Political Writings

1993
Author:

Jean-François Lyotard
Translated by Bill Readings and Kevin Paul Geiman
Foreword by Bill Readings

The first collection of Lyotard’s political works to appear in English. Published between 1956 and 1989 in Socialisme ou Barbarie and other journals of the noncommunist French left, these essays and articles address issues of imperialism and decolonization, the student rebellions of 1968-69, and the modern state as a political form. The political moments implicit in Lyotard’s arguments in The Postmodern Condition are made explicit in these writings, which trace the shifts in political thinking necessitated by the emergence of the postmodern.

The first collection of Lyotard’s political works to appear in English. Published between 1956 and 1989 in Socialisme ou Barbarie and other journals of the noncommunist French left, these essays and articles address issues of imperialism and decolonization, the student rebellions of 1968-69, and the modern state as a political form. The political moments implicit in Lyotard’s arguments in The Postmodern Condition are made explicit in these writings, which trace the shifts in political thinking necessitated by the emergence of the postmodern.

Political Writings is an invaluable contribution to understanding Lyotard's work and both his status and significance as a thinker on the non-Marxist left. For serious students and scholars in the English-speaking world interested in Lyotard's writings, the publication of Political Writings is something of an 'event'; it provides a political 'supplement' to his other works and an account of his sustained political engagement over more than thirty years. Political Writings is an invaluable collection of Lyotard's work, of his unerring sense of political commitment, of his own inner turmoil over questions that have proven to be among the most significant and challenging of the age, and of his political imagination which enables him to recast hegemonic stories, old narratives, and exhausted utopias in forms that present new political possibilities for resistance.

Michael Michael Peters, University of Auckland, New Zealand

The first collection of Lyotard's political works to appear in English. Published between 1956 and 1989 in Socialisme ou Barbarie and other journals of the noncommunist French left, these essays and articles address issues of imperialism and decolonization, the student rebellions of 1968-69, and the modern state as a political form. The political moments implicit in Lyotard's arguments in The Postmodern Condition are made explicit in these writings, which trace the shifts in political thinking necessitated by the emergence of the postmodern.


Jean-Francois Lyotard is a council member at the College International de Philosophie, professor emeritus at the University of Paris, and professor of French and Italian at the University of California at Irvine. He is the author of numerous works, including The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Minnesota, 1984), The Differend: Phrases in Dispute (Minnesota, 1988), Heidegger and “the jews” (Minnesota, 1990), and The Postmodern Explained (Minnesota, 1992).

Bill Readings is associate professor of comparative literature at the University of Montreal. He is the author of Introducing Lyotard: Art and Politics (1991).

Kevin Paul Geiman is assistant professor of philosophy at Valparaiso University, Indiana.

Political Writings is an invaluable contribution to understanding Lyotard's work and both his status and significance as a thinker on the non-Marxist left. For serious students and scholars in the English-speaking world interested in Lyotard's writings, the publication of Political Writings is something of an 'event'; it provides a political 'supplement' to his other works and an account of his sustained political engagement over more than thirty years. Political Writings is an invaluable collection of Lyotard's work, of his unerring sense of political commitment, of his own inner turmoil over questions that have proven to be among the most significant and challenging of the age, and of his political imagination which enables him to recast hegemonic stories, old narratives, and exhausted utopias in forms that present new political possibilities for resistance.

Michael Michael Peters, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Political Writings in an invaluable collection of Lyotard’s work, of his unerring sense of political commitment, of his own turmoil over questions that have proven to be among the most significant and challenging of the age, and of his political imagination which enables him to recast hegemonic stories, old narratives, and exhausted utopias in forms that present new political possibilities for resistance.

Surfaces

Extremely significant. The essays in which he develops his notion of ‘specific intellectual’ against the prevailing notion of ‘organic intellectual’ will alone justify the purchase of this book for many readers.

Wlad Godzich, University of Geneva