This thesis examines why contemporary transgender populations in democratic states fail to see the benefits of social rights legislation. I use Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer to explain how transgender people have become encamped in the margins of the contemporary biopolitical world in such a way as the rule of law does not apply to them. This encampment is especially severe for those who defy our current way of understanding transgender identity. I trace transgender back to its inter-war origins in order to establish how medicalized discourses have created the narrow contemporary definition. I use Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood, which details the lives of non-passing inverts in the “night-world” of interwar Europe, to trace an alternate history of transgender subjects who have been excluded from such discourses. Linking Barnes’s characterization of inverted figures to contemporary trans people who do not pass allows for the creation of alternate transgender epistemologies that undermine states of encampment. / Graduate / 0615 / 0298 / 0733 / agruenew@uvic.ca

From September 19th through October 3rd, 2008, Congress debated the largest government bailout in America history—the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA). Those sixteen days generated a vibrant conversation regarding the nature and severity of America’s economic crisis and the proper role of government in responding to such juggernauts. In this dissertation I explore the rhetoric generated by this bill and its context in hopes of illuminating the more general role of rhetoric in mitigating and exacerbating crises in capitalism. My hypothesis is that, in a global capitalist economy increasingly dependent on immaterial production (i.e., finance, the Internet, mass media, etc.), economic crisis rhetoric has become as essential to economic order as monetary and fiscal policy. To explore this claim, I focus on two key rhetorical tensions that drove much of the crisis rhetoric produced. The first of these battles is a rhetorical struggle over the spatial delineation between Wall Street and Main Street, while the second is a conflict between Keynesianism and neoliberalism in a rhetorical contest over the values of government interventionism. By analyzing a variety of policy and expert discourses that constitute the parameters of these discrete areas of debate, I argue that all rely on moral and ethical appeals to substantiate their meaning and validity. At the same time, I contend that these discourses are indebted to logics of institutional form and therefore cannot be abstracted from the financial and political contexts in which they reside. This insight leads me to forward a new theory of economic crisis rhetoric called the economic imaginary. By beginning with real economic events and then taking into account the discursive and extra-discursive forces that “overdetermine” its mediated understanding, the economic imaginary offers us a more empirical and cartographic account of how economic rhetoric actually operates in society. / text

Le thème de la mobilisation totale est au cœur de la réflexion actuelle sur le renouvellement des modes de subjectivation et des manières d’être-ensemble. En arrière-plan, on trouve la question de la compatibilité entre les processus vitaux humains et la modernité, bref, la question de la viabilité du processus de civilisation occidental. Au cœur du diagnostic: l’insuffisance radicale de la fiction de l’homo oeconomicus, modèle de l’individu privé sans liens sociaux et souffrant d’un déficit de sphère. La « communauté qui vient » (Agamben), la « politisation de l’existence » (Lopez Petit) et la création de « sphères régénérées » (Sloterdijk) nomment autant de tentatives pour penser le dépassement de la forme désormais impropre et insensée de l’individualité. Mais comment réaliser ce dépassement? Ou de manière plus précise : quelle traversée pour amener l’individu privé à opérer ce dépassement? Ce doctorat s’organise autour d’une urgence focale : [E]scape. Ce concept suggère un horizon de fuite immanent : il signe une sortie hors de l’individu privé et trace un plan d’idéalité permettant d’effectuer cette sortie. Concrètement, ce concept commande la production d’une série d’analyses théoriques et artistiques portant sur des penseurs contemporains tels que Foucault, Deleuze ou Sloterdijk, l’album Kid A de Radiohead ainsi que sur le cinéma et l’art contemporain chinois (Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-Wai, Wong Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Shu Yong, Huang Rui, Zhang Huan, Zhu Yu, etc.). Ces analyses sont conçues comme autant de passages ou itinéraires de désubjectivation. Elles posent toutes, d’une manière ou d’une autre, le problème du commun et de l’être-ensemble, sur le seuil des non-lieux du capitalisme global. Ces itinéraires se veulent liminaux, c’est-à-dire qu’ils se constituent comme passages sur la ligne d’un dehors et impliquent une mise en jeu éthopoïétique. Sur le plan conceptuel, ils marquent résolument une distance avec le paradigme de la politique identitaire et la critique des représentations interculturelles. / The theme of total mobilization is central to the contemporary reflection on the renewing of subjectivation processes and ways of being-together. In the background, we find the question of the compatibility between the human vital processes and modernity, or in other words, the question of the viability of Western civilization. At the core of the diagnosis: the radical insufficiency of the homo oeconomicus’s fiction, model of the private individual without meaningful social links and suffering from a sphere deficit. The “coming community” (Agamben), the “politization of existence” (Lopez Petit) and the creation of “regenerated spheres” (Sloterdijk) name as many attempts to think how to go beyond the henceforth improper and senseless form of individuality. But how are we to realize this overcoming? Or more precisely: which crossing to bring the private individual to operate this overcoming? This work is organized around a focal urgency: [E]scape. This concept suggest an immanent horizon of flight: it signs a way out of the private individual and draws a plan of ideality allowing to effectuate this exit. Concretely, this concept commands the production of a series of theoretical an artistic analysis of contemporary thinkers like Foucault, Deleuze and Sloterdijk, of Radiohead’s Kid A Album, and of different Chinese contemporary filmmakers and artists (Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-Wai, Wong Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Shu Yong, Huang Rui, Zhang Huan, Zhu Yu, etc.) These analyses are conceived as passages or itineraries of desubjectivation. They all posit, in one way or the other, the problem of the common and of the being-together, on the threshold of global capitalism’s non-places. These itineraries are meant to be liminal, i.e. they constitute as many passages on the line and imply an ethopoietic mise en jeu. Conceptually speaking, they mark a distance with the identity politics paradigm and the critics of intercultural representations.

