.
- 夏宇
《備忘錄》
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1986
|
|
Service
Industry population: Industry = 41.5% 41.47
KMT launched
Six Reformation 六大改革
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- The
introduction of Hong Kongese singers.
- 舊情綿綿咖啡廳
- 《暗戀。桃花源》
- The
rise and fall of stocks in stock market.
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1987
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the
lifting of Martial Law (7/15)
the lifting
of newspaper restrictions 報禁
Cross-strait
relative visit 探親allowed.
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- Another
voice: Anti-pirating concert
反盜錄演唱會
- Hassan
and Jameson came to Taiwan.
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1988
|
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the death
of Chiang Ching-kuo
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Lo
Ta-yu 羅大佑 establish Music Factory in Hong
Kong.
Tina Turner's
& Stevie Wonder's concerts.
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1989
|
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Taiwan:
The film City of Sadness won Cannes' Golden Lion.
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- Campus
folksongs were renewed and sung again.
- Taiwanese
rock band, Black List Workshop.
- Little
Tiger, the first teenagers' idol singers.小虎隊
- Mainland
Chinese Singer Cui Chien's 崔健 album
was published in Taiwan, which lead to more musical exchanges
across the strait.
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1990
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The unification
of East and West Germany |
Taiwan:
Marx's work was legally published in Taiwan.
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- KTV
started to be popular.
- Information
Bureau stopped censoring music broadcast in media.
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1991
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- The
promotion of idol singers.
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1992
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- Hakka
band, New Formosa band. 新寶島康樂隊
- Chinese-American
band, L.A. Boyz.
- Saliva
Songs (renewed old songs) takes greater percentage in the
yearly production.口水歌
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1994
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- Taiwanese
rapper, Pig's Head's first album. 豬頭皮
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1995
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- The
20th year of Taiwanese Folksong: concert, seminars,
election of the 200 folksongs.
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(external)
Literary
Criticism Databank: Postmodernism and Urban Space ;
Postmodern Theories and Texts
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