Rational Change And Literary Presentation In Modernity And Post-Modernity

The academic community generally believes that the core of modernity is rationality and certainty.From this perspective,the biggest characteristics of post-modernity are irrationality and uncertainty.From modernity to post-modernity,rationality has undergone a process from hegemony to exit,the culture in it has also changed accordingly.The literature and art,which is famous for its sensibility,must be influenced to a great extent and take on different stage characteristics.This paper is to investigate the different cultural and literary manifestations caused by the change of rational status during the process from modernity to post-modernity.The first chapter defines and analyzes the concept of modernity and post-modernity.Firstly,the two representative concepts of modernity are sorted out and summarized,and two different types of modernity--social modernity and aesthetic modernity are distinguished.Secondly,emphasis is placed on the analysis of Bauman's view of modernity.He views that modernity is a plan to establish the supreme status of truth,knowledge,reason and rationality,which represents the order and certainty.It is a plan leading to rationality and certainty.Its essence is rationality and certainty.Finally,it analyzes Bauman's post-modernity viewpoints.Characteristics of post-modernity,reactionary for a rational,is the uncertainty and contingency,it brings forgiveness and diversity,and also bring danger and fear.People feel that their survival is not guaranteed,so they have continuous anxiety,and anxiety is exactly the most typical living state of people in the post-modern environment.The second chapter studies the process of rationality gradually moving towards hegemony in modernity.With the arrival of modern society full of danger and complexity,a social management mode of "power-knowledge" symbiosis has emerged in order to gain security and certainty.This mode greatly enhanced the status of intellectuals and made themselves the legislators in the society.In order to better manage the social order,the legislative intellectuals elevated the rationality to an unprecedented height,and made the elite culture the only reasonable and standard higher culture in the modern society.This elite culture suppresses all forms of culture that are not in line with itself,especially folk culture and local culture.At this stage,the opposition between elite culture and mass culture was substantially established,and elite culture has realized the ban and suppression of mass culture.The third chapter analyzes the greatest side effect of the modernity of the rational hegemony—contradiction.If the final outcome of modernity is rationality and certainty,then contradiction is the abandoned object of modernity,which is accompanied by certainty.The contradictory condensation of modernity is "stranger",which plays a very important role.On the one hand,the "stranger" who have questioned the rational"garden-building activity" of modernity tries to explore a new way with doubt and uncertainty about the action of modernity,but they are also eager to return and assimilate because of too much uncertainty beyond the certainty.With assimilation difficult or even rejected causing people's alienation,Bauman believes that experience embodied in Kafka's works the most profoundly.The spirit of alienation,full of uneasiness,absurdity and anxiety,has become the theme of modernism literature represented by Kafka.Besides literature,as the most sensitive art,is the contradictory representative of modernity,which was born from the soil of modern rationality.on the one hand,and it is also a rebellion against social modernity on the other hand.The fourth chapter expounds a series of cultural and literary changes caused by the advent of post-modern consumer society,the gradual retreat of rationality,the change of intellectual identity and authority.As the division of labor becomes more and more sophisticated,the authority of intellectuals declines,middle-class groups emerge and develop rapidly,and the opposition between elites and the public gradually dissipates.Literary and artistic works have become "literary and artistic commodities"under the influence of the market,and elite culture has lost its high position,mass culture encroaches on the status of elite culture,and post-modern art becomes a mass art dominated by the market,which highlights sensibility and lacks rationality.From modernity to post-modernity,literature and art seem to be moving towards vulgarity,a popular culture dominated by secular orientation increasingly encroaches on the rightful place of high culture with real aesthetic value.If cultural and artistic works are controlled by the market,how art and literature should adhere to their own essence and exert their positive effects on society and individual spirit will become a question that requires long-term thinking.