Glad you asked, Jimmy! To establish myself as someone with absolutely no life, I've decided to take the time to give, somewhat of, a tour of the postmodern school of thought and critical theory.
The postmodern approach to criticism concerns itself with viewing the art piece from the perspective of a lack of a single, "real" truth. There are several truths because each one requires many different variables and contexts that define is as currently true, but any one single theme or framework will collapse under postmodern theory because the frame of these concepts inevitably fall apart once the reality of a lack of a singular truth existing becomes applied. This movement, as its name implies, is a successor to the modernism movement, which sought to subvert the truths applied to society by changing our perceptions of what is beautiful, what is important, etc. Postmodernism is a reaction by saying essentially anything or nothing can be everything.
When applying postmodern theory to a text, some of the considerations one must take heed to are "how does this piece critique/deconstruct the genre it lies in?" and "is there a projected truth throughout the reality the piece takes place in? and if so is it rejected?" and other questions, but ultimately the philosophy cannot be applied piece by piece to certain moments of the art. It's an overall mindset of schizophrenia, skepticism, and playfulness. Nothing is real; okay, where do we go from there?
References of the day:
"Postmodern Criticism." Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism. Purdue OWL, n.d. Web. 19 May 2017.
I love how casual and laid back the tone of this intro is. To me modernism and post-modernism are intimidating topics and can be really hard to grasp & apply to I commend you for trying to tackle it. The way you phrase this intro makes it seem very approachable and simplified. I really dig it.
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