Nothing Certain
He made the assertion that in Postmodernism;
Claims to ‘The Truth’ is a contested space.
Or, to put it another way…Postmodernism, says that ‘the truth’ is subjective.
Or, a third way. Postmodern society has lost faith with all of the big ‘truths. ‘ Whether those truth be from… God(s), politicians, education, progress, beauty, science, poetry, art, culture, capitalism, socialism, taste, values…
Postmodernists replay claims all ideas of the truth are just ‘competing claims to truth’ and what we collectively believe to be ‘the truth’ at any point is merely the ‘winning’ claim.
Lyotard suggested that ‘the truth’ was different for different groups and a better way to describe the world was through ‘petits récits’ “little narratives”, each of which was valid and socially necessary on a small scale.
This leads to plurality, many stories, many voices, many truths…all of which are valid.
Seems reasonable. Then again, don’t we need some shared systems of values and beliefs? We can’t tear them all down! Can we?
So What?
This takes you right back to Jameson and his observation that the tendency of postmodernism is to parody, pastiche, mock, subvert, lampoon, ridicule, question…any and all authority or grand narratives or media representation.