Transformations in Discourse, Figure. Issue 3 (14th October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Flenady, Gene E.
• Is Part Of: Critical horizons. Volume 17:Issue 3/4(2016)
• Page Start: 405
• Page End: 418
• Publication Date: 2016-10-14
• Subjects: Lyotard -- Hegel -- deconstruction -- poststructuralism -- psychoanalysis; Critical theory -- Periodicals; 142.05
• DOI: 10.1080/14409917.2016.1190185
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1440-9917

Abstract

Abstract : This review essay critically maps the Anglophone reception of Lyotard's Discourse, Figure onto the text's own two-part organization. Earlier deconstructive readings tended to focus on the critique of structuralism presented in Discourse, Figure 's first half, under-emphasizing (and even criticizing) the post-Freudian philosophy of desire developed by Lyotard in the text's latter stages. This essay instead presents Lyotard's first major work not as two separable or opposed parts, but as a coherent trajectory responding to a specific philosophical problem, namely, the Hegelian account of sense-perception and signification as outlined in Hyppolite's Logic and Existence . In so doing, this review essay seeks to isolate key references and clarify the stakes for future readings of Lyotard's text.