Introducing Postmodernism

Here is the new expanded edition of the international bestseller Introducing Postmodernism. Has the 21st century resolved the question of 'postmodernism' or are we more than ever ensnared in its perplexities? Postmodernism seemed to promise an end to the grim Cold War era of nuclear confrontation and oppressive ideologies. Fukuyama's notoriously proclaimed 'end of history', the triumph of liberal democracy over Communist tyranny, has proved an illusion. We awoke in the anxious grip of globalization, unpredictable terrorism and unforeseen war.This book traces the pedigrees of postmodernism in art, theory, science and history, providing an urgent guide to the present.

Richard Appignanesi is a novelist, editor and publisher, and a Research Fellow at King's College London. He is the originating editor of the Introducing series and has written books on Freud, postmodernism and existentialism in the series.