{{short description|Artistic and philosophical movement}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2021}}
'''New sincerity''' (closely related to and sometimes described as synonymous with post-postmodernism) is a trend in music, aesthetics, literary fiction, film criticism, poetry, literary criticism and philosophy that generally describes creative works that expand upon and break away from concepts of postmodernist irony and cynicism.
Its usage dates back to the mid-1980s; however, it was popularized in the 1990s by American author David Foster Wallace.<ref name=":0">Wallace, David Foster. [http://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction"], ''Review of Contemporary Fiction'' 13(2), Summer 1993, pp. 151-194.</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Williams|first=Iain|date=May 27, 2015|title=(New) Sincerity in David Foster Wallace's "Octet"|journal=Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction|volume=56|issue=3|pages=299–314|doi=10.1080/00111619.2014.899199|s2cid=142547118|issn=0011-1619}}</ref>
==In music== "New sincerity" was used as a collective name for a loose group of alternative rock bands, centered in Austin, Texas, in the years from about 1985 to 1990, who were perceived as reacting to the ironic and cynical outlook of then-prominent music movements like punk rock and new wave. The use of "new sincerity" in connection with these bands began with an off-handed comment by Austin punk rock artist and author Jesse Sublett to his friend, local music writer Margaret Moser. According to author Barry Shank, Sublett said: "All those new sincerity bands, they're crap."<ref name="Shank">Barry Shank, [https://books.google.com/books?as_isbn=9780819562760 ''Dissonant Identities: The Rock'N'Roll Scene in Austin, Texas''] (Wesleyan University Press, 1994) ({{ISBN|9780819562760}}), p. 148–149 & p.271 n.84. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=v79of-KXnfgC&q=crap&pg=RA1-PA171 excerpt available] at Google Books).</ref> Sublett (at his own website) states that he was misquoted, and actually told Moser, "It's all new sincerity to me ... It's not my cup of tea."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100122071814/http://jessesublett.wordpress.com/the-skunks-the-band-that-blasted-austin-out-of-the-1970s/ "Jesse's Music Bio"] at [http://jessesublett.wordpress.com/ ''Jesse Sublett's Little Black Book''] (retrieved September 18, 2009).</ref> In any event, Moser began using the term in print, and it ended up becoming the catch phrase for these bands.<ref name="Shank" /><ref>Peter Blackstock, [http://www.nodepression.net/blogs/peter/2008/01/_is_it_worth_the_admission.html "'is it worth the admission....'"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204134302/http://www.nodepression.net/blogs/peter/2008/01/_is_it_worth_the_admission.html |date=December 4, 2008 }}, ''No Depression'' blog post dated January 15, 2008.</ref>
Nationally, the most successful "new sincerity" band was the Reivers (originally called "Zeitgeist"), who released four well-received albums between 1985 and 1991. True Believers, led by Alejandro Escovedo and Jon Dee Graham, also received extensive critical praise and local acclaim in Austin, but the band had difficulty capturing its live sound on recordings, among other problems.<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p27102|pure_url=yes}} True Believers] at AllMusic.</ref> Other important "new sincerity" bands include Doctors Mob,<ref>Kent H. Benjamin, [http://weeklywire.com/ww/08-30-99/austin_music_feature2.html "Why Should Anyone Care Now?"], ''Austin Chronicle Weekly Wire'' August 30, 1999.</ref><ref>[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p26360|pure_url=yes}} Doctors Mob] at AllMusic.</ref> Wild Seeds,<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p27169|pure_url=yes}} Wild Seeds] at AllMusic.</ref> and Glass Eye.<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p4370|pure_url=yes}} Glass Eye] at AllMusic.</ref> Another significant "new sincerity" figure was the eccentric, critically acclaimed songwriter Daniel Johnston.<ref name="Shank" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/politics/donald-trump-and-the-new-sincerity-artists-have-mo/|title=Donald Trump and the "New Sincerity" Artists Have More in Common Than Either Would Like to Admit|date=August 9, 2016|website=pastemagazine.com}}</ref>
