Central to animal studies is the question of words and how they are used in relation to wordless beings such as non-human animals. This issue is addressed by the writer D.H. Lawrence, and the focus of this thesis is the linguistic vulnerability of humans and non-humans in his novel Women in Love, a subject that will be explored with the help of the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s text The Animal That Therefore I Am. The argument is that Women in Love illustrates the human subjection to and constitution in language, which both enables human thinking and restricts the human ability to think without words. This linguistic vulnerability causes a similar vulnerability in non-human animals in two ways. First, humans tend to imagine others, including non-verbal animals, through words, a medium they exist outside of and therefore cannot be defined through. Second, humans are often unperceptive of non-linguistic means of expression and they therefore do not discern what non-human animals may be trying to communicate to them, which often enables humans to justify abuse against non-humans. In addition, the novel shows how this shared but unequal vulnerability can sometimes be dissolved through the likewise shared but equal physical vulnerability of all animals if a human is able to imagine the experiences of a non-human animal through their shared embodiment rather than through human language. Hence the essay shows the importance of recognizing the limitations of language and of being aware of how the symbolizing effect of words influences the human treatment of its others.

Si le rapport entre Derrida et Bergson n’a pas fait l’objet de nombreuses études, les commentaires existants témoignent à peu près tous d’une vision commune : entre les deux philosophes, les divergences peuvent être atténuées, voire dissoutes, par la considération de convergences plus fondamentales. Les pages qui suivent seront l’occasion pour nous de faire contrepoids à cette vulgate interprétative. Sans nier l’existence de points de contact entre Derrida et Bergson, nous voudrions en effet montrer qu’un important désaccord subsiste entre eux au sujet de la possibilité de l’intuition. Alors que Derrida met en cause les doctrines intuitionnistes, Bergson érige l’intuition en méthode philosophique. Le présent mémoire prendra pour fil conducteur les motifs de cette discorde. Réduit à sa plus simple expression, l’objectif que nous y poursuivrons sera de montrer que les pensées bergsonienne et derridienne, lorsque mises en dialogue, révèlent un désaccord partiel qui permet de réfléchir de façon féconde sur la possibilité de l’intuition. Pour être plus exact, nous caresserons ici une triple ambition : i/ cerner étroitement l’objet du litige entre Derrida et Bergson, trop peu souligné par les commentateurs, et dont nous montrons qu’il s’articule à une entente partielle ; ii/ tirer au clair les diverses raisons qui amènent l’un à s’en prendre à l’intuition, l’autre à embrasser la méthode intuitive ; iii/ établir que certains arguments de Bergson, bien qu’ils connaissent un regain d’intérêt depuis quelques années, paraissent lacunaires lorsqu’on les confronte à différentes objections. / Although studies of the relation between Derrida and Bergson are few and far between, they nearly all share a common vision: that of attenuating – or even altogether eliminating – the divisions between the two philosophers’ thought, by considering their more fundamental convergences. The following pages will allow us to counterbalance this common interpretation. Without denying the points that Derrida and Bergson do have in common, we will show an important divergence in opinion between the two on the idea that intuition is possible and founded. While Derrida lays doubt on intuitionist doctrine, Bergson establishes intuition as a philosophical method. This thesis examines the motives behind this divergence. Put simply, a comparison of Derridian and Bergsonian thought reveals a partial disagreement that enables fruitful reflection about whether or not intuition is possible. More precisely, we pursue three objectives here: i/ to clearly identify the scope of the disagreement between Derrida and Bergson, often overlooked by previous commentaries, showing that it includes a partial agreement; ii/ to clarify the diverse reasons leading Derrida to deny the very existence of intuition while Bergson embraces intuition as a philosophical method; and iii/ to show that certain Bergsonian arguments, although enjoying a resurge in interest in recent years, appear unable to stand up to several different objections.

This study explores formal and thematic representations of ruins in twentieth century literary texts, including James Joyce’s Ulysses, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, and Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck.” Analyzing these texts and concepts of ruins in the theoretical work of Jacques Derrida, Walter Benjamin, and Julia Kristeva, I argue that ruins underscore the arbitrariness—and, thus, the fragility—of symbolic systems of signification. Ruins, by virtue of their fragmentation, invite nostalgic projections of totality only to betray totality as an illusion. Thus, the imagination of wholeness that the ruin incites allows—only to disallow—meaning. Modernity and language also initiate an allegorical process by which representation is made possible and impossible. Proclaiming an alliance (based on a contrast) between the past and the present, signifiers and signifieds, modernity and language likewise betray that representation, by invoking a radical alterity, is ruined from inception.

