of Prophets, Pagans and the Middle East

Abstract

The term “postmodernity” perhaps owes its very popularity to the fact that
it is notoriously difficult to define. It often means all things to all people,
and by its very orientation, is critical of any attempts to offer blanket
definitions. Nevertheless, we may discern three broad orientations that
define postmodernity:
1. It involves an “incredulity toward metanarratives.”* In other words, it
repudiates the modernist view thd individual actions can be explained
through universal laws.
2. It focuses on the crisis of repre~entation.I~n other words, it is critical of
the power vested in any subjectivity to represent the reality of another.
3. It problematizes the issue of subject and author? For example, it would
question the claim made by this journal that it is a more ‘official’ interpreter
of Islamic thought than some others: a claim this joumal may seek to
advance on the basis of its institutional power.
This somewhat arbitrary set of attributes associated with postmodernity
may seem quite innocuous at first reading. But postmodernity (or its now
emerging normative arm, postmodernism) is evidently much more than
that, as its adherents and critics have pointed out. It has been associated
with a lot of other phenomena. For instance, in the economic realm, we
have the notion of post-Fordism, a situation where the precepts of mass
production are being overturned. Based on computer-aided manufacture, a
rapidly heterogenizing consumer demand, and the emergence of
newer forms of commerce (such as Ecommerce over the internet), a new
industrial paradigm is emerging.5 At the same time, we have the
phenomenon of post-nationalism, where the sovereignty of nations is being
threatened by the emergence of supranational forms of governance such
as multinational corporations and the WT0.6 However, the issue that ...