Description
Book Synopsis''Postmodern'' is a popular term, but difficult to define. Is it a movement? Discipline? Lifestyle? Or all these things? What are the limits of its jurisdiction? Instead of summing up the various perspectives of scholars and the variety of ideas to which the term postmodernism has been assigned, Berger lets this diversity speak for itself. By bringing together in a reader format articles and essays on the impact of the postmodern temper on an eclectic range of subjects from MTV and ''The X-Files'' to museums and university culture, Berger presents a few of the many ways different theorists have come to terms with postmodernism, while examining manifestations of postmodernism in the culture of everyday life. Highly entertaining and thought-provoking, the collection is sure to engage students and encourage a real involvement with the issues of postmodernism. And, when paired with its ''postmodern murder mystery'' companion, Postmortem for a Postmodernist (also published by AltaMira Press
Table of Contentschapter 1 Homo postmodernus: A New Kind of Human Being?, Arthur Asa Berger chapter 2 Our Decentered Culture: The Postmodern Worldview, Jack Solomon chapter 3 A Spy Guide to Postmodern Everything, Bruce Handy chapter 4 Postmodernism: Roots and Politics, Todd Gitlin chapter 5 Themed Environments of Everyday Life: Restaurants and Malls, Mark Gottdiener chapter 6 Postmodern Postmuseum?, Arthur Asa Berger chapter 7 The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Frederic Jameson chapter 8 Wayne's World, Jason Rutter chapter 9 Not Your Parents' FBI: The X-Files and "Jose Chung from Outer Space," Eileen Meehan chapter 10 The Terminator: A Case Study in High Tech Paranoia , Arthur Asa Berger chapter 11 MTV: Post-Structural Post-Modern, John Fiske chapter 12 MTV: The (Dis)Appearance of Postmodern Semiosis, or The Cultural Politics of Resistance, Kuan-Hsing Chen Higher Education at the End of the Millennium, Peter Sacks chapter 13 Fashion in the Face of Postmodernity, Charlotta Kratz & Bo Reimer chapter 14 Postmodernism and Jokes, N.J.C. Vasantkumar chapter 15 Being Analog, Carol Wilder chapter 16 Postmodern Virtualities, Mark Poster chapter 17 Teledildonics and Beyond, Howard Rheingold chapter 18 Exploring Modernity, Steven Best & Douglas Kellner chapter 19 America, Jean Baudrillard chapter 20 Postmodernism in American Literature, Lawrence Mintz chapter 21 Postmodern Sports, Michael Real chapter 22 Selected Bibliography chapter 23 Index chapter 24 Notes on Contributors