Despite extensive critical attention (including national coverage in ''Rolling Stone'' and a 1985 episode of the MTV program ''The Cutting Edge''), none of the "new sincerity" bands met with much commercial success, and the "scene" ended within a few years.<ref>Kristin Gorski, [http://annabellemagazine.com/annabelle%20issue%2012/08Z.html Almost Famous: The Austin Texas Soundtrack Circa 1985] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016105433/http://www.annabellemagazine.com/annabelle%20issue%2012/08Z.html |date=October 16, 2008 }}, ''Annabelle Magazine'', No. 12 (2006).</ref><ref>Michael Corcoran, "The New Sincerity: Austin in the Eighties", reprinted in Michael Corcoran, ''All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music'' (University of Texas Press, 2005), {{ISBN|978-0-292-70976-8}}, pp. 150–156.</ref>
Other music writers have used "new sincerity" to describe later performers Arcade Fire,<ref>''Huffington Post'', [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-d-fitzgerald/mumford-and-sons-god-and-the-new-sincerity_b_2694876.html "ultra-sincere indie artists from Arcade Fire"] ''Huffington Post'', May 16, 2013.</ref> Conor Oberst,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/arts/music/16sann.html "Mr. Sincerity tries a new trick"] ''The New York Times'', January 16, 2005.</ref> Cat Power, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom,<ref name="jacket35">Jason Morris, [http://jacketmagazine.com/35/morris-sincerity.shtml "The Time Between Time: Messianism & the Promise of a 'New Sincerity{{'"}}], ''Jacket'' 35 (2008)</ref> Neutral Milk Hotel,<ref name="mumfordgodandNS">''Huffington Post'', [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-d-fitzgerald/mumford-and-sons-god-and-the-new-sincerity_b_2694876.html "many significant indie artists"], May 16, 2013.</ref> Sufjan Stevens,<ref name="mumfordgodandNS"/> Idlewild,<ref>Robert Christgau, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121021104956/http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-03-27/music/vibrators/2/ "Vibrators"], ''The Village Voice'', March 27, 2001.</ref> as well as Austin's Okkervil River<ref>Kate X. Messer, [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:76071 "Okkervil River: The New Sincerity"], ''Austin Chronicle'', March 3, 2000.</ref> Leatherbag,<ref>Austin Powell, [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid:754184 "Texas Platters: deEP end"], ''Austin Chronicle'', March 13, 2009.</ref> and Michael Waller.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cookylamoo.com/boringlikeadrill/2015/09/michael-vincent-waller-the-south-shore.html|title=Boring Like A Drill. A Blog. » Michael Vincent Waller: The South Shore|website=www.cookylamoo.com|date=September 22, 2015 |access-date=December 15, 2017}}</ref>
==In film criticism== Critic Jim Collins introduced the concept of "new sincerity" to film criticism in his 1993 essay titled "Genericity in the 90s: Eclectic Irony and the New Sincerity". In this essay he contrasts films that treat genre conventions with "eclectic irony" and those that treat them seriously, with "new sincerity". Collins describes,<blockquote> the "new sincerity" of films like ''Field of Dreams'' (1989), ''Dances With Wolves'' (1990), and ''Hook'' (1991), all of which depend not on hybridization, but on an "ethnographic" rewriting of the classic genre film that serves as their inspiration, all attempting, using one strategy or another, to recover a lost "purity", which apparently pre-dated even the golden age of film genre.<ref>Jim Collins, "Genericity in the 90s: Eclectic Irony and the New Sincerity" in Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins, eds., [https://books.google.com/books?id=oDwTPU8l2RQC ''Film Theory Goes to the Movies''] (New York: Routledge, 1993) ({{ISBN|0415905761}}, {{ISBN|978-0-415-90576-3}}), p. 242, 245.</ref></blockquote>
===Cinematic and televised examples=== {{div col}} *''Bonnie and Clyde'' (1967)<ref name="FT">{{Cite web|url=https://www.filmtheory.org/new-sincerity/|title=New Sincerity|website=Filmtheory.org|date=2015-06-03|access-date=2021-12-30}}</ref> *''Field of Dreams'' (1989)<ref name="FT"/><ref name="Escapist"/><ref name="Escapist2">{{cite web|date=2021-05-21|last=Mooney|first=Darren|url=https://www.escapistmagazine.com/with-shrek-irony-went-mainstream-for-better-and-for-worse/|title=With Shrek, Irony Went Mainstream – for Better and for Worse|work=The Escapist|access-date=2025-03-24}}</ref><ref name="Wes Anderson"/><ref name="Genericity"/> *''Dances With Wolves'' (1990)<ref name="FT"/><ref name="Escapist"/><ref name="Wes Anderson"/><ref name="Genericity">{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Jim|year=1993|chapter=Genericity in the Nineties: Eclectic Irony and the New Sincerity|editor-first1=Jim|editor-last1=Collins|editor-first2=Ava|editor-last2=Preacher Collins|editor-first3=Hilary|editor-last3=Radner|title=Film Theory Goes to the Movies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDwTPU8l2RQC|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780203873243|doi=10.4324/9780203873243-17}}</ref> *''Ghost'' (1990)<ref name="Escapist2"/> *''Hook'' (1991)<ref name="FT"/><ref name="Escapist"/><ref name="Genericity"/> *''The Lion King'' (1994)<ref name="Escapist"/> *''Amélie'' (2001)<ref name="Vulture"/> *''The Royal Tenenbaums'' (2001)<ref name="Vulture"/> *''The Man Who Wasn't There'' (2001)<ref name="Neo-Noir">{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=R. Barton|year=2014|chapter=The New Sincerity of Neo-Noir|editor-first= Homer B.|editor-last=Pettey|title=International Noir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z5w7DwAAQBAJ|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|pp=193-|isbn=9780748691111}}</ref> *''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (2004)<ref name="Vulture">{{cite web|last=Jones|first=Nate|date=2020-08-19|url=https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/eternal-sunshine-is-a-perfect-00s-time-capsule.html|title=I'm Terrified to Rewatch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind|work=Vulture|access-date=2025-03-24}}</ref> *''Garden State'' (2004)<ref name="Vulture"/> *''The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'' (2004)<ref name="Wes Anderson">{{cite journal|last=Buckland|first=Warren|year=2012|title=Wes Anderson: a ‘smart’ director of the new sincerity?|journal=New Review of Film and Television Studies|volume=10|issue=1|pp=1–5|doi=10.1080/17400309.2011.640888}}</ref> *The Twilight Saga (2008–2012)<ref name="Buzzsaw"/> *''Glee'' (2009–2015)<ref name="Buzzsaw">[https://buzzsawmag.org/2018/06/22/its-cool-to-be-sweet-new-sincerity-in-film/ It's Cool to Be Sweet: New Sincerity in Film – Buzzsaw Magazine]</ref> *''Frances Ha'' (2012)<ref>{{cite journal|last=den Dulk|first=Allard|date=2020|title=New Sincerity and Frances Ha in Light of Sartre: A Proposal for an Existentialist Conceptual Framework|journal=Film-Philosophy|volume=24|issue=2|pp=140-161|doi=10.3366/film.2020.0136|doi-access=free|issn=1466-4615}}</ref> *''Being Flynn'' (2012)<ref>{{cite journal|last=Zahurska|first=Nataliia|year=2022|title=New Sincerity in Post-Postmodern Art|journal=Filosofiya. Filosofskii peripetii|issue=66|pp=19-25|doi=10.26565/2226-0994-2022-66-2|issn=2226-0994|doi-access=free}}</ref> *''Moonrise Kingdom'' (2012)<ref name="FT"/> *''The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'' (2013)<ref name="HollywoodInsider">{{cite web|last=Silberman|first=Zackary|date=2021-04-16|url=https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty-review/|title=In Defense of 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty': Toward a New Sincerity|work=Hollywood Insider|access-date=2025-03-24}}</ref> *''Nathan for You'' (2013–2017)<ref>{{cite journal|last=Thompson|first=Lucas|year=2020|title=''Nathan for You'' and the New Sincerity aesthetic|journal=New Review of Film and Television Studies|volume=18|issue=4|pp=431–451|doi=10.1080/17400309.2020.1812978}}</ref> *''Sieranevada'' (2016)<ref name="Przybylski"/> *''{{ill|Cicha noc (film)|lt=Silent Night|pl}}'' (2017)<ref name="Przybylski">{{cite conference|last=Przybylski|first=Krystian|year=2024|chapter=''Be With Everyone?'' The New Sincerity Man in the Films of Cristi Puiu, Piotr Domalewski, and Cristian Mungiu|editor-first1=Denisa-Adriana|editor-last1=Oprea|editor-first2=Liria Lienor|editor-last2=Chapelan|title=Patterns of Miscommunication in Contemporary East-Central European Cinema|location=Bucharest|publisher=Editura COMUNICARE.RO|pp=193-205|isbn=978-973-711-652-9}}</ref> *''Avatar: The Way of Water'' (2022)<ref name="Escapist">{{cite web|last=Mooney|first=Darren|date=2023-04-14|url=https://www.escapistmagazine.com/avatar-top-gun-maverick-scream-creed-iii-the-new-sincerity/|title=Avatar, Top Gun: Maverick, Scream, Creed III, & the New Sincerity|work=The Escapist|access-date=2025-03-24}}</ref> *''R.M.N.'' (2022)<ref name="Przybylski"/> *''Creed III'' (2023)<ref name="Escapist"/> *''Wonka'' (2023)<ref name="Empire Online">{{cite web|last=Freer|first=Ian|date=2023-12-04|url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/wonka/|title=Wonka Review|work=Empire Online|access-date=2025-12-25}}</ref><ref name="Letterboxd Journal">{{cite web|last=Kemp|first=Ella|date=2023-12-09|url=https://letterboxd.com/journal/Paul-king-wonka-interview/|title=Pure Imagination|work=Letterboxd|access-date=2025-12-25}}</ref><ref name="'Wonka' review">{{cite web|last=Puchko|first=Kristy|date=2024-03-08|url=https://mashable.com/article/wonka-movie-review|title='Wonka' review: Can Timothée Chalamet win over the haters?|work=Mashable|access-date=2025-12-25}}</ref><ref name="Wonka First Reactions">{{cite web|last=Sharf|first=Zach|date=2023-11-28|url=https://variety.com/2023/film/news/wonka-first-reactions-timothee-chalamet-1235809762/|title=‘Wonka’ First Reactions Praise Timothée Chalamet as ‘Infinitely Charming,’ ‘Intoxicating’ and ‘Pitch-Perfect’|work=Variety|access-date=2025-12-25}}</ref><ref name="Wonka - Review">{{cite web|last=Westbrook|first=Clint|date=2023-12-18|url=https://writedrunkeditdrunk.com/2023/12/18/wonka-review/|title=Wonka – Review|work=Write Drunk; Edit Drunk|access-date=2025-12-25}}</ref> {{end div col}}
==In literary fiction and criticism == In response to the hegemony of metafictional and self-conscious irony in contemporary fiction, writer David Foster Wallace predicted, in his 1993 essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction",<ref name=":0" /> a new literary movement which would espouse something like the new sincerity ethos:
<blockquote> The next real literary "rebels" in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of "anti-rebels," born oglers who dare to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall to actually endorse single-entendre values. Who treat old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness and fatigue. These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that'll be the point, why they'll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk things. Risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal: shock, disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. The new rebels might be the ones willing to risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the "How banal." Accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Credulity. Willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law. Who knows. </blockquote>
This was further examined on the blog ''Fiction Advocate'':<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fictionadvocate.com/2012/09/19/the-infinite-jest-liveblog-what-happened-pt-2/|title=The Infinite Jest Liveblog: What Happened, Pt. 2|last=Moats | first = Michael|date=September 19, 2012|access-date=April 23, 2016}}</ref><blockquote>The theory is this: ''Infinite Jest'' is Wallace's attempt to both manifest and dramatize a revolutionary fiction style that he called for in his essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction". The style is one in which a new sincerity will overturn the ironic detachment that hollowed out contemporary fiction towards the end of the 20th century. Wallace was trying to write an antidote to the cynicism that had pervaded and saddened so much of American culture in his lifetime. He was trying to create an entertainment that would get us talking again.</blockquote> In his 2010 essay "David Foster Wallace and the New Sincerity in American Fiction", Adam Kelly argues that Wallace's fiction, and that of his generation, is marked by a revival and theoretical reconception of sincerity, challenging the emphasis on authenticity that dominated twentieth-century literature and conceptions of the self.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|author-first1=Adam|author-last1=Kelly|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/1041012|chapter=David Foster Wallace and the New Sincerity in American Fiction|title=Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays|editor-first1=David|editor-last1=Hering|location=Los Angeles, California|publisher=Sideshow Media Group|year=2010|pages=131-146}}</ref> Additionally, numerous authors have been described as contributors to the new sincerity movement, including Jonathan Franzen, Marilynne Robinson,<ref name="gorenstein">Gorenstein, Zuzanna. [https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/fub188/1441/Dissertation_Gorenstein.pdf New Sincerity and the Contemporary American Family Novel: Jonathan Franzen's ''The Corrections'' and Marilynne Robinson's ''Gilead''], Dissertation, Free University of Berlin, December 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2020.</ref> Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers,<ref name="jensen">Jensen, Mikkel. 2014. "A Note on a Title: '' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''" in ''The Explicator'', 72:2, 146–150. [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00144940.2014.905434]</ref> Stephen Graham Jones,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gaudet|first=Joseph|date=Spring 2016|title=I Remember You: Postironic Belief and Settler Colonialism in Stephen Graham Jones's Ledfeather|url=https://www.academia.edu/25351034|journal=Sail|volume= 28}}</ref> Michael Chabon,<ref name="atlantic 2012">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/11/sincerity-not-irony-is-our-ages-ethos/265466/|title=Sincerity, Not Irony, Is Our Age's Ethos|last=Fitzgerald|first=Jonathan D.|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=March 24, 2016|date=November 20, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOioAwAAQBAJ|title=One Man Zeitgeist: Dave Eggers, Publishing and Publicity|last=Hamilton|first=Caroline D.|date=October 21, 2010|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=9781441167491|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hoffmann|first1=Lukas|title=Postirony: The Nonfictional Literature of David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers|date=2016|publisher=transcript Verlag|location=Bielefeld|isbn=978-3-8376-3661-1}}</ref> and Victor Pelevin.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Пелевин, Виктор Олегович |trans-title=Victor Pelevin |author= |lang=ru |year=2018 |encyclopedia=Большая российская энциклопедия/Great Russian Encyclopedia Online |url=https://bigenc.ru/literature/text/2709581 |access-date=2021-03-08 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224204049/https://bigenc.ru/literature/text/2709581 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==In philosophy== "New sincerity" has also sometimes been used to refer to a philosophical concept deriving from the basic tenets of performatism.<ref>Raoul Eshelman, [http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0602/perform.htm "Performatism, or the End of Postmodernism"] in ''Anthropoetics'' 6 (2000/2001). See also his book, ''Performatism or the End of Postmodernism''. Davies Group: Aurora, Colorado 2008.</ref> It is also seen as one of the key characteristics of metamodernism.<ref>Timotheus Vermeulen & Robin van den Akker, [http://www.aestheticsandculture.net/index.php/jac/article/view/5677 "Notes on metamodernism"] in ''Journal of Aesthetics and Culture'' 2 (2010)</ref> Related literature includes Wendy Steiner's ''The Trouble with Beauty'' and Elaine Scarry's ''On Beauty and Being Just''. Related movements may include post-postmodernism, New Puritans, Stuckism, the kitsch movement and remodernism, as well as the Dogme 95 film movement led by Lars von Trier.<ref name="Yurchak">Alexei Yurchak, "Post-Post-Communist Sincerity: Pioneers, Cosmonauts, and Other Soviet Heroes Born Today", in Thomas Lahusen and Peter H. Solomon, eds., ''What Is Soviet Now?: Identities, Legacies, Memories'' (LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2008), {{ISBN|978-3-8258-0640-8}}, p. 258 & n.4, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3GonhERyzwEC excerpt] available at Google Books.</ref>
==As a cultural movement== "New sincerity" has been espoused since 2002 by radio host Jesse Thorn of PRI's ''The Sound of Young America'' (now ''Bullseye''), self-described as "the public radio program about things that are awesome". Thorn characterizes new sincerity as a cultural movement defined by dicta including "maximum fun" and "be more awesome". It celebrates outsized celebration of joy, and rejects irony, and particularly ironic appreciation of cultural products. Thorn has promoted this concept on his program and in interviews.<ref>Ben Kharakh, [http://gothamist.com/2006/11/02/jesse_thorn_ame.php "Jesse Thorn, America's Radio Sweetheart"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080929115220/http://gothamist.com/2006/11/02/jesse_thorn_ame.php |date=September 29, 2008 }} in Gothamist, posted November 2, 2006.</ref><ref>[http://www.themerlinshow.com/ep/019-interview-jesse-thorn-part-1 "Interview: Jesse Thorn, Part 1"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913050840/http://www.themerlinshow.com/ep/019-interview-jesse-thorn-part-1 |date=September 13, 2017 }}, ''The Merlin Show'', posted June 4, 2007.</ref><ref>Dan Brodnitz, [http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2008/09/an-interview-with-the-sound-of.html "An Interview with The Sound of Young America's Jesse Thorn"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081019134825/http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2008/09/an-interview-with-the-sound-of.html |date=October 19, 2008 }}, ''O'Reilly Digital Media'', posted September 15, 2008.</ref><ref>''But see'' Bill Forman, [http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/03.08.06/muz-0610.html "Müz: The New Ambiguity"], ''Metro Santa Cruz'', March 8–15, 2006 (opining that New Sincerity is "just another ironic hoax").</ref>
In a September 2009 interview, Thorn commented that "new sincerity" had begun as "a silly, philosophical movement that me and some friends made up in college" and that "everything that we said was a joke, but at the same time it wasn't all a joke in the sense that we weren't being arch or we weren't being campy. While we were talking about ridiculous, funny things we were sincere about them."<ref>Jonathan Valania, [http://www.phawker.com/2009/09/15/qa-with-jesse-thorn-americas-radio-sweetheart/ "Q&A: With Jesse Thorn, America's Radio Sweetheart"], ''Phawker'', September 15, 2009.</ref>
Thorn's concept of "new sincerity" as a social response has gained popularity since his introduction of the term in 2002. Several point to the September 11, 2001, attacks and the subsequent wake of events that created this movement, in which there was a drastic shift in tone. The 1990s were considered a period of artistic works rife with irony, and the attacks shocked a change in the American culture. Graydon Carter, editor of ''Vanity Fair'', published an editorial a few weeks after the attacks claiming that "this was the end of the age of irony".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.salon.com/2001/09/25/irony_lives/ | title = Irony is dead! Long live irony! | first = David | last = Beers | date = September 25, 2001 | access-date = April 20, 2016 | work = Salon }}</ref> Jonathan D. Fitzgerald for ''The Atlantic'' suggests this new movement could also be attributed to broader periodic shifts that occur in culture.<ref name="atlantic 2012"/>
As a result of this movement, several cultural works were considered elements of "new sincerity",<ref name="atlantic 2012"/> but this was also seen to be a mannerism adopted by the general public, to show appreciation for cultural works that they happened to enjoy. Andrew Watercutter of ''Wired'' saw this as having been able to enjoy one's guilty pleasures without having to feel guilty about enjoying them, and being able to share that appreciation with others.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = https://www.wired.com/2010/09/new-sincerity/ | title = Sincerely Ours: Glee's Success Cements Age of Geeky 'New Sincerity' | first = Angela | last = Watercutter | date = September 21, 2010 | access-date = April 20, 2016 | magazine = Wired }}</ref> One such example of a "new sincerity" movement is the brony fandom, generally adult and primarily male fans of the 2010 animated show ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' which is produced by Hasbro to sell its toys to young girls. These fans have been called "internet neo-sincerity at its best", unabashedly enjoying the show and challenging the preconceived gender roles that such a show ordinarily carries.<ref>{{Cite video | title = Curious about Bronies? | url = http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2011/12/07/curious-about-bronies/ | format = Adobe Flash | date = December 7, 2011 | access-date = December 7, 2011 | publisher = CBC Radio | medium = Radio broadcast | first = Jian | last = Ghomeshi }}</ref><ref name="wired brony">{{cite magazine | url = https://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/bronies-my-little-ponys/ | title = My Little Pony Corrals Unlikely Fanboys Known as 'Bronies' | first= Angela| last = Watchcutter | date = June 9, 2011 | access-date = June 9, 2011 | magazine = Wired}}</ref>
A review of a 2016 play by Alena Smith ''The New Sincerity'' observes that it "captures the spirit of an age lightly lived and easily forgotten, which strives for a significance and a magnitude that won't be easily achieved".<ref>{{cite web |last1= Hsiao |first1=Irene|title=Review: The New Sincerity/Theater Wit|url=https://www.newcitystage.com/2016/03/11/review-the-new-sinceritytheater-wit/ |website=NewCityStage |date=March 11, 2016|access-date=January 30, 2021}}</ref>
In the early 2020s, the shift toward a more overt embrace of new sincerity was codified in James Poniewozik's ''New York Times'' piece titled, "How TV Went From David Brent to Ted Lasso."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/arts/television/ted-lasso-the-office.html|title=How TV Went From David Brent to Ted Lasso|first=James|last=Poniewozik|date=July 26, 2021|access-date=December 30, 2021|website=The New York Times}}</ref> Poniewozik details the shift, arguing that "In TV's ambitious comedies, as well as dramas, the arc of the last 20 years is not from bold risk-taking to spineless inoffensiveness. But it is, in broad terms, a shift from irony to sincerity. By 'irony' here, I don't mean the popular equation of the term with cynicism or snark. I mean an ironic mode of narrative, in which what a show 'thinks' is different from what its protagonist does. Two decades ago, TV's most distinctive stories were defined by a tone of dark or acerbic detachment. Today, they're more likely to be earnest and direct." Poniewozik goes on to address possible impetus for doing away with the disjoint between writer and character ascribing some