Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 16:07:23 -0700
From: rfoy <rfoy-AT-uno.edu>
Subject: Re: Post Modernism


I am not certain that this definition will completely enlighten things, but I
took a class with Charles Boer at the Univ. of Ct while doing my Ph.D.  He is
a classics scholar and also a friend of Charles Olson.  He described post
modern as follows  (and I am certain that I am grossly misquoting him, but
here is the idea):
    Go home, pick up the remote to your television.  Click on any station.
Look at that program until you tire of it, click on to another station and
stay until you tire of that, etc.  Do this for about fifteen minutes.  Then
write the story of what you viewed--that is post modernism.
    It works for me!  I usually begin any discussion of post modernism with
that explanation before I attempt any definition.  Of course, post modernism
defies definition--isn't that the point?
   Hope this helps a bit.
   Roz Foy
   Dept. of English
   Univ. of New Orleans



Visioncary-AT-aol.com wrote:

> The inability to describe post modernism has always struck me as
> disconcerting.  I had a grad professor freely admit to the class, "I don't
> have a working definition of post modernism."  I found his candor
> surprisingly admirable.  This said, "I don't have a working definition of
> post modernism."  Can anyone give it a shot?  Does anyone think this
> inability to describe it may have something to do with the fact that we're
> currently stuck in it?
>
> aaron keith