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'Nobody knows how to write'. Thus opens this carefully nuanced and accessible collection of essays by one of the most important writer-philosophers of the 20th century, Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998). First published in French in 1991 as
Lectures d'enfance, these essays have never been printed as a collection in English. In them, Lyotard investigates his idea of infantia, or the infancy of thought that resists all forms of development, either human or technological.
Each essay responds to works by writers and thinkers who are central to cultural modernism, such as James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Sigmund Freud. This volume - with a new introduction and afterword by Robert Harvey and Kiff Bamford - contextualises Lyotard's thought and demonstrates his continued relevance today.
List of contents
Foreword,
Robert Harvey (Stony Brook University, USA)Infans,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Mary LydonReturn: Joyce,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert Harvey & Mark S. Roberts.Prescription: Kafka,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans Christopher Fynsk
Survivor: Arendt,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert Harvey & Mark S. RobertsWords: Sartre,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Jeffrey MehlmanDisorder: Valéry,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert HarveyVoices: Freud,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Georges Van Den AbbeeleAfterword,
Kiff Bamford (Leeds Beckett University, UK)Notes
Bibliography of Works by J-Fr. Lyotard in English Translation
Index
About the author
Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) was one of the most important French philosophers of the Twentieth Century. He was the author of classic philosophical texts such as Discourse, Figure; Libidinal Economy; The Differend and The Postmodern Condition: a report on knowledge.Robert Harvey is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at Stony Brook University, USA. His teaching ranges from literary and film theories to modern and contemporary literatures and the interpenetrations of literary and philosophical discourse. His 2010 book published by Continuum/Bloomsbury, Witnessness: Beckett, Levi, Dante and the Foundations of Ethics appeared in French as Témoignabilité (Geneva: MetisPresses, 2015). He is a major co-editor of the Œuvres complètes of Marguerite Duras (Paris: Gallimard, 2011, 2014). Harvey was a Program Director at the Collège International de Philosophie, 2001-2007.Kiff Bamford is Reader in Contemporary Art in the School of Art, Architecture and Design, Leeds Beckett University, UK. He is author of 'Lyotard and the figural in Performance, Art and Writing' (Bloomsbury, 2012) and 'Jean-François Lyotard: Critical Lives' (2017).
Summary
‘Nobody knows how to write’. Thus opens this carefully nuanced and accessible collection of essays by one of the most important writer-philosophers of the 20th century, Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998). First published in French in 1991 as Lectures d'enfance, these essays have never been printed as a collection in English. In them, Lyotard investigates his idea of infantia, or the infancy of thought that resists all forms of development, either human or technological.
Each essay responds to works by writers and thinkers who are central to cultural modernism, such as James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Sigmund Freud. This volume – with a new introduction and afterword by Robert Harvey and Kiff Bamford – contextualises Lyotard’s thought and demonstrates his continued relevance today.
Additional text
In these readings Lyotard illustrates how his innovative theory of infancy can illuminate Kafka, Joyce, Freud, Arendt, Sartre and Valéry. They showcase Lyotard’s importance as a reader of art and literature. The six interventions are not only enlightening, but are crafted in Lyotard’s exquisite idiom.
