Abstract: During the 1980s and 1990s, debates about the differences between modernity and postmodernity as historical epochs; modernism and postmodernism in the arts; and wars between modern and postmodern theory defined key theoretical problematics in intellectualized spaces of the West, like the University. Fredric Jameson was one of the initiators of debates over the postmodern, and introduced the concept of cognitive mapping to describe theoretical accounts of the contemporary moment. I discuss conceptions of theory and mapping in the modern and postmodern debates and sort out appropriate uses of the discourse of the postmodern, and the usefulness of the postmodern turn in contemporary theory, as well as some abuses of the discourse. I first suggest that distinctions between the modern and the postmodern in a wide range of issues can highlight novelties in the contemporary moment and discontinuities with the past, but that the distinction in question between the modern and the postmodern must be clearly explicated and the differences articulated. I argue that postmodern discourses help provide theoretical mappings and social narratives of the major novelties and developments in contemporary society, culture, and theory and can articulate continuities and discontinuities with the past in the present moment. Finally, I’ll argue that a multiplicity of modern and postmodern discourses helps illuminate and articulate the complexity of the present moment and that the more strong theories we have at our disposal, the better work we can do as theorists and critics.

Key words: postmodern, cognitive mapping, Jameson, Baudrillard, contemporary moment