Afskeid van die moderne wereld? ’n Oorsig van die postm kultuurkritiek 1

Abstract

What has come to be called 'postmodernism', it is argued along Habermasian lines, Is based on the claim to have gone beyond the cultural framework of Western rationality and to have left it behind as the horison of an obsolete tradition. As such it represents a sweeping epochal self-characterisation in which modernity and the achievements of en­ lightened reason are abandoned. The aim of the paper is to provide a broad outline of the postmodern theorem through a conceptual clarification of the different terminological variations in which 'modern'/'post-modern' appears. Firstly, the term 'modern' is analysed with a view to deter­ mining the principles which have since become the target of postmodernist critique. Next, the analyses of ’modernity’, 'modernism' and 'modernisation' are utilised to establish the philosophical, aesthetic and sociological discourses on modernity as the main discursive contexts in which the critique of Western logocentrism is articulated. Finally, the term ’postmodernism’ is analysed in order to formulate a provisional conclusion concerning the nature of the postmodernist rejection of modernity. It is suggested that postmodernism represents a revolt against modernity rather than a genuine abandonment of its presuppositions.