Article
Reference
The Generation Gap: Postmodernism in the Nineties
MADSEN, Deborah Lea
Abstract
An extended review of the journal “Postmodern Culture,” one of the earliest Open Access electronic academic journals.
MADSEN, Deborah Lea. The Generation Gap: Postmodernism in the Nineties. Over Here , 1992, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 113-118
Available at:
http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:120958
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113
Deborah L. Nad . . n
Perhapa the· moat difficult aapect of poat.odernia. is its protean nature. ln the period aince the 11 ixties "posu.oderniu" has provided a single term to describe all the vagariea of Western (though in affect Anglo-American) culture th llub:l ect of constant debate and continuai and as a consequence ha& been e
h i t · however, a clear break is fra. the perspective of t e n ne 1es,
reviaion.
perceptible between early and later dillcourses of postmodernis•. Concurrent with thia break ia a corresponding 11hift away fra. structuralist theory to a broadly deconatructive -thodoloqy. Together' these two currents produce
" h hu ita own canon or. group of "archetexts", distinct "post.oderqiUIB : eac
each uaea a dilltinct atyle of deacription to conatruct poatmoderni611 as a f I t is within this context that conceptuel ob:ject, each has 1ta own o~.
want to conaider the significance of the new electronic journal, Postmodern
S!ill!ill·
Poat.odernia. in the atxties and aeventies took its pr~ .ataphors from structuralia. and its controlling perception vas a sense that western d itself Out and so poatmodern artiste were condeaned to civiliaation had playe
repley or rearrenge exiating aeathetic deaigna &ince originality was .no longer Influential tilles about Uterary poat.oderni&m tell the story: "The poaaible. f
~-"austion"'
"The Literature of Oeath of the Author", RThe Litera ture o ...,,Silence". The aelf-absorbed auto-refarentiality of this style of writing iB d d f nees· "Fabulation alao revealed by tilles that have since beco.a atan ar re are ·
and Netefiction", "The Perfo~ing Self", "City of Words".
Since the eightiea, postmoderniam's controlling metaphors have been derived from poststructuraliat thaorists like Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, and difficult, if not pointless, to Baudrillard, to the extent that it ha• become
d f th But this development has had a attempt to separate the two kin s o eory.
considerable iapact upon the objecta of postmodernist discourses, or what we 1 t f post-war American fiction, think of as constituting postmodernism. n erms 0
a new canon has been established at a popular arena for postmodern debate,
th.t the Whole notion of the "canon" has come under intense praciaely the time
scrutiny. ln the aeventiea, "poatmodernisll" described, primarily, the black ll..ke John D•rth, Robert eoover, Kurt vonnegut, Donald hu.or fiction of writers p a
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Barthelma, and William Gasa, whoae reputations it made. Scrolling through the four issuea of Post.odern CUlture that have appeared to date, you will encounter none of these nemes. Instead you will find William Gaddi&, Paul Bowles, Ishmael Reed, and ThOIIUU Pynchon: Pynchon, darling of "death-of-the- author existentialista" more than twenty yeara aqo, &till provides a touchstone for postmodernist theorizing. These writers reflect an intensified interest in the concept of cultural ùnperialism which haa given postmodernist theory a new set of motivations, a new relevance, a new raison d'etre.
In the nineties, postmodernism claims to challenge the statua quo by recoverlng the histories, traditions - cultural alternatives - denied by the self-enclosed artistic and critical prscticea of the suties. Contemporary postmodernism builds upon the insighta of Benjamin, Derrida and Lyotard, the awarenesa that provisionsl and contingent trutha are lees sinister or intimidating than are "monolithic" cultural institutions and discouraes. ln contrast to the hermetic, self-referentiel texts of an earlier "postmodernism", later texts are not only open to extrinsic diacoursea but actively draw upon aress of knowledge that reside outaide the text. Hathe-tics, cybernetics, filM, psychoanalyais, philosophy, lllllsic, history are among those spheres of knowledge that form intertextual c0111ponents of the "decentred" postmodernist text. Paradoxically, rather than make these texta more accessible this intertextuality creates a further difficulty as the text recedes into a labyrinth of assumed knowledge.
