It is hard, perhaps impossible, to say when an era has reached, or will reach, its end, especially if that era happens to define one's own contemporary environment. Perhaps we have come to clamor for the end of postmodernism because we feel increasingly uncertain about its beginnings and thus our own stance within it. Or, unhappy with postmodernism's ambiguities, we feel the urge for a new beginning and new directions. Or, worst of all, we despair of ever getting out from under postmodernism and thus ironically proclaim its end in the hopes of seeing it arrive. The uncertain beginnings of postmodernism are often, and correctly, associated with the appearance of one particular text, although postmodernism applies to the other arts as well, first and foremost to architecture, but also to music, painting, photography, and dance.
It is hard, perhaps impossible, to say when an era has reached, or will reach, its end, especially if that era happens to define one's own contemporary environment. Perhaps we have come to clamor for the end of postmodernism because we feel increasingly uncertain about its beginnings and thus our own stance within it. Or, unhappy with postmodernism's ambiguities, we feel the urge for a new beginning and new directions. Or, worst of all, we despair of ever getting out from under postmodernism and thus ironically proclaim its end in the hopes of seeing it arrive. The uncertain beginnings of postmodernism are often, and correctly, associated with the appearance of one particular text, although postmodernism applies to the other arts as well, first and foremost to architecture, but also to music, painting, photography, and dance.
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