Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Lyotard - Obscure and Useless Questions

Jackie Susann

05:34 / 17.06.02

Has Discours, Figure been translated into English? If so, under what title?

More generally, to justify asking such an annoying question here, what do you reckon about Lyotard? I think he was a brilliant stylist (i.e., Libidinal Economy, which has some of the best sentences I've ever read, and the 'zero-degree style' of The Differend), but his philosophical work never overcame his earliest interests in socialism and phenomenology.

YNH

07:08 / 17.06.02

You may have to wait on that.

"English translation by Mary Lydon of Discours, Figure (1971) to be published by the Harvard University Press." However, professor Lydon apparently died in April, 2001.

Near as I can tell, it's still coming, but I imagine there was some delay. You could try emailing the University of Wisconsin French Department or HUP for more info.

Gibreel

09:19 / 18.06.02

Well, I suppose his most famous book in the anglophone is The Postmodern Condition.

Which I thought was crap. A crude attempt to read recent history using (poorly understood) science.

Libidinal Economy's a bit of a laugh mind. The opening passages about the skin make a great companion piece to the start of Discipline and Punish.

"his philosophical work never overcame his earliest interests in socialism and phenomenology"

and why is this a problem mr crunchy?

Jackie Susann

07:32 / 19.06.02

well i don't know if this is the place to go through my problems with phenomenology or socialism. but i think of them as pretty lousy modes of thought (to clarify - by socialism i mean annoying variants on marxism - not marxism as a whole).

Add Your Reply