Postmodernism - Local Effects, Global Flows

By Vincent B. Leitch

Subjects: Aesthetics
Series: SUNY series in Postmodern Culture
Paperback : 9780791430101, 195 pages, July 1996
Hardcover : 9780791430095, 195 pages, July 1996

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Table of contents

Preface

Part I: Poststructuralism Disseminated

1. Global Poststructuralism and Virtual Economics

2. Jacques Derrida's Assault on the Institution of Style

3. Posthermeneutics or Hermeneutics at the Marketplace

4. Filling in the Blanks: Deconstruction, Ethics, and Subjectivity

5. Anglo-American and French Feminists United: The Dream of Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar

6. Teaching Deconstructively

Part II: Postmodernism Pluralized

7. A Postmodern Poetic: Pentti Saarikoski and What's Really Going On

8. Postmodern Painting and Pastiche: The Plate Pieces of Julian Schnabel

9. Writing Cultural History: The Case of Postmodernism

10. Postmodern Culture: The Ambivalence of Fredric Jameson

11. Postmodern, Pedagogy, and Cultural Criticism

12. Transformations in Political Economy during Postmodern Times

Notes
Index

Offers readable case studies in postmodern economics, philosophy, literary criticism, feminism, pedagogy, poetry, painting, historiography, and cultural studies, showing disorganization as characteristic of postmodern times.

Description

Through informative, original, and incisive case studies in postmodern economics, philosophy, literary criticism, feminism, pedagogy, poetry, painting, historiography, and cultural studies, this book demonstrates that disorganization and disaggregation characterize postmodern times. Postmodern phenomena, Leitch argues, resemble imploded geological formations with historical strata in kaleidoscopic disarray, and that neither economics, nor politics, nor culture escapes this novel form. Among the influential figures analyzed are Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, John Caputo, Jacques Derrida, Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar, Henry Giroux, Stanley Aronowitz, Linda Hutcheon, Fredric Jameson, J. Hillis Miller, Pentti Saarikoski, and Julian Schnabel.

Vincent B. Leitch is Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma. He is also the author of American Literary Criticism from the 1930s to the 1980s; Deconstructive Criticism; and Cultural Criticism, Literary Theory, Poststructuralism.

Reviews

"In earlier books on deconstruction, cultural criticism, and other recent movements, Vincent B. Leitch established himself as an intrepid reporter from the darkest and most impenetrable regions of 'theory. ' Now Leitch beards the biggest dragon of all in its den—Postmodernism. Useful to Pomo insiders, Leitch's lucid account will bring welcome illumination to readers who have longed for a readable and reliable guide to the labyrinth of postmodernisms. " — Gerald Graff, George M. Pullman Professor of English and Education, The University of Chicago, Illinois

"Vincent B. Leitch's sharp new book, Postmodernism—Local Effects, Global Flows, works today's intersection of deconstruction and cultural studies, trafficking in the main currents of contemporary criticism from Derrida's Specters of Marx through the latest futures in aesthetics, political economy, feminism, ethics, pedagogy, virtual reality, and institutional theory. With street-smart wit and scholarly expertise, Leitch grounds high theory in the material conditions of daily life, ranging all the way from the shattered dishes of Julian Schnabel to the smooth, hyper-real orbit of space-age communication. " — Walter Kalaidjian, Emory University