Pstmodernism

2. JINSU SUSAN ABRAHAM
I MA ENGLISH
St.MARY’S COLLEGE, MANARCADU

3.  A literary critic,social critic and critical theorist
 Currently, a professor of English Literature at
Northumbria University
 Known for his researches on globalization,
postmodernism,poststructurlism,postmarxism,contine
ntal philosophy,cultural theory and critical theory.
 Written numerous journel articles and book chapters
and his work has been translated into 17 languages.

4.  This essay appears as the first essay to the book
entitled The Routledge Companion to
Postmodernism.
 Sim considers the book The Postmodern Condition
by Jean Francois Lyotard as the most important and
powerful theoritical expression of postmodernism.
 According to Lyotard, postmodernity is a shift of
mood or persception brought about by the changes in
the organization of knowledge since late 19th century.

5.  A traditional importance of labour declined in a pst
industrial society
 A post industrial society is heavily depended on
production of knowledge than physical commodities
 In this senerio knowledge itself became a commodity
to be sold and bought
 The prestige of traditional intellectuals fades and the
world becomes increasingly incredules about the
grand narratives.

6.  Base form of postmodernism is highly indepted to
Nietzche who proposed ‘revaluation of alla values’.

7.  Structuralism is considered as an authoritarian theory
since the theory prescribe how system had to operate.
 By the late 1960’s a radical reaction emerge.
 Jacques Derrida and other poststructuralist launched a
series of devasting criticism against structuralism
 Derrida proved that the conventional link between
signifier and signified and signified is fragile and
slippery, thus meaning is more elusive than
structuralist.

8.  Derrida proved this slippage in action by means of a
concept called ‘differance’.
 Metaphysics of presence is a term coined by Derrida.
 Thought that full meaning of a word is present in the
speakers mind.
 According to derrida, difference always stand as an
impediment in stablishing a complete meaning.

9.  Postmodern philosopher who quetioned the system
building tendencies of structuralism
 He focused on how system building happens in
politics by the use of power.
 The excluded or marginalised groups,whose
difference keeps them excluded from political
poewer-people.
 Foucault studied how this marginalization developed
in post Renaissance culture.

10.  History of Sexuality by Foucault ,is a study of how
homosexuality function in Greek and Roman culture
and later in postrenaissance and contemporary
culture.

11.  Postmodern philosophers considers psychoanalytical
thoery as authoritarian and set to control the
expressions of human desire.
 Anti Oedipus, by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, is
a strong attack on the authoritarinism associated with
psychoanalyist.
 Psychoanalysis heavily depended upon Oedipal
structure that reduced everything to “pappa, mamma
and me”
 For Deleuze and Guattari, individuals can’t be
branded under any psychoanalytical theories.

12.  According to them they are desiring machine.
 Individual lacks any unified identity and the
opportunity to realise their desire desire is being
curved by socio-political authorities.

13.  The rigidity of gender categorization was questioned
by Difference Feminism.
 The key argument of Difference Feminism is that
gender identity isn’t fixed instead it is flexible and
fluid flows that can’t be reduced into anyessence or
norm of behaviour.
 According to Difference Feminism a singular identity
is not possible with woman as, women has
overlapping shades of experiences and identity – such
differences as race, class, religion and ethinicity.

14.  Lyotard was a marxist in his earlier career: a member
of Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or
Barbarianism)
 Lyotard distance himself from the organization on the
ground the marxism failed to encompase the various
desires of the people.
 Another reason for disenchantment was the
proestablishment stand of French communist party
after 1968 Paris Evenments.

15.  He expressed his frustration towards marxism in his
work Libidinal Economy.
 EVENT,DIFFEREND AND SUBLIME
 EVENT :According to Lyotard event is any incident
that can dramitically alter the view for the way in
which view the world.
 Auschwitz is such an event.Such events can’t be
explained by any grand narrative theories.
 DIFFEREND (irrisolvable dispute) : To Lyotard
differend is a dispute that arises when each party is
employing a form of language.

16.  Differands are normally suppressed by means of
brute power.
 Lyotard wants these differands to be acknowledge
and not taken advantage by the stronger unity.
 SUBLIME: It is unpresentable the elements in our
experience which works against the complete
understanding of the world.
 The sublime always lay beyond our power to
represent or explain.

17.  Grand narratives may acknowledge or refute the
sublime but phase to provide an explanation of these.

18.  Science as a threat to difference
 Acoording to Lyotard, science is trying to make
‘thought possible without a body’.
 Such scientific values should be resist because it aims
at a world without difference.
 In such a world there will no longer be ‘events.’
 One need to work against such ‘techno-
science’world, where individuals and littile narratives
are letout or will be silenced under the authority.