Jean-Francois Lyotard - Jean-Francois Lyotard: The Interviews and Debates

JEAN-FRANOIS LYOTARD

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BLOOMSBURY

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Pornographic Age, Alain Badiou

JEAN-FRANOIS LYOTARD: THE INTERVIEWS AND DEBATES

Edited by Kiff Bamford

Many thanks to Mme Dolors Lyotard for her support of this publication and permission to include material from the Lyotard estate. I would also extend thanks to all the authors and translators who have supported this project, giving permissions and encouragement, in particular Georges Van Den Abbeele for revising and extending his existing translation. Also to Roger McKeon who has not only made new translations of thirteen of these documents and extended his own existing translation, but also offered help, guidance and critical dialogue throughout the process. Financial support is gratefully acknowledged from the British Academy, for research costs, and from Bloomsbury Academic and the School of Art, Architecture and Design at Leeds Beckett University for permission costs.

The editor and publisher would like to thank the following for permission to include the material collected here. All efforts have been made to trace copyright holders. In the event of errors or omissions, please notify the publisher in writing of any corrections that will need to be incorporated in future editions of this book.

Slowly, tenderly by Philippe Bonnefis, Emory University, 1998 reprinted in English translation with permission from the family of Philippe Bonnefis.

Letter to Jean-Franois Lyotard from Gilles Deleuze, undated (c. 19756) reprinted with permission from Aliocha Wald Lasowski, who first published the letter in Europe no. 949, May 2008.

On Theory: An interview with Brigitte Devismes, VH 101, no. 2, Summer 1970 reprinted with permission from Sylvre Lotringer and Hedi El Kholti at Semiotext(e) who first published the interview in English translation in Driftworks, ed. Roger McKeon (New York: Semiotext(e), 1984).

Doing Away with the Illusion of Politics with Gilbert Lascault, La Quinzaine littraire, 115 May 1972 reprinted in English translation with permission from Dolors Lyotard.

Remarks on Jean-Franois Lyotard by Gilles Deleuze, La Quinzaine littraire, 115 May 1972 reprinted with permission from Sylvre Lotringer and Hedi El Kholti at Semiotext(e) who first published the piece in English translation in Gilles Deleuze, Desert Islands and Other Texts, 195374 (New York: Semiotext(e), 2004).

The Intensities Are What Imports, Not the Meaning with Christian Descamps, La Quinzaine littraire, 115 January 1975 reprinted in English translation with permission from Dolors Lyotard.

Concerning the Vincennes Psychoanalysis Department, originally appeared as propos le Dpartement de psychanalyse de Vincennes in Les Temps modernes, no. 342, January 1975. English translation 1993 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota.

A Barbarian Speaks about Socialism with Bernard-Henri Levy, Le Nouvel Observateur, 16 January 1976 reprinted in English translation with permission from Dolors Lyotard.

Incommensurable Narrations with Patrick de Haas, Art Press International, no. 13, December 1977 reprinted in English translation with permission from Dolors Lyotard.

Will Vincennes Survive? with Christian Descamps, La Quinzaine littraire, 115 April 1980 reprinted in English translation with permission from Dolors Lyotard.

Debate on Discussions, or: Phrasing after Auschwitz with Jacques Derrida; Jean-Luc Nancy; Jacob Rogozinski et al. reprinted by permission of the Centre for 21st Century Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who published part of this in English translation in Working Paper, no. 2, Fall 1986; additional material has been translated by Georges Van Den Abbeele with permission from ditions Galile, who printed the original French-language edition: Les fins de lhomme: partir du travail de Jacques Derrida (Galile: Paris, 1981).

In reading your work with Georges Van Den Abbeele; including the short text Decor by Jean-Franois Lyotard, originally published as: Georges Van Den Abbeele. Interview: Jean-Franois Lyotard, Diacritics, vol. 14, no. 3 (1984), 1521. Cornell University. Reprinted with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press.

Philosophy: The Case for the Defence with Jacques Derrida, Le Monde, 1984 reprinted in English translation with permission from Dolors Lyotard and Pierre Alfri.

Les Immatriaux: A Staging with Jacques Saur and Philippe Bidaine, CNAC Magazine, March 1985 reprinted in English translation with permission from Dolors Lyotard.

Les Immatriaux: A Conversation with Bernard Blistne, Flash Art, no. 121 (1985), 3239 Reprinted with permission from Flash Art.

Chrysalides Little Narratives with lie Thofilakis, from Modernes et Aprs? Les Immatriaux (Autrement: Paris, 1985) reprinted in English translation with permission from Dolors Lyotard.

Otherwise than knowing Debate with Emmanuel Levinas at the Centre Svres, Autrement que Savoir, extract from Logique de Levinas, ed. Paul Audi ditions Verdier, 2015, reprinted in English translation with permission.

The Enlightenment, the Sublime: Philosophy and Aesthetics with Willem van Reijen and Dick Veerman, 1987, Les Cahiers de Philosophie; English translation: Willem van Reijen and Dick Veerman, An Interview with Jean-Franois Lyotard, trans. Roy Boyne, Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 5, no. 23 (1988), 277309. 1988 by Sage. Reprinted by permission of Sage.

Lyotard and Vidal-Naquet Talking about the Algerian War Still with Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Interview by Antoine de Gaudemar, Libration, 9 November 1989 reprinted in English translation with permission from Antoine de Gaudemar at Libration.

Before the Law, After the Law with Elisabeth Weber, 1991, Originally published in English in Questioning Judaism: Interviews by Elisabeth Weber, 2004 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr University. Original German publication 1994 by Judischer Verlag im Suhrkamp Verlag. All rights reserved. What Is Just? (Ou Justesse) with Richard Kearney, 1994, from States of Mind: Dialogues with Contemporary Thinkers on the European Mind reprinted with permission from Richard Kearney.

Responding Questions Interview with Eberhard Gruber, 1995, from The Hyphen: Between Judaism and Christianity (Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 1999) reprinted with permission from Eberhard Gruber and Prometheus Books.

The Real Extreme with Grald Sfez, Rue Descartes, no. 1213, May 1995 reprinted in English translation with permission from Grald Sfez.

La Vie de Malraux (Malrauxs life) must be read as a collection of legends with Philippe Bonnefis, Magazine littraire, no. 347, October 1996. Reprinted in Signs Malraux: Andr Malraux et la question biographique, ed. Martine Boyer-Weinmann and Jean-Louis Jeannelle (Paris: Garnier, 2015), 241252 reprinted in English translation with permission from ditions Garnier.

by Kiff Bamford

Publish or perish!, this ironic rallying cry penned by Jean-Franois Lyotard (192498) thirty years ago, will ring true for many today, not least academics. The ceaseless demand to produce, disseminate and create impact is not limited to those beholden to the system of academic observation and evaluation, however. The pressure to assert an individual identity through publication on social media is at least as great: acts in which users are perhaps more willingly complicit. Yet there is an important sense in which this declaration is delivered with a wry smile, perhaps the equivalent of a winking face emoji or an accompanying meme of a playful cat. Lyotard, it seems, was always good-natured in combat even when delivering the most virulent of critiques, or when playing with an interlocutors ideas and assertions. Yet he is also deadly serious: