t h e / u n t i m e l y / p a s t
the bibliography project
postmodernism, postmodernity ...
last modified: 19 February 2000
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Appignansi, Richard, and Chris Garrett, with Ziauddin Sardar and Patrick Curry Introducing Postmodernism New York: Totem, 1995.
"What is postmodernism? Here at last is a long overdue graphic study guide to the maddeningly enigmatic concept used to define our cultural condition in the late twentieth century
"Postmodernism claims that 'modernity' which began with 'the Enlightenment', industrialism, Darwin and Marx, has collapsed. We now live in an endlessly 'contemporary culture' full of contested meanings. The resulting postmodern culture embodies parody, pastiche and cultural cross-over. It is a virtual world of hyperreality containing such strange phenomena as post-Holocaust amnesia, Disneyland, cyberspace, and Fukuyama's proclaimed 'end of history'.
"The author, founding editor of the Introducing ... series of graphic study guides, takes us on a roller coaster ride through structuralism, deconstruction and semiotics in the company of postmodern icons such as Foucault, Levi-Strauss and Barthes." from the back cover of the paperback edition
Arac, Jonathan, Ed. Postmodernism and Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. Theory and History of Literature series, vol. 28.
"'Postmodernism' has provoked intense debates on both sides of the Atlantic, and across a wide range of artistic, intellectual, and social concerns. Whether the postmodern succeeds the modern, or even whether a break occurs between them, remains unsettled. Some relate postmodernism to neoconservatism, accusing it of rejecting social welfare in favor of individual competition, but the contributors to this volume find instead that it renews issues adumbrated in the radical sixties.
"In eight essays (first published as part of a double issue of boundary 2), the contributors -- who are based mainly in literary studies -- reach out to explore cinema and photography, psychology and ethics, social theory and economic reform. Editor Jonathan Arac's introduction analyzes the overall debates -- involving such figures as Jurgen Habermas, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Richard Rorty, and Daniel Bell -- and shows their bearing on American literary criticism. Taken together, the essays provide fresh perspectives on the problem of representation in many areas, from the constitution of the individual subject, through the status of the image, to the formation and transmission of social and moral knowledge. The authors force us to reconsider many privileged objects of humanistic inquiry: the discipline of criticism, the reader of a book or viewer of a film, the artist, the 'leading intellectual,' and even the very notion of experience itself." from the back cover
Bauman, Zygmund, "A Sociological Theory of Postmodernity." Thesis Eleven 29 (July 1991), 33-46.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Postmodernity and Its Discontents. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
"If, as Freud postulated, modern society assails man's freedom by repressing his sexual expression, then the postmodern era can be said to be defined by the individual's quest for sublime happiness at the expense of security. Society has held to the concepts of beauty, purity, and order for centuries; now a new worldview has emerged with the individual at its nucleus.
"Framed by discussions of such thinkers as Michel Foucault, Emmanuel Levinas, Hans Jonas and Richard Rorty, Postmodernity and Its Discontents explores this brave new era, tackling head-on such issues as the postmodernization of surveillance and social control; the often tenuous threads binding, morality, ethics, and freedom together; contemporary artistic and aesthetic theory; and the complex association between solidarity, difference and freedom.
"Arguing that you need most what you lack most, internationally renowned social theorist Zygmunt Bauman asserts that freedom without security assures no greater happiness than security without freedom. In this thoughtful, nuanced volume, Bauman searches for a balance between the two, tipping the scales of the postmodern world decidedly in our favor." from the back cover
Bertens, Hans. The Idea of the Postmodern: A History. London and New York: Routledge, 1995.
"The question of what postmodernism actually means is not an easy one to answer: it has meant different things to different people at different times, rising from humble literary-critical origins in the 1950s to a level of global conceptualization in the 1980s. How does the student approaching the subject for the first time distinguish between the various conceptual levels at which the terms 'postmodern' and 'postmodernism' have been employed, or between the diverse interpretations of the postmodern that -- sometimes consecutively and at other times simultaneously -- have been put forward over the past thirty years?
"In The Idea of the Postmodern, Hans Berten clears up the confusion by tracing and analyzing the debate in an accessible way and witty style. He sets out the interdisciplinary aspects, the critical debates, and the key theorists of postmodernism, and discusses the relationship between postmodernism and poststructuralism, and postmodernism and modernism." from the from flyleaf
Best, Steven, and Douglas Kellner. Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations. New York: Guilford Press, 1991. Critical Perspectives series.
"In this timely volume, the authors systematically analyze postmodern theory to evaluate its relevance for critical social theory and radical politics today. The book provides:
An introduction and critiques of the work of Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Laclau and Mouffe, and Jameson, which assess the varying contributions and limitations of postmodern theory.
A discussion of postmodern feminist theory and the politics of identity.
A systematic study of the origin of the discourse of the postmodern in historical, sociological, cultural, and philosophical studies.
A multi-perspectival social theory which combines postmodern and modern perspectives."
from the back cover
Best, Steven, and Douglas Kellner. The Postmodern Turn. New York: Guilford Press, 1997.
"This book presents a groundbreaking analysis of the postmodern turn in theory, the arts, science, and politics, this is the first book to present the emergence of a postmodern paradigm in a variety of fields. From the authors of Postmodern Theory, the much-acclaimed introduction to key postmodern thinkers and themes, The Postmodern Turn ranges over diverse intellectual and artistic terrain -- from architecture, painting, literature, and music to the physical and biological sciences, from consumer culture to chaos theory. Critically engaging postmodern theory and culture, Steven Best and Douglas Kellner illuminate our momentous transition between a modernist past and a future struggling to define itself." from the back cover of the paperback
Includes: 1. The Time of the Posts. 2. Paths to the Postmodern: From Kierkegaard through Marx and Nietzsche. 3. From the Society of the Spectacle to the World of Simulation: Debord, Baudrillard, and Postmodernity. 4. Postmodernism in the Arts: Pastiche, Implosion, and the Popular. 5. Entropy, Chaos, and Organism in Postmodernism Science. 6. Paradigm Shifts in Theory and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern.
Boyne, Roy, and Ali Rattansi, Eds. Postmodernism and Society. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.
Dickens, David R., and Andrea Fontana, Eds. Postmodernism and Social Inquiry. New York: Guilford Press, 1994. Critical Perspectives series.
Downey, Gary Lee, and Juan D Rogers, "On the Politics of Theorizing in a Postmodern Academy." American Anthropologist 97:2 (1995), 269-281.
Foster, Hal, Ed. The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1982.
Includes: Hal Foster, "Postmodernism: A Preface"; Jurgen Habermas, "Modernity -- An Incomplete Project"; Kenneth Frampton, "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance"; Rosalind Krauss, "Sculpture in the Expanded Field"; Douglas Crimp, "On the Museum's Ruins"; Craig Owens, "The Discourse of Others: Feminists and Postmodernism"; Gregory L. Ulmer, "The Object of Post-Criticism"; Frederic Jameson, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society"; Jean Baudrillard, "The Ecstacy of Communication"; Edward W. Said, "Opponents, Audiences, Constituencies and Community."
Fairlamb, Horace L. Critical Conditions: Postmodernity and the Question of Foundations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
"Examining the history of foundationism, and providing a detailed analysis of the work of leading theorists including Fish, Foucault, Derrida, Gadamer and Habermas, this study argues for a less reductive and arbitrary conception of knowledge and meaning." from the Cambridge on-line catalog
Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity. New York: Blackwell, 1989.
"A great deal has been written on what has variously been described as the postmodern condition and on postmodern culture, architecture, art and society. in this new book, David Harvey seeks to determine what is meant by the term in its different contexts and to identify how accurate and useful it is as a description of contemporary experience.
"But the book is much more than this: in the course of his investigation the author provides a social and semantic history -- from the Enlightenment to the present -- of modernism and its expression in political and social ideas and movements, as well as in art, literature and architecture. He considers in particular how the meaning and perception of time and space themselves vary over time and space, and shows that this variance affects individual values and social processes of the most fundamental kind."
from the back cover
Hibbs, Thomas S., "MacIntyre's Postmodern Thomism: Reflections on Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry" Thomist , 57 (1993), 277-97.
Hoesterey, Ingeborg, Ed. Zeitgeist in Babel: The Post-Modernist Controversy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
"The concept of 'postmodernism' has been employed with increasing frequency and intensity in criticism relating to various mediums as well as in philosophical discourse. We are confronted with a complex constellation of greatly differing interpretive formations concerning the term 'postmodernism' that can be said to exhibit a somewhat babylonian quality.
