As an artistic movement, this is characterized by art which celebrates its own lack of specific and unitary authorship. Postmodern art emphasizes that meaning is created by the reader and the culture, not by the absolute rule of a single author. This brings up interesting issues of what would constitute postmodernism in RPGs. References: Hackmaster: The Postmodern RPG Postmodern? Huh
Style of art (c.1970-current) which self-consciously borrows various compositional elements from great works of the past and rearranges them in new combinations, often with a distinctive neoclassical flavor.
A wide-ranging term describing certain post-World War II artistic works, characterized by nonlinearity, self-referentiality if not self-parody, and multiple/simultaneous sensory impressions.
the late 20th-century tendency (in art, thought, and society) to distrust objectivity, authority, universality, and moral and ideological absolutes. Postmodern artists tend to mix styles, cultures, techniques, and high and low forms of art.
Lyotard] a historical/cultural "condition" based on a dissolution of master narratives or metanarratives, a crisis in ideology when ideology no longer seems transparent; [Jameson] a movement in arts and culture corresponding to a new configuration of politics and economics, "late capitalism": transnational consumer economies based on global scope of capitalism
came into use in the 1950s in reference to architectural styles as a protest to the cubes, circles, pyramids and cones that marked modern architecture. The term was extended to literary critique of all pretensions at universal standards for novels, poetry, and composition. It use spread to art criticism; to critique of music and theater. Now it is used to denote an era in which all absolutes; all universals; all claims to objective Truth and all pretensions of perfection are challenged. Such a perspective fits excellently well into the ontological paradigm defined by nonlinear dynamics since there are no centers, absolutes or final states to which systems 'naturally' evolve.
A term first used in the arts to denote a reaction against modernism and a revival of classic traditions, often mixed indiscriminately.