Thursday, February 7, 2008

The Loss of the Meta-Narrative


Lyotard has some powerful things to say about the loss of meta-narrative in our post-modern world. He feels that we have lost this unifying "story" that provides the center to any society or culture.

I chose to illustrate this using a collage of doors: some very old, some classical, some very modern. This multiplicity of openings represents the fragmentation of story and the multiple "mini-narratives" that we are in the process of creating for ourselves. We have fragmented our lives into "A thousand localized roles," illustrated by the many doors. There is no one way in or out!

(See here for a good summary of Lyotard's original article. [PDF download.] )

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