A Conceptual Framework for Postmodernism

Abstract

Some general concepts and ideas characterise postmodernist discourse. This is what you might call an analytical tool or apparatus criticus. Though, as a whole, it is impossible to assert the absolute accuracy of the borders between the concepts mentioned below, it is however necessary to underline the standard mission of the concepts used for the characteristics of a postmodernist paradigm, in particular, the terms “postmodernism”, “postmodern”, “postmodernity”, “postmodernisation”, and “postcontemporaneity”. If postmodernity is focused on the social and political reflections of this philosophy in a society, postmodernism is a cultural and intellectual phenomenon. Hence, we can speak about a condition, that is postmodern, and about postmodernism as the intellectual phenomenon. The postmodernist philosophy in this measurement creates a theoretical basis, or, in other words, a basis of postmodernism. Hence, postmodernism is a philosophical and ideological projection of postmodernity. Summarising the positions, it is possible to notice that postmodernism expresses a philosophical measurement that the postmodern and postmodernity are social, and that postmodernisation is a social and economic measurement of a concept that, in our opinion, testifies to the interdisciplinary character of the phenomenon “postmodernism” and its complex character.