"'Postmodernism' may designate a positive, progressive development for one interpretive community, while another may assign it a decidedly negative value. The concept may signify liberation from the constraints of modernism as it does for authors and scholars involved with American literature, or it may signify cultural decline and the 'end of the project of modernity' as it does for the Habermasian community in Germany and in the U.S.
"Zeitgeist in Babel vividly displays the confluence of discourse-formations concerning postmodernism as they take shape in the different disciplines -- be they art and architecture, feminist studies, film , literature, music, or theatre -- and in philosophy/critical theory in particular. Although the notions of what constitutes postmodernism may dramatically differ in the various fields, to a certain degree these confusions and contradictions are countered by a communality feeding on more general cultural and aesthetic sensibilities. Thus the individual contributions ... can be read as markers of the historical situation of knowledge at the beginning of he nineties." from the back cover
Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, and Fiction. New York and London, 1988.
Huyssens, Andreas, "Mapping the Postmodern." New German Critique 33 (Fall 1984), 5-52.
Jameson, Frederic, "Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism." New Left Review 146 (July/August 1984), 30-72.
Jameson, Frederic, "Marxism and Postmodernism." New Left Review 176 (July/August 1989), 31-46.
Jameson, Frederic Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991.
Jameson, Frederic. Jameson on Postmodernism. Verso, 1997.
"No one would contest that Frederic Jameson, one of the leading Marxist critics in the English-speaking world, has had an immense impact on the way we now understand the phenomenon of postmodernism. His classic work, Postmodernism, of The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, has been widely acclaimed as the seminal analysis of postmodernity from a cultural, philosophical and historical perspective.
"Jameson's reflections have become an essential reference-point for all those attempting to engage with postmodernism. However, until now his key writings on postmodernism have been unavailable in an easily accessible and affordable form. This book, designed as a short and convenient introduction to Jameson's thought for both the student and the general reader, meets this need.
"Includes: 'Postmoderism and Consumer Society', Jameson's classic analysis of postmodernity; 'Marxism and Postmodernism', in which Jameson responds to his critics; 'Theories of the Postmodern', his survey of alternative approaches; 'The Antinomies of Postmodernity', an extract from his recently published work, The Seeds of Time, in which he surveys the philosophical tensions embedded in the postmodern; '"End of Art" or "End of History?"' and 'Transformations of the Image in Postmodernity', two pieces hitherto unpublished in English on art and the image in the postmodern epoch." from the Verso on-line catalog
Jencks, Charles. What is Post-Modernism? New York: St. Martin's Press, and London: Academy Editions, 1986.
"'What is Post-Modernism?', a question that has been asked with increasing frequency since the early 1970s, now achieves a partial answer as it continues to evolve. Charles Jencks, the main definer of Post-Modern architecture, considers the concept as it relates also to the arts and literature and offers a spirited defence of the movement against the growing Modernist reaction. Using typical Post-Modern devices of exposition, including irony, allegory and parody, he shows the evolution of this tradition to the point where it is persecuted in the 'Protestant Inquisition' and becomes triumphant and academic in the 'Counter-Reformation'. But this 'little tract' also challenges a major misconception. For too long Post-Modernism has been confused with any art form that comes after the waning of Modernism, whether it is Minimalism in art, High-Tech in architecture or Deconstruction in philosophy. Jencks argue that these movement are really Late-Modern, and that the concept of Post-Modernism should be applied only to those artists and architects who have a more complex relation to tradition and communication; who both continue and transcend Modernism -- a process he defines as double coding. Drawing on examples from art, architecture and literature, with evolutionary charts and over thirty colour photographs, this book clarifies a tradition that is thriving but still misunderstood." from the back cover
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
Macintyre, Alisdair, "Strangers." London Review of Books , April 16-May 6, 1981, pp. 115-116.
Review of Vincent Descombes, Modern French Philosophy.
Murphy, Nancey, "Postmodern Non-Relativism: Imre Lakotos, Theo Meyering, and Alasdair MacIntyre." Philosophical Forum , 27 (1995), 37-53.
Nicholson, Linda, Ed. Feminism/Postmodernism New York: Routledge, 1990.
