Steve, where are you?

Jeffrey R Galin (galin+@PITT.EDU)
Thu, 10 Oct 1996 13:34:05 -0400

OK Beth,
Which are the primary texts of postmodern theory? Who reads them?
For what purposes? Do we tell our graduate students that if they want to
write about postmodernism they must ready all of these texts? some of
them? And what role do the secondary texts play? Are they support for
primary, reinterpretations?

When we tell our first year students to read priamry texts,
generally we are asking them not to rely on Cliff Notes or book reviews or
sources who cite sources for interviews. And yes, there is lots of crap
in print that pawns itself off as cultural theory that relies on readings
of readings to make points. But, seems to me we are not really talking
about this kind of writing. We are talking about how Lyotard becomes
secondary to Foucault, Derrida, and others. The defintion that True
offered from Lyotard is not sufficient to qualify as the original pomo? I
have to say Beth you have me baffled.

Steve Finlay, I hope you are satisfied with the responses you are
getting. You have sparked an interesting and lively discussion. I'd be
curious what your take on it has been. What have you learned?

jrg
On Thu, 10 Oct 1996, Beth W. Baldwin wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Oct 1996, Bob King wrote:
>
> > The question that occurs to me is which text in the primary text are we
> > going to talk about?
>
> > Primary texts are, for me,
>
> Good questions. I've begun to think I'm completely stupid about what a
> primary source vs secondary source is. So, I just phoned our library for
> a clarification and thus:
>
> a primary text/source is the original document or text
>
> a secondary text/source is one that talks about the original
>
> Whe *I* talk about a primary or secondary source, that's what *I* mean.
>
> Beth
>
> ********************************************
> Beth Baldwin, Ph.D. *
> Office of Continuing Education *
> University of North Carolina at Greensboro *
> Greensboro, NC 27412-5001 *
> 910-334-5301, ext. 44 *
> bobaldwi@hamlet.uncg.edu *
> ********************************************
>

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