What is Post-Modernism [Paperback]

Charles Jencks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 1996 | ISBN-10: 1854904280 | ISBN-13: 978-1854904287 | Edition: 4

Provides a lucid exposition of Post-Modernism in art and architecture. This book clarifies a tradition that is thriving but still very much misunderstood. The reader is presented with many examples of art and architecture appropriate to Post-Modernism as well as being introduced to the history which preceded it, facilitating a much clearer understanding of the overall concept and initiating a thirst for more.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

'What is Post-Modernism?' Is it a new world view,or an outgrowth of the Post-Industrial Society? Is it a shift in philosophy, the arts and architecture? In this fourth, entirely revised edition, Charles Jencks, one of the founders of the Post-Modern Movement, shows it is all these things plus many other forces that have exploded since the early 1960s. In a unique analysis, using diagrams designed especially for this edition, he reveals the evolutionary, social and economic forces of this new stage of global civilisation. But why has post-modern culture arrived? In an ironic parable, 'the Protestant Crusade'. Jencks uncovers some hitherto hidden origins: the Modernists' abhorrence for all things sensuous and natural, and their zeal for all things orderly and mechanistic. This pseudo-religion led in the 1920s to the famous 'vacuum-cleaning' period, the purgation of values, metaphysics and emotion. In the 1970s it led on to the 'Protestant Inquisition' which inadvertently created the very enemy Modernists feared - Post-Modernism; a Counter-Reformation, the reassertion of worldliness, fecundity, humour and pluralism. However, more than one tradition emerged and Jencks, distinguishing two types of Post-Modernism (deconstructive and reconstructive) demonstrates that the former is often a disguised form of Late-Modernism. This takes the de-creation and nihilism of its parent to extremes. The main engine that drives global culture today - post-modernisation, the electronic economy and instant communications network - is analysed in its close relation to other 'posts': Post-Fordism, Post-Socialism and the post-national world of trading blocs and unstable nations. Jencks argues that this may result in catastrophe and global governance, or a web of transnational institutions and obligations. The most radical idea of this challenging book is the conclusion: the notion that the post-modern world does not mean the end of metanarratives, but something quite different. Belief systems are flourishing as never before and, Jencks argues, 'a new metanarrative, based on the story of the universe and its generative qualities, will soon create a new world view that will affect all areas. It is a story which grows directly out of the post-modern sciences of complexity and is thus both true and mythic.' Other What is...? titles include What is Abstraction?, What is Deconstruction?

Product Details

• Paperback: 81 pages
• Publisher: Academy Press; 4 edition (June 13, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1854904280
• ISBN-13: 978-1854904287
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 8.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #841,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn the term., May 13, 2000

By 

Douglas Boin (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What is Post-Modernism (Paperback)

From the architect who played a vital role in the formation of "Second Modernism" ("Post-Modernism"), here is a book that explains it all: why Modernism failed and why the polemical "post" was a necessary addition. Anyone who has been baffled by the vague connotations of either term will be enlightened with sufficient examples. This book lives up to its title; it is mandatory for anyone attempting to understand the rise of multiculturalism and self-consciousness. As such, it provides a great "lens" for viewing all works of the 20th century; and although it doesn't focus per se on Modernist literature (cf. Rand's The Fountainhead), WHAT IS POST-MODERNISM crushes any out-dated philosophers under its powerful weight.

14 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ace, July 31, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What is Post-Modernism (Paperback)

This wonderful book has helped me understand the word "post-modern", which has replaced "serendipity" and "oxymoron" as the word I spew out when I am intimidated by how clever other people are and panic.

8 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Proponents of PostModernism are Excrutiatingly Overrated, June 3, 2000

By 

"mlbasquiat" - See all my reviews

This review is from: What is Post-Modernism (Paperback)

I have great respect for Charles Jencks as an architect, and as a critic of art relating to such. Therefore the book should be retitled, What is Postmodern Architecture? Or what is everything about Post-Modernism except the art? The main focus seems to be on the industrial world which created the art, rather then the art. Seems hardly revolutionary or even relevant since everyone and their brother and sister has written on that subject since 1820. I was hoping for something which would address the art, but I was sorely disappointed. The constant focus on the world around the buildings of postmodernism dragged and was inebriatingly dull (It got to the point where the author was forced to contradict himself to make the book interesting). The focus of Postmoderism was once architecture, however, now the focus has shifted, it seems everyone except the academics know this. Not only was his sections on art and literature stupid, but incorrect, and blunderingly light. I expected more from Jencks, being the great mind of the century he was. If you want to know anything helpful and relevant pretaining to Post Modernism today, do not read this book. But hey if you want to know about your father's post modernism, read this book!