The Post-Modern Mind. A Reconsideration of John Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” (1975) from the Viewpoint of an Interdisciplinary History of Ideas

Roland Benedikter, Judith Hilber

Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
Technical College Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy.

DOI: 10.4236/ojpp.2012.21010                

Abstract

This paper gives a short description of basic features of the dominating mindset in the Western world between the 1970s and today, often called “post-modern”, through a re-reading of John Ashbery’s poem “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” (1975). In doing so, it applies the viewpoint of an interdisciplinary history of ideas. Since collective mindsets have become the most important contextual political factors, the implications are multiple.

Keywords

Postmodernity; Social Psychology; Poetry; Mindset; Contextual Political Analysis

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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