Postmodernity and its Discontents

When Freud wrote his classic Civilization and its
Discontents, he was concerned with repression. Modern
civilization depends upon the constraint of impulse, the limiting
of self expression.

Today, in the time of modernity, Bauman argues, Freud's analysis no
longer holds good, if it ever did. The regulation of desire turns
from an irritating necessity into an assault against individual
freedom. In the postmodern era, the liberty of the individual is
the overriding value, the criterion in terms of which all social
rules and regulations are assessed. Postmodernity is governed by
the 'will to happiness': the result, however, is a sacrificing of
security.

The most prominent anxieties in our society today, Bauman shows,
derive from the removal of security. The world is experienced as
overwhelmingly uncertain, uncontrollable and frightening.
Totalitarian politics frightened by its awesome power; the new
social disorder frightens by its lack of consistency and direction.
The very pursuit of individual happiness corrupts and undermines
those systems of authority needed for a stable life.

This book builds imaginatively upon Bauman's earlier contributions
to social theory. It consolidates his reputation as the
interpreter of postmodernity. The book will appeal to second-year
undergraduates and above in sociology, cultural studies, philosophy
and anthropology.

Auteur
Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Universities of Leeds and Warsaw.

Résumé
When Freud wrote his classic Civilization and its Discontents, he was concerned with repression. Modern civilization depends upon the constraint of impulse, the limiting of self expression.

Today, in the time of modernity, Bauman argues, Freud's analysis no longer holds good, if it ever did. The regulation of desire turns from an irritating necessity into an assault against individual freedom. In the postmodern era, the liberty of the individual is the overriding value, the criterion in terms of which all social rules and regulations are assessed. Postmodernity is governed by the 'will to happiness': the result, however, is a sacrificing of security.

The most prominent anxieties in our society today, Bauman shows, derive from the removal of security. The world is experienced as overwhelmingly uncertain, uncontrollable and frightening. Totalitarian politics frightened by its awesome power; the new social disorder frightens by its lack of consistency and direction. The very pursuit of individual happiness corrupts and undermines those systems of authority needed for a stable life.

This book builds imaginatively upon Bauman's earlier contributions to social theory. It consolidates his reputation as the interpreter of postmodernity. The book will appeal to second-year undergraduates and above in sociology, cultural studies, philosophy and anthropology.

Contenu

Introduction: Discontents - Modern and Postmodern.

1. The Dream of Purity.

2. Making and Unmaking of Strangers.

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

4. Morality Begins at Home: or the Rocky Road to Justice.

5. Parvenu and Pariah - the Heroes and Victims of Modernity.

6. Tourists and Vagabonds - the Heroes and Victims of
   Postmodernity.

7. Postmodern Art, or the Impossibility of the Avant-garde.

8. On the Meaning of Art and the Art of Meaning.

9. Culture as Consumer Co-operative.

10. On the Postmodern Deployment of Sex: Foucault's History
    of Sexuality Revisited.

11. Immortality, Postmodern Version.

12. Postmodern Religion?.

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

Afterword: The Last word - and it Belongs to Freedom.

Notes.

Index.