Cette thèse aborde la question de la valeur de la littérature contemporaine, en posant la question de la puissance de la création langagière. Dans la mesure où l’humanisme tombe en désuétude avec la fin de l’hégémonie médiatique de l’imprimerie, et où le capitalisme contemporain assigne à la culture un rôle économique et récréatif, la « littérature » se retrouve sans « critère final » pour penser sa puissance non économique. En d’autres termes, quels sont les effets intermédiaux de la création langagière livresque qui survivent à l’humanisme tout en résistant à la communication récréative? Il en va bien sûr de la nature même de la « création littéraire ». Le premier chapitre explore les liens entre l’humanisme et l’imprimerie à partir d’un concept de fongibilité, et introduit un ensemble de concepts clé. Le deuxième chapitre présente un autre ensemble de concepts (dont le geste vertical), cette fois pour penser le langage en termes de pouvoir et de puissance. Le troisième chapitre aborde le « capitalisme civilisationnel » en termes intermédiaux. On y réfléchit sur la saturation, la séparation et la fenestration, notamment à partir d’une éthique du jeu. Le quatrième chapitre traite de la question de la plasticité. Enfin, les cinquième et sixième chapitres forment deux exemples – des exemples de puissance – à partir des oeuvres de Valère Novarina (Lumières du corps) et de David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest). Le corpus théorique se compose d’éléments puisés d’une part dans l’oeuvre de Walter Benjamin et de Giorgio Agamben, selon un matérialisme messianique, et d’autre part dans celle de Gilles Deleuze. Certaines considérations sont également tenues sous l’influence de Michel Foucault et de Ludwig Wittgenstein. / This thesis broaches the value of contemporary literature as power (puissance) of language creation. Given that humanism becomes obsolete with the end of the printing press media dominance, and given that contemporary capitalism assigns an economical and recreational role to culture, “literature” is left without any “final criterion” to think its non-economical power. In other words, which intermedial effects of language creation through book form survives humanism while withstanding recreational communication? In the process, the practice of creative writing and its idea are set under a new paradigm. The first chapter explores the relationships between humanism and the printing press based on a concept of fungibility, and it introduces a set of key concepts. The second chapter presents another set of concepts (including vertical gesture), this time in order to think language in terms of ruling power (pouvoir) and virtual power (puissance). Chapter three broaches the idea of “civilizational capitalism” in intermedial terms. Saturation, separation and windowing are considered according to a game/play ethic. Chapter four is about plasticity. Finally, chapters five and six follow two examples—examples of virtual power, those of contemporary French writer Valère Novarina (Lumières du corps) and American novelist David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest). The theoretical corpus is composed of elements taken, on the one hand, from Walter Benjamin’s and Giorgio Agamben’s works (regarding messianic materialism), and on the other hand, from Gilles Deleuze’s works. Some ideas are also influenced by Michel Foucault’s and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s works.

