Critical Modernism
Where is Post-Modernism Going? What is Post-Modernism?
5th Edition
Published on 30. March 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-0-470-03011-0 (ISBN)
Description
After developing for thirty years as a movement in the arts, after being disputed and celebrated, Post-Modernism has become an integral part of the cultural landscape. In this witty overview, Charles Jencks, the first to write a book defining the subject, argues that the movement is one more reaction from within modernism critical of its shortcomings. The unintended consequences of modernisation, such as the terrorist debacle and global warming, are typical issues motivating Critical Modernism today. In a unique analysis, using many explanatory diagrams and graphs, he reveals the evolutionary, social and economic forces of this new stage of global civilisation. Critical Modernism emerges at two levels. As an underground movement, it is the fact that many modernisms compete, quarrel and criticise each other as they seek to become dominant. Secondly, when so many of these movements follow each other today in quick succession, they may reach a 'critical mass,' a Modernism2, and become a conscious tradition.
Reviews / Votes
"The post man still delivers" (Building Design, April 2007) "Thirty years on from the publication of The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, its author explains why we're all modernists now." (BDonline, April 2007) "Charles Jencks has revamped his seminal tome on postmodernism". (Icon Magazine, June 2007)More details
Edition
5. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
Chichester
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Dimensions
Height: 25.4 cm
Width: 19 cm
Thickness: 1.5 cm
Weight
796 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-470-03011-0 (9780470030110)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
03/2007
5th Edition
Academy Press
€96.50
Shipment within 10-20 days
Previous edition
Charles Jencks
What is Post-Modernism?
Book
06/1996
4th Edition
Wiley
€24.90
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Simon Jenkins, Journalist and Author: 'After 200 years of hyperactive and sometimes disastrous adolescence, Modernism finally may be growing up and coming to terms with its own problems. In this challenging work Jencks shows why, and what it may look like.'
Ian Buruma, Author and Henry R Luce Professor at Bard College: 'Charles Jencks does not necessarily court your agreement; he wants you to think, and then think again. He is an enemy of received opinions and sloppy clichés. That is what makes his latest book so provocative and such a delight to read.'
Felipe Fernandez Armesto, Professor of History, Tufts University: 'Charles Jencks never stops refreshing our minds. Now - on a subject on which his previous work seemed insuperable - he breaks new ground. He redefines postmodernism's place in modernity and, with his usual wit, clarity and fluency, he explains how and why the grandest of grand narratives - our integrated history of the universe - survives and thrives.'
Rem Koolhaas, Architect and Author: 'That Critical Modernism is a tautology turned into an oxymoron is perhaps its greatest strength: as Jencks argues, the critical and the modern certainly need each other.'
Ian Buruma, Author and Henry R Luce Professor at Bard College: 'Charles Jencks does not necessarily court your agreement; he wants you to think, and then think again. He is an enemy of received opinions and sloppy clichés. That is what makes his latest book so provocative and such a delight to read.'
Felipe Fernandez Armesto, Professor of History, Tufts University: 'Charles Jencks never stops refreshing our minds. Now - on a subject on which his previous work seemed insuperable - he breaks new ground. He redefines postmodernism's place in modernity and, with his usual wit, clarity and fluency, he explains how and why the grandest of grand narratives - our integrated history of the universe - survives and thrives.'
Rem Koolhaas, Architect and Author: 'That Critical Modernism is a tautology turned into an oxymoron is perhaps its greatest strength: as Jencks argues, the critical and the modern certainly need each other.'
Content
Preface - A refolution in five parts.
Chapter 1 ORIGINS AND BATTLES.
PM is Critical Modernism.
The Many Deaths of Modernism.
Two Views of Post-Modernism.
Post-modern Speaks Us.
Screams in the Cathedral.
Modernism as a Protestant Crusade.
Success Tames the Avant-garde.
Chapter 2 HYBRID CULTURE.
Double Coding and Irony.
Not Even Pastiche.
Complexity and the Enigmatic Signifier.
Post-modern Art - Cross-coding with Content.
Irony on the Verge of Cynicism.
Chapter 3 THE BLURRED SOCIETY.
The Rise of the Cognitariat.
The Triumph of the Muddle Class.
The Rise of Socitalism.
Cyclical, Linear and Crystalline Time.
Chapter 4 WANING NATIONS, RISING HETERARCHY.
Destructive Modernity.
The Transnational Heterarchy.
New World Order as Heterarchy.
Being Wise before the Event.
The Post-modern States.
One Cheer for the EU.
The Search for an Effective Heterarchy.
Chapter 5 COSMOGENESIS AND THE UNIVERSE PROJECT.
Belief in a Universe 13.7 Billion Years Big.
Complexity as a Measure of Quality.
Two Types of Evolution.
A Cultural Drive?
The Universe Project.
A Jumping Universe.
Chapter 6 CRITICAL MODERNISM.
Creative to be Critical.
A Critical Iconography.
A Critical Coding.
A Critical Spirituality?
Critical Theory Carves up Doomsday Fatigue.
Critical Modernism as a Continuous Dialectic.
The White Elephant Theory of Modernism.
The Ten-year Rule and Continuous Refolution.
Hidden Tradition or Process?
Critical Modernism - a Conscious Movement?
Notes & References.
Acknowledgements.
Index.
Chapter 1 ORIGINS AND BATTLES.
PM is Critical Modernism.
The Many Deaths of Modernism.
Two Views of Post-Modernism.
Post-modern Speaks Us.
Screams in the Cathedral.
Modernism as a Protestant Crusade.
Success Tames the Avant-garde.
Chapter 2 HYBRID CULTURE.
Double Coding and Irony.
Not Even Pastiche.
Complexity and the Enigmatic Signifier.
Post-modern Art - Cross-coding with Content.
Irony on the Verge of Cynicism.
Chapter 3 THE BLURRED SOCIETY.
The Rise of the Cognitariat.
The Triumph of the Muddle Class.
The Rise of Socitalism.
Cyclical, Linear and Crystalline Time.
Chapter 4 WANING NATIONS, RISING HETERARCHY.
Destructive Modernity.
The Transnational Heterarchy.
New World Order as Heterarchy.
Being Wise before the Event.
The Post-modern States.
One Cheer for the EU.
The Search for an Effective Heterarchy.
Chapter 5 COSMOGENESIS AND THE UNIVERSE PROJECT.
Belief in a Universe 13.7 Billion Years Big.
Complexity as a Measure of Quality.
Two Types of Evolution.
A Cultural Drive?
The Universe Project.
A Jumping Universe.
Chapter 6 CRITICAL MODERNISM.
Creative to be Critical.
A Critical Iconography.
A Critical Coding.
A Critical Spirituality?
Critical Theory Carves up Doomsday Fatigue.
Critical Modernism as a Continuous Dialectic.
The White Elephant Theory of Modernism.
The Ten-year Rule and Continuous Refolution.
Hidden Tradition or Process?
Critical Modernism - a Conscious Movement?
Notes & References.
Acknowledgements.
Index.