The Post-Modern Reader

The reader reprints extracts of key historical texts those of Daniel Bell on the post-industrial society and Jean-Francois Lyotard on the post-modern condition. The new cultural logic of contested pluralism is analysed in seminal papers by Andreas Hyssen and Jim Collins. The fundamental ideas on post-modern literature are defined by Umberto Eco, John Barth and David Lodge and the theories they present challenge the notion of post-modernism as an ultra avant-garde movement and the expression of a consumer society.For this second edition of the book, Charles Jencks will present a new overview of the Post-Modern, reflecting its maturity as a movement. New contributions will be sought from: George Soros on Reflexive Economics; the British Philosopher John Gray on the way religion colours the debate; Mathew Collings on Post-Modern Art; Hans Bertens on Post-Modern theory; Greg Lynn on Complexity in Architecture; and Benoit Mandelbrot on Fractals.

Charles Jencks is an architectural theorist, landscape architect and designer, whose books on the history and criticism of Modernism and Post-Modernism are widely regarded throughout the world. His 1977 book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, which has evolved over seven new editions, defined Post-Modernism as a cultural movement and popularised its use in relation to architecture. He is currently writing a new definitive book on the subject, The Story of Post-Modernism, for publication in the autumn of 2011 for Wiley. In recent years, Jencks has become a leading figure in landscape architecture. He continues to write and lecture internationally.