Postmodernism timeline 1939-2001

"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov

NASA founded

U.S. sociologist, Daniel Bell, publishes his book, 'The End of Ideology'. This is the first of a trilogy of books by Bell in which he argues that western societies are entering a new phase/era which he calls 'the post-industrial society'.

Berlin Wall erected

President John F. Kennedy assassinated

The Beatles make UK headlines, Beatlemania is born

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads Civil Rights march in Washington

First space walk

Lelie Friedler, cultural critic, argues there o be a new sensuality of youth expressing itself in a new ‘post-modern’ literature.
A number of 'postmodern' artistic movements develop: Pop Art, Minimalism and Conceptualism (latterly 'Global Conceptualism').

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Guy Debord, the French Situationist, writes his, The Society of the Spectacle.

Amitai Etzioni, the U.S. sociologist uses the idea of the postmodern in his book 'Active Society'.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy assassinated

"The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature" by Ihab Hassan

Ihab Hassan writes 'The Postmodern Turn'. He inverts Onis' definition (see above) of postmodernism as conservative and suggests instead that postmodernism is progressive. He argues that postmodernism is the ally of U.S. philosophical pragmatism.

New literary journal: ‘Boundary 2’, subtitled ‘Journal of Postmodern Literature’.

U.S. Architect, Robert Venturi has his book, 'Learning from Las Vegas', published. This can be taken as something of a manifesto for those architects who, like Venturi, wanted to reject the dominant 'school' of modernism in architecture. They suggested that the 'commercial strip' of Las Vegas presented a positive challenge to progressive architects. The publication coincides with the demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing development in St. Louis, U.S.A. with dynamite. For Charles Jencks this is the symbolic end of 'high modernism' in architecture and the beginning of postmodern architecture.

Watergate break-in

Daniel Bell publishes: 'The Coming of Post-Industrial Society : A Venture in Social Forecasting'. This together with his earlier work, 'The End of Ideology : On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties,' suggest that modern societies are moving into another era, of a post-industrial, knowledge society.

Jean Baudrillard's, 'The Mirror of Production' is published. This is the first text from Baudrillard in which he breaks with Marxism.

French sociologist, Alain Touraine's, 'The post-industrial society : tomorrow's social history : classes, conflicts and culture in the programmed society' is published in English.

Daniel Bell writes, 'The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism' in which he argues against what he sees as a hyper-individualism and lack of civic responsibility in U.S. society.

The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter

The first edition of, Charles Jencks', 'Language of Post-Modern Architecture' is published. He argues that postmodern architecture is based on a 'double-coding'!

Edward Said's, 'Orientalism' is published. Suggested to be the text that initiates the specialist 'field' later to be called postcolonialism.

First test-tube baby born in Britain

The two-volume, 'Marx's Capital and Capitalism Today' is published.

Though nominally authored as 'Cutler, T et al', the impulse for this work came from Paul Hirst (now Professor at Birkbeck College) and Barry Hindess. 'Hindess & Hirst' were an intellectual force in the 1970s, beginning with their work on the journal 'Theoretical Practice', through 'Pre Capitalist Modes of Production' and to the volumes cited above. Hindess and Hirst's initial project had been (in the wake of Althusser's attempt to do same) to address the theoretical problems in Marxist theory and to reinvigorate that theory for the late 20th century. In fact by 'Marx's Capital..' they had come to the conclusion that Marxism was fatally flawed. 'Marx's Capital..' is a rigorous demonstration of the Hegelian influences on Marx's work.

Punk Rock emerges and though initially a critical/oppositional cultural form, it soon develops into an avant-garde/elitist form of 'pop' and rock music.

"The Postmodern Condition" by Jean-François Lyotard

Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first woman prime minister

U.S.-Iran hostage crisis begins

First space-shuttle flight

Frederic Jameson publishes 'Post-modernism'. The book is an attempt to synthesise the (economics) of the work of Marxist Ernest Mandel (in 'Late Capitalism') and Baudrillard's early work (when, effectively, Baudrillard was still a Marxist). Jameson was to cite/sight the Bonaventura Hotel in Los Angeles as an example of a postmodern architecture which forces individuals to expand our senses and bodies.

"Simulacra and Simulation" by Jean Baudrillard

"Postmodernism and Consumer Society" by Fredric Jameson

Fourth Challenger flight, first-ever untethered space walk

'Order Out of Chaos', by Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers is published. Suggested to be a landmark of postmodern science.

"White Noise" by Don DeLillo

A Postmodern Law? Peter Goodrich publishes 'Reading The Law'.

"Toward a Concept of Postmodernism" by Ihab Hassan

Gianni Vattimo's, The End of Modernity: Nihilism and Hermeneutics. In Post-Modern Critique, is published

Linda Hutcheon's, 'A Poetics of Postmodernism' is published. It's indicative of a growing interest in postmodernist theory, amongst Feminists.

Live/animated film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," directed by Robert Zemeckis

The Panic Encyclopedia, "The Definitive Guide to the Postmodern Scene" is first published. The encyclopedia is authored by Arthur and David Cook, both of whom may be described as apocalyptic postmodernists.

Berlin Wall falls

David Harvey's book 'The condition of Postmodernity' is published. The book is, like Jameson's, written from a Marxist perspective. Harvey, in similar vein to Jameson argues that postmodernism is a particular stage in the development of capitalism.

Giddens', 'The Consequences of Modernity' is published. Giddens rejects the view that the west has entered a new era of postmodernity. On the contrary, the west has entered a phase of 'high modernity'. He will later argue that this 'high modernity' is based upon a increased 'reflexivity': more formally, a 'reflexive modernization'

Gulf War

Nelson Mandela freed from prison

Mike Featherstone's, 'Consumer Culture & Postmodernism' is published. The book seeks to define postmodernism from a largely neo-Weberian perspective.

Zygmunt Bauman's, 'Modernity & Ambivalence' is published. Bauman rejects the idea of the 'end of modernity' and thus that we have entered a new stage of society. For Bauman postmodernity is modernity coming to terms with its paradoxes.

'Written on the Body' by Jeanette Winterson

"Hyper/Text/Theory" by George Landow

"Just the Fax, Ma’am: or, Postmodernism’s Journey to Decenter" by Michael Bérubé

"Pulp Fiction," directed by Quentin Tarantino

The Return of (neo) Functionalism 1: suggests a critique of post-modernism. Alexander argues that we live in a Neo-modern era

Yet another Marxist critique. This time from British literary critic and Thomas Wharton Professor of English at the University of Oxford, Terry Eagleton. The book, 'The Allusions of Postmodernism', is a critique of the ideological foundations of postmodernism. Eagleton suggests postmodernism to be the outcome of a 'failure of nerve' in sections of the political 'left'.

Charles Lemert offers another set of categories of postmodernism(s) in his book, 'Postmodernism Is Not What You Think', Best & Kellner suggest a categorisation of postmodernism

Dennis Smith defines postmodernity as modernity's 'serpent'

Disgrace is a novel by J. M. Coetzee

Terrorists attack World Trade Centre NYC killing thousands