Metamodernism is a term referring to contemporary art and theory that is self-aware in proceeding, or responding to, modernism and postmodernism. Metamodern advocates agree with many postmodern critiques of modernism (for example, highlighting gender inequality); however, contend that postmodern deconstruction and critical analytic strategies fall short in facilitating resolutions that a modernist may actually seek as well.[1][2]
Metamodern scholarship initially focused on interpretting art, and it established a foundation by observing the growing blend of irony and sincerity (or post-irony) as seemingly opposed elements. Later theorists have adopted a similar logic in approaching various fields holistically, and many have cited Ken Wilber's Integral Theory as a significant influence in their work.[3][4]
The term "metamodern" first appeared as early as 1975, when scholar Mas'ud Zavarzadeh used it to describe emerging American literature from the mid-1950s,[5] and later notably in 1999 when Moyo Okediji applied the term to contemporary African-American art as an "extension of and challenge to modernism and postmodernism."[6] It was not until Vermeulen and van den Akker's 2010 essay "Notes on Metamodernism" that the subject garnered broader attention within academia.[7]
To describe "the structure of feeling" of metamodernism, Vermeulen and van den Akker use the metaphor of a pendulum continually oscillating from the sincere seriousness of modernism to the ironic playfulness of postmodernism.[8][9][10]
^Rowson, Jonathan, ed. (2021). Dispatches from a Time Between Worlds: Crisis and Emergence in Metamodernity. London: Perspectiva Press. ISBN978-1914568046.