Postmodern Teori

Author: Steven Best, Douglas Kellner

Aiming to reconstruct a critical social theory in Postmodern Theory, Best and Kellner present us with an archeology of the term that has been in circulation since the 1870s. In the light of this archaeology, they state the reasons for grouping names such as Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Jameson, Laclau, Mouffe under the concept of "postmodernist" and critically filter the works of these figures. Thanks to the exposition they make during this discussion, a series of concepts that can be said to be postmodernist are clarified: The rejection of the notions of grand narrative, representation, truth, subject, truth, progress, revolution and their replacement with desire, deterritorialization, rhizome, multiplicity, language games, difference, subject positions, knowledge/power, genealogy, simulation, hyper-real, radical democracy, notions of hegemony. Best and Kellner, who do not agree with the idea that a radical historical break has occurred, but accept that there have been important changes in social and cultural dimensions, argue that these changes require the reconstruction of social and cultural theory, and prefer to investigate their "rational cores" rather than completely denigrating and denying the theories they classify as postmodernist. They do. On the other hand, they do not refrain from analyzing the dead-end streets into which postmodern theory has fallen. The rational criticism of rationality, the totalizing rejection of totality, the throwing of the category of subjectivity into a corner with subjective arrogance, the wholesale rejection of causality in response to the criticism of overly mechanistic single-cause theories, and the overlooking of nuances in the criticism of reason are just a few of them. As a result, in this book, there is an effort to analyze the problems of our age through the construction of a multi-dimensional critical theory and to contribute to the establishment of a livable world in the next century by comprehending the global phase of capitalism in all its complexity. And then there are the readers to whom Best and Kellner dedicate their books: "...the next generation of radical intellectuals and activists, to whom we hope will use the insights of postmodern theory and other critical discourses to develop new theories and policies to confront the challenges of our present years and the next century... ."
(From the Promotional Bulletin)



Number of Pages: 464

Year of Printing: 2016


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Details Publications

First Printing Year: 2010

Number of Pages: 464

Language Turkish