Postmodern Theory (New Edition) -- Critical Questions

Author: (USA) Best, (USA) Kellner, translated by Zhang Zhibin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: The book "Postmodern Theory" is an excellent and objective work among the studies and introductions to postmodern theory that I have read. It is a scholarly monograph worth reading and even rereading. The book left me with two prominent impressions: one is its rigorous approach, and the other is its wealth of information. The so-called rigorous approach, 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 influential global cultural trend. One is to blindly and wholeheartedly support it without analysis; the other is to dismiss it arbitrarily and start criticizing it immediately. 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 convenience and instead took a much more difficult path, a path of intellectualism. 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 defend or praise postmodern discourse nor merely dismiss or scorn it. Instead, we will keep an open mind, accepting its challenges and critiques while questioning some of its exaggerations and expressions." This book is a systematic introduction to postmodern theory. With a rigorous approach, the authors systematically explain the theories of influential contemporary Western postmodern thinkers such as Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, Deleuze and Guattari, Baudrillard, Jameson, Laclau, and Murphy. They provide systematic and in-depth introductions and analyses of their representative postmodern historical theories, social theories, cultural theories, and political theories. The authors also explore the relationships between postmodernism and feminism, postmodernism and critical theory, postmodernism and Marxism, and postmodernism and modernity. Whether for readers who want a general understanding of postmodern theory or for scholars dedicated to postmodern theory research, this book is a scholarly work of great value.