The focus of this essay lies on examining the modernistic aesthetics of prose in Thorsten Jonsson’s novel Konvoj (1947). When Walter Benjamin wrote ”The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” he proved that new technological inventions affected the reception of art. By studying Konvoj in light of Benjamin’s theory, this study indicates that the technology of modernity affects the narrative and the use of metaphors in the novel. In addition I want to investigate how Konvoj can be studied through the theories of Marshall Berman, Theodor W. Adorno and Anthony Giddens, and this by envisioning the modernistic prose as a response to the 19th century modernity. This study illustrates that the style and the narrative aspects of the novel can be understood through modernity, and that the plot (and the characters) are all affected by it. The protagonist of the novel, Antoni Borowski, becomes an object when he is caught in a situation he can’t control, but also a subject when caught in situations he is capable of taking control of. The analysis shows that Konvoj is not only an innovative and an experimental novel in terms of its narrative, but also a novel in which the distinction between nature and culture affects the protagonist Borowski with confusion and alienation.

Ce travail vise à scruter quatre lectures de Kafka dans la philosophie allemande. Pourquoi ces philosophes ont-ils rencontré et interprété Kafka ? La première hypothèse est d’ordre biographique : leurs découvertes de Kafka sont marquées par le sentiment d’une proximité personnelle à l’égard ce qu’il donne à lire. Kafka est l’écrivain d’un certain moment, où le rapport à la langue ne va pas de soi, où l’expérience de l’exil prédomine, et où les mutations historiques rendent les contours de la subjectivité flous. La seconde hypothèse est philosophique : leurs lectures se fondent sur la nécessité de philosopher autrement, afin d’intégrer ces mutations. On ne peut plus penser selon les catégories du sens, de l’identité, de la conscience - mais il faut accepter que le sujet découvre en lui un étranger. Le défi que Kafka dresse devant ces philosophes serait donc de pouvoir « penser la métamorphose ». Celle du sujet, mais aussi celle que subit la philosophie au contact de la littérature. Et enfin, celle que Kafka invente dans l’ensemble de son œuvre, dont nous montrons qu’elle est irriguée par le « devenir-animal ». / We are focusing on studying four readings of Kafka in german philosophy. Why have these philosophers met and interpreted Kafka ? Our first hypothesis is a biographical one : their reading of Kafka’s books are influenced by the feeling of a proximity between his life and their experiences. Kafka represents a crisis : in his work, the language is not innate anymore, experiencing exile is prevailing, the historical mutations affect the concept of subjectivity. The second hypothesis concerns the philosophy itself : because of these mutations, the traditional metaphysical categories of sense or consiousness are obsolete ideas. The subject is becoming a stranger. Kafka is challenging philosophers to « think out the metamorphosis », the subject’s metamorphosis, the philosophy’s metamorphosis, and finally, the one Kafka invented, which is everpresent in his works, the notion of a « becoming-animal ».

Den här uppsatsen analyserar och jämför skildringar av konsumtion i Karin Boyes Astarte (1931) och Denise Rudbergs storlek 37 (2002). Detta görs utifrån teoretiska utgångspunkter i Zygmunt Baumans tankar om konsumtionssamhället, samt texter av Max Weber, Walter Benjamin och Giorgio Agamben som diskuterar kapitalismens förhållande till religionen. I Astarte är religionen framträdande som tematik och metaforik i relation till konsumtionen, och det som skildras är ofta hur konsumtionen ersätter religionen, men också hur dessa liknar varandra. I storlek 37 är konsumtionen starkt kopplad till identiteten, och fungerar både som en trygghet och ett måste. Skillnaderna i romanernas skildringar återspeglar konsumtionens roller under två olika tidsperioder: i Astarte är konsumtionen ett relativt nytt fenomen i sin moderna bemärkelse, och i storlek 37 är den i högre grad central för tillvaron, och som sådan mer oreflekterad och självklar. I Astarte finns en tydlig kritik mot konsumtionen, som förs fram genom skildringar av den som ett ändlöst begär eller en illusion. I storlek 37 kan konsumtionen stundtals problematiseras, men framstår som oundviklig. / This essay analyzes and compares depictions of consumption in Karin Boye’s Astarte (1931) and Denise Rudberg’s storlek 37 (2002). The theoretical framework consists primarily of Zygmunt Bauman’s thoughts on the consumer society, as well as texts by Max Weber, Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben discussing capitalism’s relationship to religion. In Astarte, religion is a prominent theme, and often used metaphorically in relation to consumption. Consumption is often depicted as replacing religion, in a way that emphasizes a resemblance between them. In storlek 37, consumption is strongly connected to identity, and functions both as a certainty and a must. The differences between the depictions in the two novels reflect the roles of consumption in two different eras: in Astarte, it is a relatively new phenomenon in its modern sense, and in storlek 37 it has become more central to human life, often occuring without reflection and perceived as a matter of course. Astarte sets out a visible critique of consumption, depicting it as an endless desire or an illusion. In storlek 37, consumption is sometimes questioned, but portrayed nevertheless as inevitable.

