This study employs psychoanalytical theories to explore how the conscious, unconscious, and subconscious workings of the mind, combined with a search for identity, are presented and dealt with in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved (1987). It is done through a close reading and in-depth textual analysis of thematic concerns raised in the work. Previous research has primarily relied on some specific aspects of psychoanalytic theory and applied it to Beloved. The theoretical framework provides a rationale for this paper to research two events in particular that highlight the mother-daughter relationships between Sethe and her Ma’am and between Sethe and her daughter Beloved. These relationships are consequently analyzed by employing psychoanalytical concepts offered by Freud, Lacan and Kristeva. By utilizing psychoanalytical criticism, the characters’ conscious and unconscious motives and feelings are revealed and explained, as well as the meanings and the undercurrents that lie underneath the text’s consciousness. The results suggest that Sethe murdered her daughter Beloved to keep her from becoming a slave and enduring the dreadful and traumatic consequences of slavery, which was similar to what Sethe went through when she was abandoned by her Ma'am. Sethe’s childhood psychological principles and trauma shaped her identity as a mother as she witnessed her mother abandoning her at a young age by being tortured and killed. The events around Sethe’s mother’s death and the fact that Sethe never identifies her mother’s dead body, scar Sethe for life and instill in Sethe a sense of “lack” and an abnormal feeling of maternal love where she is ready to kill her children to save them from the horror of slavery.

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Dans ce travail nous analysons le rapport de l’individu au mimétisme dans l’œuvre de l’écrivain Chilien Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003). La notion du mimétisme est étroitement liée à celle du désir. En effet, selon le penseur français René Girard, l’individu ne désire pas par soi-même, mais il imite un modèle. Le désir est ainsi déterminé par ce médiateur. Cette forme de désir opère de manière inconsciente car le sujet est sûr de l’autonomie de son choix. Jacques Lacan enrichi cette lecture inspiré d’une idée typiquement hégélienne : le désir de reconnaissance. Pour Lacan, l’individu, avec une idée figée de soi-même (que Lacan appelle l’Imaginaire) est investi par le désir en forme de pulsion. Le mimétisme est double, non seulement l’individu imite des modèles pour tenter de correspondre à cette image figée, mais il destine son effort à être reconnu par les autres (que Lacan appelle le grand Autre ou le Symbolique). Cette étude utilise l’approche méthodologique que nous venons de décrire pour analyser l’œuvre de Roberto Bolaño. Bolaño, un des écrivains le plus importants de la littérature hispano-américaine des dernières années, est un auteur qui place au cœur de ses textes la problématique de l’autonomie du sujet. Cette problématique est surtout visible dans les deux thématiques, à notre sens dominantes, de son œuvre : l’art et le Mal. En effet, dans les textes de Bolaño il est toujours question d’artistes qui luttent pour faire reconnaître leur autonomie (c’est pour cette raison que ces artistes s’inscrivent souvent dans les mouvements d’avant-garde opposés à la tradition). De même, dans l’œuvre de l’écrivain chilien la violence est causée soit par la violence mimétique (les rivalités causées par une lecture erronée de la nature du désir : l’autre est un obstacle à la satisfaction du désir et non un médiateur de celui-ci) soit par les actes répondant à l’obsession d’un manque chez l’individu : généralement celui de ne pas pouvoir arriver à satisfaire une pulsion ayant son origine dans l’Imaginaire. / In this work we analyze the link between the subject and mimetic desire in the works of Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003). The concept of mimetic is closely related to the notion of desire. In fact, for French thinker René Girard, the individual doesn’t desire by himself, but he imitates a “model”. Desire is thus determined by the mediator. This type of desire operates in an unconscious way, because the subject is confident about the autonomy of his choice. French psychanalyst Jacques Lacan enhances this theory in a typically Hegelian way: the desire of recognition. For Lacan, the individual projects himself in a fixed image (called by Lacan the Imaginary); this fixation assails him in the form of a drive. Here mimetic desire is doubled: it doesn’t only imitate models to try to match with this fixed image, but also aims its effort to be recognized by others. Our work uses this methodological approach to study the works of Roberto Bolaño. Bolaño, one of the most important Hispanic American writers of the last years, puts the issue of the autonomy of the subject in the heart of his writings. This topic is mainly noticeable at the two main themes of his work: art and Evil. As a matter of fact, Bolaño’s writings always highlight the struggle of the artist who wants his autonomy recognized by the Other (for this reason, Bolaño’s artists are often members of the avant-garde, thus opposed to tradition). Correspondingly, violence can be caused in one hand by mimetic desire (rivalries provoked by an erroneous interpretation of desire’s nature: the Other is saw more as an obstacle for desire’s satisfaction than its mediator) or, on the other hand, by acts that meet the obsession of a lack: one that generally consist in a drive (originated in the Imaginary) that can’t be satisfied.

