The Postmodern Condition. Translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Foreword by Fredric Jameson

This founding essay of the postmodern movement argues that knowledge-science, technology, and the arts-has undergone a change of status since the 19th century and especially since the late 1950s.

Many definitions of postmodernism focus on its nature as the aftermath of the modern industrial age when technology developed dynamically. In The Postmodern Condition Jean-Francois Lyotard extends that analysis to postmodernism by looking at the status uf science, technology, and the arts, the significance of technocracy, and the way the flow of information and knowledge are controlled in the Western world. Lyotard emphasized language; the world of postmodern knowledge can be represented as a game of language where speaking is participation in the game whose goal is the creation of new and ever-changing social linkages.

"Lyotard's classic argues that postmodernism's 'legitimation crisis' has been precipitated by 'the collapse of metanarrative'-that is, the supreme (and supremely unified and unifying) fictions we tell ourselves about ourselves." -Voice Literary Supplement

"Lyotard's essay is a welcome addition to the American Critical Scene." -Philosophy and Literature

Jean-Fran?ois Lyotard (1925-1998) was one of the principal French philosophers and intellectuals of the twentieth century. His works include The Differend (1989), Just Gaming (1985), Heidegger and "the jews" (1990), The Postmodern Explained (1992), Political Writings (1993), Postmodern Fables (1997), and Signed, Malraux (1999).