Jean-François Lyotard

Jean-François Lyotard (August 10 1924-April 21 1998) was a French philosopher and literary theorist.

Life and work

Among other things, he is well-known for his articulation of postmodernism after the late 1970s. Before that, he was a member of the group Socialisme ou Barbarie ('Socialism or Barbarism'), a group of left-wing French intellectuals formed in the wake of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising in opposition to the Stalinism of Soviet communism. Later he became a founding member of the European Graduate School.

Lyotard maintained in Le Différend (The Differend) (1983) that human discourses occur in any number of discrete and incommensurable realms, none of which is privileged to pass judgment on the success or value of any of the others. Thus, in Économie libidinale (Libidinal Economy) (1974), La Condition postmoderne: Rapport sur le savoir (The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge) (1979), and Au juste: Conversations (Just Gaming) (1979), Lyotard attacked contemporary literary theories and encouraged experimental discourse unbounded by excessive concern for 'truth'.

Lyotard famously declared that now - in our postmodern or late-capitalist world - the 'Metanarratives' are dead.

On his passing, Lyotard was interred in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

See also

• Postmodernism
• Postmodernity

External link

• Jean-Francois Lyotard European Graduate School
• The Post Modern Condition (The first 5 chapters)