Renee Post-class blog 9/26

There are many correlations between Habermas and Lyotard's words on post-modernism that align with things that can be seen in contemporary culture. For example, Habermas says that we are in this "cult of the new" (99). Due to the way commercialism, capitalism, and consumerism is moving, it seems as if we are headed in a trajectory of creating and buying the fastest, best, most improved, newest, etc. It does not appear as if we will be moving out of this cycle (if we can call it that) and obsession with "the new" anytime soon. Due to extremely high and increasing production rates, we are constantly moving farther and farther away from the idea of the referent or the original as well.

Lyotard speaks on realism and the ideas of representing reality as well. He states that "realistic representations can no longer evoke reality except as nostalgia or mockery" (40). Although I find this statement to be somewhat of a sad one, I find it to be true. In our current culture, especially within the art world,  it seems that many large exhibitions will display artworks by the well-named artists of the past (Van gogh, Matisse, da Vinci, etc.) in a sort of honoring and nostalgic manner. Even many of the big movies being produced are remakes of classical cinema works. Even in our current political climate, with the popularized "Make America Great Again" slogan, there is a large degree and presence of nostalgia and looking on this past notion of the United States of America as some memorialized ideal that we should attain to go back to and use as a setting example.

I would however, argue that an example of representing reality that doesn't fit under this umbrella of nostalgia or mockery would be in art exhibitions and other content that has aimed to resituate and re-present images and historical notions. For example, the Dangerous Women exhibit at the Cornell Fine Arts museum last year worked to take classical works of art with women in them and place them in a more positive context in which they were honored and admired for strength rather than idealized and sexualized. To me, this is an attempt to revisit history that does not hold a tone of nostalgia or mockery, but rather strives to be more inclusive and thoughtful.


On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work. -Renee Sang