Postmodern Theory -- Critical Questions

Author: (USA) Best, (USA) Kellner, translated by Zhang Zhibin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The book "Postmodern Theory" is an excellent work among the studies and introductions to postmodern theory that I have read, with a relatively objective stance. It is an academic monograph worth reading and even rereading. The two most striking impressions I have from the book are its rigorous attitude and its vast amount of information. The book "Postmodern Theory" is an excellent work among the studies and introductions to postmodern theory that I have read, with a relatively objective stance. It is an academic monograph worth reading and even rereading. The book gives me two prominent impressions: one is its rigorous attitude, and the other is its vast amount of information. The so-called rigorous attitude, as indicated by the subtitle "Critical Questions," is an "analytical and critical attitude." This may sound ordinary, but it is not easy to achieve. As is well known, there are traditionally two completely opposite attitudes toward postmodernism, a 20th-century influential global cultural trend. 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 authors of "Postmodern Theory" abandoned this path of extraordinary convenience and embarked on a much more difficult path, a path of intellectual exploration. At the end of each chapter, the authors explicitly state: "Our goal is to elaborate and understand postmodern theory, viewing it as a challenge to modern theory and modern politics, which contains promising new perspectives while also having questionable dimensions." They also say: "We will neither act as defenders or admirers of postmodern discourse nor 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."