Chapter 1 Reading
In: Inhuman EducationsSearch for other papers by Derek R. Ford in
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Focusing primarily on Lyotard’s dissertation project, which resulted in his book Discourse, Figure, this chapter examines different practices of reading. These each depend on the ways in which we acknowledge, appreciate, and engage with the discursive elements of the text—those concerning articulation, publicness, dialogue, and critique—and figural elements of the text—those that resist, undermine, and are prior to or beyond articulation. Bringing in Nina Berberova’s The Revolt, from which Lyotard takes the notions of the public life, secret life, and the general line between the two, I show how the dominance of discourse chips away at the general line between the public and secret life and, therefore, the figural properties of text. In response, I propose the contrasting practices of developmental reading and childish reading, each of which reinforce distinct inhuman educations. After showing how development reading works to reinforce not only the logic of the system but the racist nature of its contemporary manifestation, it provides some examples of how Lyotard’s writing leads us into childish and secret reading practices.