Postmodernism in Context: Perspectives of a Structural Change in Society, Literature, and

Literary Criticism
Author(s): Dietmar Voss, Jochen C. Schütze, Mitch Cohen and Carol Lüdtke
Source: New German Critique, No. 47 (Spring - Summer, 1989), pp. 119-142
Published by: New German Critique
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Postmodernismin Context: ofa
Perspectives
Changein Society,
Structural and
Literature,
Criticism
Literary

DietmarVoss and JochenC. Schuitze

The participantsin thediscussionseem to agreeon one thing:that

thereis thegreatestpossibledisagreement as to whatpostmodernism
is. The termitselfis unspecific,unsuitableto expressthe self-under-
standingofan era.' It resistscomprehensive definition and appears,at
thesame time,to acceptcontentso arbitrary thatsome commentators
are deluded intoregardingthisarbitrariness itselfas an essentialchar-
ofpostmodernism.
acteristic On theotherhand,thedebateis charac-
terizedby a rigidpolarizationof undifferentiated supportingand ne-
A
gatingpositions. prominentexample of thisis the controversy be-
tweenJilrgenHabermas,who tendsto equatepostmodernism withthe
and neoconservatism,2and
anti-Enlightenment Jean-Fran;oisLyotard,
who favorspostmodernism'sstrictexaminationof Enlightenment
thought.3 Otherauthorsgiveexpressionto the "searchingmovement
of postmodernthought"4by renouncingany monolithicviewof the
epoch and byfollowing individualstrandsinstead,which,nonetheless,

1. Michael KAhler,'"Postmodemismus':Ein begriffsgeschichtlicher

tUberblick,"
22.1 (1977).
Amerikastudien
2. JiirgenHabermas,"Die Moderne- ein unvollendetesProjekt,"Kleine
politische
I-IV (Frankfurt
Schriften am Main: Suhrkamp,1981) 44-46.
3. Jean-FrancoisLyotard,"Answeringthe question: What Is Postmodernism?"
trans.RegisDurand,ThePostmodern Condition: onKnowledge
A Report (Minneapolis:U of
MinnesotaP, 1984).
4. AlbrechtWellmer,Zur Dialektik vonModerneundPostmoderne. nach
Vernunftkritik
Adorno(Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp,1985).

119

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120 Postmodernism
in Context

can be bundled intoa "culturaldominant."5

In attempting to bringthediscussionbeyondmerelyfashionableat-
titudesand the dictatesof the Zeitgeist
to culturaland criticalconcre-
tion,one thingprovesmostimportant:if"postmodernism"is not to
be understoodsolelyas a phenomenonof style(as, forexample,the
impassioneddebates on architectural theorysuggest)but ratheras
"culturallogic" that correlatespolitical-economic and social-psycho-
logical changesin late capitalism,thena distinction betweencritical
and affirmativeaspects should be possible. Of course,contemporary
diagnosesare no longerlimitedto simpleoppositionin the classical
pattern,towardwhose normativeclaimsand value-positing postmod-
ernismshowsthe utmostskepticism.
The following essayis nota researchreport- thenecessaryhistori-
cal and categoricaldistanceis lackingforsuch a study- but an at-
temptto relatestructuralchangesin severalareasofsocietyusuallyob-
servedseparatelyor takenas an occasion foraestheticfascination, so
thattheyshed lighton each other.

Changein Society
I. AspectsofStructural and Literature Modernism
after
TheAesthetics ofDisappearance
The criticalintelligenceof late-bourgeoiscontemporary cultureis
increasingly caught in thevortex of a as
Zeitgeist Paul Virilio
formulated
it withthe title"Esthetiquede la Disparition."6That neatlysumma-
rized the postmoderntendencyof contemporary philosophizing.Its
milestonesare the"loss ofthereal,ofpower,and evenofthesocial,"'7
the end of "the subject" and its "great storiesof speculationand
emancipation,"8 "theend ofproduction"'as wellas "theend ofhisto-
ry" and the "end of (thetimeof - D. V.) duration."'0In lightofthe
ideologicalboom of anti-Enlightenment thoughtand ofskepticism to-
wardreason,itis tempting to subjecttheabove termsto an ideological
critiqueand categorization and toreducethemto - certainly -
existing

5. FredricJameson, "Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,"

New LeftReview146 (1984): 55.
6. Paul Virilio and Sylvere Lotringer,Der reineKrieg(West Berlin: Merve, 1984) 37.
7. Jean Baudrillard, Agoniedes Realen (West Berlin: Merve, 1978) 41.
8. Lyotard 36, 30.
9. Jean Baudrillard, Der symbolischeTauschund der Tod (Munich, 1982) 22.
10. Virilio and Lotringer 50.

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 DietmarVossandJochen
C. Schiitze 121

apocalyptic,eschatological,and theologico-mystical obsessions of

"yesterday."But fora concrete,materialist critiqueof ideology,it is
not enoughsimplyto identify a class psychology or to insistupon the
fundamentalreflective and communicative characteristics of modern
Our
subjectivity." purpose here is,without their
forgetting mystical el-
to
ements, bringpostmodernphilosophicalpositions into productive
contactwithalteredsituationsand structures of late capitalism,in or-
der to rendernew modes of writingin contemporary literature
and
theirseismographiccapabilitiescomprehensible.
At presentthereis no lackofdizzyingvisions:fromthediagnostic-
allyintendedreductionofsociety'score structure to a netoflanguage
gamesor discourseswhichcan be dealtwithonlybymeansofa prag-
matic"agonistic";'2throughBaudrillard'sobsessivethesisthatthepo-
liticaleconomyofcapitalismhas reachedits"aestheticstage,"in which
"the system"functionsonlyby virtueof a simulatedspectacleof all
thatitonce was (production,exploitation, etc.)'3to Virilio'scentrifugal
vision of the postmoderncityno longerpopulatingspace but "the
time of changinglocations,"havingbecome a switchingstationfor
velocities,interchangeable withotherlocations.14As bizarreas such
speculationsmaybe, they have a commonand comprehensible basis,
if one examinesthe materialthattheyset in motion:the innovative
and transformational processesof the last decades which have ap-
peared in the course of increasingautomationof social production,
mechanizationor digitalization of administrativelabor,the develop-
mentofelectronicmedia and computerizedcommunications systems,
etc.We shallstressonlythoseaspectsfromthefabricofperspectives of
technologicalinnovationsthat could mark a qualitativedifference
fromclassicalmodernity - the modernity of capitalismas well as of
artand literature.

ModernSociety's Imagination
Spaces
The realisticnovelofthenineteenth centuryalreadybelongsto liter-
ary modernism inasmuch as it takesthe prosaic of the
constitution
"fortuitousindividual"as its contentand as a foil for its formal

11. Cf.JilrgenHabermasand A. Honneth,"Der Affekt gegendas Allgemeine.Zu

LyotardsKonzeptder Postmoderne,"Merkur 38.8 (1984).
12. Lyotard16.
Tausch
13. Baudrillard,Dersymbolische 54-56.
14. Virilioand Lotringer61-63.

