Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Lyotard Domus

    Uploaded by

    CarsonBaker
    72 views5 pages

    Original Title

    lyotard_domus

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    72 views5 pages

    Lyotard Domus

    Uploaded by

    CarsonBaker

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 5
    Jean Frais tyoter JEAN-FRANCOIS LYOTARD French philosopher Jean-Frangos Lyotard (b 1924) isthe author af one of the hey texts on postmodernism. His work, The Postmodern Condition: A Report om Knowiedge, commissioned by the Quebec goverament, challenges many of the assumptions of modernism. Here Lyotard is concerned with the legiumation of Knowledge, especially scencfic knowledge, and obuerves famously the crits of legimation within the postmodem condiion. For Lyotad the principle of the “Grand Narrative’ (uberaism, Christianity, Communists et) has been elle into question, and the word should now be understood i terms of small oF local farraivs. Knowledge is now legitimated no longer according to any noun, af hhuman emancipation or speculaive spirit, bat solely through pecformative ds courses of economics and technology. {yours postion should nor betaken aa criticism of science per se, but rather lof techno-sctence’. Indeed his overall oudook would seem to suppor more recent theoretical developments in science soch as theories af complemty which break down traditional epistemologis of since. Likewite his crtaque of “Grand Narrasivs’ and his afnation of he specvry of genres of discourse should ot be taken as a espousal of relative, Indeed, while easier on Lyotard had been extremely active poltcaly, much of his later work was ken ap withthe problems ‘of politcal ageney and ethical imperauves. Moreover, he quessions the ethical ‘ontequences of Heidegger postion ia his book Heidegger and the Jews’ Published shorty alter revelations were made public of Heidegger’ political flistion with the National Socialist. It was not only Heidegger llence which was co be faulted, but the forging’ which i iherent in all hovght ‘his theme of the totaltaciansm potentially sanctioned by Heidesger’s philosophy of the sol takes om 3 specticlly architectural dimension inthe esa) "Damas and the Megalopolis” Here Lyotard exposes the potential violence that underwrite: the domesticated household Ina etgueofrectvedatitades towards the domestic dil he reveals the dark side of the doma The iaflence of Freud ‘noticeable elsewhere in mach of Lyotard’ earlier work it agai evident here, and Freud’ discussion ofthe ‘uncanny’ seemingly underpins the eeay, where etic? js the figure of both the familar and the open, the secret snd. the ceprested, Comparisons might aio be made with the work of Gaston Bachelard, where he cali sel athe eo he inscin ine with ng ne aa aces : . : sag 2m ‘Maa <. DOMUS AND THE MEGALOPOLIS DOMUS AND THE MEGALOPOLIS “The cepresentation of a facade. Fairly wide, not necessarily high. Locs of windows and doors, yet bind. Ast doesnot look af the visto, soit does not expect the visitor's look. What i it turned towards? Not much activity. Let» suppose that it’s prety hot outside, The courtyard is surrounded by walls and farm buildings. large cee of some kin, willow, horsechestnut, lime, a clump of pines. Dovecot, swallows. The child rises its eyes, Say it's seven o'clock i the evening. Onto the kitchen table arzve in their place ehe milky the basket of ‘eggs, the skinned rabbi. Then each of the frages goes to its destination, the dairy, the coo scullery, che cooking pot, the shelf. The men come home. Glasses of fresh wine. Across is made inthe middle ofthe large lot. Supper. Who il {getup to serve out? Common time, common sense, common place. That ofthe ddomius, that ofits representation, mine, here. There are varieties of the common place, cotage, manor. The ostentation of the facades, The commoners move around at a distance from the masters residences. In place of pastures and ploughed fields, parks and pleasant gardens offer themselves to the facade. Pleasure and work divide spave-ime and. are shared out among the bodies. les a serious question, historian’ ot sociologist's question, this division. But basically, extended or wot, divide ws notin its exploitation, the basis remains domestic. It isthe sphete of veferenc of the estate, a monad. A mode of space, time and body under the regime ( nature. A state of mind, of perception, of memory confined to is limits, but ‘where the universe is represented. I is the secret ofthe fagades. Similarly with action. The fruges are obtained by nature and from nature. They produce destroy and reproduce themselves stubbornly and according to the order of things. According to nature's care for itself, which is called frugal. Alla domenica, doms gives thanks for what has taken place and had its moment and peays for what will take place and have ite moment. The temporal regime of the domus is rhythm or chyme. Domestic language te rhythmic. There are stories: the genctationsy the locality, the seasons, wisdom and madness. The story makes beginning and end thyme, sears over the interruptions. Everyone inthe house finds their place and their name here, and the episodes annexed. Their births and deaths are als: inscribed, wll be inscribed inthe cree of tings and souls with therm, You are dependent on God, on nature. All you do is serve the will, unknown and well known, of physis, place yourself inthe service ofits urge of the phyeim which urges living mater to grow, decrease and grow again. Ths service is called labour. (With the dubious wish sometimes, to profiralto, that che estate should prof, from growth? One wonders. Rhythmed wisdom protects itself against pleonexa, the delirium of a growth with no return, a story with no pause for breath) ‘Ancila, te fernale servant. From ambi and colere, ambicla, she who turns all the way round, the old sense of colere, ro cultivate, to surround with care Culture has two meanings: cult ofthe gods, bu the gods also colunt damn, cultivate the dwelling, chey ucround i with their care, cultivate it with their circumspection. The female servant protects the mistress, orto serve isto keep, ‘When she gets upto serve at table, itis the nature-god who cultivates the hous, POSTMODERNISM ‘Lyotard is content cere, is at home. The domestic space is entwined and intertwined th cicumvolutions, with the comings and goings of conversations. Service is Biven and returned without any contact. Natural duties and rights. I find it hard to believe that this organic fe was che “primitive form of exchange as Mauss putt. Ie is community of work. Ir does not cease to work. It wotks its works itself. These operate and are distributed spontaneously, out of custom. The chuldis one of these works, te fist, che Girs-rut, the offering. The eld will bear fruit. Within the domestic rhythm, iis the moment, the surpension of beginning agua, the seed. is what wil have been. Ii the susprise the stoey starting over again. Speeches, infans, it wll babble, speak, tel Wories, will hhave cold scores, will hve stories told about, will have had stores told about 't. The common work is the domus itself in other words the community. fis the work ofa repeated domestication. Custom domesticats time, including the time of incidents and accidents, and also space, even the border regions Memory is inscribed not only in narratives, but in gestures, in the body's ‘mannerisms. And the narratives are like gestures, related to gestutes, places, proper names. The stoves speak themselves on theit own. They are language honouring the house, and the house serving language, The bodies take pause, and speech takes over from chem indoor, in the fields inthe middle of the woods. Such rch hours, even those of the poor. The past cepeats itself in work. Ie is fxed, which is ro say i is held back and forgotten, in legends. The donnus is the space-time of this reiteration. Exclusion isnot essential to the domestic monad. The poor man, the solitary traveller hasa place at the able. Let him give his opinions, show his talent, ell his story. People get up for him, too. Brief silence, an angel is passing, Be careful. What if he were a messenger? Then they will make sure he is remem- bered, domesticated. Bucolic eableau. Bowkolen does not only mean keeping the flock. Keeping ‘humans too, serving them. Yer the domus has a bucolic air only from outside, from ata, fom the city. The city spends centuries, maillenia slowly gnawing away at the domus and its community. The politcal city, imperial ot epublican, then the city of economic affairs, today the megalopolis spread out over what used 10 be the countryside. It stifles and reduces res domestcae, ‘urns them over to tourism and vacation. It knows only the residence (domicile) ie provides residences fr the presidents of families, the domi, it ‘bends them to egalitarian citizenship, o the workforce and to another memory, the public archive, which is writes, mechanographically operated, electronic, dors survey ofthe estates and disperses their order. It breaks up god-nature, its returns, its times of offering and reward. With another regulation of space. time sein place, i iin relation to this thatthe bucolic egime is perceived a8 melancholic survival. Sad wopics seen from the north. ‘A savouring of the sounds. Come from the near distance, che depths ofthe stables, cacklings, a silence hollowed out round the call ofthe owls when Venus shines out ar dusk, crackling of the alder branches thrown onto the hearth,

    You might also like