Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations

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Guilford Press, Jan 1, 1991 - Political Science - 324 pages
In this timely volume, the authors systematically analyze postmodern t heory to evaluate its relevance for critical social theory and radical politics today. The authors claim that while postmodern theory provi des insights into contemporary developments, it lacks adequate methodo logical and political perspectives to provide a critical social theory and radical politics for the present age.
 

Contents

In Search of the Postmodern
1
11 Archaeology of the Postmodern
5
From Structuralist to Postmodern Theory
16
121 The Poststructuralist Critique
20
122 The Postmodern Turn
25
13 Critical Theory and the Postmodern Challenge
29
Foucault and the Critique of Modernity
34
21 Postmodern Perspectives and the Critique of Modernity
36
Early Writings
147
511 Discours Figure
148
Libidinal Economy and the Politics of Desire
152
513 Paganism Just Gaming and the Postmodern Turn
160
52 The Postmodern Condition
163
The Differend
167
54 Postmodern Aporia
171
541 Language Games Consensus and the Fetishism of Difference
175

211 Archaeology and Discontinuity
40
212 Nietzsche and Genealogy
45
Foucaults Postmodern Analytics
48
Foucaults Political Fragments
54
Politics of Genealogy
56
232 Ethics and Technologies of the Self
59
Some Critical Comments
68
Deleuze and Guattari Schizos Nomads Rhizomes
76
31 Deleuzes Nietzsche
79
Psychoanalysis Capitalism and Normalization
85
321 Desire Modernity and Schizoanalysis
86
322 The Micropolitics of Desire
93
33 A Thousand Plateaus for the Postmodern
97
Bodies Without Politics?
104
Baudrillard en route to Postmodernity
111
41 Exploring Modernity
112
411 From Symbolic to Productivist Societies
114
412 Symbolic Exchange Micropolitics and Cultural Revolution
115
42 From Modernity to Post modernity
118
422 Baudrillard vs Foucault
122
43 Postmodernity Metaphysics and Postpolitics
126
Baudrillard in the 1980s
128
432 The End of History
133
433 Aporia and Blindspots
137
Lyotard and Postmodern Gaming
146
542 Sociological and Political Deficits
177
Marxism Feminism and Political Postmodernism
181
61 Jamesons Postmodern Marxism
182
611 Postmodernism as the Cultural Logic of Capital
184
612 Cognitive Mapping and Cultural Politics
188
Between the Modern and Postmodern
192
621 Hegemony and the Marxist Tradition
194
622 Socialism Radical Democracy and Discourse Struggle
196
The Limits of Discourse Theory
200
63 Postmodern Feminism and the Politics of Identity and Difference
205
Critical Theory and Postmodern Theory
215
71 Critical Theory and Modernity
217
72 Adornos ProtoPostmodern Theory
225
73 Habermas and Modernity
233
737 Modernity as Unfinished Project
234
732 Habermas vs Postmodern Theory
240
The HabermasLyotard Debate
246
Towards the Reconstruction of Critical Social Theory
256
81 For a Multidimensional and Multiperspectival Critical Theory
263
82 Postmodernity Postindustrial Society and the Dialectics of Continuity and Discontinuity
274
Subjectivity Discourse and Aestheticism
283
Conflicting Models
294
Bibliography
305
Index
320
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About the author (1991)

Steven Best, Ph.D., is a Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Texas, El Paso. He has published articles on Marx, postmodern theory, Baudrillard, Debord, Jameson, film, television, and cultural theory.
Douglas Kellner is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of Karl Korsch: Revolutionary Theory; Marxism and Modernity; Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond; Camera Politica: The Politics and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film (with Michael Ryan); and Television and the Crisis of Democracy

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