INSOMNIA AND THE (T)ERROR OF LOST FOUNDATION IN POSTMODERNISM

Certain familiar theoretic claims of both popular and academic postmod ernism are examined for their implications as to the necessary and des irable limits of social life. Taken to the end, these claims promote e rrancy as a means of freeing conduct from the constraints of foundatio n. But this kind of freedom, one which treats all limitation as pernic ious, generates social action that is mechanical, scattered, and witho ut substance - it is a pyrrhic emancipation which trades content for s elf-sufficiency and thus constitutes an empty life of unhappy social d ispersion. And yet an opportunity does remain to address the way a lim it can also be inspiring if we think through how interpretation, a lim it which is itself limited, invites nevertheless what Derrida glossed as ''joyous affirmation.'' Interpretation, though imperfect, offers po wers that are genuine and enjoyable because these powers supply life w ith content and thus with the vitalizing collective and individual pos sibility of conduct which is affirmative (and disaffirmative). Perhaps it could even be said that interpretation emancipates us from the emp tiness of pure freedom.