This collection assembles many of the major theorists of postmodernism, across the humanities and the social sciences, to reconsider the nature and significance of the postmodern moment, as historical phase and as theoretical field. The authors look back on their own contributions to the postmodernism debate of the 1980s and 1990s and address the ways in which the contemporary world and their own concerns have developed, and the continuing validity or otherwise of 'postmodern' as a master designator of the contemporary.

Following a substantial introductory survey, the 15 compact articles include contributions from: Linda Hutcheon, Robert Venturi, Zygmunt Bauman, Douglas Kellner, Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, Lawrence Grossberg, Gianni Vattimo and Ernesto Laclau. The collection provides an important testimonial source for researchers interested in contemporary theoretical developments, whether in the arts and humanities or the social sciences. It will be a useful text for teachers leading classes with a focus on postwar intellectual history and cultural theory.

Reviews

'This representative collection of thoughts on postmodernism or postmodernity allows us to observe the fortunes and the multiple trajectories of an idea.'

Editorial introduction - Pelagia Goulimari
Part I: Genealogies of the postmodern
Gone forever, but here to stay: the legacy of the Postmodern - Linda Hutcheon
A Bas Postmodernism, of course - Robert Venturi
On the Postmodernism debate - Zygmunt Bauman and Keith Tester
Postmodernity and (the end of) metaphysics - Gianni Vattimo (trans. David Rose)
Ereignisse of the Postmodern: Heidegger, Lyotard, and Gerhard Richter - Hugh J. Silverman
Human rights in Postmodernity - Costas Douzinas
Subjectivity, ethics, politics: learning to live without the subject - Jane Flax
Part II: Mapping the postmodern
They might have been giants - John McGowan
Reappraising the Postmodern: novelties, mapping and historical narratives - Douglas Kellner
The Postmodern: after the (non-)event - Mike Gane and Nicholas Gane
Part III: The postmodern and the twenty-first century
Postmodernism and Islam: where to after September 11? - Akbar S. Ahmed
Goodbye to all that - McKenzie Wark
Suspicion of thought - Arthur Kroker and Marilouise Kroker
Affect and Postmodernity in the struggle over "American Modernity" - Lawrence Grossberg
Heterogeneity and Post-Modernity - Ernesto Laclau
Postscript - Fredric Jameson