In 1977 the architectural historian Charles Jencks publishes The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, giving the word post-modern its first public career: modernist building is dead, he argues, killed, by his famous dating, with the demolition of Pruitt-Igoe in 1972. The term travels from architecture to every art within five years.
Tagged: Postmodernism
The Event
- Date
- 1977 (exact)
- Era
- The Naming; Standard periodization of postmodern history
- Location
- London; today London, England
- Traditions
- Postmodernism
- Streams
- Postmodernism
- Key figures
- Charles Jencks
- Key texts
- The Language of Post-Modern Architecture
Primary Sources
- Jencks, Charles. The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. London: Academy Editions, 1977.
Secondary Sources
- Bertens, Hans. The Idea of the Postmodern: A History. London: Routledge, 1995.
- Hassan, Ihab. The Postmodern Turn. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987.
- Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 1988.
Provenance: HIST-1441; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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1972
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Derrida's Of Grammatology
1967
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Derrida's Structure, Sign and Play lecture
1966
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Foucault's Discipline and Punish
1975
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Foucault's The Order of Things
1966
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Hassan's The Dismemberment of Orpheus
1971
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Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition
1979
World View
Postmodernism
Postmodernism doubts every grand story that claims to explain everything; it treats truth as shaped by language, culture, and power rather than simply discovered.