Moving From Postmodernism to Metamodernism

This chapter describes the state or condition of society after the industrial revolution in the early 20th century as the information age overturned culture, ushering in postmodernity through the turn of the 21st century, which gave birth to what the author calls metamodernism. Philosophical movements present templates upon which individual thinkers characterize the cultural trends, artistic and literary achievements, scientific and technological advancements, and ways of thinking during a specific economic, social, and political time and space. The irreverence, cynicism, and irony of postmodernism gave way to a metamodern new sincerity and a new hope across the swinging pendulum of opposing ideas: tradition and innovation, birth and death, or truth and post-truth. The current cultural “sense of feeling” corresponds to networked culture and the critical need to address literacy in new ways.