PoPoMo

A couple of post-postmodernism reading suggestions:

For those interested in the figure of the cyborg, Anthony Vidler's 'Homes for Cyborgs' in 'Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely' connects Haraway's manifesto and its project of boundary transgression with our earlier consideration in the course around the materiality and experience of postmodern spaces and architectures.

For a controversial episode in the life of postmodernism, have a look at the Sokal Affair. Physicist Alan Sokal, submitted a paper entitled 'Transgressing the Boundaries -- Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity', to the journal 'Social Text' (link below) which he revealed to be hoax in a simultaneously published article in the journal 'Lingua Franca' (link below). He argued that this experiement--writing a parody of a cultural studies/postmodern paper through a pastiche of absurd pseudo-scientific jargon and liberal ideology--exposed the lack of academic rigour and nonsense central to postmodern theory.

His Lingua Franca paper, "A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies," begins by stating:

"For some years I've been troubled by an apparent decline in the standards of intellectual rigor in certain precincts of the American academic humanities. But I'm a mere physicist: if I find myself unable to make head or tail of jouissance and différance, perhaps that just reflects my own inadequacy.

So, to test the prevailing intellectual standards, I decided to try a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment: Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies -- whose editorial collective includes such luminaries as Fredric Jameson and Andrew Ross -- publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions?"

While widely received as a succeccful hoax that undermined the credibility of PoMo, I wonder, is there an irony operating here, that allows us to read this whole affair as distincly postmodern? A simulacra that helps install and diffuse indeterminacy within the global media event?