The word postmodernism, for better or worse, has entered everyday discourse. Applied everywhere, it as acquired an authority to describe a variety of concerns--culture, critiques of culture, architecture, video, music, the penchant for economic forecasts and marketing research, new therapies, museum installations and film festivals, religious revivals and cults--and seems to offer an assurance that it identifies something. But what?

In his most broadly engaging work, Fredric Jameson argues that postmodernism is the cultural response to the latest systemic change in world capitalism. He seeks here to crystallize a definition of this term that has taken on so many meanings it has virtually lost all historical significance. Departing from his now classic essay, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (included here), he presents a wide-ranging discussion of the cultural landscape--both high and low--of postmodernity. Subsequent chapters evaluate the political fortunes of the new term and survey postmodern developments in a range of different fields, from market ideology to architecture, from painting and installment art to contemporary punk film, from video art and high literature to deconstruction.

Finally, Jameson reevaluates the concept of postmodernism in light of postmodern critiques of totalization and historical narratives, from the notion of decadence to the dynamics of small groups, from religious fundamentalism to high-tech science fiction, while touching on the nature of contemporary cultural critique and the possibilities of cultural mapping in the present multinational world system. This insightful and provocative book will be fundamentally important to all future discussions of postmodernism.

Now in paperback, Fredric Jameson's most wide-ranging work seeks to crystalize a definition of "postmodernism." Jameson's inquiry looks at the postmodern across a wide landscape, from "high" art to "low," from market ideology to architecture, from painting to "punk" film, from video art to literature.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [419]-430) and index.