Subject: Re: What is Postmodernism?:  A Demand  
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 20:02:23 +0100


In a mail dated 26. October 19.45 (at least on my PC) M. Collette writes:


>When Lyotard mentions "Aufklarung" on page 72 I am guessing he is
>referring to an aspect of Modernism. Does any one have an English
>translation of this word and how it applies?

The "Aufklärung" here is the German term equivalent for English
"Enlightenment", and Lyotard refers here to (among others) Adorno's use of
the term. I guess his primary reference is to the "Dialektik der Aufklärung"
("Dialectics of Enlightenment").The term in Adorno's use have several
connotations, but one of them is the process of modernization. Lyotard is
also using this term (and the theories implied) to refer to Habermas's
thinking related to this theory, especially in Habermas's text about
modernity as an incomplete project. There seems to be, then, a opposition
between Habermas as modernist and Lyotard as postmodernist here. But I am
not so sure that the same dichotomy can be uses versus Adorno. There are
several features in Adorno's writings that could be related to Lyotard's
understanding of postmodernism, and there are also several similarities in
Adorno's texts and Lyotard's text. Lyotard's "discussion" with (or of)
Adorno is especially interesting (at least for me) in the text "Adorno come
diavolo" and "Heidegger et "les juifs"".
I hope this is answer to your question.

Erik Steinskog
Department of Musicology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
erik.steinskog-AT-hf.ntnu.no