Main entry:

Jencks, Charles, author.

Title & Author:

What is post-modernism? / Charles Jencks.

Edition:

Fourth edition, revised.

Publication:

London : Academy Editions, 1996.
Lanham, Maryland : Distributed by National Book Network, Inc.

Description:

80 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Notes:
"First given as a paper at conferences in America and Germany in 1985"--Title page verso
Includes bibliographical references and index.
pt. 1. The Logic of History -- Who Are We? -- Post-Modern Chooses Us -- Capsule History -- pt. 2. Post-Modern Culture -- The Protestant Crusade -- The Protestant Inquisition Amplifies the Enemy -- Post-Modernism as Double Coding -- The Counter-Reformation in Architecture -- Post-Modern Art -- Subverting While Inscribing -- The Confusion of Late- with Post-Modernism -- pt. 3. Post-Modern Society -- The Post-Modern Information World and the Rise of the Cognitariat -- The Post-National World: Culture Acceleration -- The Post-National World: Thinking Wild Thoughts -- Post-Socialism and Socitalism -- pt. 4. The Universe as Measure -- A New Metanarrative?
Also issued online.

Summary:

"'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.'"--Jacket

ISBN:

1854904280 (pbk.)
9781854904287 (pbk.)

Subject:

Postmodernism.
Arts, Modern 20th century.
Architecture, Postmodern.
Architecture, Modern 20th century.
Arts, Modern.
Architecture, Modern.
Postmodernisme.
Arts 20e siècle.
Architecture postmoderne.
Architecture 20e siècle.
Postmodern.
Avant-garde (esthétique) 20e siècle.
Arts Postmodernism

Holdings:

Location: Library main 111282
Call No.: ID NX456.5.P66.J4; ID:96-B1906
Status: Available