Preface I. Defining Modernity and Postmodernity 1. Problems of Construction: Modernity and Postmodernity as Periods, Ideologies, Styles and Problematics 2. Key Concepts: Modernity, Modernism, Postmodernity, Post-histoire and Post-industrial Society 3. Modernity, Modernism and Postmodernity as Problematics II. Modernity and Postmodernity in a Sociological Perspective 1. Critiques of Modernity: Universalism, Particularization and Social Movements 2. Feminist and Ecofeminist Critiques 3. A Conservative Postmodernity? 4. Marxist Critiques: For and against 'Postmodernity' 5. Pluralism, Indifference and Ideology 6.. The Case of Baudrillard: Indifference without Ideology III. Postmodern Philosophies as Critiques of Modernity 1. Nietzsche' Heirs 2. Postmodern Social Philosophies and the End of Meta-Narratives: From Foucault, Deleuze and Lyotard to Vattimo and Rorty 3. Postmodern Epistemology I: Foucault, Deleuze, Vattimo and Rorty 4. Epistemology II: Language, Concept, Particularity - from Deleuze and Derrida to Vattimo 5. Epistemology III: Lyotard vs. Habermas 6. Ethics: From Lyotard and Bauman to Rorty 7. Aesthetics: Heterotopy and the Sublime, Allegory and Aporia IV. Modernism and Postmodernism: Literary Criticism 1. Construction Attempts 2. The Problematics of Modernism and Postmodernism: Ambiguity, Ambivalence and Indifference 3. Avant-garde, Popular Culture and postmodern 'De-differentiation' 4. Postmodernism as Poststructuralism : Iterability, Aporia and Intertextuality V. From Modern to Postmodern Literature: Ambivalence, Indifference and Ideology 1. Modernist Literature and Ambivalence: Between Nietzsche and Freud 2. Linguistic Aspects of Ambivalence 3. Critique of Truth, System and Subject: Critique of Modernity 4. Modernism and Critical Theory: Epilogue I 5. Postmodern Literature and Indifference: Critique of Metaphysics 6. Linguistic Aspects of Indifference 7. Beyond Truth and the Subject: Pluralism, Particularism, Indifference and Ideology 8. Postmodern Literature, Deconstruction and Pragmatism: Epilogue II VI. Dialogical Theory: Between the Universal and the Particular 1. Theory between Ideology and Indifference 2.The Theoretcial Dialogue: Language, Sociolect and Discourse 3. Conclusion: The Particular and the Universal in Postmodernity Bibliography Index.