Lyotard: Philosophy, Politics and the Sublime

Jean-François Lyotard, the highly influential twentieth-century philosopher of the postmodern, has had an enormous impact on the course and commitment of contemporary philosophy. Lyotard: Philosophy, Politics, and the Sublime is a thoroughgoing reassessment of his extraordinary legacy and contribution to contemporary cultural, political, ethical, and aesthetic theory, and an indispenable guide to key issues in his philosophy. Fifteen distinguished scholars have contributed new, original essays examining the main themes in Lyotard's work with a focus on the special intersections of philosophy, psychoanalysis, politics, and the experience of the sublime in art. The volume includes an up-to-date bibliography of works by and about Lyotard, previously unpublished photographs of Lyotard, and an incisive essay by Lyotard himself on the philosophical significance of Freud's case of Emma.

Library Journal

Over 20 years ago, Lyotard defined the postmodern condition: "The postmodern would be that which, in the modern, puts forward the unpresentable in presentation itself." Lyotard's definition engages both the political (how can we explain modern states that participate in terrorism, that is, the unpresentable?) and the aesthetic (what images can we use to present the unpresentable?). In this collection of essays, 14 philosophers offer a tribute to and a fresh engagement with the philosophy of Lyotard, who died in 1998. Six of the essays examine Lyotard's hermeneutics in conversation with partners ranging from Mikhail Bakhtin, Hans Georg Gadamer, and Emmanuel Levinas to Jean-Luc Nancy and Manfred Frank. Four essays explore the tangled relationship among unpresentability, otherness, and moral and political responsibility. The final four essays focus on Lyotard's rethinking of Kant's distinction between the beautiful and the sublime as Lyotard fashions a postmodern sublime that presents the unpresentable in presentation itself. Editor Silverman (Textualities) includes a previously unpublished essay by Lyotard on Freud's case study of Emma that contains the core of much of Lyotard's philosophy. In this essay, he investigates the "moments between" two juxtaposed positions (or differends, as Lyotard called them) that are incomprehensible to each other. The volume also contains a thorough bibliography and some never-before-seen photographs of Lyotard. Overall, the essays provide a helpful introduction to the development of Lyotard's philosophy, but they require such a level of knowledge about philosophy that the volume is recommended primarily for libraries serving college communities and for academic libraries. Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Hugh J. Silverman is Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at Stony Brook University. He is also Executive Director of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature as well as Chief Editor of Routledge's Continental Philosophy series.