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Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition

1979 · Paris (Paris, France)

In 1979 Jean-François Lyotard publishes The Postmodern Condition, a report on knowledge commissioned by the government of Quebec: postmodern, simplifying to the extreme, is incredulity toward metanarratives. The book gives the movement its defining formula and its philosophy of the end of grand stories: emancipation, progress, and the system alike.

Tagged: Postmodernism

The Event

Date
1979 (exact)
Era
The Naming; Standard periodization of postmodern history
Location
Paris; today Paris, France
Traditions
Postmodernism
Streams
Postmodernism
Key figures
Jean-François Lyotard
Key texts
The Postmodern Condition

Connections

Illustration for Jencks's The Language of Post-Modern Architecture History Event Jencks's The Language of Post-Modern Architecture 1977 the term Jencks launched in architecture given its philosophy

Primary Sources

  • Lyotard, Jean-François. La condition postmoderne. Paris: Minuit, 1979.

Secondary Sources

  • Bertens, Hans. The Idea of the Postmodern: A History. London: Routledge, 1995.
  • Hassan, Ihab. The Postmodern Turn. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987.
  • Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 1988.

Provenance: HIST-1442; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.

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