Understand Postmodernism

An indispensable guide to this sometimes challenging domain.
Using contemporary examples to further your understanding, it takes a broad look at theorists in a range of disciplines. Whether you're encountering postmodernism for the first time, or you need a quick reference to support your studies, this guide offers a comprehensive introduction to the key ideas in this thought-provoking philosophy.

Understand Postmodernism includes:

Chapter 1: Postmodernisms
Postmodernism is everywhere
Pre-history
Modernity and Enlightenment
Modernity and modernization
In or after modernity?
Nothing new?
A distinction
Postmodernism's elasticity

Chapter 2: Issues in 'high' and 'low' culture (I): architecture and literature
The demolition of modernist architecture
Literature: mind the gap
The cultural mix

Chapter 3: Issues in 'high' and 'low' culture (II): visual art
A preliminary note
Make it new!
Playing among the ruins: a brief history of postmodernism in the art world
Modernism and the autonomy of art
Andy Warhol
The end of the world as they know it?

Chapter 4: The loss of the real
On television
Welcome to Planet Baudrillard
Baudrillard's influences

Chapter 5: The deconstruction of meaning
Structuralism
Poststructuralism
The influence of deconstruction
Problems of meaning and value

Chapter 6: Postmodern identities (I): transformations of the self
The changing nature of the self
The stylization of life
Identity in the city
Cyberpeople
The next sexual revolution?
You will never know the real me: Madonna
Masks of femininity
Identity as construction

Chapter 7: Postmodern identities (II): theories of subjectivity
Michel Foucault: the invention of man
Let's talk about sex
The deconstructed self: Jacques Lacan
The dispersed subject
Is the postmodern condition schizophrenic?
The fiction of expression

Chapter 8: Postmodern politics
Lyotard: when worlds collide
The transformation of Marxism
Postmodernism, truth and history
Postmodern space
Theorizing the city
Local versus global culture
Postcoloniality
Does postmodernism mean not believing in anything?
Post-postmodernism?

Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features:

Not got much time?
One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started.

Author insights
Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience.

Test yourself
Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress.

Extend your knowledge
Extra online articles to give you a richer understanding of postmodernism.

Five things to remember
Quick refreshers to help you remember the key facts.

Try this
Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.