Theory, Culture & Society - Postmodernism [antikvár]

In Pursuit of the Postmodern: An Introduction Mike Featherstone Any reference to the term 'postmodernism' immediately exposes one to the risk of being accused of jumping on a bandwaggon, of perpetuating a rather shallow and meaningless intellectual fad. One of the problems is that the term is at once fashionable yet irritatingly elusive to define. As the Modern-day Dictionary of Received Ideas confirms 'This word has no meaning. Use it as often as possible' {The Independent, 24 December 1987). Over a decade earlier, in August 1975, another newspaper anounced that 'postmodernism is dead', and that 'post-post-modernism is now the thing' (Palmer, 1977: 364). If postmodernism is an ephemeral fashion then some critics are clear as to who are responsible for its prominence: 'Today's paid theorists surveying the field from their booklined studies in polytechnics and universities are obHged to invent movements because their careers — no less than those of miners and fishermen — depend on it. The more movements they can give names to, the more successful they will be' (Pawley, 1986). For other critics these strategies are not just internal moves within the intellectual and academic fields; they are clear indicators and barometers of the 'malaise at the heart of contemporary culture'. Hence, 'It is not difficuh to comprehend this cultural and aesthetic trend now known as Postmodernism — in art and architecture, music and film, drama and fiction — as a reflection of the present wave of political reaction sweeping the Western world' (Gott, 1986). But it is all too easy to see postmodernism as a reactionary, mechanical reflection of social changes and to blame the academics and intellectuals for coining the term as part of their distinction games. Even though certain newspaper critics and para-intellectuals use the term in a cynical or dismissive manner, they confirm that postmodernism has sufficient appeal to interest a larger middle-class audience. Few other recent academic terms can claim to have enjoyed such popu- Theory, Culture & Society (SAGE, London, Newbury Park, Beverly Hills and New Delhi), Vol. 5 (1988), 195-215