What Is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism is a broad, complex tent with many occupants. In this episode I attempt a working definition that is clear, defensible, and ultimately useful in driving exploration of this topic. I cast postmodernism as a response to modernism and its earth-shattering effects on all forms of art, with the most salient difference being heightened awareness (self-awareness but also of influences, history, and contemporaneous cultural movements) among postmodernists as opposed to modernists.