What's Wrong with Postmodernism?: Critical Theory and the Ends of Philosophy

In What's Wrong with Postmodernism Norris critiques the postmodern-pragmatist malaise of Baudrillard, Fish, Rorty, and Lyotard. In contrast he finds a continuing critical impulse--an enlightened or emancipatory interest--in thinkers like Derrida, de Man, Bhaskar, and Habermas. Offering a provocative reassessment of Derrida's influence on modern thinking, Norris attempts to sever the tie between deconstruction and American literary critics who, he argues, favor endless, playful, polysemic interpretation at the expense of systematic argument.

As he explores leftist attempts to arrive at an accommodation with postmodernism, Norris addresses the politics of deconstruction, the issue of men in feminism, Habermas' quarrel with Derrida, narrative theory as a hermeneutic paradigm, musical aesthetics in relation to literary theory, and various aspects of postmodern debate. A chapter on Stanley Fish brings several of these topics together and offers a generalized statement on the function of current criticism.

Author: Christopher Norris
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 08/21/1998
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 8.97h x 5.89w x 0.75d
ISBN: 9780801841378

About the Author

Christopher Norris is professor of English at the University of Wales at Cardiff. He is the author of many books including The Deconstructive Turn and Spinoza and the Origins of Modern Critical Theory.

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