The heyday of postmodernism has come and gone, and we are now in a position to see its virtues as well as its drawbacks. While various aspects of postmodernism (multiculturalism, diversity, aesthetic relativity) are praiseworthy and still survive, the work of many authors and artists nowadays cannot be labelled as postmodern. The questions they pose, their themes, styles and preoccupations configure another paradigm of thought, that integrates some aspects of the modern and postmodern ones, but differs from these.
Exploring metamodernism has a twofold purpose:
In a first instance it aims to illustrate the cultural and social paradigm of metamodernism 1:
Metamodernism is a cultural paradigm characterised by interconnections: it is the reflection in every form of human expression of a tendency to seek the roots of what constitutes our humanity, to integrate contrasting psychic agencies – such as emotion and reason – within the self, to express an aspiration towards the spiritual and the sublime, and to achieve a form of self-realization which grants meaning to experience.
Even more importantly, the blog aims to engage in dialogue amongst authors and artists, researchers and politicians, art critics and journalists, and with anyone who feels an affinity with a metamodern sensibility.
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1 This definition emerges from Alexandra Dumitrescu‘s published research work and her work towards a PhD thesis in literary and cultural theory.
The future belongs not so much to the pure thinkers who are content – at best – with optimistic or pessimistic slogans; it is a province, rather, for reflective practitioners who are ready to act on their ideas. Warm hearts allied with cool heads seek a middle way between the extremes of abstract theory and personal impulse. (Toulmin, Return to Reason)
The quote from Toulmin above presents, in a nutshell, an apt definition of a metamodern sensibility.
i like it//