A Postmodern Reader
- Publisher
- State University of New York Press
- Initial publish date
- Jun 1993
- Category
- Cultural
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780791416389
- Publish Date
- Jun 1993
- List Price
- $51.95
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
These readings are organized into four sections. The first explores the wellsprings of the debates in the relationship between the postmodern and the enterprise it both continues and contravenes: modernism. Here philosophers, social and political commentators, as well as cultural and literary analysts present controversial background essays on the complex history of postmodernism. The readings in the second section debate the possibility-or desirability-of trying to define the postmodern, given its cultural agenda of decentering, challenging, even undermining the guiding "master" narratives of Western culture. The readings in the third section explore postmodernism's complicated complicity with these very narratives, while the fourth section moves from theory to practice in order to investigate, in a variety of fields, the common denominators of the postmodern condition in action.
About the authors
Linda Hutcheon holds the rank of University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto. A specialist in postmodernist culture and in critical theory, on which she has published nine books, she has also worked collaboratively in large projects involving hundreds of scholars.
Editorial Reviews
"Those who recognize that the concept of postmodernism is with us to stay and who meet the necessary responsibility of bringing it to our students will welcome this book. It is ample in its offerings; and from the point of view of the potential user, the convenience and utility of the collection are prime virtues.
"The mix is refreshing. The selections are both varied and representative; they touch on essential aspects of the topic and exhaust its full range; they also underscore the conflictive nature of what is called 'the postmodern'. " — John W. Kronik, Cornell University
"This is an outstanding book?timely, lucid, and much-needed?whose aims are well-fulfilled and that moves with ease from theory to practice."? Alison M. Lee, The University of Western Ontario
Other titles by
Greening the Maple
Canadian Ecocriticism in Context
Narcissistic Narrative
The Metafictional Paradox
The Canadian Postmodern
A Study of Contemporary Canadian Fiction, Reissue
The Postwar Novel in Canada
Narrative Patterns and Reader Response
Rethinking Literary History
A Dialogue on Theory
Productive Postmodernism
Consuming Histories and Cultural Studies
George Woodcock's Introduction to Canadian Fiction
Double-Talking
Essays on Verbal and Visual Ironies in Canadian Contemporary Art and Literature
Leonard Cohen and His Works
Narcissistic Narrative
The Metafictional Paradox