During the 1970s, the United States became the world's preeminent postindustrial society. The new conditions changed the way Americans lived and worked, and even their perceptions of reality. Americans struggled to find their place in a world where symbol became more important than fact, appearance more important than reality, where image supplanted essence. In this reassessment of a little studied decade, J. David Hoeveler, Jr., finds that the sense of detachment and dislocation that characterizes the postindustrial society serves as a paradigm for American thought and culture in the 1970s. The book examines major developments in literary theory, philosophy, architecture, and painting as expressions of a 1970s consciousness. Hoeveler also explores the rival "political" readings of these subjects and considers the postmodernist phenomenon as it became an ideological battleground in the decade. Clear and engaging, the work will be of great interest to historians, theorists, and everyone who wants to further explore the 1970s.

Simon Susen examines the impact of the 'postmodern turn' on the contemporary social sciences. On the basis of an innovative five-dimensional approach, this study provides a systematic, comprehensive, and critical account of the legacy of the 'postmodern turn', notably in terms of its continuing relevance in the twenty-first century.

This book presents a groundbreaking analysis of the emergence of a pos tmodern paradigm in theory, the arts, science, and politics. From the authors of Postmodern Theory, the much-acclaimed introduction to key p ostmodern thinkers and themes, The Postmodern Turn ranges over diverse intellectual and artistic terrain--from architecture, painting, liter ature, music, and politics, to the physical and biological sciences. C ritically engaging postmodern theory and culture, Steven Best and Doug las Kellner illuminate our momentous transition between a modernist pa st and a future struggling to define itself.

In our post-Cold War, post-colonial, post-Christian world, Western culture is experiencing a dramatic shift. Correspondingly, says Myron Penner, recent philosophy has taken a postmodern turn in which traditional concepts of reality, truth, language, and knowledge have been radically altered, if not discarded. Here James K.A. Smith, John Franke, Merold Westphal, Kevin Vanhoozer, Douglas Geivett, and R. Scott Smith respond to the question, "What perils and/or promises does the postmodern turn hold for the tasks of Christian thinkers?" Addressing topics such as the nature of rationality and biblical faith, the relationship of language to reality, and the impact of postmodern concerns on ethics, this book presents a variety of positions in vigorous dialogue with each other.

The Postmodern Turn gathers together in one volume some of the most important statements of the postmodern approach to human studies. In addressing postmodern social theory and emphasising the social role of knowledge, this book abandons the disciplinary boundaries separating the sciences and the humanities. The first collection of its kind, it provides the classic essays of authors such as Lyotard, Haraway, Foucault and Rorty. Contributors include well-known theorists in the fields of sociology, anthropology, women's and gay studies, philosophy, and history.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: A, course: Theory and Methodologies of the Social Sciences, language: English, abstract: This paper argues for the prominent influence of the postmodernist paradigm on the evolution of the concept of the native speaker and, focusing on one particular postmodern theory, proposes to examine several views of the concept that offer alternative definitions that could be suitable for all speakers who do not fit neatly in the clear-cut categories represented by the terms native and non-native speaker. This paper recognises the validity of several propositions particularly the notions of home language, expertise and affiliation, but suggests that there is no unique solution; different concepts cater for different aspects of the relationship between the speaker and the language, and the concept of the 'native speaker' is not one of them. Indeed, given its fuzzy nature, its irrelevance in the present world with its shifting language practices, and its inadequacy in meeting the need for valid definitions, this paper sympathises with Paikeday's statement (1985) that 'the native speaker is dead'.

The goal of this book is to elaborate the theoretical framework with regard to reading postmodern fiction from the perspective of the bodies of their narrators as textual occurrences. It centers on Lacanian psychoanalysis and the intersection between its various political interpretations and feminist theories. The emphasis is on the register of the real, on the domain of trauma as it appears in contemporary world, literature and history and on attempts at artistic resolution of its consequences. Since postmodernism is widely interpreted as a Western phenomenon, the book tries to show its dependence on much broader spatial, political, cultural and ideological dimensions, taking as index the darker side of literature, such as murder and destruction, dark courses of desire and the repercussions of their externalization in the reality of life. Focusing on the conditions that link contemporary cultures to the narratives and narratorsâ (TM) bodies, the book exposes the potential of bodies revealed in the act of narrating and the ambiguities of their fictionalizing and subjectivizing aspects, taking the body as the site of repressed knowledge, traumas, resistance and manipulative desires. The analysis of the fictional works aims to point out a missing link between imagination and the real historical conditions from which imagination derives as well as the discursive struggle to save the tormented, territorialized body from the prismatic world by holding to the â oeabsent referentâ and prevent violence caused by the uncritical â oepleasure principleâ .

This collection of original essays provides an intellectual, social, and historical background for the postmodern movement in the literary, visual, and performing arts in America today. Both creative expression and critical thought are examined in literature, painting and sculpture, dance, music, photography, architecture, theatre, and film. The author of each essay describes and analyzes the ways in which individuals become conscious of, represent, and ultimately assimilate changes in their respective art forms. Included in each essay is a synthesis of critical issues, as well as a discussion of representative figures and their works. Also, a broad bibliographic component supplements each essay, including discussions of resource materials, checklists, and a comprehensive annotated bibliography. In his introduction, editor Stanley Trachtenberg provides an overview of postmodernism. In addition, the volume contains an appendix of related European and Latin American expressions and a chronology of historical and cultural events and individual achievements.