This ls one of the several t.portant contradictions of postmodernis• that form the aubtext to the esaaya publiahed in Postmodern CUlture. This particular probl . . of acceaaibility haa u.plications for an electronic journal such as Postmodern CUlture. Free via electronic .ail, the journal ahould be read by all who have acceas to a computer. (Details about how to subscribe are given below.) But even vithin the privlleqed reai.Jn of the acadi!IIIY, computer illiteracy places an enormous conatraint upon the aize of the audience.
Strangely, the mediUM la the ~•sage: what appeers to be an open dlsa~lnation
of knowledge becomea a coterie sharing a very prlvileqed access to knowledqe.
Though the discourses of postmodernism may change a funda.ental impulse remains constant: the desire for popular recognition by those vith the ftleans and leisure to pursue tt.
The whole concept of "the popular" wlthin poattnOdernist theory is problematic. John Beverley, in his essay on postmodern music and left
politics, complaina of "a certain smugness in post.Jnodernist theory and practica about just hov far elite/popular, high culture/-&& culture distinction& hava broken dawn" ( l . l . Sept. 1990). As Beverley argueli, the genuine ca.Dadification or aestheticisation of everyday life - a realisation of Baudrillard ~a poataodarn world of aUiulacra would, or at least could, repreaant a genuine democratisation of western society. The problem is how little, not hov -..ch, our Uvee are atructured by hierarchically organised categorisa. Elizabeth Wheeler, writing about the affect of post.Jnodernism on the urban landacape (1.3. May 1991), deacribas a procas& of "gentrification", as when the Ta.porary Conta.porary muaeua of art in Los Angeles ~ves into a renovated factory a black fr0111 Skid Rov. The Yuppie renovation of working- claaa and alua district& ia aeen aa tha conservative aide of postmodernis• writ large. But the conaequent diaplaca.ent experiencad by particular communities finda no adequate de~cription in postmoderniat theory which inatead conatructa diaplac . . . nt as an abatract and unraal category.
Eaaaya auch aa theaa raveal a profound difficulty in the prevailing rhatoric of post.odarniat thaory. Paradoxically, the poatœodernist critique of cultural ~arialiam ia articulated by the voica of a white, upper-•iddie- claaa, -1• aca~ic coterie. The affect of thia atyle of enunciation upon those that it excludaa ia daacribad with great inaight and aensitivity by Bell Hooka in her aasay "Poatmodarn Blackneaa" (1.1. Sept. 1990).
Post.aderniat discouraea are often exclusionary even when, having been accused of lacking concrets relevance, they call attention to and appropriate the experience of "difference" and "otherness" in order to provide th-elvea with oppositional political meaning, legitimacy, and
~dlacy . . . . (R)aci . . ia perpetuatad when blackness is a&&ociated solely with concret& qut laval experience conceived either as opposing or having no con.nection to abstract thinking and the production of critlcal theory.
. • . Diaturbed not ao .uch by the "aenae" of poat.odernis• but by the convantional lanqua9e used when it ia written or talked about and by those who apealc. it, r find •yaelf on the ouuide of the discourse looking in.
As a diacursive practice lt la domlnatêd priDarlly by the voices of white ... Je i.ntellectuala and/or aca~c alite& who apaalt to and &bout one another with coded faailiarity. Reading and atudying their writing to understand poaLmederni . . in ita multiple manifeatations, 1 appreci~te it but feal little inclination to ally myself ldth the acadaa~ic hiera.rchy and exclusivity parvaaive in the mov&D&nt today.
Eaaaya publiahed in Post.Jnodern CUlture deal vith the discourses of cultural ~rialiaa not only aa they affect racial and sexuel •inorities but also ~natrate a concern for the way& in which rhetoric is used indiacrt.inately againet all of ua within the context of the c~ification of
..
,
...
contemporary life. CUltural icona are deconstructed to reveel the dynamica of posbnodernism. So Charles Bernatein analyse• World Wer 2 as a crisia in the project of the Enlightenment that reveals reclam aa intrinaic to Western logocentr ism, not ea e "correctable" deviation from the cultural norm ( 1. 2.
Jan. 1991). In the aama iasue, Frederick Dolan considera the rhetoric of the Gulf Mar within the context of Peul de lllan'a coaaents on rhetoric. ·Th• split between political si9nifier and aignified is demonetrated by compettn9 explanations of the war which function allegorically to reinterpret the significance of World Mar 2 and the Vietnam War respectively both for America'&
contemporary foreign relations and for doMestic politics.
