THEORETICAL CONCEPTS IN POSTMODERNISM
Before we made the strategic decision on 13 December 1995 to put The Ten
Commandments of the Postmodern at the very center of our inquiry into critical theory in postmodernism,
we were on a different
course. We explain that course in the Introduction to the Ten Commandments.
In brief, we were developing a list of key words, each a portal to some theoretical
formulation. It was not working, and we abandoned that line of development.
But we preserve the list of key theoretical words in its incomplete form. Some of the links shed light; yet
we are not bound to that order of discourse.
Postmodernity, we feel, affirms the soft edge of such a file and tolerates its raggy incompleteness.
The alternative--to delete it with the finality of an executioner's
stroke--seemed contrary to the spirit of what we are about here. A rhizomatic,
evolutionary history plays itself out in our project; the potential for confusing a
reader or browser remains, but the greater possibility of losing a little
insight determines our decision for inclusion. Links allow the cautious
to avoid these
fragments of lost alternative futures in our thinking, if they choose.
The most direct way to get on with an examination of critical concepts of
postmodernism in THE PROGRAMME is to look at The Ten
Commandments of the Postmodern.
A reference on the World Wide Web provides a useful contrast of postmodern
and modern concepts. David Harvey in The
Condition of Postmodernity (page 43) uses this contrast to good effect in his
explanation of the postmodern sensibility.
16 December 1995
The Genesis Document, Part Two, on critical theory.
Theoretical concepts: an abandoned trail
Theory vs. practice
The Ten Commandments of the Postmodern
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