Metamodernism

Opening -- Part I. Metarealism. How the real world became a fable, or, The realities of social construction -- Part II. Process social ontology. Concepts in disintegration & strategies for demolition ; Process social ontology ; Social kinds -- Part III. Hylosemiotics. Hylosemiotics : the discourse of things -- Part IV. Knowledge and value. Zetetic knowledge ; The revaluation of values -- Conclusion : becoming metamodern.

Brings together many of the most influential voices in the scholarly and critical debate about post-postmodernism and twenty-first century aesthetics, arts and culture.

For decades, scholars have been calling into question the universality of disciplinary objects and categories. The coherence of defined autonomous categories—such as religion, science, and art—has collapsed under the weight of postmodern critiques, calling into question the possibility of progress and even the value of knowledge. Jason Ananda Josephson Storm aims to radicalize and move beyond these deconstructive projects to offer a path forward for the humanities and social sciences using a new model for theory he calls metamodernism. Metamodernism works through the postmodern critiques and uncovers the mechanisms that produce and maintain concepts and social categories. In so doing, Storm provides a new, radical account of society’s ever-changing nature—what he calls a “Process Social Ontology”—and its materialization in temporary zones of stability or “social kinds.” Storm then formulates a fresh approach to philosophy of language by looking beyond the typical theorizing that focuses solely on human language production, showing us instead how our own sign-making is actually on a continuum with animal and plant communication. Storm also considers fundamental issues of the relationship between knowledge and value, promoting a turn toward humble, emancipatory knowledge that recognizes the existence of multiple modes of the real. Metamodernism is a revolutionary manifesto for research in the human sciences that offers a new way through postmodern skepticism to envision a more inclusive future of theory in which new forms of both progress and knowledge can be realized.

Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, Depth brings together many of the most influential voices in the scholarly and critical debate about post-postmodernism and twenty-first century aesthetics, arts and culture. By relating cutting-edge analyses of contemporary literature, the visual arts and film and television to recent social, technological and economic developments, the volume provides both a map and an itinerary of today’s metamodern cultural landscape. As its organising principle, the book takes Fredric Jameson’s canonical arguments about the waning of historicity, affect and depth in the postmodern culture of western capitalist societies in the twentieth century, and re-evaluates and reconceptualises these notions in a twenty-first century context. In doing so, it shows that the contemporary moment should be regarded as a transitional period from the postmodern and into the metamodern cultural moment.

Introduction -- Contemporary British Poetry and Enigmaticalness -- Continuing 'Poetry Wars' in Twenty-First-Century British Poetry -- Committed and Autonomous Art -- Iconoclasm and Enigmatical Commitment -- The Double Consciousness of Modernism -- Conclusion.

An exploration of Metamodernism, the philosophical framework based on the post-2000 historical and cultural moment, helps in understanding digital citizenship beyond postmodernism and into the future. Research on best practices for learning in digital culture at a time of rapid transition is critical to the future of education and civilization, and an awareness of the philosophical era in which we live provides a foundation for understanding best practices in formal education as well as in personal lives. Without an awareness of Metamodernism, the overwhelming information encountered daily is nearly impossible to tackle, organize, or archive individually or collectively. Metamodernism explored through the lens of changing literacy impacts the field of library and information science as well as media communications. Metamodernism and Changing Literacy: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a critical scholarly publication that advocates for new thinking about literacy for all age groups through an exploration of global digital participatory culture and Metamodernism. A thorough examination of both the advantages and disadvantages of new media, new technologies, and virtual environments, with emphasis on metaliteracy, arms educators and learners of all ages with critical skills and keen perspectives. Featuring a wide range of topics such as digital citizenship, information consumption, and philosophy, successful educators and learners will find this book valuable for navigating virtual landscapes and identifying best practices for learning and life in a digitally connected world. The target audience includes administrators, educators, librarians, students, artists, and lifelong learners.

The period known as Postmodernism is over. With it goes the pervasive cynicism, apathy, and nihilism that defined so much of American culture during the latter 20th century. Now, a new sensibility--called "Metamodernism" by an emerging consensus--has occasioned the return of various ideas long denigrated under Postmodernism, but also transformed by it. This Metamodern sensibility is characterized by a thorough reimagination of transcendence, and the exploration of new modes of depth and dimensionality for meeting the challenge of the contemporary meaning crisis. Such is the argument presented in this short but incisive text, as it tracks the development of this new period from the decline of Postmodernism to today. In addition, this analysis is supplemented by two accompanying essays that explore the Metamodern reconstruction of meaning through artistic mythmaking, with examples from contemporary art and literature.

In this volume, fifteen scholars from the United States, Spain, Puerto Rico, and Colombia discuss the social implications of new technologies. Their essays address the cultural worlds that crystallize around technologies, the challenges to democracy that they pose, and the responsibility of modern technology for forcing a public response to new social and moral issues. Three themes define the three sections into which the volume is divided: "New Worlds," "New Technologies," and "New Issues." The essays in the section "New Worlds" range from optimism that new technologies will produce a better world than that of 1992, through a nonjudgmental discussion of the transformation of our "lifeworld" that new technologies are effecting, to deep concern for the viability of the world that modern technology has already created. In "New Technologies," the focus is on political responses to modern technologies. The authors in this section see the challenge to understanding and controlling our technological world in reshaping existing relations of social power and authority, and in creating new institutions more adequate to the sociopolitical realities of the process of technological innovation. While the contributors in the first two sections of the volume argue that broad changes in values and institutions are preconditions of a more beneficent relationship among people, nature, and technology, those in the section "New Issues" adopt narrower, more specific, viewpoints. Their essays address the political values underlying the Deep Ecology movement, the ethics of military technologies, the capacity of democratic institutions for a public role in setting technology policies, and science and technology literacy mechanisms. Collectively, these essays reflect the growing international concern with the role played by technological innovation in a rapidly changing world, and they point toward the formulation of concrete political platforms for informed social responses to the innovation process.