Postmodernism - A Timeline

Introduction

This timeline provides a brief overview of the significant developments in the history of Postmodernism. In particular, it explores the works of key critics and theorists and the impact of their work.

• 1870s
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     • John Chapman, an English painter, suggested that any art that went beyond French Impressionism (Edgar Degas, Claude Monet) would be defined as a ‘postmodern painting’.
• 1880s (to 1950s)
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     • It is generally accepted that the Modernist era emerged during the late eighteenth century. Evident particularly in literature, art and architecture, this historic and philosophical period was marked by the belief of unity of experience, universal reason, humanism and the grand narrative. Writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Henry James have been associated with the Modernist movement, employing 'narrative consciousness' and embracing more modern or progressive views.
• 1907
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     • Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon created - The first truly modernist painting proclaiming Modernity as fragmented. Cubism begins to emerge a year later, labelled as 'Analytic Cubism'.
• 1916
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     • Ferdinand de Saussure’s ‘Course in General Linguistics ’ is published, founding the modern school of linguistics, structuralism and semiotics. The Swiss linguist proposed that 'in language there are only differences without positive terms'. Saussure is said to be one of the founding fathers of poststructuralism.
• 1917
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     • Rudolf Pannwitz, a German writer, uses the word ‘postmodern’ to describe the new militaristic culture developing in Europe after World War I.
• 1919
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     • The Bauhaus is founded in Germany. Walter Gropius develops ideas about a rational new architecture which would be stripped down to 'essentials'.
• 1930
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     • Andy Warhol born - His work ‘reveals the total interpenetration of aesthetic and commodity production’. Later in the 1960s, Warhol shifted to the production of 'fine art', moving away from the classic Modernist high art which had been operating until that point.
• 1960s
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     • The term “Postmodernism” is first used by literary critics such as Ihab Hassan and Leslie Fiedler. Later joined by Susan Sontag in arguing for the Postmodernist aesthetic.
• 1964
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     • Leslie Fiedler describes a 'post' culture as one which rejected the elitist values of high culture in art and literature.
• 1966
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     • Jacques Derrida publishes ‘Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences’. His work critiqued the Western metaphysical tradition, which he sees as a domination by a discourse of assumption, such as truth.
• 1967
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     • Roland Barthes publishes ‘The Death of the Author’. He argues for the death of the author whereby the text acts as a signifier - resisting any final determination of meaning, rather than a meaning set by the composer of the text.
• 1969
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     • Michel Foucault publishes ‘What is an Author?’. Foucault argues that the name of an author acts to classify the body of work. As the name acts as a function of discourse, it influences the reader's perception of what they read.
• 1972
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     • The prize winning modernist Pruitt-Igoe housing development in Missouri is demolished. According to Charles Jencks, this signalled the 'death of modern architecture'.
• 1977
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     • Charles Jencks, a leading figure in Postmodern architecture, publishes ‘The Language of Postmodern Architecture’. Many textbooks suggest Postmodern art and architecture began to emerge after Jencks published his work.
• 1979
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     • Jean-Francois Lyotard publishes ‘La Condition postmoderne’. In 1984, it was translated and published as ‘The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge ’. His work attacks the concept of grand narratives and the crisis of legitimation.
• 1994
  1.  
     • Pulp Fiction produced (Directed by Quentin Tarantino) - It exhibits a non-linear narrative with counter-climaxes, multiple-plottings, elisions of time and space.