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122 in Context
Postmodernism

processes.'5Timebecomesthedomainoffictionalconstruction forthe
novelin thestyleof Balzac, Keller,or Flaubert,in contrast to theepics
and dramasofbourgeoisclassicism.It simulatessocialtimeas qualita-
tive,organic,developmental time.Bloomingintoa (re-)experienceable
sense-continuum, the imaginationof time develops the suggestive
power to overcome the"unmitigated desolationofitsmatter,"and the
fictional of a
atmosphere chronological, mediated"stream
dialectically
of lifecancelsout the accidentalnatureof theirexperiencesand iso-
latednature."'6On thestrength ofthediscursiveeffect ofa closed or-
ganic time continuumthatanswersthe modern reader'sinsatiable
hungerformeaning,therealisticnovelcan finally "stripofftheprosaic
form"fromitsfigures, as Hegel demanded,'7and portray theindivid-
ual's fateas "typical"in Lukacs's sense.'8On the way to the typical
figurations of social (class)characters,
"the portrayalof the fortuitous
(social -
individual demands the creation of an artificial D. V.) mi-
The novelis forced,accordingto itslogicofform,to orientit-
lieu."'19
selftowardsocialspacescorresponding tothebasiccharacterofthatfa-
milialspace in whichindividualand classhistory werestillmediatedin
a particular way,as mostrecently in thebourgeoisinteriorsof histori-
cismand artnouveau.20Its imaginary and discursiveeffects
intendto
portray"society" as a of
imagespace typical
comprehensible social charac-
tersand milieus.
The projectsofmodernliterature ofpouringtheproseofan authen-
tic socializationinto a poetic form(forexample, Proust,Benjamin,
Nabokov)operateundertheassumptionthata privileged place can be
foundin therealmofthefamilyin whicha unique correspondence is
formedbetweenbourgeoisclass historyand individualcathexis,be-
tweensignsof social prestigeand signsof desire.Whatdistinguishes

15. Cf. FerencFeheir,"Is theNovel Problematic? A Contribution to theTheoryof

theNovel,"trans.Anne-MarieDibon, Telos15 (1973): 64. This "fortuitousindividual"
developsin industrial
capitalismwithitsperiodiccriseswhichrevealthatthemodem
betweenpersonaland social (class)characteris necessarily
relationship a coincidental
one. See KarlMarx and FrederickEngels,Werke (Berlin[GDR]) 3: 76.
16. GeorgLukdcs,Theory oftheNovel,trans.Anna Bostock(Cambridge,MA: MIT
Press, 1971) 125.
17. G. W. F. Hegel, Werke(Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp, 1971) 15: 393.
18. Georg zurLiteratursoziologie
Schriften (Neuwied and Berlin: Luchterhand,
1970) 128. Luksics,
19. Feher 65.
20. Cf. G. Selle, Jugendstilund Kulturindustrie.
Zur Okonomieund Asthetikdes
um 1900 (Ravensburg, 1974) 67-69.
Kunstgewerbes

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 DietmarVossandJochenC. Schiitze 123

them from aestheticrealism,however,is the "subjectification of

the
time,"21 emphasis on the "experienced moment" that breaksopen
thequantified streamoftime.The experimental too,"smashes
novelist,
his clockto setoffin searchfora newtimeno longermeasurablewith
chronometers. .... Consecutivity (to whichthe traditionalnovel still
dung - D. V.) melts into simultaneity ... and thetimesare confused
witheach other."22For Musil,therealisticnarrative withits"unbroken
thread,"the"orderlysuccessionofevents,"is no longerat all adequate
forthe depictionof social processesbut is rathera symptomof an
idealisticallylivedpersonalidentity; and itis thenovel'sreaderswho are
"storytellers in their own basic relationship to themselves"in orderto
feel"somehowsheltered in chaos."23AdvancedmontagenovelsbyDos
Passosor Doblin entwinesequencesofeventsthathavethemostdiffer-
ing times;theyallow daydreams,work,love acts,streethappenings,
etc.,to collide,each withitsown rhythm, becomingsimultaneousin
theliterary imagination, condensing to a "mythicalpanorama"in Eli-
ot's words.Such an image space is emancipatedfromthe horizonof
theindividually experienceable, but notfromthespatialparadigmsof
society. The montage novel can be consideredan attemptto givethe
imagination of social spatiality totaland currentformno longerde-
a
pendent on the "necessaryanachronism"of itssubjects.24

ExplosiveSpacesoftheCollective
For Brecht,the socioeconomicfunctionof a capitalistic factory was
no longervisiblein itsphotograph;25 forhim,thefactory was indubi-
tablyimportantas a particularspatialconstruction of a collectivethat
functioned manifestly, and
perceivably, situationally. As a greenhouse
of collectiveproductivepower,processesof cooperativelearningand
collectiveinnervation, the factorywas valid as a paradigmof a social
space which (according to Brecht,Benjamin,E. Jiinger, theSurrealists,
and theFuturists) promised to burstapartthe "drawingroom" ofthe
bourgeoisorder of life.
In related spaces,such as themovie
collective
house, the metropolitanstreet,the sport arena, etc., the explosive

21. K. H. Bohrer,Pldtzlichkeit.
ZumAugenblick des disthetischen
Scheins am
(Frankfurt
Main: Suhrkamp,1981) 180.
22. WalterJens,StatteinerLiteraturgeschichte Neske, 1978) 23-24.
(Pfullingen:
23. RobertMusil,Gesammelte Werke,ed. A. Friese(Reinbekbei Hamburg:Rowohlt,
1978) 2: 650.
24. Hegel 3: 359.
25. BertoltBrecht,GesammelteWerke
(Frankfurt am Main:Suhrkamp,1967) 18: 161.

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124 Postmodernism
in Context

potentialof themasseswas to be developedand organized.The spe-

cial aspectofthemass-occupiedspaces of modernity was that,on the
one hand,theyrepresented spaces charged and streaming withcollec-
tiveinstinctualand emotionaltension,and, on the otherhand, they
virtuallyupheldtherelationship to socialbeing,to thecurrent"front"
of the historicalprocess.As a result,theygenerated"authentic"con-
nectionsbetweenhistoricalsignsand signsof desire.
All of thispointsto an unrelinquishable sociohistorical
referentof
modernistimaginative strategies.Alreadyin Baudelaire'spoetry,"the
secretpresenceofa crowdis demonstrable almosteverywhere."26 And
montage novels such as ManhattanTransfer
or BerlinAlexanderplatz
out-
line "society"no longerfromtheexperiential or spatialperspective of
fictional individuals
representative but ratherfrom the polydimensional
spatialor textualperspective ofa fictionalcollective
subject.Theyimag-
ine "society"no longeras a dialectically ordered,suggestively unified
space but as a disturbingly
open, chaotic/anarchisticspace,which could
be masteredonlybycollective forces.The textsfunction,so to speak,as
a substitutefora sociallystillu-topianorganizational powerofthecol-
lective.Nevertheless,even the avant-garde's image spaces are stillan
"attemptto givethewholein particulars; ofcourse,thewholeas chaos
.... "27 The particularand the times stand in a panic coexistence.

Empty and Homogeneous Time

A ratherinconspicuoussociohistoricalreferent of literarymodern-
ism is thetimestructure ofindustrial
production.Beforethehegemo-
nyof commodityproduction,people's conceptoftimewas bound to
qualitativecyclesand - specifically
respectiveto social position,reli-
gion, and fieldofwork - molded bytheinherentrhythms ofconcrete
procedures,impingentnature,and communalfestivities. Withindus-
trialcapitalism,however,a chronometric,homogeneously linear,uni-
versaltimeprevails- discerniblein theemergenceof theconceptof
everydayand, in the eighteenthcentury,of the pocketwatch.28All
activities
becomesociallysynchronizable;
buttimebecomesan extensity

26. Walter Benjamin, "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire," Illuminations,

trans. Harry
Zohn (New York: Schocken, 1969) 257.
27. Giinther Anders, Menschohne Welt.Schrinfen
zur Kunst und Literatur(Munich,
1984) 20.
28. Cf. Klaus Laermann, "Alltags-Zeit. Ober die Form sozialen
unauff'illigste
Zwangs," Kursbuch41 (1975): 88-90.

