This book attempts to sort out the confusion and misreadings - especially misreadings of Kant - that have characterized recent postmodernist and post-structuralist thought. These issues have a relevance, as Norris argues, far beyond the seemingly specialized enclaves of philosophy, literary theory and cultural criticism. In fact they are within reach of the single most urgent question nowadays confronting left-wing thinkers in Britain and the United States: namely, what remains of the socialist project (and its grounding in the values of enlightenment critique) at a time when distorted consensus beliefs have gone so far toward setting the agenda for "informed" or "realistic" political debate? As its title suggests, "The Truth about Postmodernism" disputes a good deal of what currently passes for advanced theoretical wisdom. Above all, it mounts a challenge to those fashionable doctrines - variants on the "end of ideology" theme - that assimilates truth to some existing range of language - games, discourses, or in-place consensus beliefs.
Norris's book should serve as a reminder that the "politics of theory" cannot be practised in safe isolation from the politics (and ethics) of activist social concern. The text is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduates, academics and researchers in literature, philosophy, sociology and politics.
- ISBN10 0631187170
- ISBN13 9780631187172
- Publish Date 25 March 1993
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 9 November 1995
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Imprint Blackwell Publishers
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English