Master-narratives persist unconsciously rather than disappearing outright

Evidence

This seeming contradiction can be resolved, I believe, by taking a further step that Lyotard seems unwilling to do in the present text, namely to posit, not the disappearance of the great master-narratives, but their passage underground as it were, their continuing but nowunconsciouseffectivity as a way of “thinking about” and acting in our current situation. This persistence of buried master-narratives in what I have elsewhere called our “political unconscious,” I will try shortly to demonstrate on the occasion of the present text as well. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 43

Categorization

• XREF: This is the crux of Jameson’s disagreement with Lyotard — master-narratives survive underground in the political unconscious, which directly feeds what Jameson argues in Postmodernism (1991). — connects to: Histories and causal narratives persist buried inside the language used to tell them; Identity politics can trade one master narrative for another rather than escape them; The 1987 crash memory persists institutionally even as living memory fades — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 935 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Distinguishes Lyotard’s claim (metanarratives die) from Jameson’s revision (they go unconscious): a definitional pivot in the debate.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: Jameson’s ‘political unconscious’ frames — how exactly does a buried master-narrative act unconsciously on present thinking?

Broader Connections

• Histories and causal narratives persist buried inside the language used to tell them #corroborates (0.85)
• Identity politics can trade one master narrative for another rather than escape them #exemplifies (0.82)