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 DietmarVossandJochenC. Schiitze 125

fromnowon calculableand utilizable,"satanictime"(Baudelaire)and

"emptytime"(Benjamin).Thatis,thesocialorganizationoftimesepa-
ratesfromthe limited,livingconstitution of the body and emotions
and from their time.
intrinsic Conversely, economypromotestime
the
to an essentialfactorofsocialprogress- as Marxshowedin hisanaly-
sisoftheproblemofrelativesurplusvalueand therateofcapitalcircu-
lation.Whetherone considersthe social imaginationin termsof or-
ganicdevelopmentaltimeor anarchicsimultaneity, i.e., whetherone
thinksof the realisticor the montagenovel, a constantlyrecurring
topos of literary modernismis to oppose the dominanttimemodel
and to imagineformsoftimedecisivelyin accordwiththerhythms of
individuallife,of the body and of emotions.
As bitterly
as theprotagonistsofopposingmoderniststrategies feud
witheach otheras "decadent" (Lukdcs)or "psychological"(Doblin,
Brecht),theircommon semioticterrainis now becomingvisible:the
literaryimaginationof "society"in spatialarrangements, the orienta-
tion towardparadigmaticsocial spaces, the imaginaryevocationof
qualitative,oppositionalchronicities, the impulse to representthe
whole of societyin a work,even wherepreciselythe splits,accidents,
and reifications are regardedas representative.

TheImplosion oftheMasses'Spaces
This common semioticarrangement emergesintoviewat the mo-
mentwhenitis itselfhistorically undermined.For apparently,withthe
presentlydawningera of automatedproductionand media-electronic
networking, a far-reaching changeis takingplace in thespa-
structural
tialand chronological coordinatesofthesocialfield.Whensciencebe-
comes a directforceof productionand reducestheworkcharacterof
socialproductionto a self-or computer-regulatedsystemrequiring vir-
tuallyno more than repair,inspection,and regulation,29 then any
sensuallytangible collectivityvanishesfrom the production process.
The workofdirecting theflowofdataattheterminal ofa computernet-
work,ofwatchingthemonitorsof an automaticplant,etc.,are highly
of course.But the contextof theircooperationis
socializedactivities,

29. KarlMarx,TheGrundrisse, trans.and ed. David McLellan(NewYork:Harper&

Row, 1971) 141-42,144-46.In theFRG,theproductionofindustrial robotsexpanded
by 222% between1980 and 1984. At the same time,employmentin servicesrose to
about 9 million,nearlyreachingthe numberof productionworkers,whichsank to
10.3 millionfromthe 1979 levelof 11.5 million.

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126 in Context
Postmodernism

"spiritualized"or "mediatized"(thevideo conference as optimumof

concretecommunication!), and theautomatedworkersor evendesign-
isolatedas "tele-manufacturers"
ersare in reality and could be, in prin-
ciple,cottageindustry workers.30Ifthe (machine)hallwasthe
collective
generalmatrixofproductive workin theera oftheclassicalindustries,
then in the era of automation it will be the electronic
testpatternwhich
sends digitalizeddecisionsintothe uncalculability of the social func-
and
tion-system is, at the same time,itselfa testingmedium.Produc-
tionand the social spherethemselvesdo not disappearas a resultof
this,as Baudrillard contends,31 buttheperceptibly significantspatialco-
ordinatesofthesocialcontextof productiondo disappear:the"facto-
ry"disappearsas a privileged spatialstructure ofunmediatedsocializa-
tion, as a tangiblyidentifiable place production;the"machine"as a
of
perceptibleconcrete manifestation of capitalfixe,whose workersap-
peared as "appendages"(computersno longerpossessany machine-
like,functionally manifest sensuality);32and thecollectiveas a sensually
graspable form of bodily and mediatedinteraction.
situationally
Withthat,thesemioticofsocialspace workedout duringmodernity
and characterized bytheentwinement ofsensual,affective significance
and "authentic"signsofhistory breaksdown.Admittedly, thoroughly
newkindsofspacesemergein thecourseofso-calledpostmoderncul-
ture - Jamesonspeaks of "postmodernhyperspace."33 The spatial
scenariosof the traffic-free citycenter,however, turn the "authentic"
experienceofthemetropolisor ofhistory intostreamlined commodi-
ties.Thus theyfurther extendthediffusion, inherentin automation,of
social space and its special semiotics.On the one hand, the original
metropolitan streetsand cinemasare becomingextinct.On theother
hand, complexmeaningsof"history"
the and "metropolis" are present
onlyin an aggregate ofcommercialsimulationin the"hyperspaces" of
thepostmoderncitywithitsarbitrary sprinkling of architecturalquota-
tionsfromvariousepochsand cultures, itsartificial
bazaarsand bistros,
itscoveredmallsofplastic,and computergamerooms.Thatis whythe
obtrusiveimpressionable signlanguageof the "tradein experience"34

Neue Medienerobern
30. See Dieter Prokop, HeimlicheMachtergreifung. die Arbeitswelt
(Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp, 1984) 191-93.
31. Baudrillard, Der symbolische
Tausch32-34.
32. Cf. Jameson.
33. Jameson 80.
34. See Prokop 87-89.

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 DietmarVossand JochenC. Schiitze 127

lacksanydirectsociohistoricalreferent.The "implosion"35of thecol-

lective'sand ofproduction'ssocial space is complementedbytheloss
of the sociohistorical
referentin existingspace.

TheLossofFunction ofLinearTime
Like social space,the socialtimeof big industry is now caughtby a
criticalwhirlpool.As increasinglyconflict-ridden as it is undercapital-
ism,theabstractquantityoflabortimeis,in theautomatedproduction
process,as Marxpredicted,36 no longera suitablemeasureofsocialval-
ue or mediationof individualwork,and also not a usable measureof
wealth.Forifthesociallynecessary workis increasingly assimilatedinto
a regulative,
scientificservice,thenits"value" is no longermeasurable
in termsof expenditureof effort. Additionally,mediatizationand de-
centralization of automatedworkmake flexible-time shiftspossible,
whichwill underminethe traditional, temporal order based on the
fixedworkday.In electronicand computer-based media,communica-
tiveand remembering processeshardlyrequire their owntimeexpend-
iture,and data extremely farapartin space and timecan be instantly
quoted and universally exchanged.Even themilitary threatin nuclear
no
age imperialism longerrequires an accumulation of timeformobili-
zation,nor can it counton a timeschedulefordestruction.37 Withthe
atomicbomb,the"absoluteweapon" (Virilio)has been found,and its
implicitthreatis omnipresent, permanently instant, and universal.Ex-
tendedtimeor history, ofcourse,does notsimplydisappear,as Virilio
contends.38But,in theera of computer,media,and nucleartechnolo-
gies, homogeneous,lineartimewill lose its ruling,sociallycentering
role,and socialtimewillbe dividedintosegmentsof qualitatively dis-
tincttimes.Ifsomeday,whencapitalismitself loses itsdetermining role,
"disposabletimebecomesthemeasureofwealth,"" 39itsinnermeasure-
mentcannotbe "homogeneous,emptytime"anylonger.

