Jean-François Lyotard in his The Postmodern Condition (1979)—the book that (for better or worse) brought the term “postmodernism” into common usage—defines postmodernism as ”incredulity toward metanarratives.” He claims that the very nature of knowledge has been changed by the developments in technology and information theory since the 1950s; the goal is now exchange rather than acquisition of knowledge. He sees a move from scientific knowledge to narrative knowledge, since the scientific method can no longer legitimate itself in such a world.
So, does this paradigm shift point to the same changes that Hayden White and Elizabeth Clark are demonstrating in history and texts? Does White presuppose (a few years early) the postmodernism that Lyotard names? What are the consequences when/if narrative knowledge can no longer legitimate itself? (Perhaps see the Annalistes like Febvre and Braudel as analyzed in Elizabeth Clark’s History, Theory, Text.)
