An exploration of the social currents associated with postmodern theories of law, literature, philosophy, architecture and the arts. The course begins with an overview of the social forces that have produced the empirical expressions of postmodernity: fragmentation, anti-foundationalism, globalization, and the collapse of the great modernist narratives. We then ponder the relations between postmodern social experience and the philosophical and artistic movements to which they have given rise. How has the alleged transition to postmodernity affected the way communities understand the past and anticipate the future, the way they structure political and social institutions, and the way they sustain public order? Moving between the theoretical and the empirical, the course considers how postmodernism, a philosophical concept, affects, and is affected by, postmodern social realities. Format: seminar. Requirements: midterm, class presentation, paper.
NOLAN