ABSTRACT
Post-modemity provides a philosophical frame or paradigm in which modemity is critically examined, using primarily the techniques of ' deconstruction' developed by hermeneutics and social linguistics. 1 Post-modemity can be seen as a multifocal symbol, which in its most generalized usage challenges the assumption of universality inherent in the legitimating discourses ofmodemity such as secularism, rationality, social stratification, urbanization and industrialization. There are various fa.;;ades of post-modemity: Indeterminacy, fragmentation, irony, the fictionalization of identity, camivalization, decanonization and hybridization (Hassan 1985: 119).
