(grand récit) Lyotard, Jean-François
’s term for ideas, concepts, notions, or beliefs which can function to legitimate certain social actions and practices. For instance, the notion of revolution, since the French Revolution, has served to legitimate large-scale programmes of social change. Similarly, the notion of Enlightenment has served to legitimate a movement toward secular reason. Such grand narratives no longer function, according to Lyotard who defines the postmodern age as being characterized by incredulity towards all grand narratives. Several critics have argued that it is too early to say that all grand narratives have become defunct. Marxism (it is thought by many) still retains its power to give social life coherence and meaning. In Anglo-American Cultural Studies, grand narrative has been interpreted to mean any form of overarching ideology, which it then codes as oppressive.