Experiencing Postmodernity in Late Twentieth-Century Britain

FAIN: FT-54128-06

Marcus Collins
Emory University (Atlanta, GA 30322-1018)

My research tests the claims of social theorists that the end of the twentieth century witnessed the birth of a postmodern age. It does so by exploring how the British articulated their understanding of, and participation in, social change in the 1990s. One portion of the study analyzes public commentary on the state and direction of 1990s British society. Its main source, however, is an as-yet-unstudied oral history archive of nearly six thousand interviews drawn from every conceivable background and region in Britain. They allow me to examine how - and to what extent - ordinary people experienced such postmodern phenomena as time-space compression, globalization, information technology, cultural transgression, and social pluralism.