Student Number : 7639580 - MA research report - Faculty of Humanities / This research report explores the motif of the water journey as a metaphor for philosophical enquiry in Melville and Conrad by comparing Moby-Dick with Heart of Darkness, and Billy Budd, Sailor with Lord Jim. It takes as its starting-point M.H. Abrams’s essay, “Spiritual Travelers in Western Literature”, and adapts the typology which he introduces by identifying four different kinds of fictional journey, namely, the physical, the experiential, the narrative and the hermeneutic. By concentrating on a broadly-based semiotic approach to interpretation (while also allowing for other critical possibilities), it examines Melville and Conrad’s treatment of certain pivotal issues in metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. It compares the narrative strategies of the two authors and, by offering close readings of the four texts under discussion, it highlights the similarities and differences in the authors’ responses to a universe of teasing complexity, as well as exploring the reader’s engagement with such texts.

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Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T13:55:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 447353.pdf: 1245058 bytes, checksum: f42c2947915207a6fd4fea1079a4061c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-05 / Seg?n Paul Celan el poema est? de camino quiz?s al otro totalmente otro, experiencia imposible en la exposici?n a las alteridades que imanta las lecturas de Emmanuel Levinas en Paul Celan De l ?tre ? l autre(1972) y de Jacques Derrida en Schibboleth pour Paul Celan (1986) y B?liers le dialogue ininterrompu: entre deux infinis, le po?me (2003). Sin ignorar las rupturas, la distancia, la pasi?n de verdad indesligable del secreto sin secreto, el cortante quiasma que solicita portar sin reposo, a la vez que dejarse portar por el otro, a la vera del fin y del otro lado del mundo, en el interminable giro de aliento dictado, hiperbolizado, virado, contrafirmado en la antecedencia de cualquier otro totalmente otro, el peregrinaje del poema, irreductible a la autosuficiencia soberbia de lo bello, a la autotelia, aventura en la inaprensible errancia meridional de las cenizas a la abertura irremediable del pensamiento a lo que arriba, en memoria de lo que in-finitamente nutre el por venir aqu? y ahora. / Segundo Paul Celan o poema est? de caminho qui?? ao outro totalmente outro, experi?ncia imposs?vel na exposi??o ? alteridade que imanta as leituras de Emmanuel Levinas no Paul Celan De l ?tre ? l autre (1972) e de Jacques Derrida no Schibboleth pour Paul celan (1986) e B?liers le dialogue ininterrompu: entre deuxinfinis, le po?me (2003). Sem esquecer as rupturas, a distancia, a paix?o de verdade insepar?vel do segredo sem segredo, o cortante quiasma que solicita portar sem repouso ao outro, ao mesmo tempo em que se deixar portar pelo outro, ? beira do fim e do outro lado do mundo, na intermin?vel mudan?a de alento ditada, hip?rboli?ada, virada, contra-assinada na anteced?ncia de qualquer outro totalmente outro, a peregrinagem do poema, irredut?vel ? auto-sufici?ncia soberbia do belo, ? autotelia, aventura na inapreens?vel errancia meridional das cinzas ? abertura irremedi?vel do pensamento ao que vem, na mem?ria do que in-finitamente nutre o por vir aqui e agora.

