INTRODUCTION

This book comprises a number of essays, the first of which was written in the mid-1980s for the Postmodernism conference at the Institute of the Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. The collection takes its title from this piece and the articles which follow chart the growth of a new set of interests in cultural studies and in sociology since then. Instead of providing, by way of an introduction, a short summary of the contents of this book, I think it is more useful for the students and teachers whom I envisage reading Postmodernism and Popular Culture to indicate, in a less academic tone, why the various chapters in this book point in favour of a feminist postmodernism.