AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Theory and History of Literature, Vol 10) by Jean-Francois Lyotard, Brian Massumi, Frederic Jameson ISBN: 0-8166-1173-4 Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr (Txt) Pub. Date: July, 1985 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (8 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Classic Postmodernism
Comment: This book is a classic that anyone attempting to understand postmoderism must read. Beware! This book is not for the faint of heart as some may find the language inaccessible and somewhat unapproachable. Those who aspire to understand topics such as critical race theory, post-structuralism, critical pedagogy, feminist theory, lat-crit theory, critical race feminism and other theoretical issues of diversity should come to understand postmodernism through the lens of this author and scholar.

Rating: 2
Summary: The Irrelevant Condition
Comment: This ponderous mix of the philosophy of art, science, and politics leaves you with a headache and the irrelevant conclusion: "Let us wage war on totality; let us be witnesses to the unpresentable; let us activate the differences and save the honor of the name." Huh? This conclusion has as much practical value as the entire book.

Lyotard seems to think that scientific validity is something similar to government legitimacy, and is thus based on doctrines, dogmas, and the degree to which people subscribe to them. He thinks such validity can be created and undone with what he calls "language games." Economically advanced societies are under what he believes to be the language game of "performativity" which, in common sense terms, means the desire to be efficient. Lyotard theorizes and philosophizes in such general terms that his postmodernism bears striking resemblance to the "totality" and holistic perspective on which he would wage war. No, Mr. Lyotard, all scientific theories are not created equal, not equally valid. And this postmodern masterpiece seems less relevant every day.

Rating: 4
Summary: A crisis of legitimation
Comment: No one can deny that the 20th century has been one of wars and legitimation. Theorists from all discplines were engaged in a rush to explain and legitimate first modernism and then the collapse theoreof at the hands of the new wave of thinkers in the second half of the century. Lyotard's work is ground-breaking in the sense it reduces post-modernism to a state of collapse; the destruction of grand-narratives. He fails, however, in defending his conception of what replaced those grand-narratives. The notion of grand-narratives itself is extremely suspect and implies the complete replacement of universalised notions with localised discursive practices. Lyotard's language games, very Wittgensteinan in source, were set back by his dependance on the theory of speech acts rather than the rich insights of criticl linguistics. The notions advanced in this book are very interesting but the definition of localised language games left a lot to be desired. Maybe Foucault was correct in refusing to tie his conception of discourse and discursive practices to one theory of lingusitic analysis. Lyotard should have done the same.

Similar Books:

	Title: Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Post-Contemporary Interventions Series) by Fredric Jameson ISBN: 0822310902 Publisher: Duke Univ Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: February, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.95
	Title: Simulacra and Simulation by Sheila Glaser, Jean 0 Baudrillard ISBN: 0472065211 Publisher: UMP Pub. Date: 15 February, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.80
	Title: The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change by David Harvey ISBN: 0631162941 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: June, 1990 List Price(USD): $28.95
	Title: The Foucault Reader by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0394713400 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 November, 1984 List Price(USD): $16.00
	Title: Discipline & Punish : The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0679752552 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 25 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00