Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 14:51:23 -0100
Subject: Re: marxist grand narrative - the return?


Steve/All,

Lyotard is mentioned online, page 157, and in pages following there is
discussion of
postmodernist and religious-fundamentalist views, and why, in the authors'
opinion,
they fail to understand the concepts that the book presents.


> Hugh/Eric
>
> One of the recent points I have trying to make is that the political shift
has
> been away from the perspectives engaged in by Lyotard towards an
acceptance of
> the necessity of  grand narratives. Lyotards rejection of western marxist
> positions has itself been supplanted by a reengagement in those forms of
> theoretical and political practice... There is a, as evidenced in the
Empire
> text itself, shift towards an acceptence that change is possible and that
the
> pessimism so much in evidence in Lyotard's late writings may be
misplaced...
>
> In the discussion point raised below - the attempt at a 'universal'
history is a
> longstanding leftwing dream derived in this case from the work of D&G in
turn
> related to Marx, Dumezil and Mumford. The issue is related to what is the
intent
> of the text - which can be placed as an attempt to construct an argument
around
> the new faces of the postmodern empire. (see the sections on Imperial
> Sovereignty for example)
>
> regards
>
> sdv