Edited sentence: " (Lyotard 1984:759) (Jencks, 1986:21)." Its paradoxical nature might lead one to question whether it is in fact distinct from the modern period."Modernity can only define itself in terms of a temporal break with an organic past", (ibid) or, in the words of the Oxford English Dictionary, "[i]n Historical use commonly applied (in contradistinction to ancient and mediæval) to the time subsequent to the middle ages"."Postmodernism has the essential double meaning, the continuation of modernism and its transcendence.(OED 2nd Ed.(Oxford English Dictionary, 1989) Its nature as a term is inherently indexical or deictic: every period which compares and contrasts itself to previous periods is modern in its self-understanding.) Pinkey notes that the term modernism refers to "merely the empty flow of time itself" (Pinkey, 1989:42).Etymologically, it comes from Latin modo, meaning just now.Indeed, Jean-François Lyotard describes it as "the paradox of the future (post) anterior (modo).Indeed, [Jürgen] Habermas observes that "[p]eople considered themselves modern during the period of Charles the Great, in the 12th century, as well as in France of the late 17th century...the term 'modern' appeared and reappeared exactly during those periods in Europe when consciousness of a new epoch formed..." (Habermas, 1981:147).It is important to acknowledge that the very notion of modernity and modernism is problematic.Postmodernism is an even more problematic term, paradoxically meaning (if we take its Latin origins literally) 'after just now'