Grand Narrative

Term developed by Jean Francois Lyotard

What is a narrative?- anything that propagates a story or idea which has some degree of authority
and power.

“The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge”

He presents a definition of grand narrative-

"Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives”.

Here metanarrative and grand narrative stand for the same thing. Lyotard characterises postmod-
ernism where the grand narratives become non functional. He tries to promote a suspicion to-
wards the grand narratives.

He analyses the epistemology of postmodern culture as the end of 'grand narratives' or metanarra-
tives, which he considers a quintessential feature of modernity.

Why does grand narratives become unfunctional?

- According to Lyotard, by technological progress in the areas of communication, mass media and
computer science. So, Preexisting structures and hierarchies no longer is functional.

Postmodernism does away with the grand narratives. Instead of a grand narrative of knowledge
which was largely a Western Eurocentric narrative, we have different micro narratives which con-
test for credibility. The result is a plurality of language-games, a term coined by Wittgenstein. I’ll
be coming back to this term later on.

How does a particular sort of narrative become a grand narrative? A grand narrative can only
happen through legitimisation and reification. So postmodernism demands delegitimisation.

• This is where Habermas comes in- Modernity as an Unfinished Project- gives us an idea
of the public space. The public space becomes the space for consensus, where different
kinds of dialogues come together to create a consensus. Lyotard contests that severely. Ly-
otard is very much against that kind of a space formation that can also can become a
grand narrative. So such a space starts to contest the heterogenous nature of language
games.

• Coming back to the term, Language games- Postmodernism abandons absolute standards,
universal categories and grand theories in favour of local, contextualised strategies. Follow-
ing Wittgenstein, Lyotard describes social life as a series of language games'. This refers
to a set of linguistic practices, all marked by their own rules, conventions and aims. Lyotard
uses the analogy of a game of chess:

• The analogy of chess- if we sit down to play a game of chess we know the set of rules
which are predetermined. So each piece moves in a particular way. While we begin to
play the game of chess it is perfectly possible for us to combine the different rules we
know to make moves within the particular discursive frame. So in other words a game of
 chess would enable us to be creative in terms of how we use the rules without breaking the
rules. The postmodern condition is a condition where the grand narrative is replaced by
language games.

• Patriarchy as a grand narrative-

• I’ve mentioned that how a grand narrative is legitimised and reified in the society. So, simi-
larly patriarchy becomes a grand narrative in the following order. It is a subconscious sub-
scription and that is what makes the grand narrative successful in the first place. That is
we strap to it subconsciously, we conform to it without questioning.

• It naturalises itself as a given discourse, as a given situation that we do not even question
it. So that becomes by default a default grand narrative that people abide by, people con-
firm to

• Bell Hooks’s essay ‘Understanding Patriarchy’ becomes sort of a micro narrative

which aims to dismantle the binary. It moves away from the binary which says that men
are evil and men are the perpetrators of patriarch and women are just the innocent victims,
sufferers of patriarchy. It moves away from the particular binary and it offers a more com-
plex understanding of patriarchy. Promotes subjective experiences.

5:36
5:27
5:20
Simulacra

I will be referring to Jean Baudrillard’s book, “Simulacra and Simulation”

This is a 1981 philosophical treatise which tries to show the grim reality of how the relationship
between reality, symbols, and society is changing and how we are moving away from the essential
nature of truth.

According to Baudrillard, when it comes to the postmodern simulation, “It is no longer a question
of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for
the real”

- So, Baudrillard is not just suggesting that postmodern culture is artificial. His point, rather, is
that we have lost all ability to make sense of the distinction between nature and what is artificial.

NO TRUTH- To the post structuralists, there is no stable point from which anyone can ever
assert that they've arrived at the truth because it would be absurd to think that we have access to it.

ALL WE HAVE ACCESS TO ARE CULTURAL CODES- all that we as human beings can ever
hope to have access to is a set of cultural and scientific constructions that were created in an at-
tempt to understand reality. So, what we refer to as the truth is really just the current temporary
dominant narratives of our culture’s way of making sense of things. 

MASS CONSUMERISM- Baudrillard would say that we live in a fragmented disconnected soci-
ety that, in order to compensate for that fragmentation we become obsessed with mass con-
sumerism and visual images. society spoon-fed that constant stream of visual images through the
television in the 1980s but the modern-day equivalent would of course be cell phones and comput-
ers these visual images fuel that mass consumerism because people look to what's on their screens
to determine not only the next thing they're going to buy but also once they buy it what that thing
they bought is going to say about them to the people around them.
What Buadrillard is trying to show that there is no sense of truth anymore. Even the social media
profiles, no matter how we claim it is true to our nature, it definitely is a copy or manifestation of
some ideology or some idea, thus being a copy.

COPY OF A COPY-  
Baudrillard thinks most people have become completely and utterly disconnected from anything
real because all we know are copies of the ultimate truth. the only thing they have access to is a
copy of a copy of a copy of something.

Baudrillard argues that there are three "orders of simulacra”

As the order increases, it becomes more detached to reality.

1) in the first order of simulacra, is where the image is a clear counterfeit of the real. the image
can be recognised as just an illusion. It can be recognised as a false image.

2) in the second order of simulacra, Baudrillard associates with the production of these false im-
ages. Like the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, where the distinctions between the
image and the representation begin to break down because of mass production and reproduc-
tion of copies. Such a production imitates reality so well, it threatens to replace the original (e.g.
in photography); however, one can still access the hidden fact of the real.

3) in the third order of simulacra, which is associated with the postmodern age, there is this ulti-
mate collapse between the reality and the imaginary. There is no longer any distinction be-
tween reality and its representation. This is the hyperreal variant. Ex- I would bring into ac-
count Nick Bostrom’s seminal essay, “Are we Living in a Computer Simulation?” He argues that
this reality that we are living in is indeed a hyperreal computer simulation and he somehow pos-
tulates and proves this.
The film, The Matrix, a science fic film- which is based on the theoretical basis of Baudrillard’s
book explores the simulated reality. But we see that Baudrillard in one of his interviews was not
very impressed by the movie because in the movie they show the true reality of things, but in this
postmodern age, that is the third order of simulacra, it is absolutely impossible to rediscover the
real because the real is no longer possible.

Jean Baudrillard when left with the choice between the simulated world and the real world the
vast majority of people are going to choose the simulation. most people have no desire whatsoever
for the deeper more nuanced complexities of the world. most people want to be given their daily
dose of the simulation, continue with their Sisyphean labour and be comfortably distracted from
the reality of things.

OPTIONAL-
Even Nick Bostrom’s essay “Are We Living in a Computer Simulation’ he says that if we discover
we are indeed living inside a simulated reality, such an existential realisation would not change or
affect our Sisyphean lives.
He argues that the implications would not be radical. For me, This would be a point of conflict be-
cause if we examine our ‘simulated’ reality, our common life would involve to get an education,
rise up in the capital society, and perish. What we usually strive for are certain life goals. Such de-
sires are short lived and once we achieve that goal, we strive for a new goal. So, we see that there is
no endpoint of our desires as they keep emerging but the question of our existence being a simu-
lated reality becomes a fundamental question. It means that we continue to live as ‘simulated’ ob-
jects with great desires helping us live the ‘simulated’ reality.

8:45
6:18