Comments on: The Dialogic of Postmodernity http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/ It's a group blog. What more do you need to know? Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:02:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Donagh http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22730 Donagh Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:41:24 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22730 It was starting to become in vogue when I was an undergrad in UCD [many many years ago], although there was still plenty about the post-structuralists too. I suppose I picked up on the Bakhtin article because I filleted his books for my Master's Thesis, particularly Rabelais and His World, but it fitted perfectly with the period I was studying, Satire in the Mid Tudor period, so I didn't have to appropriate his theory and slap it on to whatever passing text I happened to be studying. The Eagleton article suggests that the self-justifying obscurantist pseudo-sociologists :) have indeed made mince meat of his work for the purposes of God knows what. Its a long time since I've been anywhere near that sort, so I'm taking his word for it. Postmodernism still going? Yea, I thought it was as long gone as the Bell bottom trousers that Conor's brother wore on his confirmation day. It was starting to become in vogue when I was an undergrad in UCD [many many years ago], although there was still plenty about the post-structuralists too. I suppose I picked up on the Bakhtin article because I filleted his books for my Master’s Thesis, particularly Rabelais and His World, but it fitted perfectly with the period I was studying, Satire in the Mid Tudor period, so I didn’t have to appropriate his theory and slap it on to whatever passing text I happened to be studying.

The Eagleton article suggests that the self-justifying obscurantist pseudo-sociologists :) have indeed made mince meat of his work for the purposes of God knows what. Its a long time since I’ve been anywhere near that sort, so I’m taking his word for it.

Postmodernism still going? Yea, I thought it was as long gone as the Bell bottom trousers that Conor’s brother wore on his confirmation day.

]]> By: John http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22728 John Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:58:46 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22728 If this is all true, I'm really rather pleased to find that Bakhtin has a (new) audience at last. When I was studying for a Cultural Studies M.A. back in the mists of time, hardly anyone had heard of him; it was all Derrida, Foucault, Kristeva and co. in those days. Yet he was the only theorist who seemed to me to be saying something worthwhile, accurate, and useful, although I expect that his arguments have now mutated into something grotesque and unrecognisable in the hands of the self-justifying obscurantist pseudo-sociologists that make up some Literature Departments (only some!) in academia these days. As for postmodernism: Is it still going? I thought we were all past that now. ;-) If this is all true, I’m really rather pleased to find that Bakhtin has a (new) audience at last. When I was studying for a Cultural Studies M.A. back in the mists of time, hardly anyone had heard of him; it was all Derrida, Foucault, Kristeva and co. in those days. Yet he was the only theorist who seemed to me to be saying something worthwhile, accurate, and useful, although I expect that his arguments have now mutated into something grotesque and unrecognisable in the hands of the self-justifying obscurantist pseudo-sociologists that make up some Literature Departments (only some!) in academia these days.

As for postmodernism: Is it still going? I thought we were all past that now. ;-)

]]> By: Donagh http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22721 Donagh Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:48:00 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22721 Maurice, the question should really be 'what isn't postmodernism?' although I like to define it as the term used by earnest undergraduate to explain to their granny why the world isn't going to hell in a handbasket. Rachel, is that directed towards me, or as a help to Maurice? Or maybe its a declarative statement that everyone should read Fredric Jameson. If the latter I'll consider it post-Marxist spam. You're comment however, led to me finding out about a recent Jameson text, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Archaeologies-Future-Poetics-Social-Forms/dp/1844670333" rel="nofollow">Archaeologies of the Future</a>, which investigates the "relationship between utopia and science fiction is explored through the representations of otherness—alien life and alien worlds—and a study of the works of Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Kim Stanley Robinson and more." Yummy for left leaning fans of Sci-fi and literary theory. Cedar's link: Oh jinkies Maurice, the question should really be ‘what isn’t postmodernism?’ although I like to define it as the term used by earnest undergraduate to explain to their granny why the world isn’t going to hell in a handbasket.

