Postmodernism: what is all the fuss about?

When I was sixteen I wanted a car desperately; it was all my male friends ever talked about: I felt excluded. I feel the same about postmodernism. At least having a car is useful. The purpose of this article is to stop educational theorists wasting valuable time and energy. I can find very little of any use in postmodernism and even that has been said before in a different form. As this is a review of four edited collections, of enormous difference in topic and scope, and since so many people have been asking for a definition of postmodernism, I shall organise this essay by firstly providing a brief background. Then, from a review of my reading of postmodern texts, I shall provide a list of definitions and what characteristics these involve. (When references have been taken from the books under review I include the following abbreviations: B&R for Postmodernism and Society, EAK for Postmodernism and its Discontents and TCS for the Theory, Culture and Society reader). From this I develop an analysis of some of the problems inherent in postmodern theorising and then examine what