This timely study reconsiders the later work of French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard through the lens of literary theory, offering an innovative and revitalising account of a thinker's conceptual trajectory that remains as yet unmapped. Collating Lyotard's disparate and often contradictory thoughts on literature, this title provides a challenging critique of his continual concern; namely, how to present the unpresentable and so phrase the inaudible Silence to which the differend attests. Against Lyotard, Dylan Sawyer argues that the philosopher errs in his comprehension of the concept itself and so doing delimits the capabilities of a discourse he is elsewhere so keen to valorise. Redressing Lyotard's lack of concrete examples concerning how to attest to the differend in practice, this book offers close examinations of 'literary differends' read in conjunction with narrative texts themselves, ranging from the classical works of Homer to the postmodern authors of today.

Dylan Sawyer received his English Literature Doctorate from Aberystwyth University and his MA in Philosophy and Literature from the University of Warwick, UK. His research interests are Post-War Continental Philosophy and late 20th Century Fiction.

List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Differend and Beyond
2. Housed Exile
3. Homer and Ondaatje
4. The Traumatic Sublime
Bibliography
Conclusion