Abstract

This work is intended to provide, at first, a context and organization for Jean-Francois Lyotard's early work in aesthetics, and, second, to draw certain parallels between this work and other theories in the field so as to indicate some of its potential directions for the study of art. The import of this analysis is to establish that Lyotard's early aesthetics constitute, first of all, a specific register of certain determinate trends on the continental scene; second, that the aesthetics, though borrowing from some of the main trends in continental aesthetics and literary theory, contains its own unique vision of art; and finally, that this approach is a workable form of aesthetic analysis, comparable, in its practical applications, to the more well-known forms of continental art and literary theory , and fully adequate to deal with many of the internal problematics constituting modern aesthetic theory--problematics that range from the question of expression in poetry to the nature of the aesthetic object. Obviously, the main objectives of this project are largely reconstructive and expository, but reconstructive and expository out of necessity, since Lyotard's libidinal aesthetics is by and large my invention and not his. Hence, in the broadest sense, my task is to critically delineate and evaluate this extremely important period of his overall work