What is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism rules our life. Postmodernism shapes our train of thought. Postmodernism is fed through media forms to us every waking day. But what is actually this omnipresent postmodernism thing? Postmodernism is an interesting thing. It can be an ideal. It can be a genre of art, film, or music. It can be a lifestyle. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as "of, relating to, or being a theory that involves a radical reappraisal of modern assumptions about culture, identity, history or language." However, that barely does the thing justice.

Postmodernism is a way in which we view the world. An example was brought up in the class show and tell about postmodern artifacts. There was a piece of art depicting a soldier talking to a girl, but it seemed that the girl had total control over the soldier. This is a piece of art that challenges our postmodern predispositions. We have been told and showed that the "normal" way is that soldier should be bossing and ordering the girl. This piece of art flips the roles on us viewers. This embodies postmodern ideas because it challenges what we think we know. Why should the soldier be controlling the girl? Who gave him that authority? This represents postmodernism because it is a radical way of thinking of things. In a way postmodernism is everything, while at the same time, being undefinable.