Signed, Malraux

by Jean-François Lyotard

Traces the life and career of the French novelist, describing his participation in the Spanish Civil War, command of a World War II resistance brigade, and his position as a government minister.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Jean-François Lyotard (DrE, Literature, University of Paris X, 1971) was a French philosopher and literary theorist. He is well-known for his articulation of postmodernism after the late 1970s and for his analysis of the impact of postmodernity on the human condition.

He went to primary school at the Paris Lycées Buffon and Louis-le-Grand and later began studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. After graduation, in 1950, he took a position teaching philosophy in Constantine in French East Algeria. He married twice: in 1948 to Andrée May, with whom he had two daughters, and for a second time in 1993 to the mother of his son, who was born in 1986.

Reviews

[James]

"From Clara, he (Andre Malraux) learns that not every woman dooms every man to the vanity of survival, that woman is not of necessity either deadly mother or frivolous whore, that she may be his sister or his mistress in the insurrection of the soul and body. She may sustain the promise of childhood instead of dashing it." This reflection on Clara while in Florence, according to the author, "was perhaps the only moment of grace in Malraux's disgraced life."

The perception of human qualities and refinement in text make Jean-Francois Lyotard a highly recommended author.