The aim of this essay is to show how the relationship between credit and critique is important for Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of law. I will start from Force of Law, in which law, as well as justice, is deconstructed by Derrida. My purpose is further to show how the two concepts, credit and critique, are intertwined in the discourse of law and thereby crucial for Derrida’s deconstruction. As Derrida always states, the rational projects need to have a master concept, which the project revolves around, and this master concept needs at least one other subordinate concept to contrast itself against. In this context, I argue that critique can be that master concept. I base this argument upon the fact that critique in its ancient Greek sense, krinein, can be translated into the verb ‘to separate’, ‘to decide’ or ‘to judge’, which shows that there is an obvious link to the task of a judge. This puts critique in center of the discourse of law. Credit on the other hand is not rational, which makes it opposed to critique, but it is still important for law. It is a typical subordinated concept that just appears in the discourse without any further explanation but is present by its implicit importance to the discourse. I argue that credit is the subordinate concept that is needed for the concept of critique to be a master concept. Both concepts are important for the foundation of law, and this is why I believe that Derrida in the end states the importance to take responsibility for the law. In other words, one must take responsibility for both founding aspects of credit and critique when deconstructing the law.

[pt] Esta tese discute o conceito de violência nas Relações Internacionais enquanto formula um referencial teórico alternativo que consiga articular crítica e a política a partir de um julgamento estético. Dessa maneira, o sujeito entende o mundo enquanto um fenômeno ao mesmo tempo constrói o espaço comum de significados e visibilidade. Por isso, esta tese destaca o lugar da experiência para problematizar as condições de possibilidade de compreender a violência como um fenômeno relevante. Então, a estética fornece a legibilidade através da qual podemos entender (e enquadrar) o conflito ao mesmo tempo em que destaca os limites e potencialidades deixados para a política. Este trabalho avança que a violência, dentro das metodologias tradicionais, é enquadrada pela dinâmica entre guerra e paz. No entanto, como categoria de compreensão do mundo social, argumentarei que o conflito é uma abstração teórica porque se baseia no que a realidade supostamente é. Nesse sentido, destacar como apreendemos os fenômenos permite ampliar narrativas alternativas e formas de ver o conflito e a violência nas RI. Com esse pressuposto, esta tese traz o pensamento de Walter Benjamin como um referencial inspirador para discutir o conceito de violência ao lançar luz sobre a experiência corporal da violência e o que dela resta. Para isso, vou me basear em obras de arte como suporte metodológico para compreender como apreendemos esteticamente os fenômenos. Este trabalho explora como a arte pode ser considerada um esforço epistemológico para compreender o conflito de forma diferente, além de uma representação da violência. Para seguir esse raciocínio, este trabalho considerará obras de artistas plásticos do Rio de Janeiro que discutem a violência contemporânea na cidade para destacar como a arte pode funcionar como dispositivo de pensamento e visibilidade. / [en] This thesis investigates the concept of violence in International Relations whilst formulating an alternative theoretical framework that observes critique and politics from an aesthetical judgement. It assumes aesthetics as the sensory experience of perception. The subjectivity apprehends the world as it appears to them while creating the common ground of meanings and visibility among others. Therefore, this thesis highlights the place of experience to problematise the conditions of possibility to understand violence as a relevant phenomenon. Then, the aesthetic provides the legibility through which we may understand (and frame) conflict while highlighting the limits and potentialities left for politics. This work advances that violence, within traditional methodologies, is framed by the dynamics between war and peace. Nevertheless, as a category of understanding the social world, I shall argue that conflict is a theoretical abstraction because it draws from what reality supposedly is. In this regard, highlighting how we apprehend phenomena allows an enlargement of alternative narratives and ways of seeing conflict and violence in IR. With this assumption, this thesis brings Walter Benjamin s thinking as an inspirational framework to discuss the concept of violence by shedding light on the bodily experience of violence and what is left from it. To do this, I will rely on works of art as methodological support to comprehend how we apprehend the phenomena aesthetically. This work explores how art can be considered an epistemological endeavour to comprehend conflict differently, beyond a representation of violence. To pursue this reasoning, this work will consider artworks from Rio de Janeiro s plastic artists that discuss contemporary violence in the city to highlight how art could function as a device of thinking and visibility.