The rhetoric of persona! ~gery is explored by George Yudice who investigetes connectiona between auch eating disordera as anorexie and obesity and 11ystical tradition& that aaaociate tranacendence with food ( 1.1. Sept.
1990). The cOIIIIIOdification of poatJnodern culture 1a preaented at ft a 111011t intense in relation to persona! or self !magery.
often found at the interaection of issues
The "posi:Jnodern subject" Js of COMmUnication, exchange, Allison Fraibarg's analyais of originality, value, control, and temporality.
the rhetoric of mainatre.. AlOS coverege •• oppoaed to alternative AIDS writings within the context of cyborg theory ia directed towards a redefinition of the notion of discretion and a rethinking of the concept of agency (1,3. May 1991).
Andrew Rosa begina his article on the potentiel of computer hacking as a political activity by considering the rhetoric of viruses and the properties common to AIDS hyateria and the publicity surrounding computer crlMe specifically the "virus" known as the "InterNet worm" which in 1989 brought to a halt the ARPAnetinformation network aponsored by the Advanced Research Projects A9ency (funded by the US Department of Dafence). Roaa points to the repercussions of this redoubled virus acere: the reassertlon of peraonal autonomy as against comnonality, private as opposed to shared property, a renewed appeal to legialatlon as a meena of social control, and the like. Thia kind of investi9ation la of obvious relevance to the cultural and political motives of Postmodern CUlture and several articles have appeared that addreas the potentiel role of electronic publishing in the transformation of scadeftlc writlng and readin9 generally as a cultural actlvlty.
Hany of the contradictions associated with postmodernism, and outllned above, are taken up by Andrew Ross. He discusses the stereotypical image of
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the hacker as a white middle-class male "co,l1ege nerd" who regards hacking as a kind of intellectuel joyriding thal is completely removed from politics.
Againat thia popular iiDage, promoted by Dilineyesque 1110vies and the tabioid press, Ross conaiders acta of routine sabotage on the part of bureaucratised office worltttrs and VDU operators. And he goes on to uncover a potentially radical political role for haclting. In a world dominated by a technofascist litate, he lipeculatea, hackera - y be our only recourlie, our only effective opposition. Ross describes ~. ln the walte of Tianan.en Square, the Chinese gover,_nt dared not purge those technologically literate students upon whom China's future as a modern state relies. What Ross does not make clear is that the first accurate accounts of the afteraath of the pro-democracy uprising were Mde ltnovn in the lllast via InterNet. The potentiel of electronic media to counter or at leaat aubvert a reprealiive atate is not a matter for speculation - it is an historicai reality.
Closely allied to the investigation of the cultural liignif1cance of electronic communication ia the future of writing itself. Michael Joyce considera the paver of "hyperfiction" to tranaform all the world into textuality and to alter the aeathetica of reading ( 2. 1. Sept. 1991). The political i.q>licationa of Hypertext are discussed by Stuart Moulthrop within the context of post.oderniaa'a own political ambiguities (1.3. May 1991). But perhapa the 110st challenging essay on the subject of the future of academie writing h Greg Ut-r'a "Grlllllll8tology Hypermedia" (1.2. Jan. 1991). Ulmer predict& the liberation of intellectuel activity from the artificial conatrainta illpoaed by the institution of academie print publishing through auch structures as Hypartext. He envisions the academie essay of the future as talting the form of a card "stack", where the arCjlm8nt or theoretical component serves to lt.it the data included but beyond that readerli are free to navigate the ir own routes through the cards. In this way, reading becomes a self- deter.ining proceas, writing is freed from false closure, and ~aning is liberated into a condition of creative indetenainacy. Ilhan such an essay is written, and surely it is inevitable as more academies discover the pedagogical power of "hypertextual" systems, Postmodern CUlture will be the place to find it. The journal provides a valuable forwa for ideaa and speculations about the future of the academie enterpriae.
Postmodern Culture doea pubii&h more orthodox critical analyses of postmodernist texts and also creative writing - poetry, even a video transcript
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(by Laura Kipnis, 1.1. Sept. 1990) - and articles that bridge the two, like Jerome McGann's parodie rneditation on the dialogic imagination (2.1. Sept.