This thesis explores the sense and the implications of the messianicity without messianism, a quasi-concept coined by the thinker Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) in the 1990s that refers to a “structure of experience” characterized by a lack of conclusion. On the one hand, this thesis examines the role that this notion plays within the vast work of Derrida; it aims at demonstrating that it neither indicates a rupture nor it constitutes a mere reformulation of his previous postulates. On the other hand, it establishes a dialogue between this quasi-concept and the use that a number of authors of the XXth century and the beginning of the XXIst, from different contexts and interests, do of the messianic tradition in order to formulate their own understandings of history, linguistics, politics and ethics. This thesis goes in depth into the shortcomings of the proposals of these authors and claims that the messianicity without messianism avoids many of them and offers a more fertile model for describing reality and acting in it. The final aim is to contribute to the reception of this quasi-concept ―which, in our opinion, so far has been slanted and insufficient― and prove that it rescues us from both the risks of the fundamentalisms and those of the paralyzing “everything goes” brought about by the phenomenon of the death of God. / Esta tesis explora el sentido y las implicaciones de la mesianicidad sin mesianismo, un casi-concepto acuñado por el pensador Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) en los años noventa del siglo XX que alude a una “estructura general de la experiencia” caracterizada por la ausencia de conclusión. Por un lado, esta tesis examina el papel que dicha noción desempeña dentro de la vasta obra de Derrida; quiere demostrar que ni supone una ruptura en su obra ni se trata de una mera reformulación de postulados anteriores. Por el otro, establece un diálogo entre este casi-concepto y el uso que una serie de autores del siglo XX e inicios del XXI, desde contextos e intereses distintos, hacen de la tradición mesiánica para formular sus propias concepciones de la historia, la lingüística, la política y la ética. Esta tesis ahonda en las limitaciones de las propuestas de estos autores y defiende que la mesianicidad sin mesianismo evita muchas de ellas y ofrece un modelo más fértil para describir la realidad e intervenir en ella. Todo ello con la voluntad de contribuir a la recepción de este casi-concepto ―que consideramos que, hasta el momento, ha sido sesgada e insuficiente― y mostrar que nos rescata de los riesgos tanto de los fundamentalismos como del paralizante “todo vale” acarreado por el fenómeno de la muerte de Dios.

This submission comes in two parts; the written dissertation, Contemporary art: the key issues, and the exhibition Melbourne - Moderne. When taken together they present a discourse on the conditions facing contemporary art practice and one artist’s response to these conditions in the context of Melbourne 2003-2007. (For complete abstract open document)

Submitted by ANA KARLA PEREIRA RODRIGUES (anakarla_@hotmail.com) on 2017-09-27T12:35:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1101166 bytes, checksum: 140740be19433a16721ed571a9cc8fb6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-27T12:35:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1101166 bytes, checksum: 140740be19433a16721ed571a9cc8fb6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / In this dissertation, our research’s object is centered in the use of key concepts of camp, biopolitics, homo sacer and exception, under the form of extermination, especially consolidated after the last Brazilian military regime of 1964 in its permanent into the current democratic regime, in 2014. Our problem question can be formulated as follows: Is there a continuity of authoritarian policies in Brazil, after so many years of dictatorship, in relation to those excluded by the system? Those who are life-killing, but not sacrificable, through extermination as a paradigm of contemporary government? In this way, we start from the hypothesis that the Brazilian military regime, terminated in 1985, based on the National Security Doctrine and the biopolitical management of the Brazilian government historically considered, together with the practices still present, fifty years after the beginning that regime and three decades after its completion are reflected in a camp’s form as a modern biopolitical paradigm on the indolent and useless bodies of society, notably the poor and opponents of the regime. This hypothesis are supported by adaptive interpretation from the contributions of Homo Sacer, State of Exception, articles and interviews of Giorgio Agamben, into previous readings to the research, perceive the existence of traces of this theory that can be applied to Brazil: the existence of the camp as a modern biopolitical paradigm; the torture, extermination and enforced disappearance persisting’s practices; and, a true regime of permanent exception, with determinable time and space, on the population possibly converted as homini sacri. Therefore, the present dissertation will use a deductive approach methodology, together with a historicalcomparative procedure method and a bibliographic research technique to explain the current Brazilian situation. The organization of this work will be in three chapters: first, we determine the assumptions present in this work, presenting the Brazilian historicalpolitical antecedents’, the biopolitical archeology of the contemporary state and the agambenian conceptual discussions of homo sacer, camp, biopolitics and permanent exception. Next, we seek a definition of forced disappearance and extermination between the various key-concepts close to it, and delimit the practice and theory of dictatorship and democracy in relation to our key concepts. In the last part, we present the Brazilian biopolitical governance paradigm, the place of Agambenian camp execution and permanent extermination and the confrontations and uncertainties about the life-that-canbe- killed in Brazil. The objective is to present the historical-philosophical assumptions of the Military Dictatorship to the Six Republic, the institutional approach of homo sacer in the Brazilian State and the challenges and threats to democratic consolidation in Brazil. It concludes by confirming the hypothesis, partially to the focused period, converging the previous historical practice to the military regime for the analyzed period, at the same time that it points out ways and difficulties in the probability of expansion of this extermination. / Nesta dissertação, nosso objeto de pesquisa está centrado numa leitura biopolítica da histórica brasileira, a partir dos aportes de Giorgio Agamben, sob a forma de extermínio, especialmente consolidado após o último regime militar brasileiro de 1964 naquilo em que permanece no regime democrático atual, em 2014. A nossa pergunta-problema pode ser assim formulada: Há de se falar de uma continuidade das políticas autoritárias do Brasil, passados tantos anos da ditadura, em relação a aqueles excluídos pelo sistema, aqueles que são vida matável impunemente, através do extermínio como paradigma de governo contemporâneo? Desta forma, partimos da hipótese que o regime militar brasileiro, encerrado em 1985, tendo por base teórica a Doutrina de Segurança Nacional e da histórica gestão biopolítica brasileira, em conjunto com as práticas ainda presentes, cinquenta anos depois do início daquele regime e três décadas após o seu término se refletem em uma forma de campo como paradigma biopolítico moderno sobre os corpos indóceis e inúteis da sociedade, destacadamente os pobres e opositores ao regime. Essa hipótese alicerça-se na interpretação adaptativa a partir dos aportes das obras Homo Sacer, Estado de Exceção, artigos e entrevistas de Giorgio Agamben, parte destas leituras prévias à pesquisa, percebendo a existência de traços desta teoria que podem ser aplicados ao Brasil: a existência do campo como paradigma biopolítico moderno; a persistência de práticas de tortura, de extermínio e desaparecimento forçado; e, um verdadeiro regime de exceção permanente, com tempo e espaço determináveis, sobre a população potencialmente convertida como homini sacri. Para tanto, a presente dissertação utilizou de uma metodologia de abordagem dedutivo, em conjunto com um método de procedimento histórico-comparativo e com técnica de pesquisa bibliográfica para explicitar a situação atual brasileira. A organização deste trabalho se dará em três capítulos: primeiramente determinamos os pressupostos presentes neste trabalho, apresentando os antecedentes histórico-políticos brasileiro, a arqueologia biopolítica do Estado contemporâneo e as discussões conceituais agambenianas de homo sacer, campo, biopolítica e de exceção permanente. Em seguida, buscamos uma definição de desaparecimento forçado e extermínio entre os vários conceitos próximos a este e delimitamos a prática e a teoria da ditadura e da democracia em relação aos nossos conceitos-chave. Na última parte, expomos o paradigma de governo biopolítico brasileiro, o local do campo agambeniano de extermínio e os enfrentamentos e as incertezas sobre a vida matável no Brasil. Objetiva-se, assim, apresentar os pressupostos histórico-filosóficos da Ditadura Militar à Sexta República, a abordagem institucional do homo sacer no Estado Brasileiro e desafios e as ameaças a consolidação democrática no Brasil. Conclui-se pela confirmação da hipótese, parcialmente ao período enfocado, confluindo a prática histórica anterior ao regime militar para o período analisado, ao mesmo tempo que aponta caminhos e dificuldades frente a probabilidade de expansão desse extermínio.

