Postmodernism

Rating:
Summary: good for students just learning about "postmodernism"
Review: This is a good anthology for those just learning about postmodernism, but it's kind of silly if you know anything about this world-o-theory; it's just excerpts from larger essays (includes works by Lyotard, Jameson, Habermas, Hassan, Crimp, Crowther, Baudrillard, Eco, Jencks, Laclau, Rorty, etc.); if you need to buy it for school (it's great for using as a teaching tool for basic intro theory sort of courses, or if you're trying to teach pomo lit and need a quick theoretical framework), go ahead, but if you want to learn about Postmodernism, go actually read the Jameson, Baudrillard, Jencks, and Lyotard and poke about online for Eco essays (a lot of this stuff is available online). The nature of this anthology is that you'll only know _about_ these theories; if you actually need/want to know what you're talking about without embarrassing yourself, read the primary sources. Of course, such could be said for most anthologies, but these particular issues are more delicately complex than they are anthologizeable.