I define modernism as composed of "Modernism I," the scientific-philosophical modernism which began during the Renaissance, and "Modernism II," our confused, many-faceted reaction (including 20th century literary-artistic modernism) to seeing the serious problems associated with Modernism I. Modernism I is described as an imbalance and dissociation two human modes, or themes, "transcendent-detached" and "immanent-participatory," and post-modernism as our attempt to re-balance and connect them. The study describes post-modernism, and recommends aspects of it which point toward viable alternatives to a now dangerously distorted and over-confining modernism. / I discuss how "contemporary theory," our attempt to formulate alternatives to modernism on a theoretical-discursive level (such as this study), can easily fall back into modernist thinking in the form of over-categorization, hierarchization, and linearization, using examples from my own work, from that of Hegel, and from theorist bell hooks. I then use a number of works both to develop my model, which I call "creative multiplicity," and to show its usefulness in helping us understand modern and post-modern cultural productions in philosophy/critical theory, art/literature, science, and religion. Included are works by Trinh T. Minh-ha, Stanley Cavell, Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Ron Silliman, Douglas Hofstadter, Charles Peirce, Mikhail Bakhtin, Thomas Kuhn, and Clarice Lispector. / The creative multiplicity model stresses dynamic interaction, acceptance of logical paradox, nonlinearity, and the importance and complexity of boundaries. It is perhaps most different from other models of post-modernism in its explicit connection between post-modern characteristics and science, in particular its connection to several aspects of chaos theory. Also significantly distinctive are its stresses on (a non-originary, non-elitist idea of) creativity, on individuality (simultaneously with non-autonomy), and on the equal importance (and interrelationship) of unity, duality and multiplicity. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4466. / Major Professor: Ralph M. Berry. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77055 |
| Contributors | Meriwether, James Scaife, III., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 228 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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