Lyotard and Critical Practice
Published on 21. March 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-350-20190-3 (ISBN)
Description
Jean-Francois Lyotard (1924-1998) was one of the previous century's most provocative thinkers. Can his work help us address the crisis currently facing the humanities?
The dominant economic discourse sees the humanities as "low-value," an irritation at best. Lyotard helps us to think against this pervasive dismissal of creative activity, not by defending the honor of the humanities, but by inviting critical practices which aggravate this irritation. Critical practices trouble what counts as critique, embrace incertitude, and listen for silenced voices.
Twelve essays by artists and researchers take up Lyotard's invitation and begin to develop the idea of critical practice in the contemporary context. Three sections titled "What resists thinking;" "Long views and distances" and "Why art practice?" address contemporary concerns like affectivity, aesthetics, economic imperatives, militarism, pedagogy, posthumanism, and the closure of what in Lyotard's time was called "the West."
Four short pieces by Lyotard intervene in and buttress the discussion: "Apathy in Theory" and "Interview with Art Present," here published in English for the first time, and "Affect-phrase" and "The Other's Rights" republished here to highlight his prescient concern for that which cannot be articulated.
The dominant economic discourse sees the humanities as "low-value," an irritation at best. Lyotard helps us to think against this pervasive dismissal of creative activity, not by defending the honor of the humanities, but by inviting critical practices which aggravate this irritation. Critical practices trouble what counts as critique, embrace incertitude, and listen for silenced voices.
Twelve essays by artists and researchers take up Lyotard's invitation and begin to develop the idea of critical practice in the contemporary context. Three sections titled "What resists thinking;" "Long views and distances" and "Why art practice?" address contemporary concerns like affectivity, aesthetics, economic imperatives, militarism, pedagogy, posthumanism, and the closure of what in Lyotard's time was called "the West."
Four short pieces by Lyotard intervene in and buttress the discussion: "Apathy in Theory" and "Interview with Art Present," here published in English for the first time, and "Affect-phrase" and "The Other's Rights" republished here to highlight his prescient concern for that which cannot be articulated.
Reviews / Votes
Rather than a unified picture that would prescribe a one-way relation between theory (philosophy, concepts) and practice (artistic, political), Lyotard and Critical Practice presents us with multiple ways of undoing the difference between them, sometimes close to Lyotard's own writings, sometimes remote from his concerns. In this, it is however much in the spirit of Lyotard, who was always ready to retrace his steps and take off in unexpected directions. * College Art Association * A deeply layered cake that combines the canonical academic approach with a few intriguing essays that reveal the relevance of Lyotard as a thinker of recent cultural problems ... Lyotard and Critical Practice promises that a return to Lyotard is a publishing endeavour that is worth pursuing. * Philosophy in Review * This text is the perfect explanation of what is involved in doing critical practice through Lyotard. Using an author's conceptual tools against his own thinking is the only way for a philosopher to survive the epistemological limits of his time, and this is what we see in many of these texts. What makes a thinker contemporary is never his conclusions, but the tools he offers to future thinkers. * Cultural Politics * In Lyotard and Critical Practice, Kiff Bamford and Margret Grebowicz have assembled an exciting time machine of philosophical cultural criticism. With its poly-vocal passage through hitherto little-heard and little-considered aspects of Lyotard's work, the inventor of postmodernism is credited not only with a special presentness, but with an enormous ability for the future. Reading the book is an empathic invitation to think transversally and to sharpen an idea of critique that is deeply rooted in sensual experience, especially at a time when our existence is becoming increasingly technical. * Siegfried Zielinski, Michel-Foucault-Professor for Techno-Aesthetics and Media Archaeology, The European Graduate School / EGS, Switzerland *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
16 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
400 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-20190-3 (9781350201903)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Kiff Bamford | Margret Grebowicz
Lyotard and Critical Practice
E-Book
08/2022
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€32.99
Available for download
Kiff Bamford | Margret Grebowicz
Lyotard and Critical Practice
E-Book
08/2022
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€32.99
Available for download
Persons
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-Francois Lyotard: The Interviews and Debates (Bloomsbury, 2020).
Margret Grebowicz is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. She is the author of Whale Song (Bloomsbury, 2017) and editor of Gender after Lyotard (2007).
Margret Grebowicz is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. She is the author of Whale Song (Bloomsbury, 2017) and editor of Gender after Lyotard (2007).
