Postmodern Theory

Along with hypertext theory, the most interesting and intriguing communication theory I learned about this semester was Postmodern theory. Our study of the theory was mostly based on Ihab Hassan's landmark article "The Culture of Postmodernism," which I found to be the most vividly memorable of any work I read this semester.

Some students in the class seemed to have trouble understanding just what exactly postmodernism is all about. Indeed, it is a difficult concept to grasp, perhaps because the theory itself seems to eschew the very ideas of definitiveness, uniformity, and objectivity, opting instead for the values of fragmentation, uncertainty, and subjectivity. I found these ideals to fit in quite nicely with my philosophical worldview, in that I have always given consideration to opposing viewpoints and seemingly contradictory values. This is not to say that I believe that there is no real external truth; indeed, giving too much weight to a variety of subjective, localized views can potentially lead one down a slippery moral slope. However, I do think that it's important to acknowledge that our own knowledge is always limited and that there are few, if any, things we can every be intellectually and philosophically certain of.

In its emphasis on divergence and multiplicity, I also found postmodern theory to relate quite nicely with hypertext theory. Indeed, for my essay on hypertext theory, I frequently used Postmodernism as a parallel to the values of hypertext theory. As such, I will undoubtedly carry these two theories with me in my future intellectual endeavors.