The Figure and the Figural: the Aesthetics of Jean-Francois Lyotard at First Approximation

This text is an explication of Jean-Francois Lyotard’s reasoning from the book “Discourse, Figure” and an attempt to translate his original concepts into the space of modern Russian philosophical discourse in general and into aesthetic discussions in particular. The focus is on the figure (figural) - the remnant of sensory impressions that discourse cannot absorb. The figure is created by the eye from the traces of sensory impressions, it is full of ambiguities, condensations, overlays; the best analogue of the figure is a dream. Nevertheless, the figural deals with truth, which reveals itself on its surface as “sensible meaning”. The figural and the discursive are separated by a difference, which does not prevent them from existing side by side, forming symbioses: discursive figures and figural discourses. Lifelike, figurative images-representations are a special case of figural ones. The appearance of figures, which is marked by the sliding of a discursive, meaningful and ordered world into chaos and nonsense, is always an event. Lyotard identified three types of figures. The figure-image is visible, has a contour. The figure-form is not visible, but contributes to the visible. The figure-matrix is a closed primary fantasy, generating images and forms. The figures are connected with the unconscious, their creation is directed by desire. The latter as a form of a primary energy flow is involved in the figure-matrix. The figure-image draws its material from life impressions and weakened desire. In art, the figural deconstructs discourse and critiques fantasy. Both functions are involved in poetics. Lyotard found confirmation of his theory of the figure in the graphics of Paul Klee.