Lyotard Summary

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Lyotard sees “modern” as fit for describing “any science that legitimates itself with reference to a metadiscourse of this kind making an explicit appeal to some grand narrative, such as the dialectic of Spirit, the hermeneutics of meaning, the emancipation of the rational or working subject, or the creation of wealth”;12 in other words, Lyotard characterizes “modernism” as a hegemonic story that defined and guided the ways in which humans lived their lives. Further, Lyotard defines “postmodernism” as “incredulity

toward metanarratives.”13 Lyotard is not suggesting that totalizing narratives suddenly stopped existing in our postmodern world but that they no longer carry the same currency or usefulness to the people creating and living