Postmodernism Reading List

For PHILPRO / Comps Students

Prepared by Ms. Natty Manauat 8 October 2011 Primary Texts:

Jean Francois Lyotard:

The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge This seminal book sets the stage for Postmodern issues in the field of philosophy. Lyotards classic tome answers the question: What is Postmodern? Available via URL where the webmaster cites this source: The Postmodern Condition (1979) publ. Manchester University Press, 1984. The First 5 Chapters of main body of work are reproduced here, see URL: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/lyotard.htm

Jacques Derrida:
Philosophy in a time of terror: dialogues with Jrgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida Derrida and Habermas set aside their long-standing intellectual and personal feud to come together in response to the 9-11 attacks. As this classic is a written exchange between two great thinkers of the 2021st century, responding to a major international event that changed the world, this is a must-read. Available via Google Books , see URL: http://books.google.com/books?id=gsMQ78NjSuEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Deconstruction in a nutshell: a conversation with Jacques Derrida. By Jacques Derrida, John D. Caputo
Caputo gets Derrida to extrapolate his ideas further. More readable than his early works, as it is in conversational tone. Hard copy is available in the DLSU library, also via Google Books, see URL:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ETbfOXdyd1EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Jacques+Der rida%22&hl=en&ei=so6VTrXKKcHJrAfx9Zi7Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEIQ6 AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false *Acts of Religion (Optional, see note) Directly from the blurb (QUOTE): Derrida's writings on religion situate and raise anew questions of
tradition, faith, and sacredness and their relation to philosophy and political culture. He has amply testified to his growing up in an Algerian Jewish, French-speaking family, to the complex impact of a certain Christianity on his surroundings and himself, and to his being deeply affected by religious persecution. [END QUOTE]. I have a copy of this book but it would take a while to search, so the URL would have to

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do, for now. (*Note to Poulex: I am adding this text since it came up during yesterdays discussion).

http://books.google.com/books?id=LNOUMlAtYqIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=derrida+acts+of+religion& hl=en&ei=EKyVTpynCO3umAXZtsGDBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEw AA#v=onepage&q&f=false Of Hospitality Derrida was a prolific writer, his themes range from the obscurantist (i.e., texts) to pressing concerns that is global. Of Hospitality contains Derridas musings on the topic, in relation to European policy on refugees and displaced people. Might also be useful to students who wish to write about the Filipino concept of hospitality (as a Filipino value) and applied to the diaspora and the ubiquity of OFWs as a peculiarly Filipino concern. See URL: http://books.google.com/books?id=Cy1kD3IjeiQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=derrida&hl=en&ei=3qmVTu TOIMnOrQev_qWdBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBzgK#v=onepage& q&f=false

Jrgen Habermas
The philosophical discourse of modernity: twelve lectures Technically speaking, Habermas is NOT a postmodernist, as he is the staunchest critic of the French Pomos. On this collection you will find his beef with Pomo as a defence of modernity. Comes in 12 lectures. To me, the most important lecture, Chapter 12: The Imaginary is not available in Google Books, however. But the rest could be found over here, see URL http://books.google.com/books?id=6dZybIvETTwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=habermas&hl=en&ei=L6qV TuKIDcarrAfOq4zBBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDAQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage& q&f=false Moral consciousness and communicative action Read page 116 and onwards on Habermas discourse theory on ethics as well as his justification for it. Discourse ethics is again, not strictly speaking, Pomo but this is the alternative discourse, following the tradition of the hermeneutes. http://books.google.com/books?id=fmYjgiUMy7EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=habermas&hl=en&ei=L6q VTuKIDcarrAfOq4zBBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFQQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage &q&f=false

Jean Baudrillard
Simulacra and Simulation

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Baudrillards highly influential classic is a joy to read. Students who are interested to do work on sims, images, and representation can not do without this. Baudrillard looks into the nature and manifestations of reality, and as Morpheus in the Matrix asks What is real? and you can bet that the Wachowski brothers are fans of Baudrillard as the book makes a cameo in the bookshelf of neo (its where he hides his hacking disks). http://books.google.com/books?id=9Z9biHaoLZIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=baudrillard&hl=en&ei=Hqm VTu_2CYjJrQep4PizBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q &f=false

Michel Foucault
History of Sexuality The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. (New York: Vintage Books, 1990). Excerpted and summarised work, as there is no preview on Google Books. The DLSU library has multiple copies of Volume 1, however. http://www.comm.umn.edu/Foucault/hos.html Discipline and Punish Panopticism chapter excerpted, the DLSU library alo has a copy of this. Please remind me as I also have book as a pdf file. The URL for the excerpt is: http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html

Secondary Texts: Postmodernism See URL below for the entry on Pomo via the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Also the listing under BIBLIOGRAPHY provides bibliographical information on other seminal works. Habermas is listed as providing a pomo hermeneutics as a contrast. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/ Postmodernism: What You Should Know and Do about It. By Robert Brewer http://books.google.com/books?id=g9_cBg0yZk8C&pg=PA12&dq=postmodernism+for+beginners&hl=e n&ei=K4VTuqhF4_krAfZtpiaBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q =postmodernism%20for%20beginners&f=false

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Feminism/Postmodernism , Ed. Linda Nicholson. Available only as snippet preview. Please photocopy p.19 onwards, the chapter titled An Encounter Between Feminsim and Postmodernism by Fraser and Nicholson. The DLSU library should have a copy of this book. For the preview see URL

http://books.google.com/books?id=MUfaAAAAMAAJ&q=postmodernism+feminism&dq=postmodernis m+feminism&hl=en&ei=JraVTo2gJuaJmQXy4qj7Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0 CCwQ6AEwAA Postmodernism for Beginners by Jim Powell and Joe Lee

Gotta love this book. Had to cut-paste the thumbnail of the cover-art because this Beginners series is very Pomo, indeed. Start with this one for a crash course before you read any of the heavy stuff. Available in the DLSU library and for about 700php in any of the bookstores in Manila.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Postmodernism_for_Beginners.html?id=1CC6GAAACAAJ

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