Postmodernists borrow modernism’s features to claim a false novelty

Evidence

The point of such assertions seems to be less their factual content, which is slight, than the attempt to establish the novelty of Postmodernism, usually characterized in terms bor­ rowed from Modernism, by treating the latter as merely the latest exemplar of Western rationalism. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 128

Categorization

• XREF: This critique of manufactured novelty is the kernel of Callinicos’s charge that postmodernism’s radical break is largely rhetorical — a structural argument the reader can pit against Jameson’s periodization. — connects to: The demand for novelty paradoxically strengthens the conventions it appears to escape — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 100; Postmodernism’s rejection of innovation still depends on the very notion of novelty. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 276; Modernism pursues the New substantively while postmodernism only clocks variations — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 8 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Postmodernism’s rejection of innovation still depends on the very notion of novelty. #qualifies (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 276
• Modernism pursues the New substantively while postmodernism only clocks variations #expands (0.78) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 8
• Claims of a unified postmodern condition stem from American cultural amnesia favoring novelty #expands (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 718