Postmodernism Lecture 5 - Word Definitions

• The canon: The canon is a term applied to cultural products accepted as superior to or more significant than other examples of cultural product within the same field. Canon is established by critics, they established the value of a piece of text - a world of superior cultural artefacts - is under attack. The canon are critics, text are more likely to succeed if it agreed with the critic, (those in power). The canon degrades that, that is not like it or reflexive of their values. At the same time it gives much attention to notions of popularity and audience-related angles, people have a problem with the canon idea - a world of superior cultural artefacts - is under attack.
• DWEMs: Dead White European Males are a type of person viewed as unjustly dominant in culture and literature. They are archetypically despised by feminists, multiculturalists and post modernists.
• Phallocentricism - male experience is superior and that they have more privilege (special authority/right) in the construction of meaning.
• Eurocentricism - experience centred around Europe, focusing on European culture or history excluding a wider view of the world; implicitly regarding European culture as the leader/greatest.
• Post-colonialism: Examines the effects of colonial rule on the cultural aspects of the colony and its treatment of women, language, literature, and humanity. The post-colonial theorist analyses texts through a specific critical lens, or a specific way of reading a text. That critical lens, post-colonial theory or post-colonialism, asks the reader to analyse and explain the effects that colonization and imperialism, or the extension of power into other nations, have on people and nations.
• Multiculturalism: The view that the various cultures in a society merit equal respect and scholarly interest, it is the co-existence of diverse cultures.
• Feminism: Female rights and gender equality. Postmodern feminism is an approach to feminist theory that incorporates postmodern and post-structuralist theory, seeing itself as moving beyond the modernist polarities (opposites/contradictions) of liberal (willing to respect and accept) feminism and radical (departure from tradition) feminism. Postmodern feminism respects it’s departure from tradition where women have been gaining their right to gender equality.