The Traces of Modernist Methodology in the Postmodernist Worldview

Abstract

The process of leaving modernism from the arena of cultural life continued. Some of its directions appeared in the post-regime. From the twenties of the last century until the end of the sixties, this kind of cultural excess was seen many times. The reason for these "returns" was not the only uniquely established specialization/ profile one specific culture or country to a specific current but also a certain methodological crisis, which led to such a formal-worldview attitude.
The final replacement of these processes with a new couture - expressive format began after postmodernist trends appeared in art, primarily in literature. Since then, the "methodological reading" and definition of postmodernism in today's reality is a subject of discussion, and its definition is not unambiguous.
It is a fact, that the modernist context in European literary life clearly outlined the opposition: high literature/mass literature; In other words, gaining success in the broad circles of readers practically did not mean high-quality, highly artistic text, such a position was a kind of starting point for the proponents of the modernist worldview and for exposing the opponents of modernism and for emphasizing its role in the history of art. Thus, elite and mass literatures faced each other.
Highlighted from the beginning despite the features and emphasized oppositionality, the postmodernist model could not overcome the traditions of modernism for a long time and could not solve the task announced by the writer to the reader - made it enjoyable for the reader relationship with the work of art; Because for modern readers of that time It was not natural such self-creative and rigid challenges, To adapt the role of co-author, co-character in a highly contradictory postmodernist environment.
As a result, the view was formed that, despite the names, modernist classics did not have a special influence on postmodernism, although it undoubtedly took from modernism at least a retrospective and external formal heritage. In different geographical areas, this heritage is connected with the complex and contradictory political and social reality, as well as with the processes of searching for forms of expression in the literary space.
And if modernism was based on idealism and reason, postmodernism was born as a result of skepticism and doubt of reason. It questioned the idea that there is a universal certainty or truth. Postmodern art relied on the new “philosophical interpretations” of the middle and late twentieth century and argued that individual experience and the interpretation of subjective experience were more concrete than abstract principles. Whereas when modernists advocated clarity and a concrete, purposeful expression of their worldview choices, postmodernism embraced complex and often contradictory layers of meaning.

Postmodernism transferred its indifferent attitude towards values and traditions to literature, where it managed to develop its own model and artisticcreative reflections. In deconstruction, in order to get from uncertainty-ambiguity to the answer, the reader had to find the right path himself, and the factors that hindered this were fragmentation, decanonization and superficiality.
Despite the aforementioned features and emphasized oppositionality, the postmodernist model could not overcome the traditions of modernism for a long time and could not solve the task set by the writer for the reader – to make the reader's
relationship with the work pleasant for the reader; because for modern readers of that time, it was not natural to recognize such self-creative and rigid challenges to adapt to the role of co-author, co-character in a rather contradictory postmodernist environment.
Analysts of postmodernism (Wittstock, Welsch, Lyotard) believe that the reasons for this should be sought in the peculiarities of the development of the literatures of different countries. World War II somewhat delayed the emergence and understanding of new trends in cultural life, and the mental, worldview and moral crisis of the post-war period led to a recall of the modernist idea of perception of the world and a return to it.
The literary process was still required to be moralistic, to reinforce thought and dignity, and not just to be entertaining. Thus, the interrupted chronology of modernism, if the tradition was revived, the post-facts of modernism appeared, in different directions, in different geographical environments.
These limits reveal how much commissioned Postmodernist literature from modernist literature. Postmodernist creative discourse is so tied to the leading ideas of modernism
as innovation and experimentation. At the same time, it is directed against the norms of modernism, which have already become a tradition.
In view of the above, the early phase of postmodernist literature is, at the same time, both modernist and anti-modernist. It is modernist because it follows the specific principles of modernism, and it is anti-modernist because it emphatically tries to overcome the past creative era and deliberately opposes the artisticcreative principles of classical modernism.