Norris, Christopher. What's Wrong with Postmodernism: Critical Theory and the Ends of Philosophy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society series.
Norris, Christopher. Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals, and the Gulf War. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992.
"Shortly after the cessation of hostilities, Jean Baudrillard published an article entitled 'The Gulf War Has Not Taken Place," arguing that the conflict had been a 'hyperreal' event, a product of superinduced media illusion and saturation TV coverage. Moreover, there was something like a duty to abandon any belief in its real-world occurrence, since in Baudrillard's view 'the true belligerents are those who thrive on the ideology of the truth of this war.'
"It is in response to Baudrillard and other proponents of the so-called postmodern condition that Christopher Norris has written this extended essay. He argues that their stance is both politically disabling and philosophically confused; that it rests on a wholly unwarranted skepticism with regard to the claims of enlightened critique; that there exist more cogent alternative theories of truth, language, ideology, and representation; and that postmodernism is best understood as a symptom of the deep cultural malaise that marked many responses tot he Gulf War.
"Norris offers incisive commentary on the work of Baudrillard, Lyotard, Foucault, and other influential French theorists and on the American neopragmatist school represented by Richard Rorty and Stanley Fish. While careful to remark the differences between them, Norris finds many of these thinkers adopting an 'end-of-ideology' rhetoric that has also been revived by Francis Fukuyama and other celebrants of United States hegemony in the guise of a 'New World Order.'
"Uncritical Theory is a timely challenge to much of what passes for radical thinking in an age of postmodern commodity culture." from the back cover
Norris, Christopher. The Truth about Postmodernism. Oxford, UK, and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1993.
"This book was written with a view to sorting out some of the muddles and misreadings -- especially misreadings of Kant -- that have characterized recent postmodernist and post-structuralist thought. For these issues have a relevance, as Norris argues, far beyond the academic enclaves of philosophy, literary theory, and cultural criticism. Thus he makes large claims for the importance of getting Kant right on the relation between epistemology, ethics and aesthetics; for pursuing the Kantian question 'What Is Enlightenment?' as raised in Foucault's late essays; or again, for recalling William Empson's spirited attempt to reassert the values of reason and truth against he orthodox 'lit crit' wisdom of his time. These are specialized concerns. But for better or worse it has been largely in the context of 'theory' -- that capacious though ill-defined genre -- that such issues have received their most intensive scrutiny over the past two decades.
"As its title suggest, The Truth About Postmodernism disputes a good deal of what currently passes for advanced theoretical wisdom. Above all it mounts a challenge to those fashionable doctrines -- variants of the 'end-of-ideology' theme -- that assimilate truth to some existing range of language-games, discourses, or in-place consensus beliefs. Norris's book will be welcomed for its clarity of style, its depth of philosophical engagement, and its refusal to endorse the more facile varieties of present-day textualist thought. It will also serve as a timely reminder that the 'politics of theory' cannot be practised in safe isolation from the politics (and ethics) of activist social concern." from the back cover
Powell, Jim Postmodernism for Beginners New York: Writers and Readers, 1998.
"If you are like most people, you're not sure what Postmodernism is. And if this were like most books on the subject, it probably wouldn't tell you.
"Besides what a few grumpy critics claim, Postmodernism is not a bunch of meaningless intellectual mind games. On the contrary, it is a reaction to the most profound spiritual and philosophical crises of our time--the failure of the Enlightenment.
"Jim Powell takes the position that Postmodernism is a series of 'maps' that help people find their way through a changing world. Postmodernism for Beginners features the thoughts of Foucault on power and knowledge, Jameson on mapping the postmodern, Baudrillard on the media, Harvey on time-space compression, Derrida on deconstruction, and Deleuze and Guattari on rhizomes. The book also discusses postmodern artifacts such as Madonna, cyberpunk sci-fi, Buddhist ecology and teledildonics." from the back cover of the paperback
Robinson, Dave Nietzsche and Postmodernism Cambridge: Icon, 1999. New York: Totem, 1999. Postmodern Encounters.
"Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) has exerted a huge influence on 20th century philosophy and literature--an influence that looks set to continue into the 21st century. Nietzsche questioned what it means for us to live in our modern world. He was an 'anti-philosopher' who expressed grave reservations about the reliability and extent of human knowledge. His radical scepticism disturbs our deepest-held beliefs and values. For these reasons, Nietzsche casts a 'long shadow' on the complex cultural and philosophical phenomenon we now call 'postmodernism'.
