TURN TO POSTMODERNISM IN JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET’S WORKS AND THE PRESENCE OF POSTMODERNITY FEATURES IN MODERNITY

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The concepts of “modernism” and “postmodernism” (or “modern” and “postmodern” in usage on post-soviet scientific space and “modernity” and “postmodernity” in English-language literature) 1 today are widely used in a scientific context. At the same time, the scatter of their meanings, understandings, and definitions is very large. There is no consensus among scientists on the chronological framework of periods indicated by these concepts. This fact actualizes the continuation of research to identify the specifics of the concepts of modernity and postmodernity, as well as the phenomena that they designate. In the context of this problem, the judgments and conclusions of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset are interesting. The study of his work is relevant due to the unresolved circle of cultural and philosophical problems and questions that he posed at the beginning of the twentieth century for the world culture (and above all – European culture) of our time. The work of Jose Ortega y Gasset as a whole is characterized by trends inherent in the culture of the first half of the twentieth century, which are usually collectively defined as the period of modern, modernism, and avantgarde. At the same time, in a significant part of Ortega’s work, we can notice the trends of the next period, which became significant in the second half of the twentieth – the beginning of the twenty-first century, the tendencies of postmodernity and postmodernism. What is the reason for this phenomenon? Is this the result of creative insights of a gifted person or the implicit presence of postmodernity features in modernity, or maybe this is a consequence of the blurriness and uncertainty of the distinguished stages boundaries in worldview and culture, which are conventionally defined as “modernity” and “postmodernity”? Naturally, it is hardly possible to unambiguously and fully study the problem and answer these questions in the framework of one article. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to expand the understanding of Jose Ortega y Gasset’s cultural studies, to identify the features of