Postmodern Theory: Critical Questions: Critical Questions

Author: Douglas Kellner
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-02-01
Features: The book "Postmodern Theory" is one of the most objective and excellent works I have read on the study and introduction of postmodern theory. It is an academic monograph worth reading and even rereading. The two most outstanding impressions I have from the book are its rigorous attitude and its vast amount of information. The book "Postmodern Theory" is one of the most objective and excellent works I have read on the study and introduction of postmodern theory. It is an academic monograph worth reading and even rereading. The two most outstanding impressions I have from the book are its rigorous attitude and its vast amount of information.
The so-called rigorous attitude, as indicated by the subtitle "Critical Questions," is an "analytical critical attitude." This may sound ordinary, but it is not easy to achieve. As is well known, there have always been two completely opposite attitudes toward postmodernism, a 20th-century global cultural trend with widespread influence. One is to blindly and wholeheartedly support it without analysis; the other is to dismiss it arbitrarily and criticize it without hesitation. These two seemingly completely opposing attitudes are actually one and the same—they are both attitudes of intellectual laziness. The author of Postmodern Theory has abandoned this path of extraordinary convenience and embarked on a much more difficult path, a path of intellectual inquiry. At the end of each chapter, the author explicitly states: "Our goal is to elaborate and understand postmodern theory, viewing it as a challenge to modern theory and modern politics, which contains both promising new perspectives and questionable dimensions." He also says: "We will neither act as defenders or admirers of postmodern discourse nor merely hold it in contempt and disdain. Instead, we will open our minds, accepting both its challenges and critiques while questioning some of its exaggerations and expressions."