"Nietzsche and Postmodernism explains the key ideas of this 'Anti-Christ' philosopher. It then provides a clear account of the central themes of postmodernist thought exemplified by such thinkers as Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard and Rorty, and concludes by asking if Nietzsche can justifiably be called the first great postmodernist." from the back cover of the paperback edition
Rosenau, Pauline Marie. Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences: Insights, Inroads, and Intrusions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Seidman, Steven, Ed. The Postmodern Turn: New Perspectives on Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
"Addressing postmodern social theory that emphasizes the social role of knowledge, this book abandons the disciplinary boundaries separating the sciences and the humanities. Contributors include well-known theorists in the varied fields of sociology, anthropology, women's and gay studies, philosophy and history." from the Cambridge on-line catalog
Contributors: Jean-Francois Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Cornel West, Donna Haraway, Steven Seidman, Norma Alarcon, Judith Butler, Renato Rosaldo, Zygmunt Bauman, James Clifford, Richard Brown, Nancy Fraser, Linda Nicholson, Charles Lemert, Joan Scott, Lee Edelman.
Soja, Edward W. Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London and New York: Verso, 1989. Haymarket series.
"Written by one of America's foremost geographers, this book contests the tendency, still dominant in most social science, to reduce human geography to a reflective mirror or, as Marx called it, an 'unnecessary complication'. Beginning with a powerful critique of historicism and its constraining effects on the geographical imagination, the author builds on the work of Foucault, Berger, Giddens, Berman, Jameson and, above all, Henri Lefebvre, to argue for a historical and geographical materialism, a radical rethinking of the dialectics of space, time and social being.
"Soja charts the respatialization of social theory from the still unfolding encounter between Western Marxism and modern geography, through the current debates on the emergence of a postfordist regime of 'flexible accumulation'. The postmodern geography of Los Angeles, exposed in a provocative pair of essays, serves as a model in his account of the contemporary struggle for control over the social production of space." from the back cover
Ward, Glenn Teach Yourself Postmodernism London: Hodder Headline, 1997. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC/Contemporary, 1997. Teach Yourself Books.
"One of the most fiercely disputed terms of the late twentieth century, postmodernism has had an impact on most fields, from literature and the visual arts to cultural studies and sociology, in each of these areas, the meanings of postmodernism are flexible, but in all cases we are forced to question some of our most cherished assumptions. Postmodern debates suggest that our most ingrained ideas about the nature of history, culture, meaning, and identity can no longer be taken for granted. As such, the debates have far-reaching implications for how we think about the world today.
"This book is an indispensable guide to this sometimes demanding terrain. Aimed at readers encountering theories of postmodernism for the first time, it places the subject in a broad context. Rather than give an account of the 'postmodern condition' from a single perspective, it offers an introduction to the most important theorists in several different disciplines, linking theoretical questions to an eclectic range of examples from both 'high' and 'popular' culture. from the back cover of the paperback edition
Wood, Ellen Meiksins, and John Bellamy Foster, Eds. In Defense of History: Marxism and the Postmodern Agenda New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997.
Contents: Ellen Meiksins Wood, "What is the 'Postmodern' Agenda? Terry Eagleton, "Where Do Postmodernists Come From?" David McNally, "Language, History, and Class Struggle." Francis Mulhern, "The Politics of Cultural Studies." Aijaz Ahmad Interviewed. I. Culture, Nationalism, and the Role of Intellectuals. Bryan D. Palmer, "Old Positions/New Necessities: History, Class, and Marxist Metanarrative." Meera Nanda, "Against Social De(con)struction of Science: Cautionary Tales From the Third World." Aijaz Ahmad Interviewed. II. Issues of Class and Culture. Kenan Malik, "The Mirror of Race: Postmodernism and the Celebration of Difference." Carol A. Stabile, "Postmodernism, Feminism, and Marx: Notes From the Abyss." John Bellamy Foster, "Marx and the Environment." Frederic Jameson, "Five Theses on Actually Existing Marxism." John Bellamy Foster, "In Defense of History."
© Copyright 1999-2004, Jeffrey Hearn