[pt] Na passagem do século XIX para o XX, emergem, em diferentes espaços, experiências estéticas que se apresentam em franca afinidade com a modernidade exposta pelo poeta francês Charles Baudelaire, ainda em meados do século. Essa tese recupera a importância dessas experiências a partir da análise de algumas de suas revistas literárias, publicadas em quatro cenas finisseculares distintas: as experiências estéticas simbolistas nas revistas La Vogue (1886) e Le Symboliste (1886), em Paris, e nas revistas Pierrot (1890), Galaxia (1896) e Rosa-Cruz (1901/1904), no Rio de Janeiro; e as modernistas hispano-americanas na Revista de America (1894), em Buenos Aires, e na Revista Azul (1894), na Cidade do México. Ao mundo moderno finissecular, capturado pela ideia do progresso e da técnica, simbolistas e modernistas partilham uma crítica poética que reinsere a imaginação no livre fazer artístico em resistência ao pensamento cientificista, às normas acadêmicas e à mercantilização da Arte, o que permite entrever o caráter político intrínseco a sua manifestação estética. Reunidos em cenáculos e revistas literárias, esses artistas elaboram suas reflexões sobre a arte, o papel do artista e a linguagem poética. Embora a individualidade que compõe cada artista, a diversidade de elaborações intelectuais e as singularidades de cada experiência histórica, tanto em sua historicidade quanto nas condições culturais e sócio-históricas do momento de surgimento dessas experiências estéticas, desvele diferenças entre estas, ainda assim elas podem ser apresentadas sem que sejam apreendidas em relações lineares, progressivas e hierarquizadas, comumente dicotomizadas, que as conformem como centrais ou periféricas, originais ou imitadoras, modernas ou pré-modernas, entre outros. Para pensar essas experiências e a poética crítica da modernidade fora dessa conformação dada pelo continuum da História, a imagem da constelação, apresentada por Walter Benjamin, é mobilizada nesse trabalho ao mesmo tempo como proposição teórica e modo de exposição. Benjamin mostra como é possível dar a ver nos elementos distantes-diferentes uma tênue ligação, outrora não aparente, iluminada a partir da apresentação desses em constelação. Essa tese é composta então por três momentos. No primeiro, é realizado um panorama sobre a questão da modernidade em Baudelaire e sobre as configurações das cenas finisseculares em que surgem as experiências simbolistas e modernistas, destacando que, estéticas, elas compreendem a dimensão política. Esse primeiro momento ainda traz o debate em torno da imagem benjaminiana da constelação. No segundo, discute-se a questão da crítica moderna para, então, no terceiro momento, contemplar o compartilhamento de ideias e imagens presentes nas críticas que figuram, sobretudo, mas não apenas, nas revistas literárias simbolistas e modernistas, em uma apresentação da modernidade em constelação. / [fr] Au tournant du XIXe au XXe siècle, des expériences esthétiques qui se montrent en nette affinité avec la modernité exposée par le poète français Charles Baudelaire, au milieu du XIXe siècle, émergent dans différents espaces. Cette thèse récupère l importance de ces expériences-là à travers l analyse de certaines de ses petites revues publiées dans quatre villes distinctes à la fin du siècle - à savoir, les expériences esthétiques symbolistes: à Paris, dans La Vogue (1886) et Le Symboliste (1886), et à Rio de Janeiro, dans Pierrot (1890), Galaxia (1896) et Rosa-Cruz (1901/1904); et les expériences esthétiques modernistes hispano-américains: à Buenos Aires, dans Revista de America (1894), et, à Mexico, dans Revista Azul (1894). Dans le monde fin-de-siècle capturé par les idées du progrès et de la technique, les artistes symbolistes et modernistes partagent une critique poétique qui réinsère l imagination dans le faire artistique en résistance à la pensée scientifique, aux normes académiques et à la marchandisation de l Art, ce qui laisse entrevoir leur caractère politique intrinsèque à sa esthétique. Réunis en cénacles et dans les petites revues, ces artistes élaborent leurs réflexions sur l art, le rôle de l artiste et le langage poétique. Et même si l individualité de l artiste, la diversité des élaborations intellectuelles et les singularités de chaque expérience historique, tant dans sa historicité que dans les conditions culturelles et socio-historiques au moment de l émergence des ces expériences esthétiques, révèlent des différences entre elles, celles-ci peuvent encore être présentées sans être appréhendées dans des relations linéaires, progressives et hiérarchiques, communément dichotomisées, de supériorité ou subordination les uns par rapport aux autres, qui les conforment comme centrales ou périphériques, originales ou imitatives, modernes ou prémodernes, etc. Pour penser ces expériences et la poétique critique de la modernité en dehors de cette conformation donnée par le continuum de l Histoire, l image de la constellation présentée par Walter Benjamin est mobilisée dans cet thèse à la fois comme proposition théorique et mode d exposition. Benjamin montre comment il est possible de voir dans les éléments distants-différents une connexion ténue, non apparente auparavant, éclairée par la présentation de ceux-ci en constellation. Cette thèse est alors composée de trois moments. Le premier comprendre un tour d horizon de la question de la modernité chez Baudelaire et des configurations des les quatre villes à la fin du siècle où les expériences symbolistes et modernistes surgissent, soulignant que, esthétiques, celles-ci relèvent du politique. Dans ce premier moment il y a encore un débat autour de l image benjaminienne de la constellation. Ensuite, dans le deuxième moment, la question de la critique moderne est abordée. Finalement, dans le troisième moment, le partage d idées et d images présentes dans les critiques qui apparaissent, surtout, mais pas seulement, dans les petites revues symbolistes et modernistes sont exposés dans une présentation de la modernité en constellation.

