Postmodernism
Etymology
Literally “after modernism,” from “post-” (“after”) plus modernism. The term gained currency in the 1970s and 80s through thinkers like Jean-François Lyotard, who defined it as “incredulity toward metanarratives.” Its very name signals a movement defined by what it comes after rather than by any positive program.
noun · /pohst-MOD-ern-izm/
The late-20th-century movement and mood that distrusts grand theories, universal truths, and firm boundaries between high and low culture.
What it names
The skeptical, ironic sensibility behind so much recent art and criticism — the reflex to ask whose truth, and to blur the line between original and copy.
Example
The film’s winking references to other movies are a postmodernism you either love or find exhausting.
Related idea
It relates to hyperreality — the postmodern condition in which copies and simulations come to feel more real than the originals they depict.
See also