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction - Kiff Bamford (Leeds Beckett University, UK) and Margret Grebowicz (University of Silesia, Poland)
Part I: What Resists Thinking
1. Listening to the Mute Voices of Words: Errant Pedagogy in the Zone, Derek R. Ford (DePauw University, USA)
2. Animal Testimony: Cetaceans Between the Interspecies and the Inhuman, Margret Grebowicz (University of Silesia, Poland) and Marina Zurkow(New York University, USA)
3. Under Threat: Rights and the "Thing", Claire Nouvet (Emory University, USA)
4. A Matter of Time: Colour, Affect, and the Suffering of Thought, Georges Van Den Abbeele (University of California, USA)
Lyotard Supplement I
5. "The Affect-phrase" (from a Supplement to The Differend)-J.-F. Lyotard, translated by Keith Crome
6. "The Other's Rights," J.-F. Lyotard, translated by Chris Miller and Robert Smith
Part II: Long Views and Distances
7. Citing and Siting the Postmodern: Lyotard and the Black Atlantic, John E. Drabinski (Amherst College, USA)
8. Jean-Francois Lyotard's Marxism, in Socialisme ou Barbarie and the Algerian War, Claire Pages (The University of Tours, France)
9. Lyotard and the Inhuman Mode of Production, Bartosz Kuzniarz (University of Bialystok, Poland)
10. Lyotard after Us, Yuk Hui (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Lyotard Supplement II
11. "What we cannot reach flying we must reach limping" Art Present: Interview with J.-F. Lyotard by Alain Pomarede, translated by Kiff Bamford and Roger McKeon
12. "Apathy in Theory", J.-F. Lyotard, translated by Roger McKeon
Part III: Why Art Practice?
13. Mute Communication: Drawing the Military-Industrial Complex, Jill Gibbon (Leeds Beckett University, UK)
14. Critical Practice and Affirmative Aesthetics, Ashley Woodward (University of Dundee, UK)
15. "hang on tight and spit on me": Lyotard and Contemporary Art, Stephen Zepke (Independent Researcher, Austria)
16. Uncertain? For Sure. Limping? Certainly: Limp Thoughts on Performance Practice, Kiff Bamford (Leeds Beckett University, UK)
"Afterword": Lyotard's Prescience, Peter Gratton (Southeastern Louisiana University, USA)
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction - Kiff Bamford (Leeds Beckett University, UK) and Margret Grebowicz (University of Silesia, Poland)
Part I: What Resists Thinking
1. Listening to the Mute Voices of Words: Errant Pedagogy in the Zone, Derek R. Ford (DePauw University, USA)
2. Animal Testimony: Cetaceans Between the Interspecies and the Inhuman, Margret Grebowicz (University of Silesia, Poland) and Marina Zurkow(New York University, USA)
3. Under Threat: Rights and the "Thing", Claire Nouvet (Emory University, USA)
4. A Matter of Time: Colour, Affect, and the Suffering of Thought, Georges Van Den Abbeele (University of California, USA)
Lyotard Supplement I
5. "The Affect-phrase" (from a Supplement to The Differend)-J.-F. Lyotard, translated by Keith Crome
6. "The Other's Rights," J.-F. Lyotard, translated by Chris Miller and Robert Smith
Part II: Long Views and Distances
7. Citing and Siting the Postmodern: Lyotard and the Black Atlantic, John E. Drabinski (Amherst College, USA)
8. Jean-Francois Lyotard's Marxism, in Socialisme ou Barbarie and the Algerian War, Claire Pages (The University of Tours, France)
9. Lyotard and the Inhuman Mode of Production, Bartosz Kuzniarz (University of Bialystok, Poland)
10. Lyotard after Us, Yuk Hui (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Lyotard Supplement II
11. "What we cannot reach flying we must reach limping" Art Present: Interview with J.-F. Lyotard by Alain Pomarede, translated by Kiff Bamford and Roger McKeon
12. "Apathy in Theory", J.-F. Lyotard, translated by Roger McKeon
Part III: Why Art Practice?
13. Mute Communication: Drawing the Military-Industrial Complex, Jill Gibbon (Leeds Beckett University, UK)
14. Critical Practice and Affirmative Aesthetics, Ashley Woodward (University of Dundee, UK)
15. "hang on tight and spit on me": Lyotard and Contemporary Art, Stephen Zepke (Independent Researcher, Austria)
16. Uncertain? For Sure. Limping? Certainly: Limp Thoughts on Performance Practice, Kiff Bamford (Leeds Beckett University, UK)
"Afterword": Lyotard's Prescience, Peter Gratton (Southeastern Louisiana University, USA)
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors