Edit: preferably in relation to literature, art and cinema, but a handrail overview of the associated values would be cool too
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Some people have already explained Modernism and Post-Modernism fairly extensively, so I’l skip over that except to explain specifically what matters to Meta-modernism.
Modernist culture was defined by optimism and sincerity. With the Industrial Revolution generating an exponential growth of both wealth and scientific advancement, there was a view that society was malleable, through the great progress that was being made it could be molded into a perfect utopian form. A lot of the cultural product of the time was aspirational, with maybe the most apparent example being the Italian Futurists. This was utterly dashed by the second world war, which quite plainly was the evidence that the utopian projects of Soviet Communism and German/Italian Fascism had turned into horrors, while Western Capitalism/Democracy had failed to form into anything utopian.
If there was a single defining trait of Post-modernist culture, it was of irony, to be detached and mocking of the culture and cultural product itself. This is a deeply cynical viewpoint that holds no true values in favor of nihilism. South Park is a prime example, inasmuch as that show makes political, philosophical or moral statements its that everyone is terrible, society is directionless, mockery is the default mode of engagement and [every moral framework from politics to religion is ultimately hollow](https://twitter.com/dril/status/473265809079693312?lang=en).
Meta-modernism is a rejection of that irony-poisoned culture, a return to the sincerity of Modernism while retaining the irony of Post-modernism, constantly swinging between the two. To possess the self-awareness of absurdity but to still engage with it sincerely, to aspire to greater things but still retain a cynical view, to deconstruct the cultural product not to have it be mocked but celebrated. The peak example so far would be Shia LaBeouf and his various art projects, conducted as part of a trio of artists including the author of the *Metamodernist Manifesto*.
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