cause to what Emily Nussbaum calls "bad fans",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/that-mind-bending-phone-call-on-last-nights-breaking-bad|title = That Mind-Bending Phone Call on Last Night's "Breaking Bad"|website=Newyorker.com|date = September 16, 2013}}</ref> but the thrust of his critique centers on the possible shift towards the representation of new and previously unrepresented voices. As Poniewozik puts it, "In some cases, it's also a question of who has gotten to make TV since 2001. Antiheroes like David Brent and Tony Soprano, after all, came along after white guys like them had centuries to be heroes. The voices and faces of the medium have diversified, and if you're telling the stories of people and communities that TV never made room for before, skewering might not be your first choice of tone. I don't want to oversimplify this: Series like ''Atlanta'', ''Ramy'', ''Master of None'' and ''Insecure'' all have complex stances toward their protagonists. But they also have more sympathy toward them than, say, ''Arrested Development''."<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/arts/television/ted-lasso-the-office.html|title = How TV Went from David Brent to Ted Lasso|newspaper = The New York Times|date = July 26, 2021|last1 = Poniewozik|first1 = James}}</ref> With this perspective in mind and considering the shift towards an embrace of diverse views and opinions,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gallup.com/workplace/352742/diversity-equity-inclusion-lessons-231-chros.aspx|title=Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: 10 Lessons From 231 CHROs|first=Ellyn|last=Maese|date=July 28, 2021|website=Gallup.com|access-date=December 30, 2021}}</ref> the appearance of new sincerity in film and television is understandable if not expected. However, it is important to note that prior to the current shift towards new sincerity, popular culture had embraced a period of "high irony", as Poniewozik deems it.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>
==Regional variants==
=== Russia === In Russia, the term ''new sincerity'' (''novaya iskrennost'') was used as early as the mid-1980s<ref>Mikhail Epstein, "On the Place of Postmodernism in Postmodernity", in Mikhail Epstein, Aleksandr Genis, Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover, eds., ''Russian Postmodernism: New Perspectives on Post-Soviet Culture'' (Berghahn Books, 1999), {{ISBN|978-1-57181-098-4}}, p. 457, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5qjzj3JwaoIC&printsec=frontcover#PPA457,M1 excerpt] available at Google Books.</ref> or early 1990s by dissident poet Dmitry Prigov and critic Mikhail Epstein, as a response to the dominant sense of absurdity in late Soviet and post-Soviet culture.<ref name="Yurchak n02">Yurchak, p. 258–259, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3GonhERyzwEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA258,M1 excerpt] available at Google Books.</ref> In Epstein's words, "Postconceptualism, or the New Sincerity, is an experiment in resuscitating "fallen", dead languages with a renewed pathos of love, sentimentality and enthusiasm.<ref>Mikhail Epstein, "A Catalogue of New Poetries", in Mikhail Epstein, Aleksandr Genis, Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover, eds., ''Russian Postmodernism: New Perspectives on Post-Soviet Culture'' (Berghahn Books, 1999), {{ISBN|978-1-57181-098-4}}, p. 146 [https://books.google.com/books?id=5qjzj3JwaoIC&printsec=frontcover#PPA146,M1 excerpt] available at Google Books.</ref>
This conception of "new sincerity" meant the avoidance of cynicism, but not necessarily of irony. In the words of Alexei Yurchak of the University of California, Berkeley,it "is a particular brand of irony, which is sympathetic and warm, and allows its authors to remain committed to the ideals that they discuss, while also being somewhat ironic about this commitment".<ref>Yurchak, at p.259 n.6, further explains this contrast in terms of Susan Sontag's comment that a good writer should "Be serious. By which I meant: never be cynical. And which doesn't preclude being funny." (Citing Sontag as quoted in Jenny Diski, "Seriously Uncool", ''London Review of Books'' 29, no. 6 (March 22, 2007).)</ref>
Nowadays New Sincerity is being contraposed not to Soviet literature, but to postmodernism. Dmitry Vodennikov has been acclaimed as the leader of the new wave of Russian New Sincerity,<ref>{{cite web |author= |date= |title=Журнальный зал. Новый мир, 2006 №8. Дмитрий Воденников - Из книги "Черновик" |url=http://magazines.russ.ru/novyi_mi/2006/8/vo9.html |accessdate=2012-02-10 |publisher=Magazines.russ.ru}}</ref> as was Victor Pelevin.
