I bought the Postmodernism a graphic guide to cutting-edge thinking book the other day and it is a very good read. The cartoon format of the book is great for planners as it gives you a multitude of quotes, visualisations and material to use for future presentations!

You can find a few visuals from the book below (sorry for the pics quality) they will give you a flavour of the content.

The first one is “Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism provided the classic historicist formula. Marxism established a structural difference between society’s traditional or cultural institutions and its economic productive forces”

The second one is an example of “minimalism postmodern? Carl Andre’s 120 Fire-Bricks (1968 ) at the Tate Gallery offered a notorious example. Minimal art eliminated all elements of expressiveness – which left only the aesthetical process itself on the shrinking borderline of non art.”

The third example concerns Jean-Francois Lyotard. “ He has unravelled and identified one alternative strand of postmodernism which is anti-modernist. It has been heard since the 1980’s calling loudly for an end to experimentation.”

The fourth example deals with the virtual reality: “Derrida asks himself, why has Fukuyama’s book of ‘Good news’ become such an instant best-seller in the west? Why precisely at this moment of capitalist victory is the reassurance of its survival so critically important?

The latest one is ‘endgame’ “Can we imagine how postmodernism might end?

1- The disappearance of a player, ‘Communism’, from the scene – foreseen in the late 50s but not really believable.

2- Cyberspace – the sum total of information technology and megamedia – is the product of hyper-modern developments.

If you want more information about the ‘Introducing books’ have a look at their website or MySpace page.