Encyclopedia of Postmodernism by Victor Taylor, Charles E. Winquist (Editor)

From the Publisher

The Encyclopedia of Postmodernism provides comprehensive and authoritative coverage of academic disciplines, critical terms and central figures relating to the vast field of postmodern studies. With three cross-referenced sections, the volume is easily accessible to readers with specialized research agendas and general interests in contemporary cultural, historical, literary and philosophical issues.
Since its inception in the 1960s, postmodernism has emerged as a significant cultural, political and intellectual force that many scholars would argue defines our era. Postmodernism, in its various configurations, has consistently challenged concepts of selfhood, knowledge formation, aesthetics, ethics, history and politics. This Encyclopedia offers a wide-range of perspectives on postmodernism that illustrates the plurality of this critical concept that is so much part of our current intellectual debates. In this regard, the volume does not adhere to a single definition of postmodernism as much as it documents the use of the term across a variety of academic and cultural pursuits.
The Encyclopedia of Postmodernism, it must be noted, resists simply presenting postmodernism as a new style among many styles occuring in the post-disciplinary academy. Documenting the use of the term acknowledges that postmodernism has a much deeper and long-lasting effect on academic and cultural life. In general, the volume rests on the understanding that postmodernism is not so much a style as it is an on-going process, a process of both disintegration and reformation.

Library Journal

No reference book brings together the terms, concepts, and personalities associated with postmodernism in one work at the level of detail that this one does. The Routledge Critical Dictionary of Postmodern Thought (Routledge, 1999) covers similar terrain but in briefer entries. Drawing from arts and literature criticism, psychoanalytic theory, continental philosophy, feminism, lesbian and gay studies, and theology, editors Taylor (York Coll. of Pennsylvania) and Winquist (Syracuse Univ.) have produced an encyclopedia that will work well as a companion to upper-level undergraduate and lower-level graduate courses in which students encounter postmodern readings. Elusive concepts such as alterity, difference, grand narrative, metaphysics of presence, and sign/signifier/signified are explained with as much clarity as can be hoped for, and their significance for postmodernism is illustrated. Coverage is accorded to the usual suspects, including Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Luce Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva, and there are also entries on academic disciplines and their relation to postmodern thought and ideas. The cross referencing could have been better, since some terms (such as race, class, body, other, and the Internet) that one might expect to find as entries are absent, but access to these concepts is improved by the index. Since this is a multidisciplinary work, it would have been helpful to see the contributors' academic departments in addition to their institutional affiliations. For academic libraries.--Marc Meola, Coll. of New Jersey Lib., Ewing Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Mostly US contributors provide a reference to academic disciplines, critical terms, and central figures relating to the vast field of postmodern studies, for readers either with a general interest in it or with a specialized research agenda. The encyclopedia was conceived as a companion to the four-volume (1998), also edited by Taylor and Winquist. The articles are signed, and many include a list of further reading and sometimes of references as well. The cross-referencing is extensive. Pronunciation is not indicated. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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