Postmodernism theory cannot produce a stable inside-outside position for its own observers

Evidence

Here the usual objection — that the class includes itself and that the taxonomy fails to include any (sufficiently privileged) place from which to observe itself or to provide for its own theorization — has to be reckoned into the theory as a kind of bad reflexivity that eats its own tail without ever squaring the circle. Postmodernism theory seems indeed to be a ceaseless process of internal rollover in which the position of the observer is turned inside out and the tabulation recontinued on some larger scale. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 197

Categorization

• QUESTION: This self-reflexivity problem bears directly on the reader’s goal of testing whether ‘cultural dominant’ is falsifiable — the theory swallows its own counterevidence.
• DEEPTHINKING: The ‘bad reflexivity that eats its own tail’ — the class-includes-itself problem — is central to evaluating whether postmodernism as a totalizing dominant can ever be refuted.
• XREF: connects to: Postmodernism’s self-definition depends on an inadequate account of what it opposes. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 134; Critical theory that identifies reason with domination cannot justify its own critique — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 380; Jameson describes postmodern life but rarely calibrates the political effects of movements — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 301 (+20 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Postmodernism’s self-definition depends on an inadequate account of what it opposes. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 134; Critical theory that identifies reason with domination cannot justify its own critique — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 380; Jameson describes postmodern life but rarely calibrates the political effects of movements — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 301 (+20 more)