TheDisappearance
ofthe"Aesthetics"
oftheSocial
ofdisappearance"has itsrationalcorein
The postmodern"aesthetics
the tendencyforindustrialmodernism's"aesthetic,"spatial-temporal

35. Cf. Baudrillard65.

36. See Marx 144-45.
37. Virilioand Lotringer32-33,58-59.
38. See Virilioand Lotringer50.
39. Marx 145.

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128 in Context
Postmodernism

formsofperceptionofproductionand ofthesocialto disappear.This

objectiveloss ofperceptibility correlates withthefactthatexperience-
able everyday lifeis moldedless thaneverbycollectiveand action-ori-
entedexperiencesand increasingly by the media industry's floodsof
images and grids of simulation that program"experience"indepen-
dentofanyactivity." In thecontextofautomationand electroniccom-
munication,theimaginary is realizedincreasingly outsidetheaesthetic
realm.As a universalfunctional value,itentersintosocial activity and
experience. What once belonged to the characteristicfascinationof
modernism - like theimage of the in of
antiquated thenew, thepara-
doxicalcoincidencein an anarchicmetropolitan space,ofthesudden
interruption of the flow of time - must lose itsmeaningwhen,forex-
is
ample, "antiquation" part of the urbanization programof thecul-
tureindustry, or when "sudden interruption" becomesroutineprac-
ticein themedia. In thissituation, theimaginative practicesofmodern
artand literature lose theirsemioticinnocenceand theircriticaland
expressivemeaning.Given the "implosion" of the spatial-temporal
formsofthesocialfield,itcomes as no surprisewhen,once again,the
"death of art" is pronouncedas a faitaccompli.41

Reorientation Practices
ofLiterary
Aside fromits still modernist,provocatively necrophileaspects,
Baudrillardalso failsto considernew literary practices,new strategies
ofwriting,and newtextstructures that,in markedcontrast to modern-
ism,could proveadequate to the"conditionpostmoderne."We have
in mind,forexample,Wolfgang Koeppen'slasttrailblazing prosework,
Jugend(1976); ElfriedeJelinek'srecentnovels,Die (1983)
Klavierspielerin
and Oh Wildnis,ohSchutz vorihr(1985),as wellas newformsoffictional
arrangements such as Italo Calvino's If on a Winter'sNighta Traveller
(1983). An analyticexaminationoftheseliterary textsmakesapparent
firstthat,despiteall theirheterogeneity,theyare comparablein es-
chewingtheproductionof an original "poetic sign,"thecreationofan
exquisitemetaphoric arc of language,and theirownlinguisticimage
of
space imaginary representation. Nor do theyfollowthe"constructi-
vist"practicesofmodernismin thestyleofEliotorJoyce,who created
a broken and paradoxical image space of language by employing

40. Cf.HenriLefebvre, Prolegomena

Metaphilosophie. am Main: Suhrkamp,
(Frankfurt
1975) 246-48,and N. Postman,Wiramiisieren
unszu Tode(Frankfurt
am Main, 1985).
41. See Baudrillard118-19.

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 DietmarVossandJochenC. Schiitze 129

mythologizing quotationsfromclassicalliterary works.Neitheran ex-

periencingself,hiddenin grammatical forms,nor a collectiveselfla-
tentin theweb ofartistic construction speaksfromtheirtexts:a collec-
tive"we" whose brittleobjectification is the"centralfact"of modern
to
art,according Adorno.42 At most a "you" can be heardfromthem
- explicitly in Calvino'sbook,whoseprotagonist is thefictional
read-
er who slogshis/her wayfromone novelfragment to thenext,getting
suckedinto the vortexof the novel's discourse.In that,the paradig-
maticclaimis made to turntherecipientintoan actualpartofa textual
occurrencewith the literarytext servingas catalystratherthan
objectification.
Thisliteraturegoes beyondmodernismin thatitno longerproceeds
fromimaginingthesocialfieldeitheras "sensualexperience"or as ar-
tisticconstruction.It ratherproceedsfromthesocialworldas a (meta)-
lingualsemioticnet,as a world organizedand specifiedby "mythical
metalanguages"and "sign functions,"43 all aestheticexperience
before
and construction. Advancedliterature containsthe reflection thatthe
oftenmentioned"sensualimmediacy"ofthepoeticwordis no longer
valid in a functionally imaginaryand thoroughly mediatizedworld,
and thatthe corresponding ambitionmerelycontributes to the "sec-
ondarymythologization" oflanguage.Thus itfreesitselffromthepre-
tensionof the "literarysigns" (Roland Barthes),as well as frompre-
cious literarymetaphorics, and turnstheliterary textintoa combina-
tory fabric of spoken, language, specificconstellationof
performative a
ideological,psychological, fictional
discourses.

without
Intentionality a Subject
"The noveldevelopsout ofa murmuring. Babblingofa spring.Two
voices,nottwo persons.Onlygradually does itbecomeclearthata story
is beingtold,thestoryofthesevoices."44Ifitcan be saidthatthetextsof
modernism
classical wanted onlyto be rather than thentexts
to signify,
aftermodernismbeginto signify again.At stakeis notthesignifying in-
tentionof an identifiable,personalsubject, but rather a paradoxical
intentionality, and polyphonous.This intentionality
pre-subjective is no

42. TheodorW. Adorno,Aesthetic trans.C. Lenhardt(London: Routledge&

Theory,
Kegan Paul, 1984) 266-67.
43. RolandBarthes,Mythen desAlltags
(Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp,1974)92-94.
See also Barthes,Elements
ofSemiology,trans.AnnetteLaversand Colin Smith(New
York:Hill and Wang, 1968) 41-42.
44. WolfgangKoeppen,"Vom Tisch," TextundKritik 34 (1972): 10.

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130 in Context
Postmodernism

longerbased on the energyfieldof an author-subject who, however

displaced or sublated, governs the fictional text.Here we sightan
that
intentionality emergesprecisely from a literary "deconstruction"
of personal unities(includingthe author's):such unitiesare traced
backto theirrespective socioculturallyand instinctually bound speech
formsand linguistic materials,thatis, to discourses45 fromwhichthey
are ultimatelycomposed. Instead of aiding subjectsto (objectified)
"expression"bymeansoflanguage,textsaftermodernismshowhow
"subjects" are composed and "constituted"by speech, by diverse
(meta)lingualsemioticmatricesand praxifromtheirdarkinstinctual
desiresto theirdaily/ideological role identities.46Jelinekachievedthis
in exemplaryfashionin hernovelDie Klavierspielerin, in whichnovelist-
ic charactersare stillrecognizable,yetin whichtheyare neverspoken
"of' or "about." Withoutinvolvinga metadiscourse, literary
language
is completely absorbedbythosespeeches,languagematerials, and ide-
ogramswhich,dynamizedbydesireand anchoredin thesocial,make
up thesubjectnessofthefiguresin thefirst place.Thus theprotagonist
ErikaKohut,forexample,is nothingotherthanthetextualcrossingof
motherlyspeeches of petitbourgeoiscareerfantasies,of elitistdis-
coursesprivileging romanticconnoisseurship ofartas wellas of sado-
masochisticdiscourses.
Textsof thissortfunctionnot as a foilfortheexpressionof an al-
readyformedsubjectivity butas theexhibitionof"texts"thatproduce
socialand self-representation of subjectivity in thefirstplace. Theyre-
sortto the"incessantrustle"ofdiscourses(Foucault),to thediscursive
fabricthatis alwayspriorto personalidentity formation and self-pres-
ervation.47Bydetaching such discourses from their(indailylife)spon-
taneoussubjectmechanism,theirimplicit"mythologizing" function
can itselfbe made clear and critically elucidated.By creatingspecific
constellations of sense-making or subject-forming discoursesin which

45. Cf. Michel Foucault, Die Ordnungdes Diskurses(Frankfurtam Main/WestBerlin,

1977) 8, 34-35.
46. Cf. Louis Althusser, "Freud und Lacan," in Louis Althusser and Tort, Freud
und Lacan. HistorischerMaterialismus(West Berlin, 1976) 38-39; and, Althusser,
"Ideologie und ideologische Staatsapparate," Marxismusund Ideologie(West Berlin,
1976), 156-59.
47. Helmut Heissenbtittel's surprisingdictum regardinga protagonistof contem-
porary poetry:"Text becomes reality.The person ErnstJandl no longer exists because
the text Ernst Jandl exists." Heissenbiittel, "Laudatio auf den Biichner-Preistrager
ErnstJandl," FrankfurterRundschau20 (October 1984).

