Preface -- Craig Owens: "The indignity of Speaking for Others" / Simon Watney -- I. Toward a Theory of Postmodernism: Einstein on the Beach: The Primacy of Metaphor ; Photography en abyme ; Detachment: from the parergon ; Earthwords ; The Allegorical Impulse: Toward a Theory of Postmodernism ; The Allegorical Impulse: Toward a Theory of Postmodernism, Part 2 ; Representation, Appropriation, and Power ; Sherrie Levine at A&M Artworks ; Allan McCollum: Repetition and Difference ; From Work to Frame, or, ls There Life After “The Death of the Author"? -- II. Sexuality/Power: Honor, Power, and the Love of Women ; William Wegman’s Psychoanalytic Vaudeville ; The Discourse of Others Feminists and Postmodernism ; The Medusa Effect, or, The Specular Ruse ; Posing ; Outlaw’s: Gay Men in Feminism -- III. Cultures: Politics of Coppélia ; Sects and Language ; The Critic as Realist ; ''The Indignity of Speaking for Others": An Imaginary Interview ; The Problem with Puerilism ; Analysis Logical and Ideological ; Improper Names ; Interview with Craig Owens / Anders Stephanson ; The Yen for Art ; Global Issues -- IV. Pedagogy: Postmodern Art 1971-1986 ; Bibliography: Contemporary Art and Art Criticism ; Seminar in Theory and Criticism ; Bibliography: The Political Economy of Culture ; Visualizing AIDS ; Course Bibliography on Visual AIDS – Bibliography – Index