Postmodernism (Poststructural Approach)This is a featured page

Postmodernism1. Postmodern Approach (Poststructural Approach)
Post-modernism is a study of literature to provide a causal explanation for social phenomenon by French thinkers.
It is "skeptical of all meta-narratives,arguing that if truth is embedded in discursive structures then it is not "out there" waiting to be discovered (161). Truth, therefore, is a social construct that we get to live with. It does not aim to replace any meta-narrative*, it only aims to challenge the existing meta-narrative. After all, all other meta-narrative interpretations are already out there. "Star Trek" can also be a meta-narrative of any given situation, so they will draw similarities from unrelated texts together to show a common thread running through them all. One flip-side is Postmodernism leads to moral-relativism, yet some scholars argue the opposite.

One of the ideas that leads to moral relativism is the postmodernist argument that “given that we can never know reality or describe it accurately, postmodernism assumes that there are an infinite number of ways to interpret the same text or event and that all of them are of equal interest or value” (162).

Postmodernism: A Genealogy of Humanitarian Intervention by Rosemary E. Shinko
- Postmodernists focus on uniqueness of each event (168).
- Nation-state does not have to be over emphasized as is often done by realists (168).
- If a situation asks for a power play, then postmodernists will acknowledge that. However, they can also be very liberal and emphasize the role of individual in resisting the pressures of the state.
- "A postmodern approach attempts to draw our attention to the ways in which force and humanitarian intervention are inextricably intertwined and how they co-produce one another" (170).
- That "all structures of rule and morality are held in place by violence is one of the most important postmodern insights" (170).
- Deconstruction is a primal element, and for postmodernists this can be "characterized as a 'genealogy of violence' that attempts to expose the instances of violence...buried at the heart of our institutional arrangements (171). If violence is the underlying common term sustaining humanitarian intervention...then the difference between the two collapses" (172).



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