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 DietmarVossandJochenC. Schiitze 131

institutional
signsand signsofdesireare linked,literature
becomesex-
plicit"intertext."

and Fictionin theMaterialState

Metaphor
What was once the differentia of literaryspeech - namely to
specifica
use languageto createa fictionalhouse fortheimagination, a unique
image space can no longerprovidethe motorformore recentlitera-
ture.But insteadofsimplyvanishing, theimaginative and fictionalim-
pulses are brought into as
play implied contentof objects, the
literary of
social world itself,in its materialas well as personal aspects.What
keeps Koeppen's workJugendin motionis preciselythe exposureof
semioticmediationsalreadyenclosed in experienceablereal worlds
priorto literature;
thefunctional signsofdailymythology; fictionsand
clicheswiththeirtremendousrichnessof imagesthathave been dis-
seminatedinto infinity in media society.Whetherit is a questionof
things,landscapes,or persons,theobjectitselfis alwaysunderstoodas
a formlongsincecaughtin a semioticnet,and thetextproceedsbyex-
tractingthe metaphorical,fictionaldiscoursesout of the objects in-
steadof devisingthemexpressly.In today'savant-garde, whichcould
invokeonlysurrealism(theearlyAragon,forexample)as predecessor,
metaphoricsand fictionality no longerservea constructive telos but
operate as materialin motion."Miserable moss, pitifullichen,no-
wherethegenuinenessofthepicturetube.... In thecountrytheorigi-
nal doesn'tcountifthe copy is better"(Jelinek, Oh Wildnis).

LiterarySurfaces
Today, advancedliterature no longertreatslanguageas a medium
to allow a whole,a "society,"to takeformas a specialor even typical
image space. Language itselfbecomes the primaryformof society's
presence.Thus the implicitclaim of literatureto situatea fieldof
meaningor of images of society,history,or the whole hidden "be-
hind" thetracesofthetext,falls"flat."In thiscontext, Jameson'sthe-
sis becomesplausible:a "depthlessness,"a "new kindof superficiality
in the most literalsense" is the markof postmodernliterature.48Be-
cause the semioticqualitiesof social environments and subjectforms
yieldtheprivilegedmaterialforliterature and literature
thusbecomes
intertext,languagecan advanceto a directmode ofsociety'spresence,

48. Jameson60.

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132 Postmodernism
in Context

evenwithoutthemediationofan artistically evokedimaginative space.

If it was for
significant literary modernism to oppose thequantified
model oftimeaesthetically, to removeitselffromthetextualprocesses
of societyby fictionallystallingthem,thentextsaftermodernismare
actually "wihtout time"; thatis,theyhaveno qualitativetimestructure
oftheirown,no fictional speaking,also
oppositionaltime,and, strictly
no fullyjustifiableclosure. Exposing the mythologizing functionof
(meta)lingualmeaningproduction,theycould just as easilycontinue
and, indeed,should do so in thereader'sheads.

II. Elementsofa Poststructuralist

CritiqueofLanguageand Literature
Theoriesofcriticism, especiallyiftheyareto be critical must
theories,
take account of this culturalchange called postmodernwhich has
drawnthearts,as wellas subjectiveconditions, worldviews,and social
practices into its orbit.In the
considering possibility of such a critical
theory of criticism adequate to the changed cultural phenomenaand
theirpremiseswithoutsimplyaccommodatingthem,it mustbe re-
memberedthattheevidenceofa "thoroughmethodofthought"(Kant),
as whichtheEnlightenment could sanctify thebusinessofcriticism, has
changed in the course of itsinstitutional specialization from a facultyof
judgmentto a powerofjudgment.Therefore, postmodernrevisionsof
theconceptofcriticism attacknotonlytheroleofthecriticas advocate
of "good taste."Theyalso questiontheroleof theinterpreter as such
who is heldresponsibleforthepreservation and mediationofmeaning
strewnand alienatedthroughouthistory.Criticism'sparadigmshift
thusreflects thegeneralconditionsofpostmoderntheoryconstruction
to the extentthatit wantsto dispensewithlogical oppositionsand
ontologicalhierarchies on whichmodernistcriticism was stillbased.
In thefollowing, we wantto portraysome tendenciesof Frenchcul-
turalstudiesafterstructuralism which,underthename "poststructur-
alism," are the
challenging postmodernintellectual discourseand, in
our opinion,open up newpossibilities fortherenewalofa criticalthe-
ory.The categorization of poststructuralism - thatliterary, theoreti-
cal, and initiallypolitical movement in the late 1960s in France - as a
formof postmodernism is not undisputed;49 indeed,itsthemesand

49. Andreas Huyssen, AftertheGreatDivide: Modernism,

Mass Culture,Postmodernism
(Bloomington:Indiana UP, 1986), especiallythe essay entitled"Mapping the Post-
modern."

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 DietmarVossandJochenC. Schiitze 133

objectsare derivedprimarily fromearlieravant-garde movementsat-

tributedto modernism.But in itsmethodsand theories,poststructur-
alistthoughtremovesitselffrommodernistparameters and categories.
It seeksto deconstruct themand to releaseitself, wherebyitis certainly
responding to the "condition
postmoderne" but above all also participates
in itsambiguity, whichWellmerhas describedas "thestillunclearcon-
sciousnessof an end and a transition."50
Problemsoftheproductionand receptionofartpresentthemselves
verydifferently todaythanin thefirst halfofthecentury. Artand litera-
tureare to such an extentwovenintothegeneralproductionof com-
moditiesand imagesthattheycan no longerlayclaimto a horizonbe-
yond the social systemfromwhichtheymightbe organizedas com-
mittedcriticism or contemplative Theyhavenotonlylostthe
refusal.5~
lastremnants ofsacralpathosthatbourgeoissocietyhad alwaysgranted
thembut also foregonethe dignityof standingin forthathistorical-
philosophicalhope on whichtheoreticians ofmodernismsuchas Bloch
or Adornocould count.Atthebeginningofthecentury, theartsques-
tionedtheirownroleas societalinstitutions and rejectedthetraditional
directivesofgenre,formalcanons,and conceptionsofaesthetic value.52
Abstractoppositionswere erectedagainstthe standardizedeveryday
world.The longingforan undamaged,fulfilled lifewas preserved in the
contradictory "mimeticrelationship to a petrifiedand alienatedreality"
in such a waythatan explosiveutopianoverflow seemedquiteplausi-
ble.53The provocativestrength of aestheticmodernismhas been ab-
sorbedin themeantimeby themodernization of society.The critical,
avant-gardistimpetus has been almost fullydispersedin a hegemonic
culturalsystemwhose innovationaldynamicslive preciselyfromas-
saultsand scandals,subversions, and shocks.Neithereducationnorre-
bellion,neitherclassicalnormodernaesthetic reworkings standup to a
worldblanketedwithsignsand texts,imagesand media of all kinds,
and whichhas broughtfortha culturethatSusan Sontagsaysis based
on an overproduction of sensationsthatdulls our sensoryfaculties.54

50. Wellmer57.
51. See Jameson.
52. PeterBiurger, Theory trans.MichaelShaw (Minneapolis:U of
oftheAvant-Garde,
MinnesotaP, 1984) 20-22.
53. Adorno 31.
54. and OtherEssays
Susan Sontag, "Against Interpretation,"AgainstInterpretation
(New York:Farrar,Straus& Giroux,1961) 13.

