In particular it attacks the use of sharp classifications such as male versus female, straight versus gay, white versus black, and imperial versus colonial it holds realities to be plural and relative, and to be dependent on whom the interested parties are and of what their interests consist. It emphasises the role of language, power relations, and motivations in the formation of ideas and beliefs. Postmodernism postulates that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social constructs and are therefore subject to change. The term 'postmodernism' comes from its critique of the 'modernist' scientific mentality of objectivity and the progress associated with the Enlightenment. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the previously dominant modernist approaches.
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative.
For the condition or state of being, see Postmodernity.
