Charles Jencks – författare

After developing for thirty years as a movement in the arts, after being disputed and celebrated, Post-Modernism has become an integral part of the cultural landscape. In this witty overview, Charles Jencks, the first to write a book defining the subject, argues that the movement is one more reaction from within modernism critical of its shortcomings. The unintended consequences of modernisation, such as the terrorist debacle and global warming, are typical issues motivating a Critical Modern response today. In a unique analysis, using many explanatory diagrams and graphs, he reveals the evolutionary, social and economic forces of this new stage of global civilisation. Critical Modernism emerges at two levels. As an underground movement, it is the fact that many modernisms compete, quarrel and criticise each other as they seek to become dominant. Secondly, when so many of these movements follow each other today in quick succession, they may reach a 'critical mass,' a Modernism2, and become a conscious tradition.

In The Story of Post-Modernism, Charles Jencks, the authority on Post-Modern architecture and culture, provides the defining account of Post-Modern architecture from its earliest roots in the early 60s to the present day. By breaking the narrative into seven distinct chapters, which are both chronological and overlapping, Jencks charts the ebb and flow of the movement, the peaks and troughs of different ideas and themes. The book is highly visual. As well as providing a chronological account of the movement, each chapter also has a special feature on the major works of a given period.The first up-to-date narrative of Post-Modern Architecture - other major books on the subject were written 20 years ago.An accessible narrative that will appeal to students who are new to the subject, as well as those who can remember its heyday in the 70s and 80s.

Post-Modernism has been debated, attacked and defended for over three decades. It is, however, not just a fashion or style but part of a greater movement in all areas of culture, and one which stubbornly persists like its parent, Modernism. The Post-Modern Reader is a seminal anthology that presents this trend in all its diversity, as a convergence in architecture and literature, sociology and cultural theory, feminism and theology, science and economics.For this new edition, editor Charles Jencks has provided an entirely new definitive introductory essay 'What Then Is Post-Modernism?' that reflects on the movement's coming of age. The book also encompasses essential classic texts on the subject by John Barth, Umberto Eco, David Harvey, Jane Jacobs, Jean-François Lyotard and Robert Venturi, while incorporating new articles by Felipe Fernández-Armesto, John Gray, Ihab Hassan and Anatole Kaletsky. Each text is introduced and contextualized got the reader with a new short introductory passage. A new edition of a classic anthology of 26 texts covering the full gamut of Post-Modern thought from architecture and literature to economics and theology.The Reader includes key texts by John Barth, Umberto Eco, David Harvey, Jane Jacobs, Jean-François Lyotard and Robert Venturi.A book edited by the most influential figure behind the Post-Modern movement – Charles Jencks.A timely and informative publication for students that captures the renewed interest in Post-Modernism.