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134 in Context
Postmodernism

In place of an as yet unoccupied future55comes the experience of an

always already surveyedfield,whose offerof orientationis, of course,
problematic if not catastrophic.
In this situation,the system-critical potential,be it in artisticor sci-
entificareas, is forced to shiftits ground. Experimental foraysbeyond
the given no longer are writtenfromassured transcendentalpositions
but become researchin immanence, in the repressed implicationsof a
system,or become exploration of itsboundaries in regardto theirreal-
ity-denyingconstituents.The scientific,theoreticaldestabilization of
scientisticprescriptions,56 the loss in credibilityof normative-practical
validityclaims,57and the oftenobservable abdication of authenticityin
the arts point to a shatteringof the worldly foundations of scientific
and artisticactivitythat can no longer simply be registeredas mere
rhetoricalor stylistictoying.The analyticalsensibility,with which the
subtlestand ostensiblyhumane mechanisms and branches of the con-
temporary alliance of knowledge and power can be explored,58has
thrownthe academically sanctioned axioms of the most advanced so-
cial and culturalsciences offbalance in a way similarto the modernist
avant-garde'sdestabilization of bourgeois art's claims of autonomy. In
this multilayeredprocess of dissolution, poststructuralism'slinguistic
and literarycriticismhas manifestimportance.

and Criticism
Literature
If hermeneutic skepsis was already an expression of the difficulty
thatthe meaning of works of art cannot be once and forall objectified
in interpretations,then, in the aestheticsof reception and effect,a new
paradigm emergingas a reaction to the refusalof meaning in mod-
is
ern art.The work of art's pragmaticdimension is now coming into fo-
cus. In place of the classical understandingof the unityof the work,
which was destroyed in avant-garde productions, theory decided to
understand literarytextsas communication potentials,open not only
in regard to divergent contexts but also requiring the reader as a
precondition sinequa nonfor the unfoldingof theirmeaning. Norma-
tivemeaning and claims to universalisticexplanations are overcome if

55. Habermas, Kleinepolitische

Schriften 447.
56. Paul Feyerabend, Wissenschaftals Kunst(Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp, 1984).
57. Lyotard.
58. Michel Foucault, TheHistoryofSexuality,vol. 1, trans. Robert Hurley (New York:
Vintage, 1980).

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 DietmarVossandJochenC. Schiitze 135

a text can be viewed as a repertoireof perspectivally constructed

strategies forproducingeffects insteadof a representation of hidden
meanings. It becomes a coherentwork only in interactionwiththere-
cipient. The pragmatic formalizationof aesthetic criteriafortruth ad-
mittedly escapes the hermeneutic circleby attributing meaningof
the
thewhole onlyto theinterpreter-subject's self-understanding,59but it
itselfcan'tavoid determining itsessentialgoal of perceptionin there-
construction of referential
relationships betweenthe subjectand the
object of the textsystem. The linguisticobjectification of textstruc-
turesand pragmaticrulesforreducingcontingency in understanding
formthe metatheoretical frameof reference forsuccessfulinterpreta-
tions.The problemof objectivecriteriaforaestheticjudgmentwhich
has disturbedcriticaldiscoursesince Romanticismis naturallynot
solvedwiththisbutmerelyshiftedintothearea oftranscendental pre-
requisitesforintersubjective understanding and communication. After
all, recentliterary textsthemselvesnullifythe categoriesof reception
aesthetics. The model ofthe"impliedreader,"60 forexample,is invali-
datedifthereaderhas alreadyadvancedto beingtheprotagonist ofthe
Nighta Traveller.
work,as is the case in Calvino's novel Ifon a Winter's In
a subtlyarrangedgame of confusion,thistextsubvertsconventional
patternsof interpretation them.
by anticipating
Frenchliterarycriticismdraws a completelydifferent conclusion
fromthe questions,virulentsincemodernism,of the recipient'srela-
tionswithart.Sinceworksofartcan elude thediscursivegraspto the
pointof unintelligibility,the processof understanding themis dele-
gatedto whatcould be called a congenialaestheticexperience.Those
considerationsthatstilloccasionedAdorno61to reservethe mimetic
understanding oftheworkofart'sindividuallogicsolelyfora philoso-
phy of artare rendered invalidin thecourseofBarthes's"nouvellecri-
tique." Modern discoursesinceMallarm&(who distinguished
literary
himselfbyattacking thereceiveddivisionoflanguagesand theirsocie-
disturbscriticaldiscourse,whichuntilnow could le-
tal classification)
gitimateits authorityof judgmentthroughjust thatdistribution of
competence. A literature
whose "literariness"
realizesitself
primarily

59. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truthand Method,translationed. G. Bardin and J.

Cumming(New York:Crossroads,1975) 238.
60. WolfgangIser,TheActofReading:A Theory
ofAesthetic (Baltimore:
Response Johns
Hopkins UP, 1974) 27.
61. Theodor W. Adorno, "Voraussetzungen,"Notenzur Literatur, Gesammelte
vol. 11 (Suhrkamp:Frankfurt
Schriflen, am Main, 1974).

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136 in Context
Postmodernism

and essentiallyin linguisticmaterialreduces the distance between form

and content,the mediation of which conventional criticismtook to be
its assignment. In accordance withthe thoroughlylingual constitution
of its objects, criticismnow reflectsitselfabove all as language; lan-
guage, in the form of different"modes of writing"(Jcriture), comes to
the foregroundas the common medium of both. Literarytextand lit-
erary criticismare equally explorations into the area of socially pre-
formed language which maintains the order of discourse by congeal-
ing meanings into symbolic power; ultimatelytheyalways aim forthe
representationalmodel of language thatis to put the functionalability
of discursivesocial strategiesbeyond doubt.62The new criticismis thus
no longer a "revenge of the intellecton art," as Susan Sontag once ex-
pressed it,63strivingfor an adequate reconstructionof literaryworks,
but a genuine method of language criticismamong others, placed
alongside literatureratherthan above or behind it. Bartheseven sum-
marizes this nonparasitic relation under the term literature when he
emphatically writes that "criticism and work, by uniting their voices,
constantlysay: I am literature."64 They unite to forman aggregationof
plural modes of writingand readings of the "texte general" Jacques
Derrida) and of the whole of socially available languages, which they
constantlydisplace and alter with the intentionto prevent any petri-
ficationof discourse.65
This tendency to abolish the genre distinction between literature
and literarycriticism- the two converge in a broadly defined concept
of semiological practice - leads criticism to take account of the
unreduced polyvalence of literaryworks,to join them,to participatein
them, and to "writethem forth,"as it were, instead of applyingextrin-
sic ornamental standards to literaryworks.The concern is not the sta-
bilization of an ideal referentthat would secure the self-identity of a
text but ratherthe varietyof the text's meanings, whose never com-
pletelycontrollable game criticismsets in motion in order to localize
itselfas a move in thisplay. The individual moves in the game are here
of interchangeablevalue: the case is conceivable in which a literarytext

62. J. Broekman, "'Meaning in the use' oder die praktisch-philosophischeBedeu-

tungslosigkeitder Theorie der Bedeutung,"J. Broekman, A. Pazanin, and B. Waldenfels,
undMarxismus2. Praktische
Ph/inomenologie am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977)
(Frankfurt
Philosophie
158-60.
63. Sontag 7.
64. Roland Barthes,Kritikund Wahrheit (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp, 1967) 83.
65. Roland Barthes,Lepon/Lektion (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp, 1980) 63.

