The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change

Pretty clear introduction to postmodern theory, so I suppose this is a good place to start if you're interested in postmodernism. However, it didn't kindle much interest in me for this topic. I'm still not sure where the appeal of postmodern thought lies.

A great deal has been written on what has variously been described as the postmodern condition and on postmodern culture, architecture, art and society. In this new book, [the author] seeks to determine what is meant by the term in its different contexts and to identify how accurate and useful it is as a description of contemporary experience.

But the book is much more than this: in the course of his investigation the author provides a social and semantic history – from the Enlightenment to the present – of modernism and its expression in political and social ideas and movements, as well as in art, literature and architecture. He considers in particular how the meaning and perception of time and space themselves vary over time and show more space, and shows that this variance affects individual values and social processes of the most fundamental kind.

This book will be widely welcomed, not only for its clear and critical account of the arguments surrounding the propositions of modernity and postmodernity, but as an incisive contribution to the history of ideas and their relation to social and political change.

'Devastating. The most brilliant study of postmodernity to date. [The author] cuts beneath the theoretical debates about postmodernist culture to reveal the social and economic basis of this apparently free-floating phenomenon. After reading this book, those who fashionably scorn the idea of a "total" critique had better think again.' – Terry Eagleton

'[The author]'s book is probably the best yet written on the link between…economic and cultural transformations.' – Financial Times

'[The author]'s engrossing book is probably the most readable, ambitious, and intelligent work on postmodernism yet published.' – Voice Literary Supplement

'In [the author]'s skillful hands various strands of contemporary life, normally held far apart by specialized scholarly interests, come together again and are shown to fit with each other...a marvelous, enjoyable and mind-opening book.' – Time Literary Supplement show less

Marxist view of post-modernity.

Reviewed by Steven Best here:

http://www.drstevebest.org/papers/phiecosoc/book_reviews/harvey.htm

More on the book's contents here:

http://webpages.ursinus.edu/rrichter/harvey.html

(Har ett stencilerat utsnitt hemma). Intressant att höra en marxist närma sig postmodernismen. Insiktsfullt.