'In the wake of The Differend' An Introduction to The Later Interviews and Debates

This introduction to the anthology identifies the role of discussions related to and following on from Lyotard's main book of philosophy, The Differend, articulating its contemporary resonances in relation to considerations of colonialism, the meta narrative of 'the west', and re-orients currently dominant views of Lyotard's work in relation to a certain discussion of the postmodern. The extent to which the collected interviews and debates complicates and questions the narrow legacy of Lyotard's work is made possible by the location of a longer, changing view of the postmodern through considerations of interactions with 'the Inhuman', 'the Immaterial' and material found in archival sources. The contextualising introduction is conceived as a critical part of the volume, a chapter which re-considers the legacy of The Postmodern Condition and The Differend in contemporary debates and discuss the implications of Lyotard’s work outside Metropolitan France. For example, the volume includes the transcription of a video interview made in English in 1996 with Patricia Dailey (then a research student at Emory University, now faculty at Columbia University, NY) which throws light on the late seminars given on Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Georges Bataille and a late approach to aesthetics which is infrequently discussed. This video was found, undigitized, in the archives of the University of California, Irvine whilst on a research visit in 2019 and through correspondence with Professor Dailey its publication is now being made possible. Continuing the approach taken in the previous volume, correspondence with interlocutors, translators and interviewers help to furnish and embellish previously underestimated connections and contexts. These details appear in the volume either as editorial notes to the published chapters or discussed in the introductory chapter.