Essay on Why Postmodernism Failed to End History - 1542 Words

‘Why did postmodernism threaten to end History, and why did fail?’ This question poses two clear questions, why postmodernism threatened the end of history, and why it failed to do so. While few would counter the assumption that it did fail, it can be argued that it massively changed history, and through answering the questions posed, this can also be addressed. In 1986 A. Huyssen claimed that postmodernism possessed ‘the unshaken confidence of being at the edge of history’, in regard to its ability to offer explanation and understanding. Since then, historians such as E. Breisach have claimed that the initial ‘crisis’ is over, and the once present threat to the end of history, is ready to be assessed.†¦show more content†¦But R. Stein has also added that New Historicism, or the death of the author as it has been known, has also challenged many historiographical principles. This essay will look at these threats to history and show how they represent an attack on empiricism and historical method in a quest for legitimacy. It then will form an analysis of these threats and express why they failed to do so and thus end history; this will also enable an exploration of what impacts it did have on history. It is worth noting, before forming an assessment based on a controversial topic such as postmodernism, sources must be treated with great care. Postmodernism has threatened, to some, on a personal level in various ways and thus motives have not always been ostensible. Added to this is that various historians have differing interpretations of postmodernism and thus can be contradictory. As a result of this, sources must be used in conjunction with a great number of other sources to establish accuracies. To understand the threat that postmodernism poses to history, D. Roberts argues, we must divide post modernists into structuralists, and poststructuralists. From this, we can understand whether ‘either strand ...convincingly points us beyond the conventional historical approach’. Structuralism originates from the beginning of the twentieth century; its developers sought a way in which toShow MoreRelatedWhat Are Social Constructs1709 Words   |  7 Pagesthemselves. This is how I think postmodernism came to be with the original disobedience in writing came. The point of postmodernism is to go against traditional classifications to question the objective truth associated with the enlightenment, and to prove that there are no social truths but social constructs that our society to all of its actions. Who created society? Who made the rules and stated them as eternal truths? That is what postmodernist want to know and why they write and speak toRead More The Transition to Postmodernism Essay3040 Words   |  13 PagesThe Transition to Postmodernism Works Cited Not Included Postmodernism is a difficult term to define, as it is evident in many different disciplines, such as art, literature, architecture, technology, and, the precise emerging moment of this movement is also hard to identify. In order to truly understand `Postmodernism, one must first identify with `Modernism and its subsequent decline which led to the appearance of the Post-modern ear. It is often suggested that Postmodernity is simply aRead MoreRemains of the Day as a Postmodern Novel5345 Words   |  22 Pagesother motifs, the one of history, especially personal, individual history is the idea that dominates all novels Ishiguro wrote, Remains of the day in particular. In Linda Hutcheons words the departure, rather than reworking of mimetic novelist tradition is a definition that helps understanding the mechanism, the strategy Ishiguro uses to communicate this story to the reader. Focus on biography, personal history represents a break with the traditional approach to history and histor icity. DealingRead MorePhilosophy Rejected Essay2019 Words   |  9 PagesPhilosophy is an interesting pursuit. It causes us to search for truth, ethics and ask the question â€Å"why?† more often than we would otherwise. However, I have found that philosophy itself rather distracting. It leads to false answers to what might sometimes be false questions. It leads to radically held beliefs that can be destructive, difficult to understand, and often contrary to reality. Worst of all, it often answers questions that we as humans have no business answering with any certainty. IRead MoreEssay about The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro5293 Words   |  22 Pagesother motifs, the one of history, especially personal, individual history is the idea that dominates all novels Ishiguro wrote, Remains of the day in particular. In Linda Hutcheon’s words â€Å"the departure, rather than reworking of mimetic novelist tradition† is a definition that helps understanding the mechanism, the strategy Ishiguro uses to communicate this story to the reader. Focus on biography, personal history represents a break with the traditional approach to history and historicity. DealingRead MorePostmodernism and the Simpsons10775 Words   |  44 PagesHugvà ­sindadeild Postmodernism and The Simpsons Intertextuality, Hyperreality and Critique of Metanarratives Ritgerà ° til B.A.-prà ³fs Bjà ¶rn Erlingur Flà ³ki Bjà ¶rnsson bjornfloki@gmail.com Kt. 110982-5779 Maà ­ 2006 Abstract This essay offers a postmodernist reading of the popular television program The Simpsons, with special regard to the postmodern theories of intertexuality, hyperreality, and metanarratives. Before delving into The Simpsons, some major theoretical aspects of postmodernism in aestheticRead More Outside the Teaching Machine by Gayatri Spivak2753 Words   |  11 PagesIndian colonial historiography from the perspective of the discontinuous chain of peasant insurgencies during the colonial occupation. But Guha, in order to reconstruct colonial Indian historiography of the â€Å"people† contrary to the elitist nationalist history, uses what he calls â€Å"the dominant indigenous groups at the regional and local level as ‘in-between-ness’ mediating group between the dominant foreign groups and dominant indigenous groups on all-India level on the one side and people or subalternRead MoreEssay about Managing People4361 Words   |  18 PagesManaging People The history of managing people has reflected prevailing beliefs and attitudes held in society about employees, the response of employers to public policy (for example, health and safety and employment legislation) and reactions to trade union growth. In the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, the extraordinary codes of discipline and fines imposed by factory owners were, in part, a response to the serious problem of imposing standards of disciplineRead MoreCompare and Contrast Functionalism and Structuralism14315 Words   |  58 Pagessocial psychology. 5 Identify the roots of and describe the historical development of both experimental and critical social psychology. 6 Describe the main elements of Modernism and Postmodernism, and how these relate to contemporary social psychology. 7 Explain how these two approaches are different, and why they cannot be integrated. Introduction On a March night in 1964, Kitty Genovese was attacked by a maniac as she came home from work at 3 A.M. Thirty-eight of her Kew Gardens neighborsRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Harold Pinter s The Room 9709 Words   |  39 Pagesthe naked eye of an impartial witness, his plays abound in ambiguity regarding the motivations of the characters but clarity in the depiction of characters’ acts of violence and the effect of it on their victims. On a metaphorical level, the reason why Pinter refrains from revealing his characters’ identity and motivations is that he wants the characters’ acts of violence or suffering not to be localized or restricted to a particular country, state, group or clan. Instead he wants the aggressors’