The thought of Friedrich Nietzsche is often taught, but seldom sufficiently understood, and thus what ought to be most challenging to us about Nietzsche – that is, the rationalistic basis of his rejection of liberal democracy – is not squarely confronted. I propose to lay the ground for such a confrontation. / text

No / Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über unterschiedliche wissenschaftliche Erklärungsansätze zum bemerkenswerten Aufstieg der FPÖ Jörg Haiders in den 1990er Jahren. Daran anschließend werden einige kulturelle und historische Aspekte, die von anderen Ansätzen nicht beachtet wurden, welche aber einen wesentlichen politischen Hintergrund für Haiders Erfolg bildeten, beleuchtet. Es wird argumentiert, dass die FPÖ eine ausgesprochen erfolgreiche Strategie verfolgte, indem sie ein auf traditionellen und antimodernen Werten basierendes österreichisches Identitätskonzept (re-)konstruierte. Besonders deutlich wurde dies im aggressiven ¿Kulturkampf¿, den die FPÖ gegen KünstlerInnen und Personen des kulturellen Lebens Mitte der neunziger Jahre führte. Haiders Version des rechten Populismus erwies sich deswegen als besonders erfolgreich, weil sie einen in der österreichischen Gesellschaft nach 1945 stark verankerten Parochialismus politisch zu instrumentalisieren vermochte.

La thèse se propose d’effectuer une lecture analytique et comparative de la production littéraire qui a eu lieu au cours de la première et de la deuxième mondialisation moderniste à l’époque contemporaine. Suivant la logique de l’évolution économique mondiale de Kondratieff, il s’agirait de la période de création esthétique et littéraire moderne entre 1850 et 1920, postmoderne entre 1950 et 1990, et hypermoderne à partir des années 2000. Ceci dans le but de vérifier si le roman moderniste, post- et hyper-moderniste, colonial et postcolonial pouvait acquérir le statut de littérature mondiale (Weltliteratur) fondée sur l’unité dualiste du système-monde capitaliste et sur l’idée de modernité antimoderniste ; telle que Baudelaire la définit en 1863 dans le Peintre de la vie moderne : « la modernité, c'est le transitoire, le fugitif, le contingent, la moitié de l'art, dont l'autre moitié est l'éternel et l’immuable ». La thèse se propose d’expliquer l’unité antagoniste de la notion de littérature mondiale et de l’affirmer comme œuvre d’art totale (Gesamtkunstwerk), moderne, à travers la vérification parallèle de l’existence d’un paysage mondial littéraire. Celui-ci, aussi fondé sur une approche dualiste -esthétique/stylistique et phénoménologique -, serait le produit (anti)moderniste des deux périodes de mondialisation capitaliste. / The doctoral thesis proposes to effectuate an analytical and comparative reading of the literary production that took place during the first and second modernist globalization in the Late modern period. According to the logic of the world economic evolution of Kondratiev wave, it would be the period of modern aesthetic and literary creation between 1850 and 1920, postmodern between 1950 and 1990, and hypermodern from 2000 onwards. In order to ascertain whether the modernist, post- and hyper- modernist, colonial and postcolonial novel could acquire the status of world literature (Weltliteratur) based on the dualistic unity of the capitalist world-system theory and on the idea of modern anti-modernism ; as Baudelaire defined it in 1863 in The Painter of Modern Life (Le peintre de la vie moderne). The thesis proposes to explain the antagonistic unity of the notion of world literature and to affirm it as a modern "total work of art" (Gesamtkunstwerk), through the parallel verification of the existence of a literary world landscape. The latter, also based on a dualistic approach - aesthetic /stylistic and phenomenological - would be the (anti)modernist product of the two periods of capitalist globalization.

For the 70 years since Independence, India has been facing a two-fold problem: on the one hand, there is a strong need of a just society on the basis of cultural and religious diversity. On the other hand, however, there is a strong urge to find an overarching unifying idea which could keep the polity together without any risk of further fragmentation. Taking the communitarian philosophy of Charles Taylor and his distinction between the politics of equal dignity and politics of difference as the basic conceptual framework, the thesis pursues three different objectives. First, to prove that affirmative approach towards recognition of minorities does not provide stability in the Indian case. Second, to rehabilitate the Nehruvian secularism as a viable state ideology of independent India. And third, to interpret the Indian political discourse on the level of political practice as a struggle for hegemony between the elites and bourgeoisie in the Gramscian sense. The rise of identity politics and Hindu nationalism is thus perceived not as an outcome of the failure of the Indian secularism as such, but rather of its ineffective application and subsequent crisis of legitimacy. Keywords: India; multiculturalism; politics of difference; secularism; anti-modernism; Hindu nationalism; hegemony; passive revolution

This thesis examines the writing of Wei An苇岸 (1960-1999), a contemporary Chinese nature writer, from an eco-critical perspective grounded in deep ecological view. Urged on by China’s environmental crisis and social problems, and influenced by Western literature and his own life experience, Wei An developed his own deep ecological life philosophy. He respected every creature’s intrinsic value, appreciated the beauty and wonders of nature, advocated the Land Ethic and practiced vegetarianism. He highly treasured the agrarian civilization and objected to modern industrialization, in which he saw very little of any value. Meanwhile, Wei An’s ideas contain questionable aspects like the exaggeration of the defects of modernization and idealization of rural living. Although filled with weak aspects, Wei An’s ecosophy is a faint but significant voice in contemporary Chinese literature and society, and reflects important changes happening in contemporary China.

This thesis examines the writing of Wei An苇岸 (1960-1999), a contemporary Chinese nature writer, from an eco-critical perspective grounded in deep ecological view. Urged on by China’s environmental crisis and social problems, and influenced by Western literature and his own life experience, Wei An developed his own deep ecological life philosophy. He respected every creature’s intrinsic value, appreciated the beauty and wonders of nature, advocated the Land Ethic and practiced vegetarianism. He highly treasured the agrarian civilization and objected to modern industrialization, in which he saw very little of any value. Meanwhile, Wei An’s ideas contain questionable aspects like the exaggeration of the defects of modernization and idealization of rural living. Although filled with weak aspects, Wei An’s ecosophy is a faint but significant voice in contemporary Chinese literature and society, and reflects important changes happening in contemporary China.