1991).
To subscribe to Politmodern Culture via electronic mail and to subscribe to PMC-Tallt, a discussion group for those interested in postmodernism in general, contact the editors (pmc@ncsuvm or pmc@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu). Instructions about retrieving entire isliuea and indivldual files from the filestore at North Carolina State University are contained in the file "Newuser Preface", available from listserv@ncsuvm or listserv@ncsu~.cc.ncsu.edu. Postmodern CUlture is also available on dislt and ~icrofiche: $15 per year for individuels and $30 per year for institutions, plus $7 for postage outside North America.
Three issues are published per year, in January, May, and September.
Postmodern CUlture uses ASCII text; this is the standard character code used by all persona! computera so any file/article from Postmodern Culture can be imported into almost any ward processor and formatted for printing.
Submissions are accepted by electronic mail, on disk or in hard copy.
Recently, an award was announced for the beat article published in Post~ern CUlture: a further teq>tation, if one were needed, for the faint-hearted to launch themselves into the reaùn of posbnodern publication. The real attraction of this new journal is the opportunity it offers to bring the athos of shareware - of open and democratie access to knowledge - into the domain of academie humanities publishing. Entire issues of Postmodern CUlture can be held in an archive for public use provided no fee is charged to the user;
individuel items can be freely shared among individuels but they must not be republished without express consent from the author/s and editors. Thus, the journal enables free and wide access to information while retaining intellectuel copyright or the notion of ideas as private property. Here then is a real chance to transform academie interchange into just that: a genuine exchange of ideas and opinions that Js as disinterested as ia possible in the
post~dern world.
Richard Ellie Christopher Gair Sandra Harrh Li- Kennedy Michael !Clain Richard ICill<J Meria Lauret Frank Piekerczyk TU. Younga
Steffordshire University University of Nottingham The Nottingham Trent University Univeraity of Birmingham The Nottingham Trent University Univeraity of Nottingham Univeraity of South~ton
University of Nottingham The Nottingham Trent University
otKI . . . . la publiahed twice yearly in the SU...r and Winter. Due to increased publication costa naceasiteted by the up-grading of the print quaUty of our journal, wa have had to incraaae the coat of. aubacrlptions from Swrmer 1993 baginninq vith Vol.- 13, no. 1. We hope this incc-ease will be more than offaet by the enhançed quality of the presentation. Subscribers befora this date will be chargeS at preaent ratel. The aubscription rates (inclusive of poataqe) will be:
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Inatitutiona E15.00 p.a.
We elao have Il special poatvraduete rate: ES.OO daneatic; [8.00 overseas.
OVeraeaa subscribera ahould pey ln pounda sterling. All cheques should be made payable to OVIa Rial.
Daparbaant of ~rican and Canadien Studies Univeraity of Nottingh-
Univeraity Perk Nottinghu NG7 2RD
Ell<Jland
Deper~nt of Envliah and Media Studies Feculty of Hu.anitiea
The Nottingham Trent University Clifton Lana
Nottingham HGll 8NS England
ISSN 0958-3105
Introduction
Richard Maltby Sarry Levis David E. James Ralph llillett
Neil Sinyard
Frank Piekarczyk Paul McDonald
Mark Jancovich
Douglas Tallack Sandra Harris Hugh Murray
Received Wisdom: Recent !arly Filn Hlatories Coover at the Hoviea
Lynn Herahaan: The Subject of Autobiography Les Miserables: The FILM NOIR Crowd and Their Cri tics
The Allusive Mr. Allen: Literery Th . . . a in the Fit.. of Woody Allen
Hollywood end the Vietnaa war
Matec-ielity and Myetary: Fashioning the Fascinations of Fit. Stardoa
Seriel Killera and F . . . le Heroea: Re-examining the Slasher Film
Reading Hawthorne Reading Hiatory Doing the Americen West
Liberalism and Race David Seed Cold War Visions
Deborah L. Madsen The Generation Gap: Postmodernism in the Nineties
Peter Hesteruk Sylvia Plath: Fentaay, Identity, Poetry Reply to Richard King
Short Reviews Books also Received List of Contributors
l*J8 1
11 18 29
3&
50 58
67
75 8&
95 101 Ill
119
127 130 144 14&
