Introducing Postmodernism

What is postmodernism? Here at last is a long overdue graphic study guide to the maddeningly enigmatic concept used to define our cultural condition in the late twentieth century. Postmodernism claims that "modernity" which began with 'the Enlightenment', industrialism, Darwin and Marx, has collapsed. We now live in an endlessly 'contemporary culture' full of contested meanings. The resulting postmodern culture embodies parody, pastiche and cultural cross-over. It is a virtual world of hyperreality containing such strange phenomena as post-Holocaust amnesia, Disneyland, cyberspace, and Fukuyama's proclaimed 'end of history'.