SUBCULTURE AND POSTMODERNISM: REFLECTIONS OF GLOBAL IDEAS IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES

The paper focuses on the manifestation of postmodernism in contemporary culture. The concept is used in academic literature "to refer to certain styles in art, architecture and design, to forms of literary fiction, theater, dance, music, to philosophical ideas and scholarly views, to organizational structures (or non­ structures) and as an all-encompassing label for the present age" [10,190]. In this article the special emphasis is on an interaction between a popular culture and subcultures. This interaction is understood as a dynamic process involving inte­ gration of cultural ideas; it also manifests an opposite tendency of individualiza­ tion in society and culture. The paper reflects theoretical discourses of a contem­ porary theory of culture, explicated by James-Francois Lyotard, Ihab Hassan, Paul Ricoeur, Johan Fomas, Douglas Kelner, Mike Featherstone, and others. It also relies on the empirical data, collected by the author during 1998-2001 and 20031 in Lithuania, primarily inquiring how contemporary ideas of postmod­ ernism influence local subcultural communities.