“I believe that the emergence of postmodernism is closely related to the emergence of this new moment of late, consumer or multinational capitalism.”
Jameson as a Marxist offers this treatment on postmodernism by critiquing the concept of modern capitalism or rather ‘late capitalism’. He attaches the idea of pastiche in postmodernism with the model of mass commodity production of late capitalism. In that the mass culture witnessed in postmodernism where appropriation is embraced in all art forms is driven by capitalism. In Postmodernism there is a lack of unique styles and hence pastiche replaced parody since there is no exclusivity to parody. Thus in visual arts, literature, and architecture the idea of Postmodernism and late capitalism blended synonymously as they possessed shared philosophies.
“…contemporary social system has little by little begun to lose its capacity to retain its own past, has begun to live in a perpetual present and in a perpetual change that obliterates traditions of the kind which all earlier social formations have had in one way or another to preserve.”
Jameson highlights the detachment Postmodernism has compared to other movements such as Realism and even Modernism. The Postmodern society rejected and the meta-narratives that aim to offer universal truths through the skepticism on such ideas. Therefore, a huge rift is created between the movement and those that came before it. Rather than entertain particular stimuli that provoked previous eras the postmodern society became cynical to them. Thus, the concept of retaining historical contexts is lost in postmodernist art forms by relegating their significance.
“It is safest to grasp the concept of the postmodern as an attempt to think the present historically in an age that has forgotten how to think historically in the first place.”
Jameson compares Realist and Postmodern visual arts by suggesting the pastiche and referential nature of postmodernism lacks contemporary historical context. Whilst realist art is full of historical context and furthermore has distinctiveness through the artist’s perspective. On postmodernist aesthetic Jameson points out the notion of referencing historical past within the framework of contemporary fashion and tenets. Thus, while the movement does not incorporate the ideologies adopted in the past it attempts to characterize the past through stereotypes with no depth.
