| 
|
|
The Postmodern Turn
 |
Browse |
 |
|
|
by Steven Best and Douglas Kellner
Guilford Press
Due/Published
November 1997, 240 pages,
paper
ISBN
1572302216
Postmodernism in architecture, painting, music, politics, and the physical and biological sciences--analysis of the postmodern paradigm as broad cultural phenomenon. |
|
| |
Review
The postmodern paradigm, in recent years, has been applied in a variety of fields — the arts, sciences, politics, and theory. How this paradigm has been used, how it was developed, and how it can best be used are the central concerns of Best and Kellner in this illuminating and well-constructed study of the contested terrain of postmodernity. The Postmodern Turn maps out the transformation from the modern to the postmodern, beginning with a look at the works of Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche as precursors to postmodernity. The authors also examine the works of Guy Debord and the Situationist Internationalist who applied Marxist thought to the consumer culture of the late twentieth century, a “strategy” later employed by the noted postmodern critic Jean Baudrillard. After tracing some of the roots of postmodernity, the book looks at the arts, literature and science. The authors contend that postmodern science’s emphasis on chaos theory and entropy mirror the postmodern turn in other fields as responses to “...ideas and methods perceived to be staid, dogmatic, erroneous, or oppressive, as well as developments in society, technology, economics, culture, and politics.” In their attempts to sort out claims for and against postmodern theory, the authors posit that we are currently in an age that is caught between the modern and the postmodern and it is necessary to arrive at new syntheses and a cross-disciplinary approach to best capture the complexity and turbulence of contemporary society.
|
|