The zombie narrative has seen an increasing trend towards the emergence of a zombie sentience. The intention of this thesis is to examine the cultural framework that has informed the contemporary figure of the zombie, with specific attention directed towards the role of the thinking, conscious or sentient zombie. This examination will include an exploration of the zombie’s folkloric origin, prior to the naming of the figure in 1819, as well as the Haitian appropriation and reproduction of the figure as a representation of Haitian identity. The destructive nature of the zombie, this thesis argues, sees itself intrinsically linked to the notion of apocalypse; however, through a consideration of Frank Kermode’s A Sense of an Ending, the second chapter of this thesis will propose that the zombie need not represent an apocalypse that brings devastation upon humanity, but rather one that functions to alter perceptions of ‘humanity’ itself. The third chapter of this thesis explores the use of the term “braaaaiiinnss” as the epitomised zombie voice in the figure’s development as an effective threat within zombie-themed videogames. The use of an epitomised zombie voice, I argue, results in the potential for the embodiment of a zombie subject. Chapter Four explores the development of this embodied zombie subject through the introduction of the Zombie Memoire narrative and examines the figure as a representation of Agamben’s Homo Sacer or ‘bare life’: though often configured as a non-sacrificial object that can be annihilated without sacrifice and consequence, the zombie, I argue, is also paradoxically inscribed in a different, Girardian economy of death that renders it as the scapegoat to the construction of a sense of the ‘human’. The final chapter of this thesis argues that both the traditional zombie and the sentient zombie function within the realm of a posthuman potentiality, one that, to varying degrees of success, attempts to progress past the restrictive binaries constructed within the overruling discourse of humanism. In conclusion, this thesis argues that while the zombie, both traditional and sentient, attempts to propose a necessary move towards a posthuman universalism, this move can only be considered if the ‘us’ of humanism embraces the potential of its own alterity.

No description available.

No description available.