User:Whitey711/sandbox

The Relevance of this Page

This page is being created for a project for Sue Collesano's AP English Literature Class. The assignment was to create something postmodern and then explain why it is postmodern. A group of friends and I have decided to create a wikipedia page and explain why it is postmodern.

What is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism is a term originating in architecture, literally 'after the modern', denoting a style that is more ornamental than modernism, and which borrows from previous architectural styles, often in a playful or ironic fashion. Later, the term was used in painting, music and philosophy for any pluralistic style that is a reaction against the pretensions of high modernism. It is used in critical theory and has been the point of departure for works of literature, architecture, and design, as well as in marketing and business and the interpretation of history, law and culture in the late 20th century.

Postmodernism was originally a reaction to modernism. Largely influenced by the Western European disillusionment induced by World War II, postmodernism tends to refer to a cultural, intellectual, or artistic state lacking a clear central hierarchy or organizing principle and embodying extreme complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, diversity, and interconnectedness or interreferentiality.

Postmodernity is a derivative referring to non-art aspects of history that were influenced by the new movement, namely developments in society, economy and culture since the 1960s. When the idea of a reaction or rejection of modernism was borrowed by other fields, it became synonymous in some contexts with postmodernity. The term is closely linked with poststructuralism (cf. Jacques Derrida) and with modernism, in terms of a rejection of its bourgeois, elitist culture.

Sue Collesano

Ms. Collesano is known around duPont Manual Magnet High School for her love of literature and her fascination with postmodernism and its divisions. Ms. Collesano has been through many hardships. After graduating from college, she had to teach out in the countryside of Kentucky for next to nothing of monetary value. Currently, she is pursuing a graduate degree while managing her children and her teaching job.

The Mystery

While it is known that Sue Collesano does things like taking care of her children, grading papers, and car-pooling with Mme Perkins, no one really knows what she does out side of school. Does she go home and read books all of the time after grading papers, classifying her as the quiet type, or does she go out and party on the weekends and show her wild side? Does she secretly have a crush on Lord Byron? No one really knows, and without any supporting evidence, few conclusions can be drawn.

Her Class Today

Today Ms. Collesano's class is wrapping up the school year. The last topic that she elaborated on was cyberpunk fiction . The class thought that this subject was interesting because it is deeply rooted in today's science fiction films such as Iron Man, and the Matrix. The class also had a discussion about the work of Michael Foucault, and other people of prominence when talking about cyberpunk and postmodernism, such as Phillip K. Dick.

Why is this page Postmodern?

This page is postmodern because it fits the description of postmodernism. It is a page driven by technology, and it makes authors ambiguous. Anyone can change this page, providing that they don't write anything that qualifies as vandalism. It's actually getting pretty hard to make a wiki page because I tried to make a page about this class three times and each time it was reported as a page that shouldn't be in an encyclopedia. This page is also dynamic because it can be changed so frequently. I could type something now, and someone else could alter my writing within seconds.

What have we learned?

From studying postmodernism, we've learned that Blade Runner and the Minority Report are both good cyberpunk films, as is the Terminator. Also, we've learned that we should go see Iron Man, which I think Shaun and I are going to go see tonight. It is the epitome of the postmodern film because it presents the engineer, with all of his technological advances, as the hero and center of attention. He really addresses the postmodern sublime. A lot of superheroes in general address parts of postmodernism, considering that most of them hide the fact that they are superheroes until times of need, in which they change clothes and are able to lost themselves in the world as an alter ego that can do anything. This is evident in characters such as Superman and Batman.