Rachel, is that directed towards me, or as a help to Maurice? Or maybe its a declarative statement that everyone should read Fredric Jameson. If the latter I’ll consider it post-Marxist spam. You’re comment however, led to me finding out about a recent Jameson text, Archaeologies
of the Future, which investigates the “relationship between utopia and science fiction is explored through the representations of otherness—alien life and alien worlds—and a study of the works of Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Kim Stanley Robinson and more.” Yummy for left leaning fans of Sci-fi and literary theory.

Cedar’s link: Oh jinkies

]]> By: If it wasn’t for that pesky Enlightenment… Academy and Engagement… « The Cedar Lounge Revolution http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22710 If it wasn’t for that pesky Enlightenment… Academy and Engagement… « The Cedar Lounge Revolution Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:13:46 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22710 [...] this - coincidentally - feeds into Donaghs post on Dublin Opinion about post-modernism. The critique quoted makes a point which links directly to [...] […] this - coincidentally - feeds into Donaghs post on Dublin Opinion about post-modernism. The critique quoted makes a point which links directly to […]

]]> By: Rachel http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22618 Rachel Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:54:44 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22618 Read Fredric Jameson Read Fredric Jameson

]]> By: Maurice Colgan http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22491 Maurice Colgan Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:08:21 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22491 What exactly is post moderniism :-) What exactly is post moderniism :-)

]]> By: Donagh http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22366 Donagh Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:17:12 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22366 Arghhh!* *throws his printed notes in the air Arghhh!*

*throws his printed notes in the air

]]> By: copernicus http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22362 copernicus Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:36:50 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22362 Ahh Ahh

]]> By: Donagh http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22356 Donagh Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:26:29 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22356 I see your hmmm, and I raise you an errrr. But I get your point. I should have explained the context of Eagleton's argument. At the beginning of the essay he asks why Bakhtin, who died in relative obscurity in Russia in 1975, should now be so popular in the Academy: "For the past three decades, Mikhail Bakhtin has been more of an industry than an individual. Not only an industry, in fact, but a flourishing transnational corporation, complete with jet-setting chief executives, global conventions and its own in-house journal. In the field of cultural theory, this victim of Stalinism is now big business. Most of the mouth-filling terms he coined – dialogism, double-voicedness, chronotope, heteroglossia, multi-accentuality – have passed into the lexicon of contemporary criticism. A cosmopolitan coterie of scholars, some of whom have devoted a lifetime to his texts, have long since struggled to appropriate him for their own agendas." His point, ultimately, I think, is that post modernism with its pluralities and dialogic tendencies is very much part and parcel of late capitalism. If Bakhtin's work and his theory of dialogic discourse was an attempt to work against the monologic loudhailer of Stalinism, it is now being used to feed into the regime (long working hours, long commute) of late capitalism. Or as Terry puts it: "No regime is more in love with the multiple and dynamic than late capitalism." It's a snazzy article I see your hmmm, and I raise you an errrr. But I get your point.
I should have explained the context of Eagleton’s argument. At the beginning of the essay he asks why Bakhtin, who died in relative obscurity in Russia in 1975, should now be so popular in the Academy:

“For the past three decades, Mikhail Bakhtin has been more of an industry than an individual. Not only an industry, in fact, but a flourishing transnational corporation, complete with jet-setting chief executives, global conventions and its own in-house journal. In the field of cultural theory, this victim of Stalinism is now big business. Most of the mouth-filling terms he coined – dialogism, double-voicedness, chronotope, heteroglossia, multi-accentuality – have passed into the lexicon of contemporary criticism. A cosmopolitan coterie of scholars, some of whom have devoted a lifetime to his texts, have long since struggled to appropriate him for their own agendas.”

His point, ultimately, I think, is that post modernism with its pluralities and dialogic tendencies is very much part and parcel of late capitalism. If Bakhtin’s work and his theory of dialogic discourse was an attempt to work against the monologic loudhailer of Stalinism, it is now being used to feed into the regime (long working hours, long commute) of late capitalism. Or as Terry puts it: “No regime is more in love with the multiple and dynamic than late capitalism.”

It’s a snazzy article

]]> By: copernicus http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22293 copernicus Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:38:44 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2007/06/21/the-dialogic-of-postmodernity/#comment-22293 Hmnn Hmnn

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