===In American poetry=== Since 2005, poets including Reb Livingston, Joseph Massey, Andrew Mister, and Anthony Robinson have collaborated in a blog-driven poetry movement, described by Massey as "a 'new sincerity' brewing in American poetry – a contrast to the cold, irony-laden poetry dominating the journals and magazines and new books of poetry".<ref>Katy Henriksen, [http://www.econoculture.com/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=414&Itemid=45 " Drunk Bunnies, The New Sincerity, Flarf: How Blogs are Transforming Poetry"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110223025/http://econoculture.com/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=414&Itemid=45 |date=November 10, 2007 }}, ''EconoCulture'', January 23, 2007.</ref> Other poets named as associated with this movement, or its tenets, have included David Berman, Catherine Wagner, Dean Young, Matt Hart, Miranda July (who is also a filmmaker),<ref name="htmlgiant">{{Cite web|url=http://htmlgiant.com/haut-or-not/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-the-new-sincerity/|title=What we talk about when we talk about the New Sincerity, part 1 |website=Htmlgiant.com|access-date=December 30, 2021}}</ref> Tao Lin,<ref name="htmlgiant" /> Steve Roggenbuck,<ref name="htmlgiant" /> D. S. Chapman, Frederick Seidel, Arielle Greenberg,<ref name="jacket35" /> Karyna McGlynn, and Mira Gonzalez.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cvindependent.com/index.php/en-US/arts-and-culture/literature/item/524-western-lit-socal-poet-mira-gonzalez-s-debut-collection-finds-success-with-deep-simplicity|title=Western Lit: SoCal Poet Mira Gonzalez's Debut Collection Finds Success With Deep Simplicity|first=Brian|last=Blueskye|date=July 19, 2013|access-date=December 15, 2017}}</ref>
In ''More Deaths than One'' (2014), the American/New Zealand writer and singer-songwriter Gary Jeshel Forrester examined searched for the Central Illinois roots of David Foster Wallace during a picaresque journey from New Zealand to America.<ref name=":6">The Legal Studies Forum, Volume XXXVIII, No. 2, West Virginia University (2014).</ref> In this novel, Forrester wrote that Foster Wallace "proposes to fill the postmodernist void with a rough synthesis of the two predecessors from the twentieth century [modernism and post-modernism]. In the new paradigm, metaphysics, epistemology, and ontology all have their places, but the overriding concern is with yet another division of philosophy – ethics. It's okay to search for values and meaning, even as we continue to be skeptical." In 2026, Forrester's volume of poetry, ''The Ancient Light of the Dead'', was published in Australia.<ref name="Ancient Light">''The Ancient Light of the Dead'', Hardie Grant Books (Melbourne), 2026 {{ISBN|9781761453311}}.</ref> The 84 poems were written while Forrester was living in the post-Soviet country of Georgia. Upon release, the poems were described as "a casual stroll through the kind of eclectic village cemetery that each of us designs and builds over the course of a lifetime, and that each of us will one day inhabit."
==See also== * American eccentric cinema * Metamodernism * ''The Cult of Sincerity'' * Post-irony * Reconstructivism
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Criticism of postmodernism}}
Category:Russian literature Category:Concepts in film theory Category:Philosophical schools and traditions Category:American styles of music Category:Music of Austin, Texas Category:Poetry movements Category:Blogging Category:Cultural concepts Category:1980s neologisms Category:American literary movements Category:20th-century American literature Category:1980s in music Category:1990s in music Category:Film theory Category:1990s in film Category:2000s in film Category:2010s in film Category:2020s in film Category:Metamodernism