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本文試結合禮物致贈和待客之道，討論其在經典文學作品和人類學記錄中，隱含對文明發展及個人主體的省思。禮物實踐的弔詭和難題，自人類學家摩斯（Marcel Mauss）以來，到文學批評學者德希達（Jacques Derrida），屢在當代不同學科引發興趣。禮物的經濟效益似乎直接挑戰命題本身，搖擺於權宜交換的迷思和禮物的形上真諦。待客之道，則屬當代法國哲學家列維納斯（Emmanuel Levinas）的倫理思想中心。列維納斯認為待客之道隱喻無限可能的化身，能解套傳統主體為上的僵局，亦為主體對未知／上帝的責任。德希達將之援引，同視為（不）可能任務。在此脈絡下，本文試圖在不同文本／文明間對照，探究禮物和待客之道所指之善行本質，超越的欲望，及與他人／它者互動的界限辯證。所用方法主要為重新闡述西方文明重要來源之《聖經》，文藝復興時期莎士比亞四大悲劇中的《李爾王》，以及作為西方文明它者的泛伊斯蘭文學遺產《一千零一夜》。本文認為，以顯在(present/presence)為軸的人文精神，其先驗的暴力特質，一方面淋漓表現於禮物(gift/present)及待客之道；一方面正因這不可迴避的暴力和超越可能性(possibility)恆使文學作品以禮物和待客之道作為生命常軌之外的轉折點，彷彿是作家和學者對於智識外的不可計算(uncalculated economy)，以不可能(the impossibility, the absolute other)的踪跡(the trace)形式，留下對彼在(there is)／他者(the other)的悅納(welcome)。 / The themes of hospitality and gift-giving in literature oftentimes pass unnoticed by literary critics because the themes seem to be so naturally embedded in literature that perhaps an event of murder might interest the critics more. But hospitality and gift-giving are important because, as part of our living experience and with the possibility of going beyond the logic of exchange and altruism, hospitality and gift-giving subtly reveal to us the eternal concerns of astonishment, death, God, violence, and human relations. In this respect, hospitality and gift-giving radically challenge our conception of subjectivity. The following dissertation which consists of my collection of thoughts is therefore, metaphorically, a tangent touching, or better yet, approaching yet without appropriating the other in the postmodern philosophical context. My interpretation of “the absolute other” aims to make an argument that actions of hospitality and gift-giving, albeit without the acknowledgement of the subject, exhibit the desire of approaching “the absolute other” and simultaneously acknowledge the limit of subjectivity. In this attempt to lay open the interrelationships between hospitality and gift-giving by illustrating the “otherness” in subjectivity, responsibility, and God “the absolute other,” I draw from various sources in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Through review of these multiple sources I contend that genuine hospitality and gift-giving can give rise to various levels of meanings to the absolute alterity of otherness. The selected literary texts under the discussion respectively are: the Bible, King Lear, and the Arabian Nights. The reasoning behind this choice is an intention to comprehend the otherness across cultural boundaries. I examine the Bible to contend for the Hebraic tradition and Pauline Christianity, King Lear the renaissance enlightenment, and the Arabian Nights the Western other.

This thesis examines the fragile perimeter that separates an illusory reality from the supposedly more authentic Real it conceals, which forms a key focus of Slavoj Žižek’s work, and in this thesis I offer a study of the relations between this aspect of Žižek’s work and film theory. In particular, this thesis is an elaboration on and interrogation of Žižek’s employment of the Lacanian notion of the Real in critiques of the inadequacy of 1970s and 1980s film theory and its widespread adoption of a Lacanian model of film-spectator relations. By way of illustration, I consider the microgenre of films released between the years 1998 to 2000 that includes the Matrix trilogy, David Fincher’s Fight Club, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show, and Alex Proyas’ Dark City, which are all similarly fascinated by the border between a fake reality and an ostensibly more genuine real. However, I also argue that this cycle of films does more than illustrate a fascination with that which is in excess of signification: this cycle of films equally participates in the reappraisal of this important phase of film theory. This thesis proceeds from a consideration of Žižek’s assertion that Lacanian psychoanalysis is missing from the dominant field of film theory. To assess this claim, I re-examine the era of political modernism. From this it becomes clear that what Žižek is noting is not the total absence of Lacanian psychoanalysis, but, rather, an absence of the version of Lacan to which he is drawn. This thesis considers aspects of the Real that contaminate the form and matter of these films, in addition to the thematic exploration of the shadowy world beyond reality. In pursuing this investigation, this thesis utilises the insights of the deconstructive work of Jacques Derrida, to consider the terms ‘form’, ‘content’ and ‘matter’. These words are ubiquitous in film studies, and I aim to explicate not their final meaning, but the way in which the Real interrupts the very stability of vocabulary used in film studies. I interrogate the concepts of gaze and voice as privileged instances of the way in which the Real can rupture the symbolic in narrative film. Without seeking to reject these aesthetic figures, through critical readings of key theories of embodiment, the grotesque and the abject (such as those of Marks, Shaviro, Sobchack, Bakhtin and Kristeva), I suggest how the body and its representation provides a more sustained motif where the Real leaves its trace in these films. This thesis proposes that it is above all through such representations that these films offer a response to the themes with which politically modernist film theory has been historically concerned. The Edge of the Construct films achieve this in their evocation of an intolerable namelessness at the centre of the human subject and the social world it inhabits. / Thesis(Ph.D.) -- School of Humanities, 2008