1POSTMODERNISMWhat then is Post-modernism?A theory of Charles Jencks,‘What then is post-Modernism?’A very common question is “what is post modernism?” So, when the question is asked‘What then is post modernism?’ it indicates that all the existing answers for postmodernism can often be conceived as wrong.Post-modernism is not necessarily anti-modernism. There are many similarities and dissimilarities between modernism and postmodernism. So knowing about post-modernism is necessary as not the opposite ofmodernism. As they are not binary opposites, they're independent, mutually connected andsometimes contradicting so they both need separate discussions.Introducing Jencks- looks like an elite person, someone from the British parliament.- born in 1939 and still alive.- an architect (though we're studying literature, our course is titled as "post-modernism andliterature" not post-modernist literature. First, we have understood post-modernism; itsinfluence is on culture, literature, music, painting, architect etc. So if we need the help of anarchitect while studying post-modernism then why not? When we were studying languageand media, propaganda model, we studied Noam Chomsky despite him being a linguist.)Architectural Writer (every teacher is not a researcher, some are teacher, some areresearcher, some are literary, some are all three. Similarly Jencks is an architect as well as anarchitectural Writer. He doesn't only design or build architectures, he also wrote and gavetheories about architectures. T.S. Eliot is a poet but he also wrote the theory "Traditional andIndividual Talent". Wordsworth is a romantic poet but he also wrote "Preface to LyricalBallad".)Analyst of Post-modernism {this identity of his makes him relevant for our course. Though hesaw post-modernism from the point of view of an architect but when his theory is read we'llsee that he wasn't confined to architecture. Though he started the discussion witharchitecture but later he presented post-modernism from universal point of view. From tendifferent fields (history, politics, economics, culture business etc.) he discussed thesimilarities and dissimilarities between modernism and post-modernism in details}- Charles Jencks was the first person to use the term post-modernism in architecture. (Beforethat the application of the word post-modernism or the idea of it was nowhere to be seen inarchitecture. He can be called the father of Post-modernism in architecture.)- "The Language of Post-modernism Architecture", "What is Post-modernism" are some ofhis important works. "What Then is post-modernism" is a chapter from the book "What ispost-modernism".
