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Reviews
Introducing Postmodernism by Ziauddin Sardar, Patrick Curry, Chris Garratt, Richard Appignanesi
jung's review
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.25
Generally a good overview of postmodern discourse, tackled from all angles. I appreciated the range of theory that this book tried to cover; as it really did highlight the intersectionality of all of these topics [semiotics, neoliberalism, biology, physics, art, linguistics, etc.] in a way that I wasn't able to grasp before. While being already vaguely familiar with the theory, the connections drawn (especially between linguistics and philosophy) made much more sense after reading this book. On a similar note, the emphasis on the theoreticians that pioneered these ideas made them easier to remember.
Most of it was incredibly quick, and the visual aspect of this book highlighted the important points. however, it is a bit ambitious to include so much postmodern theory in one book, and this book glosses over some huge ideas with little to no analysis. Especially with concepts so incredibly abstract, it's a bit difficult to digest when mixed with the jumpy and quick pacing of this book.
I also found it interesting that Appignanesi exudes a general sense that postmodernism is over, despite not really offering any big hints or solutions to a seemingly defunct mode of discourse. Nevertheless, this is probably the best general theory book that I've run into out there, and highly recommend reading it if you're looking to get into contemporary cultural theory.
Most of it was incredibly quick, and the visual aspect of this book highlighted the important points. however, it is a bit ambitious to include so much postmodern theory in one book, and this book glosses over some huge ideas with little to no analysis. Especially with concepts so incredibly abstract, it's a bit difficult to digest when mixed with the jumpy and quick pacing of this book.
I also found it interesting that Appignanesi exudes a general sense that postmodernism is over, despite not really offering any big hints or solutions to a seemingly defunct mode of discourse. Nevertheless, this is probably the best general theory book that I've run into out there, and highly recommend reading it if you're looking to get into contemporary cultural theory.
merrybelletrist's review
4.0
I really liked this book and I have a better understanding of postmodernism. It's simple to read and there's a bibliography of further reading in the back.
beckydouglas's review
1.0
I recently read and enjoyed Introducing Philosophy but Introducing Postmodernism was awful. Maybe it's postmodernism itself that's awful but I suspect it's this book. To be fair, the first third of the book discusses postmodernism in art; where it came from, how it evolved, how it fit in culturally in the US, Europe and Russia (although it's supposed to be a global movement, apparently nowhere else in the world produces art). That was fine, it was well explained and fairly interesting. Knowing a little about the history was helpful.
The rest of the book was kind of a waste of time. I kept putting it down out of irritation with the nonesense printed within. I kept checking the publication date because so many of the ideas and explanations of them seemed horribly out of date - but it was originally published in 1995 and I had been guessing more like the late 70's. This part of the book covered postmodernism in culture, in politics, in science and so on. It contradicted itself a lot and I came away with the idea that postmodernism isn't actually a thing.
Terms are regularly introduced without definitions too, which given that this is supposed to be an introduction seems a bit daft. It came across as being written for someone who had already studied postmodernism and wanted to congratulate themselves for being so clever that an introductory text contained things they already understood. I couldn't help wondering if the book itself was intended to be a postmodernist work.
Then there's the subtitle, "A graphic guide to cutting edge thinking." Well, ok, it's graphic in that it has lots of illustrations and is kind of laid out like a comic book. It's not a guide because so much of it was impentrable, self contradictory guff. It's not cutting edge because postmodernism has been around since around ~1921. It's not thinking either. I recognise thinking when I see it and this is not it.
The thing that possibly annoyed me the most, though, was that the author could not bring himself to remain impartial. He had an opinion on everything and felt his job was to share it. It isn't. When you're introducing a subject you shouldn't be telling people what to think about it, you should be giving them the information necessary to make up their own minds.
It's the worst book I've read this year.
The rest of the book was kind of a waste of time. I kept putting it down out of irritation with the nonesense printed within. I kept checking the publication date because so many of the ideas and explanations of them seemed horribly out of date - but it was originally published in 1995 and I had been guessing more like the late 70's. This part of the book covered postmodernism in culture, in politics, in science and so on. It contradicted itself a lot and I came away with the idea that postmodernism isn't actually a thing.
Terms are regularly introduced without definitions too, which given that this is supposed to be an introduction seems a bit daft. It came across as being written for someone who had already studied postmodernism and wanted to congratulate themselves for being so clever that an introductory text contained things they already understood. I couldn't help wondering if the book itself was intended to be a postmodernist work.
Then there's the subtitle, "A graphic guide to cutting edge thinking." Well, ok, it's graphic in that it has lots of illustrations and is kind of laid out like a comic book. It's not a guide because so much of it was impentrable, self contradictory guff. It's not cutting edge because postmodernism has been around since around ~1921. It's not thinking either. I recognise thinking when I see it and this is not it.
The thing that possibly annoyed me the most, though, was that the author could not bring himself to remain impartial. He had an opinion on everything and felt his job was to share it. It isn't. When you're introducing a subject you shouldn't be telling people what to think about it, you should be giving them the information necessary to make up their own minds.
It's the worst book I've read this year.
hzboy's review
3.0
I read in Bahasa & this review is written in Bahasa
Menarik! Karena sejauh ini, aku hanya tau istilah "posmodern" tanpa memahami apa makna dari kata itu.
Yang membuat aku tercengang, apalagi kalau bukan pemaparan mengenai hal-hal atau isu berkaitan dengan posmodern yang ternyata sudah selama ini kita temui.
Kaget juga karena beberapa peristiwa yang aku kira hanya ada secara fenomena, ternyata bisa ditelaah dengan menggunakan teori dan hasilnya adalah peristiwa tersebut sebagai tanda dari masyakarat posmodern.
Buku ini membantuku sekali dalam proses memahami istilah "Posmodern". Sayangnya, buku ini sudah tidak diterbitkan lagi.
Menarik! Karena sejauh ini, aku hanya tau istilah "posmodern" tanpa memahami apa makna dari kata itu.
Yang membuat aku tercengang, apalagi kalau bukan pemaparan mengenai hal-hal atau isu berkaitan dengan posmodern yang ternyata sudah selama ini kita temui.
Kaget juga karena beberapa peristiwa yang aku kira hanya ada secara fenomena, ternyata bisa ditelaah dengan menggunakan teori dan hasilnya adalah peristiwa tersebut sebagai tanda dari masyakarat posmodern.
Buku ini membantuku sekali dalam proses memahami istilah "Posmodern". Sayangnya, buku ini sudah tidak diterbitkan lagi.
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