Postmodernized Simmel

by Deena Weinstein, Michael A. Weinstein

The authors present a reading of Simmel which shows how his writings can have a constituting role in current postmodernist discourses. By staging encounters between Simmel and such culture theorists and critics as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Claude Levi Strauss and Friedrich Nietzsche, the authors reveal the many ways in which modernists can make the transition to postmodernism or at least understand that process. "Postmodern(ized) Simmel" shows readers how they might postmodernize themselves. The book addresses the uses of Simmel's writings as postmodern discourses in the areas of intellectual ethics, textual methodology, sociological theory, philosophy of history and cultural theory. It is the first sustained attempt to show the significance of Simmel's writings for postmodernism and it challenges the prevailing view that Simmel was a 'sociological impressionist'. It provides fresh ideas on postmodernization and a remarkable new interpretation of one of the major figures in the development of sociology.

Paperback

First published September 9, 1993