Title:
REVIEWING METANARRATIVE FROM THE OUTLOOK OF LYOTARD'S POSTMODERN DISCOURSES

Authors:
Soumya Narayan Datta

Abstract:
Metanarrative or grand narrative is a term developed by Jean-Francois Lyotard to mean a theory that tries to give a totalizing, comprehensive account to various historical events, experiences, and social and cultural phenomena based upon the appeal to universal truth or universal values. In his book 'The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge', Lyotard analyzes the epistemology of postmodern culture as the end of 'grand narratives' or metanarratives which he considers a quintessential feature of modernity. According to Lyotard, reductionism and teleological notions of human history such as those of the Enlightenment and Marxism are among the metanarratives that have become untenable by technological progress in the areas of communication, mass media and computer science. Lyotard also professes a preference for the plurality of small narratives that compete with each other, replacing the totalitarianism of grand narratives. With the transition from modern to postmodern, Lyotard proposes that metanarratives should give way to 'petits recits', or more modest and "localized" narratives. Borrowing from the works of Wittgenstein and his theory of the "models of discourse", Lyotard constructs his vision of a progressive politics that is grounded in the cohabitation of a whole range of diverse and always locally legitimated language games.