Postmodern narcissism is not new but rooted in nineteenth-century European public life’s erosion.

Evidence

One is that it is a mistake to exaggerate the novelty of the cultural tendencies detected by contemporary commentators. Thus Richard Sennett argues that the origins of the narcissistic self, which knows no boundaries between itself and the world and demands the immediate gratification of its desires, and its broader context, the ‘intimate society’ in which social relationships are treated as pretexts for the expression of personality, lies in the erosion of an impersonal public life in nineteenth-century Europe. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 543

Categorization

• XREF: Sennett’s argument that postmodern selfhood is a nineteenth-century artifact directly challenges Jameson’s claim of a qualitative postmodern break. — connects to: Postmodernism’s presentism forecloses the historical understanding needed to explain it — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 725

Broader Connections

• Postmodernism’s presentism forecloses the historical understanding needed to explain it #expands (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 725