Raymond Williams argues that a community’s cultural texts naturally draw upon its lived experience, and are thus a trustworthy expression of life within that community. This thesis explores the subject positions expressed in two contemporary texts—Wang Yuan’s Lipstick (又 红), and Ning Ying’s I Love Beijing (夏日暖洋洋)—to understand how urban Chinese individuals experience and comprehend the transformations convulsing their cities. To facilitate this, my primary goal in this thesis is to build a theoretical framework that uses the psychoanalytic work of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek to create the concept of the fantasy construction of the desiring subject. Using this concept, and drawing on two aspects of the cultural theories of Walter Benjamin—his heavily citational methodology and his theory of the flâneur—I examine the role of fantasy in the construction of contemporary urban Chinese individuals as desiring subjects. / Graduate / 0305 0295 / stetard@me.com

Après la Second Guerre mondiale, André Malraux publie en 1951 Les Voix du silence chez Gallimard, refonte en un volume des trois tomes de Psychologie de l'art édités par Albert Skira entre 1947 et 1950. Partant du constat que les reproductions d'oeuvres d'art permettent de constituer un " musée imaginaire " dépassant les divisions géographique et historique des musées et des oeuvres, l'auteur développe une théorie de l'art transgéographique et transhistorique dans une relation serrée avec l'iconographie. Malraux s'inscrit ainsi dans une histoire de l'histoire de l'art dont le propos en images contient une théorie liée à la monstration des oeuvres par la reproduction photographique. " Le musée imaginaire " est ici considéré comme un exposé de méthode informé par la lecture des textes de Walter Benjamin. C'est alors la méthodologie historique dans son rapport avec la forme de l'écrit qui peut être saisi, son travail sur l'image lui permettant de construire une théorie propre, mais aussi de représenter visuellement son histoire de l'art de manière " cinématique ". A partir de là, c'est l'histoire de la photographie et de l'édition d'histoire de l'art qui se révèle. Son utilisation de la reproduction photographique s'inscrit en effet dans le cadre d'une réflexion sur le médium même de diffusion du discours sur l'histoire de l'art en proposant une forme éditée jouant avec les codes du genre éditorial. Une série de comparaisons avec les ouvrages de Georges Bataille, de René Huyghe, de Georges Duthuit, d'Ernst Gombrich et de John Berger permet d'en révéler la spécificité et de situer les textes de Malraux au sein d'une de l'histoire de l'histoire de l'art.

This thesis, called The Relationship between Redemption and Emancipation in the Political Theology of J. B. Metz, concerns the political theology of J. B. Metz. The first part summarizes the influences, which shaped his theological thinking and it presents his concept of political theology. The next part asks a question about the relationship between the ideas of redemption and emancipation in Metz's theology. This is based on the interpretation of a chapter from his book, Glaube in Geschichte und Gesellschaft, which concerns the topic. But before the interpretation of Metz's text, the problems of relationship between the two terms and of their origin are described. The extent of the field of meaning of the term "emancipation" is illustrated by the examples of the thinking of Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx and Jürgen Habermas. A large part is dedicated to the figures of the Frankfurt school, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, and their specific approach to the idea of emancipation and the Enlightenment tradition. The final thesis rejects the opinion, that the ideas of emancipation and redemption in Metz's theology coincide too much and it puts stress on the importance of the term "history of suffering" for solving this problem of Metz's theology. Keywords political theology, J. B. Metz, emancipation,...

This thesis examines contemporary street art and its exhibition in galleries and museums in connection with Walter Benjamin's concepts of aura and authenticity in the postmodern period. Street art is posited as a marginal art evolving out of the tradition of 1970's New York graffiti that can be made to function as a type of anti-spectacle within the spectacle of the mainstream. Situationist theory and concepts within the agenda of Unitary Urbanism (psychogeography, the dérive, and détournement) are used to evaluate contemporary street art as anti-spectacle. Photography, as a primary method of documenting street art, is considered as a mechanically reproduced medium bringing into play discourses of repetition and originality, which are in turn related back to Benjamin's concepts of aura and authenticity. Andy Warhol, his Pop Art iconography, and practice of seriality are also considered as an influence on contemporary street art's imagery and underlying practice. Warhol's promotion of an "art star" persona is also related to such contemporary street art "stars" as Banksy and Mr. Brainwash.