Postmodernism’s supposed novelties stem from longer trends and the 1980s conjuncture

Evidence

I argue that the changes these writers detect are, when not greatly exaggerated, either the consequences of much longer-term trends or specific to the particular, and highly unstable economic conjuncture of the 1980s. Consideration of this conjuncture then leads naturally to a discussion of the roots of postmodernism itself, which I argue are to be found in the combination of the disillusioned aftermath of 1968 throughout the Western world and the opportunities for an ‘overconsumptionist’ lifestyle offered upper white-collar strata by capitalism in the Reagan-Thatcher era. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 49

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Modern academic postmodernism grew from 1980s literary deconstruction — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 243