Postmodernism’s breadth as a term lets it mediate between economic and cultural life.

Evidence

In the present instance it seems clear that a range of competing formulations (“poststructuralism,” “postindustrial society,” this or that McLuhanite nomenclature) were unsatisfactory insofar as they were too rigidly specified and marked by their area of provenance (philosophy, economics, and the media, respectively); however suggestive, therefore, they could not occupy the mediatory position within the various specialized dimensions of postcontemporary life that was required. “Postmodern,” however, seems to have been able to welcome in the appropriate areas of daily life or the quotidian; its cultural resonance, appropriately vaster than the merely aesthetic or artistic, distracts suitably from the economic while allowing newer economic materials and innovations (in marketing and advertising, for example, but also in business organization) to be recatalogued under the new heading. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 16

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why ‘Postmodernism’ succeeded as the master term over more domain-specific rivals like ‘postindustrial society’ — central to the reader’s task of distinguishing parody vs pastiche and locating themselves.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s aim of mapping their own position in the world system — the term’s mediatory function is exactly the cognitive-map problem. — connects to: Postmodernism is inseparable from everyday capitalist life, not autonomous art. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 422; Flexible postmodernism couples economic ephemerality with cultural commitments to place and being — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 2102; Postmodern culture’s vector is a new professional stratum between multinational capital and weakened classes. — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 164