Deck 5: Exploding the Boundaries of Reason: Postmodernity

Question 1

Postmodernism differs from poststructuralism in which of the following ways

A) It is more critical of society
B) It is less critical of society
C) It focuses on structure
D) None of the above

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Modernism, as an aesthetic movement, is seen as a response to the _______ age

A) Premodern
B) Modern
C) Postmodern
D) None of the above

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of modernism:

A) Self-consciousness
B) Individualism
C) Decentering
D) Rejection of traditional forms of art

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Modern has come to mean a variety of things, including _________ as opposed to communal

A) Atomistic
B) Structural
C) Interactionist
D) Reductionism

Question 5

Jürgen Habermas's views of modernity can best be described as

A) Hostile
B) Antithetical
C) Optimistic
D) Ignorant

Question 6

Habermas's theory that focuses on the drive for consensus, democratic order, and universal understanding through the use of language is called the theory of

A) Symbolic interaction
B) Linguistic action
C) Discursive action
D) Communicative action

Question 7

For Habermas, the ideas of the Enlightenment had

A) Potential for creating progress
B) Fatal flaws
C) Thwarted progress
D) Harmed social integration

Question 8

For Giddens, "the regularized control of social relations across indefinite time-space distances" is

A) Surveillance
B) Communication
C) Modern social organization
D) None of the above

Question 9

Time-space distanciation means

A) That the physical sciences have proven the relationship between time and space renders premodern forms of social interaction useless.
B) Space and time are no longer connected through place as they have been in more traditional societies
C) Space and time are more connected through place now than they were in traditional societies
D) Time will always be bound by space, which presents problems for further globalization

Question 10

Which of the following is a key dilemma that the modern individual does NOT face, according to Giddens?

A) Fragmentation of the self vs. unification
B) Powerlessness vs. appropriation
C) Authority vs. uncertainty
D) Structure vs. agency

Question 11

As technology changes time, space, and our interactions, society becomes characterized by a higher degree of

A) Constitutive Reflexivity
B) Alienation
C) Social harmony
D) Fragmentation

Question 12

Ihab Hassan has provided a list of terms used to liberate the term from postmodern from modern. Which of the following does he use to describe postmodern?

A) Play
B) Purpose
C) Metaphysics
D) Structure

Question 13

One of the features of postmodernism, according to Hassan, is its focus on "the unrepresentable." What does this mean?

A) A rejection of a division between the real and the artificial, or the imagined from the perceived
B) The loss of the modern notion of the stable self in which there exists both a subject and an object
C) Opposition to totalization because of the trust only of fragments.
D) Thought constructs reality and fiction is as vital as fact.

Question 14

For David Harvey, postmodernism is

A) A decentering of social relations
B) A marginal movement aimed at remedying injustices
C) A legitimate reaction to the monotony or universal modernism vision of the world
D) Really no different than modernism, it is best described as "late modernism."

Question 15

For Andreas Huyssens, what does post-modernism do to the division between high culture and mass culture?

A) It intensifies it
B) It negates it
C) It transcends it
D) None of the above

Question 16

Deleuze and Guattari, in their book Anti-Oedipus, launch an assault against "aborescence," which is

A) Social sanctioning of people, things, and situations that are not normative
B) A type of knowledge structure that emphasized taxonomies and hierarchical ways of knowing
C) The fragmentation and decentering that characterizes the postmodern condition
D) Reproductive politics and the governmental assault on women's bodies

Question 17

Deleuze and Guattari classify desire into two categories:

A) Constructive and destructive
B) Proactive and reactive
C) Social and psychological
D) Reactive and productive

Question 18

Lyotard argued that _________ is central to all knowledge and feeling-central to truth

A) The mind
B) The body
C) Consciousness
D) Imagination

Question 19

In his book The Postmodern Condition, Lyotard argues that there has been a radical shift in science toward a concern with

A) Positivism
B) Categories
C) Language and narrative
D) None of the above

Question 20

Zygmunt Bauman argues that postmodern theory needs to focus on the habitat of _______

A) Agency
B) Structure
C) Objectivity
D) Mental life

Question 21

Modernism can best be described as a reaction to the modern age

Question 22

Like most postmodern theories, Jürgen Habermas' theory of communicative action is highly critical of modernity

Question 23

For Lyotard, the body is central to all knowledge

Question 24

The rise of new technologies has unified and centered knowledge

Question 25

According to Zygmunt Bauman, postmodernism is a time of disenchantment

Question 26

What good is communicative action? How will it benefit society?

Question 27

How do Deleuze and Guattari characterize postmodern knowledge? How does it differ from modern knowledge?

Question 28

What is a metanarrative? What is the fate of metanarratives in the postmodern age, according to Lyotard?

Question 29

Postmodernism has been described as a reaction to modernism. List and explain three characteristics of the modern aesthetic, and describe how postmodernism reconsiders those characteristics.

Question 30

List and describe three characteristics of the postmodern condition. Apply these to some aspect of postmodern social life, such as the media, politics, higher education, etc…