Jean-Francois Lyotard

Jean-François Lyotard: biography

Jean-François Lyotard was born in 1924 to an aspirational middle-class family. Lyotard's father was a sales representative for a cloth manufacturer who also stood out in his childhood for his remarkable intelligence. It went unfulfilled because of difficult circumstances like poverty and war. Jean-François inherited his father's intelligence, but his mother wanted him to lead a conventional family life. This later led to ruptures within the Lyotard family.

As a young man, Lyotard was very disciplined and followed his everyday routine religiously. After serving as a medic during the second world war, Lyotard started studying philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. Lyotard's thesis was a comparative study of detachment in different religions. From 1949 to 1950, Lyotard was away from Paris to teach at a military college in Burgundy. He later held teaching positions in different parts of France, and French Algeria, a colony of France at the time. He also taught at universities like the Sorbonne, Nanterre, University Paris VIII and several leading universities in the United States. Lyotard was married twice and had three children from his marriages. Lyotard died in Paris in 1998 at the age of 73.

Fig.1 Lyotard's writing always reflected his political militancy.

Jean-François Lyotard: theory

Although Lyotard only taught in Algeria for two years, his time there had a profound effect on him. He followed the independence struggle in Algeria closely and commented on the matter. His first marriage to Andrée May also shaped his career and political opinions. May was part-Jewish and alerted Lyotard to the brutal realities of being Jewish in the climate of anti-Semitism. She also taught him English as his career grew in scope outside of France.

Lyotard is commonly included in the list of postmodern and poststructuralist thinkers of the twentieth century.

Lyotard's political engagement was the bedrock of his philosophical works; not only did they not shy away from politics, but each of the works also acknowledged his political dissidence.

Jean-François Lyotard: postmodernism summary

The oft-quoted phrase from The Postmodern Condition offers an unambiguous summary of Lyotard's attitude towards postmodernism and the organisation of knowledge after the late modern era (estimated to be around the mid-twentieth century).

In Lyotard's view, totalitarian narrative forms seek to explain all of existence. Postmodernism intervenes to say that such narratives are inadequate for that task and end up creating an exclusionary dialogue. Lyotard foretold the technological transformation of knowledge systems, where knowledge takes on a value based on its technological form. Lyotard argued that the mistrust of narratives along with a crisis of knowledge systems became the postmodern condition.

Jean-François Lyotard: metanarratives

Lyotard argues that knowledge is given legitimacy by what he calls the grands récits (translated as grand narratives or metanarratives). A grand narrative can be defined as the dominant mode of thought, ideology, or belief system that influences and shapes what is perceived as true, real, and acceptable.

Grand narratives are seen as a tool of authoritarianism that fails to acknowledge differences. In the postmodern world, there is rising scepticism about such universal narratives. Essentially, everything is taken with a pinch of salt. By resisting metanarratives, postmodernism opens up more room to explore interconnections instead of imposing preset oppositions.

Lyotard argued that the advances in technology and means of communication were the primary reason the belief in grand narratives of modernism was shaken. With the growth of multicultural societies with competing claims on knowledge systems, all-encompassing narratives gradually declined in strength.

Diversity is an important feature of postmodernism. As grand narratives fall short to represent everyone in society equally, the axis of power and legitimacy shifted towards little narratives. As we become conscious of our differences, there arises an abundance of smaller, perhaps, more localised narratives that are suitable for everyone. This facilitates a multitude of perspectives and alternate narrative forms.

Lyotard elaborates on the idea of difference and metanarratives in The Differend: Phrases in Dispute (1983). Lyotard uses 'differend' as a technical term in the book to emphasise how language functions on the basis of difference.

Other works of Lyotard include The Inhuman: Reflections on Time (1988), Libidinal Economy (1974), and Enthusiasm: The Kantian Critique of History (1986).

Jean-François Lyotard: quotes

Lyotard was against all forms of essentialist interpretation of texts. Generalised, monolithic narratives are replaced in the postmodern era by fluid and multifaceted perspectives.

Like most postmodern thinkers, Lyotard fought against complacency in knowledge and understanding, and persistently pushed the boundaries of meaning.

Lyotard's work on the French painters Jacques Monory (1924–2018), Daniel Buren (b. 1938), and Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) are some of the artistic engagements that accompanied Lyotard's philosophical musings in his later years.