University Communications
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

Release date: Sept. 21, 1999
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Assistant Director, 404-727-0644, or dhammac@emory.edu

DERRIDA TO GIVE KEYNOTE LECTURE AT EMORY'S INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON PHILOSOPHER JEAN-FRANÇOIS LYOTARD

WHO: Jacques Derrida, philosopher and scholar considered the father of "deconstructionism"

WHAT: Keynote lecture of Emory's Jean-François Lyotard International Colloquium

WHEN: 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20. Colloquium runs to Saturday, Oct. 2

WHERE: 208 White Hall, 480 Kilgo Circle, Emory.

COST: Free and open to the public. For more information, call 404-727-6431. To see a map of campus, go on-line to www.emory.edu/MAP.

An international colloquium to honor the work of the late philosopher and Emory professor Jean-François Lyotard is being presented by Emory University's French and Italian department Sept. 30-Oct. 2. In the years prior to his death in April 1998, the controversial French philosopher, best known for his popularization of "postmodernism," split his time between Paris and Atlanta, where he was the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Philosophy and French at Emory.

Renowned philosopher Jacques Derrida, considered the father of "deconstructionism" will deliver the keynote address entitled "Lyotard and 'Us'." The question of what and who "we" designates in today's society was a central concern for Lyotard; his work had long focused on the social and political problems intensified by the fragmentation of society.

Lyotard was best known for introducing postmodernism into contemporary philosophical, political and literary discussions. Postmodernism had previously referred to an architectural movement that turned away from the more uniform and homogeneous spaces of classical and modern architecture. In his most famous book, The Postmodern Condition (La condition moderne, 1979; English translation, 1984), the term postmodernism came to refer to the absence of a common idea of "good" in today's heterogeneous societies.

Rather than lamenting the fragmentation of social identity and longing for some golden age prior to the unraveling of the social cloth, Lyotard viewed the contemporary questioning of identity as the best means to ward off the forces of oppression and totalitarianism. Born in 1925, Lyotard's coming-of-age during World War II and its atrocities had a profound impact on his work and beliefs.

While The Postmodern Condition gained fame due to its political implications, the book focused on the contemporary study methods of the sciences. While classical and modern philosophers followed a unified theory of knowledge-a "right way" to approach research in their fields-Lyotard observed how the historian, the physicist and the geologist adopt different assumptions and methods. In other words, in the sciences a diversity of approaches is not an obstacle but actually furthers new developments. Even 20 years ago Lyotard was discussing the impact of computers on knowledge.

Algerian-born Derrida has had an enormous impact on intellectual life around the world. He came into prominence in America with his critical approach of deconstruction, and it is this line of thought that continues to identify him.

Derrida's deconstructionist works are integrally related to the more general phenomenon of postmodernism. In the realm of social and political theory, what unites them-from Foucault to Baudrillard, from Lyotard to Derrida and others-is a challenge to the possibility of achieving justice or peace in the modern system of political and economic institutions, as well as the very ways we explain and understand ourselves. Especially in the latter domain, Derrida's deconstructionism is provocative, if not subversive, in questioning the dichotomies we live by, such as legitimate/illegitimate, rational/irrational, fact/fiction, or observation/imagination.

Useful web sites for additional information on Jean-François Lyotard include:

http://werple.net.au/~gaffcam/phil/lyotard.htm

http://www.california.com/~rathbone/lyotard2.htm

http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/lyotard-bib.html

http://www.emory.edu/FRENCH/lyotard.htm (memoriam in French)

The complete program is as follows:

Thursday, Sept. 30-208 White Hall

4-5:30 p.m. Jacques Derrida, "Lyotard and 'Us'"

5:30-6:30 p.m. Discussion

Friday, Oct. 1-Michael C. Carlos Museum reception hall

9:30-11 a.m. Gérald Sfez, "Writing the Differend" Collège International de Philosophie, Paris

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Dorota Glowacka, "Lending an Ear to the Silence Phrase: Lyotard Between Ethics and Aesthetics" University of King's College, contemporary studies

1:30-3 p.m. Christopher Fynsk, "Jean-François' Infancy" SUNY-Binghamton, comparative literature

3-4:30 p.m. Ewa Ziarek-Plonowska, "Toward a Feminist Ethics of Difference: Polemos, Embodiment, Obligation" University of Notre Dame, English

4:30-6 p.m. Rodolphe Gasché, "Saving the Honor of Thinking" SUNY-Buffalo, comparative literature

Saturday, Oct. 2-Michael C. Carlos Museum reception hall

10-11 a.m. Philippe Bonnefis, "Passages of the Maya" Emory University, French and Italian

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Geoffrey Bennington, "Childish Things" University of Sussex, School of European Studies

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