Destination Unknown: Jean-François Lyotard and Orienting Musical Affect

Abstract

Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) was an early theorist of postmodernity though the waning discourse of cultural ‘postmodernism’ has meant that many of his later writings have received little attention from scholars. Although music was never a central concern of Lyotard, it does recur with regularity as a topic throughout his writings. This essay considers the place of Lyotard's conception of affect in his discussions of listening and of contemporary music. As I suggest, music and affect, for Lyotard, share a number of challenges in that both introduce types of untranslatability and miscommunication—hence, a profound uncertainty and disorientation—among subjects. Nevertheless, these same features join with the role of technology and the feeling of time within postmodernity in characterizing (negatively) the present and pointing (more positively) to the development of new sound possibilities, new feelings, and ultimately, new relationships that are necessary within the ‘spaceless zone’ of the future.

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