[pt] Esta dissertação propõe uma leitura da especificidade do laço social na atualidade, assim como propõe uma maneira como, a partir deste laço, poderia ser decantada uma política contemporânea. Para esta costura, uma leitura do sociólogo Zygmunt Bauman fornece balizas para delimitarmos o estado atual do laço social. Em seguida, algumas das perspectivas de Sigmund Freud, com relação ao social e aos modos de organização grupal, especialmente quanto ao lugar que estes dão ao líder, são contrapostas à descrição de Bauman. Jorge Alemán e Ernesto Laclau trazem, então, elementos para a aplicação de conceitos desenvolvidos por Jacques Lacan, a partir de Freud, ao momento político atual, especialmente no que concerne às concepções de solidão comum, significante vazio e ato instituinte. Por fim, os conceitos lacanianos de nó borromeano e sinthome são examinados para localizar em que se apoiam os conceitos de Alemán e Laclau, com referência ao ensino de Lacan. Amarra-se, assim, nossa dissertação, propondo alguma orientação dentro do campo demarcado. / [en] This dissertation proposes a reading of the specificity of the social tie in the present time, as well as proposes a way where, from this tie, a contemporary politics could be decanted. For this seam, a reading by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman provides reading beacons for delimiting the current state of the social tie. Next, some of Freud s perspectives on the social and modes of group organization, especially as to the place they give to the leader, are opposed to Bauman s description. Jorge Alemán and Ernesto Laclau bring elements for the application of concepts developed by Jacques Lacan from Freud s work to the present political moment, especially in what concerns his conceptions of common solitude, empty signifier and institute act. Finally, the Lacanian concepts of the Borromean node and sinthome are examined with the objective of locating in which the concepts of Alemán and Laclau are supported in the teaching of Lacan. Thus, our dissertation is tied, proposing some orientation within the demarcated field.

This study concerns the novel Die Schmerzmacherin. by Marlene Streeruwitz and analyzes the narrative as a story about gender as felt on and through the body. The theoretical framework employed in the analysis includes a look at the gender economy; this is done through a presentation of the different actors involved and their contribution to the dynamic. The gender economy itself is characterized as a phallogocentric forum where the possibilities of participation and effecting change are unequally distributed. The study goes on to argue that disciplinary power is how the actors in the novel are taught to engage with and submit to the rules of the gender economy, and different arenas or spaces of disciplinary power are described through text-based examples. It is further suggested that the power of engaging differently also lies within reach of the actors, and that this is accomplished through attuning to the affectively felt knowledge of the effects of the gender economy. Affective knowledge, the study argues, is gained through aesthetics, by which is meant an overcoming of sensory or affective numbness and a regaining of a sense of bodily reality. As a final note, the study briefly considers the role of art in such acts of re-sensitization. / Diese Studie behandelt den Roman Die Schmerzmacherin. von Marlene Streeruwitz und analysiert die Erzählung als eine Geschichte über Gender so wie es am und durch den Körper erlebt wird. In der Studie wird als Teil des theoretischen Rahmens die Gender-Ökonomie näher betrachtet; die Analyse erfolgt durch eine Darstellung der verschiedenen Akteur*innen und deren Beitrag zur Dynamik. Die Gender-Ökonomie an sich wird als eine phallogozentrische Bühne verstanden, auf welcher Möglichkeiten der Teilnahme und der Veränderung ungleich umgesetzt werden können. Die Studie wird auch zeigen, wie Disziplinarmacht den Akteur*innen die Regeln der Gender-Ökonomie beibringt und diese in verschiedenen Milieus durchsetzt. Es wird nahegelegt, dass die Akteur*innen auch andere Handlungsmöglichkeiten entdecken können, insoweit sie imstande sind, die affektiv erfahrenen Folgen der Gender-Ökonomie wahrzunehmen. In der Studie wird dafür argumentiert, dass ein derartiges Wissen über die körperliche Wirklichkeit auch entwickelt werden kann; anschließend wird die Rolle von Kunst kurz berücksichtigt.

