Modernism+&+Post-Modernism

Faith in "Depth" (meaning, value, content, the signified) over "Surface" (appearances, the superficial, the signifier). || Rhizome/surface tropes. Attention to play of surfaces, images, signifiers without concern for "Depth". || "As seen on TV" and "as seen on MTV" are more powerful than unmediated experience. || imposed consensus that high or official culture is normative and authoritative || Disruption of the dominance of high culture by popular culture; mixing of popular and high cultures, new valuation of pop culture, hybrid cultural forms cancel "high"/"low" categories. || Art as recycling of culture authenticated by audience and validated in subcultures sharing identity with the artist. || The encyclopedia. || Navigation, information management, just-in-time knowledge. The Web. || to-many communications. || Interactive, client-server, distributed, many- to-many media (the Net and Web). || centralized knowledge. || Dispersal, dissemination, networked, distributed knowledge || the library as system for printed knowledge || hypermedia as transcendence of physical limits of print media; the Web or Net as information system || Break up form screaming "I don't fit" Break up form screaming "Is this real?" He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be One against whom there was no official complaint, And all the reports on his conduct agree That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint, For in everything he did he served the Greater Community. Except for the War till the day he retired He worked in a factory and never got fired, But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc. Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views, For his Union reports that he paid his dues, (Our report on his Union shows it was sound) And our Social Psychology workers found That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink. The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way. Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured, And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured. Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan And had everything necessary to the Modern Man, A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire. Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went. He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation. And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
 * **____** || **____** ||
 * Master Narratives and Metanarratives of history, culture and national identity; myths of cultural and ethnic orgin. || Suspicion and rejection of Master Narratives; local narratives, ironic deconstruction of master narratives: counter-myths of origin. ||
 * Faith in "Grand Theory" (totalizing explantions in history, science and culture) to represent all knowledge and explain everything. || Rejection of totalizing theories; pursuit of localizing and contingent theories. ||
 * Faith in, and myths of, social and cultural unity, hierarchies of social-class and ethnic/national values, seemingly clear bases for unity. || Social and cultural pluralism, disunity, unclear bases for social/national/ethnic unity. ||
 * Master narrative of progress through science and technology. || Skepticism of progress, anti-technology reactions, neo-Luddism; new age religions. ||
 * **Sense of unified, centered self;**
 * "individualism," unified identity.** || **Sense of fragmentation and decentered self;**
 * multiple, conflicting identities.** ||
 * Idea of "the family" as central unit of social order: model of the middle-class, nuclear family. || Alternative family units, alternatives to middle-class marriage model, multiple identities for couplings and childraising. ||
 * Hierarchy, order, centralized control. || Subverted order, loss of centralized control, fragmentation. ||
 * Faith and personal investment in big politics (Nation-State, party). || Trust and investment in micropolitics, identity politics, local politics, institutional power struggles. ||
 * Root/Depth tropes.
 * Faith in the "real" beyond media and representations; authenticity of "originals" || Hyper-reality, image saturation, simulacra seem more powerful than the "real"; images and texts with no prior "original".
 * Dichotomy of high and low culture (official vs. popular culture);
 * Mass culture, mass consumption, mass marketing. || Demassified culture; niche products and marketing, smaller group identities. ||
 * Art as unique object and finished work authenticated by artist and validated by agreed upon standards. || Art as process, performance, production, intertextuality.
 * Knowledge mastery, attempts to embrace a totality.
 * Broadcast media, centralized one-
 * Centering/centeredness,
 * Determinancy || Indeterminancy, contingency. ||
 * Seriousness of intention and purpose, middle-class earnestness. || Play, irony, challenge to official seriousness, subversion of earnestness. ||
 * Sense of clear generic boundaries and wholeness (art, music, and literature). || Hybridity, promiscuous genres, recombinant culture, intertextuality, pastiche. ||
 * Design and architecture of New York and Boston. || Design and architecture of LA and Las Vegas ||
 * **Clear dichotomy between organic and inorganic, human and machine** || cyborgian mixing of organic and inorganic, human and machine and electronic ||
 * Phallic ordering of sexual difference, unified sexualities, exclusion/bracketing of pornography || androgyny, queer sexual identities, polymorphous sexuality, mass marketing of pornography ||
 * the book as sufficient bearer of the word;
 * The Unknown Citizen - W. H. Auden**

Auden describes this citizen as a man who displeased no one, but did nothing great; he was a "modern man." Auden describes every man here. The last two lines pose rhetorical questions. Should anything have been wrong with the normal man, something would be done. But why are people content with being like everyone else? Furthermore, the man is no "saint" in religious terms. He wasn't a bad person, but he wasn't a good one -- he was normal. The title provides evidence that this man is flawed; nothing else in the poem suggests that there is anything wrong with this man, but the "unknown citizen" is the most common flaw. Auden explains that he "had everything necessary to the Modern Man," but this list included only non necessary material goods (no food or water). Furthermore, Auden understates the needs of the modern man. All you need is love. But the modern man has not.