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 DietmarVossandJochen
C. Schiitze 137

critiquesa criticaltext.
This revisedcriticisminvolvesa generaldismantlingof dogmatic
discourseswiththe help of literature.It findsitscriticalmeasurein a
theoreticaldisplacementof the conceptof the sign,whichliterature
has alwayspracticedof itsown accord. For "dogmaticdiscoursesup-
ittriesto makelanguageappear significant
portsitselfwitha signified;
bypointing to theexistenceofan ultimatesignified"while"on thelev-
el ofliteraryspeech ... thesignifiedis alwaysin arrearsin relationto
the play of the signifiers."66
Derrida drew conclusions fromsuch find-
ingsand triedto reordertherelationbetweensignifier
and signified,
betweenwritten and spokenword.

Signand Text
The poststructuralists expose one ofthelastrefugesofWesternmet-
in
aphysics linguistic structuralism'sidea ofthe sign,as Ferdinandde
Saussure67conceivedit: as the unityof signifier and signified.If one
followsDerrida'sreadingofSaussure,thelatter'sinsight(in itselfcriti-
cal) intothenonsubstantial, characteroflanguagefallsinto
differential
self-contradiction where,in its conceptof the sign as separatedinto
idea and sound image,it holds fastto a presuppositionthatis at the
foundationofeverydichotomouslogic.Withthisdistinction, thepos-
sibilityis left
open thatthe signified at
could, will, be considered a con-
tentof thelanguageformisolatablefromit,as a "conceptsignified in
and of itself,a conceptsimplypresentforthought,independentof a
relationshipto language, that is, of a relationshipto a systemof
signifiers."68The "transcendental signified"is themetaphysical idea of
a truthshiningthroughfrombehindthe signs;it is archeand telosof
thoseintentions to name thatdefinethemselves as adequaterepresen-
tationsof an extralingual, logos.
intelligible It maintainsthe confi-
dence of the structuralist and systems-theoretical disciplinesthatthe
of
changes system-immanent elements can be taxonomically control-
led froman establishable,presentcenter.In orderto obliteratethe
"transcendentalsignified"(in Barthes'ssense, that "weight" that

66. Roland Barthes,"Vergniigen,Schreiben,Lesen (GesprichmitJean Ristat)"

and "Ober die Semiologieder Mode und der Literatur(Gesprachmit Raymond
Bellour),"Antworten ed. A. Reif(Hamburg,1973) 30, 13.
derStrukturalisten,
67. Ferdinandde Saussure,Course in General trans.RoyHarris(London:
Linguistics,
Duckworth,1983) 65-70.
68. Jacques Derrida, "Semiology and Grammatology:Interviewwith Julia
trans.Alan Bass (Chicago:U of Chicago P, 1981) 19.
Kristeva,"Positions,

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138 in Context
Postmodernism

makesa meaningdogmatic),Derridasubjectstheconceptof thesign

to an operationfull of consequences. He claims thatthe signified
truth,themeaningofa text,cannotbe discoveredbeforeor outsideof
its"writing,"because everysignified alwaysalsostandsin theposition
ofsignifier and is originallymarkedbyit:"Thereis nota signified that
escapes, even if the of
recaptured, play signifying referencesthat con-
stitutelanguage."69
But withthe reintegration of the "transcendental signified"into a
potentially endless "play of differences" - for which "writing"is only
anothername - the possibilityis removedof settinga nomothetic
and durable limitto the processof signification. Signsand texts,in
of
perpetualprocesses transformation, enter ever new contextsof re-
ferral,which are ontologicallynot perfectly containable.While the
uncontrolled of
exchange signs can and must be interrupted bypracti-
cal interventions ifcommunicative languageactsare to be possibleat
all, thereis no identifiablereasonto idealize such imperativeregula-
tionsin speech or writing theory.Afterall, theydo not transcendthe
chainof signseitherbut ratherare also subjectto theprincipleofdif-
ference,whichunderminestheirstructural consistence.
the of
By setting spatialexteriority writing againstthe"logocentric"
and "phonocentric"prevalenceof immediateself-perception in the
voice bywhichthehistory ofWesternphilosophyis marked,70 Derrida
winsa model of language-critical analysisthatproceedsmethodically
fromtheprimacyofdifference. Everything thatappearsis alreadysep-
aratedfromitself, itspureidentity or self-presence, byitsfirstarticula-
tion, without which no speech comes about, and is placedwithin a lin-
guistic-socialclassification
system;every act of signifying adds to the
signifieda signthatneverrepresents itbyitselfbutas a "supplement."
Thus, not onlydo varioussignsstandin temporaland spatialdiffer-
ence to each other,but also each to itself,sinceitsmeaning,farfrom
ever being completely"withitself,"is owed to manifolddifferentia-
tionsin regardto othermeanings.
DerridaadoptshereSaussure'sfundamental insight, butin orderto
radicalizeitagainsthim:thechainofdistinctions thatconstitute a single
meaning does not run alongpresupposedsystem borders, but possibly

69. Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Balti-

more: Johns Hopkins UP, 1976) 7.
70. Jacques Derrida, Die Stimmeund das Phdnomen(Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp,
1979), and Of Grammatology.

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 DietmarVossandJochenC. Schiitze 139

into infinity.71Structuresof meaning, discourses, and languages func-

tion,indeed,onlyunderthe conditionof relatively closed systematic-
ality.Because theirelements are puttogether, though,fromthetraces
leftin themby the differentiation fromotherelements,and because
thisdifferentialityincludestheorigin,thestructure, and theclosureit-
self,the same systems cannot be fullymastered from any point.
In the contextof this essay,the philosophicalcontroversies sur-
rounding thisattempt to continue the of
critique metaphysics the in
spiritof Nietzsche and Heidegger must be ignored.72 Of interestfor
poststructuralistliterary criticism,however, is that Derrida's conceptof
"writing," which defines language as the constitutive failure ofanyin-
tendedidealityofmeaning,can serveas a nonontologicalpointofref-
erenceforcritical"deconstruction."73 "[T]he historyof writingis in-
deed thatof articulation."74 Fromthe beginningof linguisticarticula-
tionon, writing is theabsolutesupplementin thedouble senseofsup-
plement as "addition" as well as "substitution";insteadof meeting
withprecedingtruthsin language,one can onlycircumscribe themas
supplements and substitutions. The principle of difference, inscribed
intolanguagebywriting, forbidstheillusionthatbreakingoffthesig-
nifying act could evermean reachingthe thingitself.The conclusion
fromthisforcriticism is thatcriticism'scriteria also remainsuspended,
may not be reifiedinto self-sufficient instances,and alwaysrequire
contextualself-criticism. Derrida can also show thatBarthes'searly
challenge,ratherthanbeinga moralpostulate,is foundedin thestruc-
tureoftherevisedconceptofthesign:"Everycriticism must,in itsdis-
course . .. contain an implicit discourse about itself."75
Whatatfirst seemsextremely revealsitselfon closerinspec-
arbitrary
tion to be an opening of thoughtonto necessarilyuninterpretable
spaces oflanguageand as a consciousattemptto appropriatea reality
thatis sociallyorderedand administered
byconventional symbolsand
codes butnotthoroughly controlledwithequal fullnessofpower.The

