The Social Essence of Postmodern Culture

The social nature of postmodern culture including the causes and consequences of its formation and the place of this phenomenon in the historical process are studied. Such an analysis is of external essence to its subject matter. The Marxist concept of the social origins of postmodern culture theoretically removes alternative concepts to it and considers postmodernity as a manifestation of the evolution of the capitalist mode of production, the spiritual culture of late capitalism. The accelerated turnover of capital in the era of late capitalism means the rapid emergence and equally rapid disappearance of various cultural phenomena, the mass commodification of images, absolutization of subjective desires at the expense of objective truth and the dominance of “symbolic exchange” in all spheres of social life. Postmodern culture naturally generates “identity wars”, anti-democratic and anti-humanist tendencies that preserve the capitalist social order. This culture can only be overcome through the practical overcoming of the capitalist mode of production.

postmodern, capitalism, commodification, identity, posthumanism