Der Begriff Maskerade unterscheidet sich trotz etymologischen Verwandschaft vom Begriff Maske. Unter Maskerade werden vor allem Strategien der Inszenierung von Geschlechtsidentitäten verstanden, weshalb synonymisch häufig von Geschlechtermaskerade die Rede ist. Das Konzept hat in den Theater-, Film- und Literaturwissenschaften sowie in der Philosophie und der Psychologie Einzug gehalten. In den Gender Studies etablierte sich der Begriff in den 1990er Jahren, maßgeblich beeinflusst durch psychoanalytische und poststrukturalistische Theoriebildung. Mit der Maskerade können sehr verschiedene Phänomene bezeichnet werden, von der Pseudonymität weiblicher Autor_innenschaft bis hin zu alltagskultureller Performance und Körperinszenierung, etwa im Transvestitismus.

I offer a cloud of observations about language and art. I will prioritize my questions about how language operates in art, the way it functions within my own studio practice, and locate aesthetic interstices throughout. There will be insights gleaned from the various orderers of order (Lacan, Saussure) and orderers of disorder (Derrida, Agamben), walks in terra-incognita, and even some poetry on my part. I will take this chance to orient myself among different structures and deconstructions that have piledup around language, aesthetics and art.

The numerous and varied conspiracy theories which circulate in the contemporary discourse are subject to hyperstition, insofar as they are grouped into wider, more elaborate structures. Some of them become hierarchic to such a degree, that they may, in Michael Barkun's typology, be labeled as "superconspiracy" constructs. No author is more prolific and systematic in the crafting of these constructs than the guru of anglophone conspiracy theory belief, David Icke. The work attempts to keep as its object of study the work of David Icke and his "reptoid hypothesis," as it is effectively one of the most elaborate and baroque conspiracy theories which populate contemporary political discourse. It is Icke's oeuvre which this thesis attempts to recontextualize within the confines of critical social theory and Žižekian psychoanalysis. The existence of a "paranoid style" as professed by Richard J. Hofstadter can be noted throughout the history of western culture, from the Homeric gods, scheming behind the scenes, to its modern incarnations culminating in the superconspiracy constructs of David Icke, Alex Jones, and others. The work focuses not on specific conspiracy theories and their claim to facticity, but rather attempts to trace the structural features of Icke's construct and establish their underlying...

Dans son texte princeps " Dementia praecox ou groupe des schizophrénies " Paul Eugène Bleuler note que " l'autisme est à peu près la même chose que ce que Freud appelle autoérotisme ". Pourtant, en examinant en détails les autres définitions de l'autisme proposées par Bleuler, tout comme les travaux sur lesquels il a fondé ses élaborations, ainsi que les divers ouvrages de Sigmund Freud, rédigés pour répondre à Paul Eugène Bleuler, on peut constater, que cette remarque concernant la substitution pure et simple de l'auto-érotisme par l'autisme, en essayant éviter ainsi toute référence à la sexualité, est loin d'être exhaustive. La thèse de Bleuler selon laquelle " nous appelons autisme ce détachement de la réalité combiné à la prédominance relative ou absolue de la vie intérieure " ouvre des perspectives fort intéressantes pour la clinique. Ainsi ce n'est pas le narcissisme primaire, mais plutôt le narcissisme secondaire qui correspond à l'autisme bleulérien. Néanmoins cette réponse ne satisfait ni Sigmund Freud, ni Jacques Lacan qui essayent tous les deux d'affiner la conceptualisation psychanalytique des psychoses. Si Jacques Lacan a bien repris à son compte certains concepts freudiens, issus des tentatives de Freud de retravailler le concept bleulérien de l'autisme selon la théorie de la libido (comme le principe de plaisir / le principe de la réalité, la réalité psychique ou la perte de la réalité dans la névrose et dans la psychose), il les remanie à sa façon, souvent d'une manière subversive. C'est en questionnant et en remettant en cause le concept du narcissisme primaire, issu de la discussion à propos de l'autisme bleulérien, que Jacques Lacan en arrive à l'élaboration du stade du miroir et au cheminement qui lui permet la conceptualisation de l'aliénation / séparation, tout comme au questionnement du rapport du sujet et de l'Autre dans l'autisme. C'est ainsi qu'il indique également la perspective qui peut mener à la conception d'une certaine disposition du réel, de l'imaginaire et du symbolique selon la théorie des nœuds borroméens qui, à notre avis, pourrait correspondre à l'état autistique