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37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Postmodernism made clear - at last!, August 17, 2000
Whipping-boy of preachers, or the coolest of cool labels, "postmodern" keeps popping into my life unbidden. Frustrated over my own ignorance of the term, and unable to pin down a common definition, this book was a simple solution. Understanding modernism as the Enlightenment ideals of progress, optimism, rationality and the search for absolute truth and the true self, Ward sees postmodernism as the contemporary antithesis embracing exhaustion, pessimism, irrationality and disillusionment with absolutes. On the surface this comparison may appear to put postmodernism in a negative light, when it has much to commend it. For example, in architecture (chapter two) the modern perspective was utilitarian. Form had to be functional. The result was inhuman sameness. Postmodern architecture emphasizes form, not function, and borrows/blends architectural themes from various places and times to create an eclectic hodgepodge more representative of human diversity and experience. This democratization of architecture is mimicked in literature and the arts (chapter three) where critics are dethroned as arbiters of taste and culture in favor of mass appeal and acceptance. Chapter four titled "The Trouble With Reality" is simply marvelous, and sets the tone for the remainder of the book. Postmodernism changes the very essence of reality. Just as quantum physics explains that my desk if more "space" than matter, postmodern thought sees reality in form, not substance. The conviction that "image" must rest upon something "real" is contrary to postmodernism, since image is reality. Television is the primary medium; Jean Baudrillard a primary figure. Chapter five builds on four with poststructural conceptions of language and meanings. Positing that language is self-referential and, accordingly, never reflective of essential reality, postmodernism replaces the author's intent with the readers' insight; meaning with interpretation; facts with relationships. In chapters six and seven Ward explains the postmodern reworking of personal identity. Rather than the unveiling of innate essence, the postmodern self is fundamentally social. Constructed, not created, the postmodern self "becomes" through social interactivity. Postmodernism rejects a whole, unified or coherent psyche in preference for a "fleeting, unstable, incomplete and open-ended mess of desires which cannot be fulfilled." In chapter eight Ward summarizes postmodernism as against depth and essence, totality and universality; but for the superficial and provisional, fragmentation and difference. He concludes with applications of postmodern thought in both science and politics. Ward does an exceptional job of selecting representative postmodern voices, letting them speak for themselves, and then also giving voice to their critics. This style of writing is a little choppy, but is well worth the added insight it provides. Now if I can just find a similar book on chaos theory and quantum physics!
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by Stanley J. Grenz
by Douglas Kellner