71. ManfredFrank,WasistNeostrukturalismus? am Main:Suhrkamp,1984).

(Frankfurt
72. Diskursder Moderne.Zw6lfVorlesungen
Cf. Jilrgen Habermas, Der philosophische
(Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp,1985).
73. French poststructuralism, in the form of "Deconstructionism,"has con-
quered, above all, Americanliterarystudiesand criticism.Cf.JonathanCuller,On
(London, 1983),and JonathanArac,Wlad Godzich,and W. Martin,The
Deconstruction
in America(Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1983).
Yale Critics:Deconstruction
74. Derrida, Of Grammatology 270.
Literatur
75. RolandBarthes, oderGeschichte am Main:Suhrkamp,1981)65.
(Frankfurt

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140 in Context
Postmodernism

poststructuralists' expanded concept of the text is understandable

against the foilof the newdynamicconceptofthesign,and can be in-
as a
terpreted strategy to breakup the "textual"constitution of social
realitywhere it has attained symbolicpower.According to the post-
structuralists,a "text"is open to a contextual"fabricofsignifiers"76 as
wellas "diachronictraces"''77 thatothertextsin itattestto; itproduces
itself"only in the transformation of anothertext."'78"Text" is thus
something double: not simply object to be interpreted
an (as such it
would stillremaintheobjectofa subjectivereconstruction) butrather
itselfa praxisof investigation, a "productivity" thatintervenes "con-
structively-destructively" in theorderoflanguages.In therealmofthe
text,a numberof statements originating in othertextsintersectand
neutralizeeach other.79 Julia Kristeva has called this phenomenon
"intertextuality," which stands fora highlydifferentiated, ideologically
criticalsemioticprocedureon "materialistic foundations."80s Artistic
worksas wellas readingsand criticism belongin therealmofthetext,
ofintertextuality (thisis ofimportanceforquestionsofmethodin liter-
arycriticism); here the theoreticalground has been preparedupon
whicha nonhierarchical interaction betweentextsand interpretations
or critiquescan be understoodas a commonsignifying practice.Texts
formthe incoherentcross-sections of social discourse.Such incoher-
ence is no longera deficient conditionto be hermeneutically corrected
by criticism but rather precisely the mode in which criticism continues
to writea textby othermeans.

Aesthetics
and Experience
Takinghis cue fromOscar Wilde,Ihab Hassan - a convincedrep-
resentativeof Americanpostmodernism- formulatedthe provoca-
tivethesis"thatthe aim of the criticis to see the objectas it reallyis
not."81This attackagainstinstitutional academic criticism provesra-
tionallypracticablein theframework ofpoststructuralist theoriesofthe

76. Barthes, Lepon/Lektion25.

77. R. Briiting, und "texte."Die franzisischeLiteraturtheorie
"nach dem
"'Ecriture und Neuansdtze(Bonn, 1976) 99.
Kritiktraditioneller
Strukturalismus." Positionen
78. Derrida,"Semiologyand Grammatology."
79. See Julia Kristeva,Revolution
in PoeticLanguage,trans.MargaretWaller(New
York:Columbia UP, 1984).
als Ideologiekritik,
80. Julia Kristeva,"Der geschlosseneText," Textsemiotik ed. P. V.
Zima (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp,1977) 28.
81. Ihab Hassan, "The Criticas Innovator,"Amerikastudien 22.1 (1977): 51.

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 DietmarVossandJochenC. Schiitze 141

text.The conventionalintention- to see the object as it reallyis - re-

duces itselfeitherto a mereduplicationor itovercomestheobjectwith
extratextual means.Derridaargued,againstthis,thateveryleap outside
thetextlandsnonetheless in texts,so thatreadingand criticism are not
representationalbutproductive acts.82 Theymustfirst createthe"signi-
fyingstructure" that from
results the relationshipbetween a textand
othersimultaneous or precedingtexts:bynamingit,theychangeitand
createit anew.The spectrumof such proceduresrangesfromthe ex-
tremehedonismof the "pleasureof the text"83 throughthe "experi-
mentaltesting"ofworks84 to their"deconstruction" (Derrida),a meth-
od of brushingthem"againstthegrain,"as WalterBenjaminhad for-
mulatedthe taskof the historicalmaterialist.85 They all presumethe
modernexperiencethatartistic and criticalactivities
have approached
each otherin theanalysisofthestructures, rules,and functions oftheir
objects.Beyondthat,theybreakwiththescientistic optimismthatwas
associatedwithmodernity up untilstructuralism, as well as withthe
maximthatartshould be a "critiqueoflife"(MatthewArnold).
This optionis based on a newexperiencethatrequiresnewaesthetic
strategies."Our modernity," wroteBarthes,"makes a constanteffort
to defeat the exchange .... And even so, modernitycan do nothing:
acclimatingwhat appears to
the exchange recuperateseverything,
deny it. .. ."86Postmodernityappears (at least where it is not simplyan
affirmationof "officialculture")to want to escape the unlimited
cooptationby abandoningusable negations.Certainlyit is a difficult
tightropeact,but postmodernisttextsattemptit. They stageinspired
like the mysterioustranslatorin Calvino's aforemen-
counterfeits,
tionednovel.They misleadthe reader,withholding information that
the textrequires,or theydenydeclarations
just made, as in Thomas
Pynchon's novels (TheSellingofLot 49, V,Gravity'sRainbow).Jelinek(Oh
oh Schutzvorihr),or Paul Wiihr (Das falscheBuch)inundate their
Wildnis,
readerswiththeteemingmetaphorsand metonyms ofa simulation
cul-
turegone out ofjoint,whosestupendousmeaninglessness
theyoutline

82. 157-64.
Derrida, Of Grammatology
oftheText,trans.RichardMiller(New York:Hill
83. Roland Barthes,ThePleasure
and Wang, 1975) 3.
84. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari,Kafka: Towarda MinorLiterature,
trans. Dana
Polan (Minneapolis:U of MinnesotaP, 1986).
trans.
85. WalterBenjamin,"Theses on thePhilosophyof History,"Illuminations,
Harry Zohn (New York:Schocken,1969) 257.
86. Barthes, PleasureoftheText23-24.

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142 in Context
Postmodernism

in deformed meanings. Lack of proportion is a mark of postmodern

literature;it allows no meaningful,authorial,or mimeticdistance from
the complex realityof life.
Poststructuralist literarytheorycorresponds to this literaturein that
it, too, intervenes in an already described and inscribed world. As
semiology, develops, on the one hand, the tools for an increasingly
it
exact investigationof social realitymediated linguisticallyand symboli-
cally by codes and discourses. The "logic of difference"stands forthe
intentionnot to accept any social-culturalphenomenon as natural or
immutable. On the otherhand, it challenges aestheticfantasy,employ-
ing it as a correctiveto a petrifiedculture of experts that scientifically
penalizes spontaneous formsof reception. Productive,playfulintima-
cy with the arts is stillthe privilegeof an exclusive communityof aes-
thetes,but the self-reflective theoryof literatureopens, by means of its
"thought experiments," a view of hithertosuppressed creativedesires
and potentials of aesthetic experience of everydaylife. Even if official
postmodern culture cannot be expected to recognize them, thatsame
officialculture still cannot deny that increasinglyit depends on the
production of knowledge ratherthan on its acquisition."7The ambi-
valence of postmodernism is evidenced once again: progressivepro-
ductive forcesin cultureare more than ever in danger of rapidlybeing
demoted to system-stabilizingeffects.Postmodernism has stillshown
no way out of this labyrinth;such a way out can, apparently,be initi-
ated only fromwithin.

byMitchCohenand CarolLidtke
Translated

87. See Lvotard52.

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