The object of this study is the condition of knowledge in the most highly developed societies. I have decided to use the word post-modern to describe that condition. The word is in current use on the American continent among sociologists and critics; it designates the state of our culture following the transformations which, since the end of the nineteenth century, have altered the game rules for science, literature, and the arts. The present study will place these transformations in the context of the crisis of narratives.
Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Part of the series “Theory and History of Literature”, vol. 10, edited by Wlad Godzich and Jochen Schulte-Sasse, translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1984[1979].
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