Cultural movements

From ArticleWorld


A cultural movement is a shift in ideological or political perspectives. The cultural shift may occur in many guises and begin for any reason, the new cultural movement may be from an artistic, philosophical or a scientific change.

Definition

The cultural movement or era may last for a number of years and encompass large swathes of general society as well as individual sections. The modern era of global communications has replaced the antiquated movements of bygone millennia, where it would be common for a movement to be contained to a single nation or empire. As one cultural movement replaces another, clashes occur with elements and genres from the replaced movement, either becoming integrated or refined or removed completely. Often it is the ideology of particular genres, aspects or even the entirety of the movement that causes the shift in culture. Simplistic changes and updates to what has become an antiquated system are often given the prefix ‘neo’, to simply mean an updated or refined version of a previous cultural movement.

Antiquated Movements

History is full of cultural movements developing in various parts of the globe for numerous reasons. The historical lines and definitions are often blurred by modern historians, most cultural movements have no defining opening movement, they transition occurs more organically than a simple finite event. Occasionally there are historical moments that lead to a movement making the job of researching the progression of a cultural movement. Similarly cultural movements are susceptible to sudden and abrupt as well as simply becoming diluted or faded out, making the linear line of the overall period difficult to chart. Some early examples of early cultural movements include Gothic, Renaissance and Romanticism.

(Post)Modernism

The modern era of cultural movements have been predominantly reactionary philosophical events. Post-modernism is one of the current movements that humanity is currently existing in. Post-modernism is a reaction to the avant garde modernism age beginning in the late 19th century, ousting its ideals and methodologies replacing it with a bleaker but more contemporary feel. Post-modernism questions the artistic endeavours of the modernist age and discounts swathes of the belief system also developed during the time. Like most eras with the ‘post’ prefix, post-modernism is a critique and foresees a bleak future, where history has effectively come to an end.