PostmodernismAn IntroductionPreliminary Thesis on Dictionary of the KhazarsLike the Odyssey, Dictionary of the Khazars, in its attempt to explore how human ein!s construct meanin! for themsel"es, straddles oth historical eras #the modern and postmodern$ and poetic technolo!ies #the printed ook and the hypertext$%I tried to change the way of the reading increasing the role and responsibility of the reader in the process of creating a novel (let us not forget that in the world there are much more talented readers than talented authors and literary critics). I have left to them, to the readers, the decision about the choice of the plots and the development of the situations in the novel: where the reading will begin, and where it will end, even the decision about the destiny of the main characters. But in order to change the way of reading, I had to change the way of writing. Therefore these lines should not be understood exclusively as a tal about the form of the novel. This is at the same time both a tal of its content. In fact, the content of any novel has been, so to say, on !rocrustes" bed for two thousand years always sub#ected to the merciless model of form. I believe that an end has come to this. $ach novel should select its specific form, each story can search for, and find, its ade%uate body. &omputer is teaching us it is possible. But if you do not lie computers, have a loo at what architecture is teaching us. 'rchitecture changes our way of life. ' literary wor, if we consider it as a house, can change our way of life. ' novel can be a home as well. 't least for a while.(()ilorad !avic&hat is Postmodernism'(An Oxymoron'&hat is Postmodernism'(An Oxymoron'(An o"erused and meanin!less term'&hat is Postmodernism'(An Oxymoron'(An o"erused and meanin!less term'(A unch of nonsense'&hat is Postmodernism'(An Oxymoron'(An o"erused and meanin!less term'(A unch of nonsense'( Postmodernism, as commonly articulated from a di"er!ent set of su)ect*positions in a discursi"e en"ironment characterized y post*industrial, post*colonial, post*feminist, post*+arxist strate!ies of resistance to the phallocentric "alorization of panoptic strate!ies of he!emony, falls prey to a host of #mis$representations and de,"alorizations emer!in! from the #de$centered pluri"ocalities of late*twentieth*century !loal capitalism#s$%&hat is Postmodernism'(An Oxymoron'(An o"erused and meanin!less term'(A unch of nonsense'(A -response. #or, -responses.$ to modernism%&hat is +odernism'(A #post*$ /nli!htenment elief in pro!ress(0rancis 1acon #2342*2454$ elie"ed a wise, ethical, science*minded elite would rin! a stream of pro!ress to ci"ilization&hat is +odernism'(A #post*$ /nli!htenment elief in pro!ress(0rancis 1acon #2342*2454$(6%&%0% 7e!el #2889*2:;2$**Thesis, Antithesis,

T.(. -liot. *The Wasteland,/ames /oyce.0lysses'ablo 'icasso. *not what you see, but what you know is there,@ean*0rancois Lyotard( Ar!ued #contra Lacan$ that the unconscious is not a -lan!ua!e. ut ?!ural and dream*like( The ?!ural resists representation( In 2A8B he predicted that no knowled!e will sur"i"e that cannot e translated into computer lan!ua!e**into Cuantities of information%( +ade critical distinction etween narrati"e discourse and scienti?c discourse&hat is narrati"e discourse'(-7ere is the myth of 1uma, "omitin! the moon and the stars, as I="e always heard it chanted%.(Le!itimized in the tellin!%(+ythic time,narrati"e time #and space$&hat is scienti?c discourse'( 0rench De"olution,A!e of Deason narrati"e of freedom(Philosophical narrati"e> 7e!el=s unity of knowled!e #the !radual e"olution of the human -spirit.$Lyotard called these +/TAEADDATIF/