Lyotard's idea of the Sublime Neeraj V Murali College

In seeking to define the post-modern moment in his essay ‘Answering the Question: What Is Postmodernism?’, Lyotard uses and extends the Kantian theme of the sublime to serve as an entry point to conceptualize the ‘unrepresentable’, that which is considered a standard feature of Postmodernism. The ‘unrepresentable’ along with ‘experimentation’ is contrasted with the demand for unification backed by Realism in a period of slackening; even the conception of the sublime under Modernism and Postmodernism undergo certain changes. This essay will attempt to examine how Lyotard’s essay, with its emphasis on the sublime, panders out to qualify the nature of Postmodernism, if such an exercise be feasible at all. Moreover, the essay will try to capture the transitions that occur in the means of representations and the resulting changes in their societal positioning (and relevance).

Any investigation into the Lyotardian understanding of the sublime will have to begin with the list of issues voiced against experimentation in the artistic world. As Lyotard terms it, it is a ‘period of slackening’, where ‘the call for order, for identity and for security’ is growing stronger; it is being propounded that the intellectuals should be coerced to...