A Primer to Postmodernity

A Primer to Postmodernity introduces the general reader to an emerging "postmodern" world order by giving us "just the facts" through contemporary cultural lenses. Using TV shows, political talk shows, radio call–in shows, and popular film as points of reference, the focus is not on postmodernism as a movement in art, architecture and literature, but on postmodernity as the most wide–ranging and provocative change in how we look at the world since the Enlightenment.

Natoli creates a postmodern environment in his text by incorporating starship Captain Becark and Commander Deja as our guides and interlocutors of the postmodern debate. they interrupt the text by asking questions where the reader might get stuck. They shift focus, counter arguments, deflate rhetoric, and add to the multi–voiced exposition of the Primer, dismantling anyone′s hope of ever again providing the uninterrupted, monologic catechisms of modernity. This text performs postmodernity.

Before going to the primary readings of postmodern theorists, students and general readers should begin with A Primer to Postmodernity is inherently so hard to define.

To The Reader.

1. Is This a Postmodern World?.

2. How Do We Create a Sense of Realism? Or, Do We Just Discover it?.

3. Classic Realist Formulas in Action: Film.

4. Go To Citizen Kane to Find 20th Century Modernism...

On the Edge of Postmodernity.

5. Moving Across the Profound Surface of a Postmodern Life.

6. Yes, There is a Postmodern Political Struggle.

7. Postmodernity′s and the Market.

8. Meditating on Postmodern Ethics and Religion.

9. Facing the Monsters: History in the Hands of Postmodernists.

10. Enacting the Postmodern: The Primer′s Glossary of Cultural Studies.

Index.

Joseph Natoli teaches at the Centre for Integrative Studies at Michigan State University. He is co–series editor of Postmodern Culture, a series published by the State University of New York Press.

"The author has produced an international book 9with one or two excepted examples) which discusses the meaning of Citizen Kane and eventually ponders the question: Is Seinfeld post–modern? The answer to this question and many more are lucidly given in this book which is great fun to read. as a primer, readers are encouraged to start here and then go straight to the key thinkers: Natoli provides a list of all significant anthologies and works to date." Bookends 1998

" It is a fascinating text for a number of reasons. First of all, it′s fun and innovative. Second, it is deceptive, a scholarly text posing as a funzine; examined closely, the discussion reveals itself to be crammed with information and central points of debate about postmodernism as a critical theory, as a cultural moment, and as epistemology." Amy J. Elias, University of Alabama, Birmingham

Those of us who have been attempting to teach postmodernism to undergraduates have long felt the need for a truly introductory text: a text that isn t something else ( theory in general), a text that is clearly intended for previously unexposed students rather than overexposed scholars, a text that doesn t fail to explain postmodernity even while participating in its complexities. Joseph Natlaoi s A Premier to Postmodernity fills this need admirably. Calvin Thomas, University of Northern Iowa

Natoli s book delivers on its promise of being a primer for students. This book is well written, its prose is accessible and engaging, generally free of arcane jargon. Students will warm up to the dialogue format and the references to popular culture and media forms. Lawrence Hatab, Old Dominion University

Natoli s A Primers to Postmodernity is accessible without being patronizing and positioned without pretending to neutrality. He obviously had fun writing some of these paradigmatic conversation sections and his enjoyment is contagious. Victoria F. Harris, Illinois State University