Thank you Daniella. I enjoyed reading this, felt like being in uni again. I agree, except for one minor detail: I exclude Heidegger from the postmodern bunch you justifiably criticize, only because he is more of a precursor to mainstream "existentialism". To my knowledge, he never used that term, and was concerned with the "question of Being". As a result, his work continues that of Husserl--Phenomenology or the study of consciousness and its modality. While I am not a "Heideggerian", I find more value in his work that everything that comes after. Sartre took Heidegger and made a "brand-name" out of it--Existential-ism. In many ways, Sartre commercialized this school of thought, and turned it into total "subjectivity". It is this anti-elitist sentiment that is directly-responsible for the Marxist and Communist leanings among the mid-century French thinkers.
Thank you Daniella. I enjoyed reading this, felt like being in uni again. I agree, except for one minor detail: I exclude Heidegger from the postmodern bunch you justifiably criticize, only because he is more of a precursor to mainstream "existentialism". To my knowledge, he never used that term, and was concerned with the "question of Being". As a result, his work continues that of Husserl--Phenomenology or the study of consciousness and its modality. While I am not a "Heideggerian", I find more value in his work that everything that comes after. Sartre took Heidegger and made a "brand-name" out of it--Existential-ism. In many ways, Sartre commercialized this school of thought, and turned it into total "subjectivity". It is this anti-elitist sentiment that is directly-responsible for the Marxist and Communist leanings among the mid-century French thinkers.
Thank you for the correction! You are right -- a detail I overlooked.