Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

post what?! (not) an abbreviated introduction 15
individual or group controls the construct, that behind it there is no reality,
only more constructs.
If we ignore the modernist premise of the fi lm The Matrix for a moment,
we can read Neo’s exposure to the Matrix itself as analogous to a modernist’s
initial exposure to cultural theory. The Matrix can be seen as modernity
and Neo’s grueling and painful journey of being unplugged from it as
representative of the disequilibrium accompanying fi rst-timers’ exposure to
cultural theory. They learn that the solid ground of modernity upon which
they had placed so much confi dence is failing them. Even worse, there is
nothing to replace it. At least Neo has a real world of computers and warfare
to fall back upon. A modernist learning about postmodernism is afforded no
such consolation. Marshall Brennan, author of another introductory study
of postmodernism, seemed to predict this sensation when he titled his overview
of cultural theory All That Is Solid Melts into Air. 14
The Matrix also offers a character who is symbolic of people who reject
cultural theory and remain in the comfortable surroundings of modernity.
This is Cypher, another human that Morpheus liberated. But Cypher fi nds
life as a rebel—miserable living conditions and a constant threat of discovery
and subsequent death—far from desirable, so he decides to betray his
fellow rebels in exchange for being returned to the artifi cial pleasures of
the Matrix. The only difference between Cypher and someone who rejects
cultural theory is that Cypher knows the Matrix to be a construct. People
who reject cultural theory tend to do so because they believe modernity’s
claims about a true and objective world.
A Few Terms
Before we go any further in defi ning cultural theory’s deconstruction of reality,
we should take a moment to agree on the meaning of the terms modernity
and modernism. Modernity refers to the state of affairs (the economy,
society, politics, etc.) associated with the modern era, roughly 1500 to the
late twentieth century. Modernism refers to the cultural expression of that
state of affairs, such as rococo, romanticism, and surrealism. To use an analogy,
capitalism and science are to modernity as Michelangelo’s David is
to modernism. This same formula applies to the terms postmodernity and
postmodernism. The former is the state of economic, political, and social
affairs that has been steadily emerging since the 1960s, whereas the latter
refers to the cultural expression of that condition. To rephrase the analogy,
discourse and globalism are to postmodernity as the photography of Cindy
Sherman and the prints of Andy Warhol are to postmodernism. As a quick