I'm beginning to suspect that Professor Hanson's understanding of postmodernism is as flawed as his discussion of it is dismissive. The positions that truth is a construct and that master narratives are impossible is not the same as his contention, offered
here, that
Quote:
|
[o]ne of the chief tenets of postmodernism is relativism — the notion that neither morality nor wisdom is absolute and definable, but instead simply predicated on what those with power and advantage say they are.
|
By not engaging postmodernism with greater vigor, Professor Hanson does his readers at least one great disservice. He provides an inaccurate map of the intellectual and political landscape of the American left. The most vocal and energetic source of criticism of postmodernism comes from the left (most notably Frederic Jameson, Terry Eagleton, David Harvey, and, to a lesser extent, Douglas Kellner). The left understands that because postmodernism calls into the question the utility of narratives and the viability of truth, it poses a mortal threat to a leftist political agenda.