Modernisme & Postmodernism in “Inception”
By: Abdul Malik Azis
Tags: Inception, Sastra Inggris, Unikom, Fakultassastra, Analysis

This time I will discuss about the issues or ideas of postmodernism in the Inception, why did I choose Inception? Because it is one of my favorite movies that even though I watch it repeatedly and I never feel bored, because of the plot twist, visuals and puzzles that I just felt and enjoyed in the movie. I chose Inception too because in my opinion there are several ideas of postmodernism in the movie. I will explain a few things about modernism and postmodernism according to my understanding from the results of research.

Modernism

Modernism is a both a philosophical movement and an art movement that arose from broad transformation in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, and social organization which reflected the newly emerging industrial world, including features such as urbanization, new technologies, and war. Artist attempted to depart from traditional forms of art, which they considered outdated or obsolete. The poet Ezra Pound’s 1934 injuction to “Make it new!” was the touchstone of the movement’s approach.

Modernist innovations included abstract art, the stream-of-conciousness novel, montage cinema, atonal and twelve-tone music, and divisionist painting. Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology of realism and made use of the works of the past by the employment of reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody. Modernism also rejected the certainly of enlightenment thinking, and many modernists also rejected the certainly of religious belief. A notable characteristic of modernism is self-conciousness concerning artistic and social traditions, which often led to experimentation with form, along with the use of techniques that drew attention to the processes and materials used in creating works of art.

Some commentators define modernism as a mode of thinking — one or more philosophically defined characteristics, like self-consciousness or self-reference, that run across all the novelties in the arts and the disciplines. More common, especially in the West, are those who see it as a socially progressive trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve and reshape their environment with the aid of practical experimentation, scientific knowledge, or technology. From this perspective, modernism encouraged the re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was ‘holding back progress, and replacing it with new ways of reaching the same end. Others focus on modernism as an aesthetic introspection. This facilitates consideration of specific reactions to the use of technology in the First World War, and anti-technological and nihilistic aspects of the works of diverse thinkers and artists spanning the period from Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) to Samuel Beckett (1906–1989).

In my opinion, modernism is determined by capitalist economy, and the progress brought about by the transition from previous societies to capitalist societies. Some experts consider that works aimed at criticizing capitalist economic systems that have shortcomings, such as alienation and exploitation. Even the problems of modern life that determine the development of formal rationality at the expense of the type of rationality as if humans could not reveal their most basic characteristics. There are also those who see modernism as determined by organic solidarity and the weakening of collective consciousness.

Modernity has a fundamental consequence which consists of four things, namely capitalism which is characterized by the production of commodities, industrialists which involve the use of natural resources and machinery to produce goods, the ability to supervise which refers to the activities of individual citizens, and military power over the means of violence. There is an occupation of human life by the system, one of which is the increasing problem of a bureaucratic and modern social welfare state. The problem will not be resolved in this way, but must be resolved in the context of the relationship between the system and world life.

Postmodernism

In my opinion, postmodernism is an intellectual movement that was born in response to several themes put forward by some modernists. The era of postmodernism is only limited to the end of the 20th century. Some experts say that the postmodernism era began after World War II ended because of the existential disappointment due to the Holocaust. Postmodernism may not have a central hierarchy or clear organizational principles, contradictions, which show complexity, ambiguity of diversity and extreme interrelations. However, its general characteristics are usually considered to include rejection of grand narratives, rejection of universal and absolute truths, simulations without originals, use of parody, globalization and the end of capitalism. Postmodernism if etymologically refers to a life after modernism. Philosophically, postmodernism refers to two things, namely, distrust of the end of history and metanarrative.

Previously it was mentioned that postmodernism has two meanings, namely, postmodernism as a reaction to aesthetic modernism in the first half of the 20th century in literature, art and architecture. And postmodernism as a reaction to the tradition of modernity that has lasted a long time during the Middle Ages. Postmodernism as a reaction to aesthetic modernism emerged immediately after World War II and still carries some of the aesthetic features of 20th century modernism. Some scholars believe that postmodernism is basically a continuation of modernism and is not a separate movement. However, there is a fundamental difference that must be understood, namely that aesthetic modernism presents fragmentation or something that must be complained of. While postmodernism presents a celebration or something that must be celebrated.

If we look at the two meanings of postmodernism that have been stated previously, it can be said that both meanings are a form of reaction to two different aspects of modernism. But in truth, the two meanings are coherent and not separate even though they describe two different forms of reaction to the two facets of modernism.

We know that in the era of postmodernism, it rejects the absolute truth about science and others, such as events that have even been predicted and considers to be able to exceed the limits of logic, in this Inception, they can break a logic or maybe justify where we know that humans are only able to dream on only one reality or dream world. But Nolan as the filmmaker of Inception makes us all surprised by ideas or imaginations that might make sense but are very impossible to be realized in the real world, Nolan makes us think, is there possible someone who can make the dream world reality as he wishes and can control the situation in a dream? It can even dream three times our usual dreams.

They also have a machine that can make someone fall asleep instantly using a kind of anesthesia to sleep, and there is also a city in Inception where there is a place that contains people who feel fed up with their real life and choose to spend their time in world of dreams. That proves that once again, they surpass or break the absolute truth and ambiguous. How to gather people around us to meet in one person’s dream reality? They interact in the dream even the most sensible thing is that their life in the dream also depends on their life in the real world, even the situation in the real world is also very influential with the world in their dreams.

Conclusions relating to postmodernism and this inception film are, they reject or break the facts and are wrapped with a work that is so genius that it allows people to think that one day they did not rule out the possibility that this could happen and might be realized. In my view postmodernism are people who are so smart and genius that they make ideas that can transcend logic, they create works in which the work can bring different meanings from different people’s perspectives and that goes back to people who enjoy the work wants to interpret it as anything and how.

Thanks.

63718023-Abdul Malik Azis

Universitas Komputer Indonesia

Fakultas Sastra

Program Studi Sastra Inggris