POSTMODERNITY AND ITS DISCONTENTS

Book Details

• Author: Zygmunt Bauman

• Publisher: Rawat Publications

• Language: English

• ISBN: 9788131611210

• Pages: 236

• Cover: Hardcover

About the Book

In this profound work, Zygmunt Bauman builds upon his earlier contributions to social theory, offering a critical reflection on the anxieties that define postmodern life. Drawing on Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents, Bauman challenges the repression of desire that Freud identified as a cornerstone of modern civilization. He argues that in the postmodern era, the regulation of desire has shifted from a necessary societal constraint to an assault on individual freedom.

Bauman critiques the postmodern "will to happiness" as a fundamental drive, noting that this pursuit of individual happiness often comes at the expense of societal security. In this context, he explores the instability and uncertainty that characterize the modern world, where both totalitarian politics and new forms of social disorder threaten stability.

Through a range of topics—from the challenges of postmodern morality to the role of art in society—Bauman reveals how the quest for individual freedom undermines the social order, leading to a breakdown in authority and collective responsibility. The book also tackles the evolution of the concept of strangers in the consumer era, postmodern religion, and the implications of Foucault’s ideas on sexuality. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of sociology, philosophy, and cultural studies, as it provides valuable insights into the nature of postmodernity and its impact on society.

Contents

• Introduction: Discontents – Modern and Postmodern

• The Dream of Purity

• Making and Unmaking of Strangers

• The Strangers of the Consumer Era: from the Welfare State to Prison

• Morality Begins at Home: or the Rocky Road to Justice

• Parvenu and Pariah: the Heroes and Victims of Modernity

• Tourists and Vagabonds: the Heroes and Victims of Postmodernity

• Postmodern Art, or the Impossibility of the Avant-garde

• The Meaning of Art and the Art of Meaning

• On Truth, Fiction and Uncertainty

• Culture as Consumer Co-operative

• On the Postmodern Deployment of Sex: Foucault’s History of Sexuality Revisited

• Immortality, Postmodern Version

• Postmodern Religion?

• On Communitarianism and Human Freedom, or How to Square the Circle

• Afterword: The Last Word - and it Belongs to Freedom

About the Author

Zygmunt Bauman is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Universities of Leeds and Warsaw. He is widely regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of postmodernity and is known for his critical analysis of the challenges posed by contemporary social, cultural, and political life.