In the mid to late 1700s, men of letters became more and more interested in the natural world. From studies in astronomy to biology, chemistry, and medicine, these "philosophers" pioneered what would become our current scientific categories. While the significance of their contributions to these fields has been widely appreciated historically, the interconnection between these men and their literary counterparts has not. A study of the "Romantic man of science" reveals how much that figure has in common with the traditional "Romantic" literary figure embodied by poets like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This thesis interrogates connections between Romantic literature and science by examining the figure of the "Romantic" author. In his 1969 essay "What is an Author?" Foucault called into question the way we think about authorship. Foucault states that before the late eighteenth-century, what we call "literary" texts "were accepted, put into circulation and valorized without any question about the identity of the author" (108). Simultaneously, scientific texts "were accepted in the Middle Ages, [. . .] only when marked with the name of their author" (109). Foucault argues that norms of authorship underwent a reversal in the eighteenth century. The result of this shift is that "literary discourses came to be accepted only when endowed with the author function" while in the sciences, the author function faded away (109). A case study of the scientist Humphry Davy disrupts Foucault's suggestion that a total reversal in the workings of the author function was achieved by the Romantic period. I argue that Davy is an exception to Foucault's history of authorship and that Davy's authorial identity in the sciences as "the public man of science" is equal to the author function of literary figures of the same period. Davy pioneered the "public man of science," a figure who corresponds nearly perfectly with the emerging figure of the "author" in the literary sphere. Ultimately we see Davy as a figure who embodies and reconstructs the "Romantic I" and requires us to reconsider the category of scientific authorship and the figure of the scientist as author.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:18:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AMANDA.pdf: 1942655 bytes, checksum: f18329e12744520f1e7027c091132f6f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation approach the authorship in the work of visual art, taking as its starting point the analysis of some clashes, nuances and developments around it. Used as reference to structure the thought of this research is the text What is an author?, by Michel Foucault; and The death of the author, by Roland Barthes. Is considering the dialogue with some of the issues raised by the literature writer Enrique Vila-Matas. This work outlined some arguments in XX and XXI century, for example: the (non) place of authorship and dialogue with art historians; nuances from Readymade, Fluxus, Dada and Conceptual Art, and developments of three cases exemplified of authorship in contemporary art by recognized, articulated and institutionalized / Esta dissertação trata da autoria na obra das artes visuais, tendo como ponto de partida a análise de certos embates, nuances e desdobramentos em torno da mesma. Utiliza-se como referências que estruturam o pensamento desta pesquisa o texto O que é um autor?, de Michel Foucault; e A morte do autor, de Roland Barthes. Considera-se a interlocução com algumas questões levantadas pela literatura do escritor Enrique Vila-Matas. Neste trabalho são delineados alguns embates no século XX e XXI, como, por exemplo: o (não)lugar da autoria e o diálogo com historiadores da arte; nuances a partir do Readymade, Fluxus, Dadaísmo e Arte Conceitual; e desdobramentos de três casos exemplificadores na arte contemporânea da autoria por reconhecimento, articulada e institucionalizada

Dans ce travail, j’étudie les relations entre la blogosphère politique dans la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, et l’ensemble de l’écologie médiatique dans laquelle celle-ci est insérée. En établissant un dialogue avec les théories qui posent la dissémination des blogues comme le moment de répartition des moyens de production et de démocratisation de parole, je propose que la blogosphère doit plutôt être envisagée comme une instance de filtrage des produits des médias de masse. J’emprunte le concept de « dispositif » à Michel Foucault et à Giorgio Agamben, pour définir les médias du monde contemporain selon les termes d’un dispositif médiatique. J’emprunte aussi les concepts de « two-step flow of communications » et de « leader d’opinion » à Paul F. Lazarsfeld et Elihu Katz pour localiser la blogosphère dans l’ensemble de notre espace médiatique. Je défends également l’idée que les blogueurs exercent aujourd’hui une fonction semblable à celle des leaders d’opinion que décrivent Katz et Lazarsfeld – ce que je nomme la fonction-filtre de la blogosphère - et que ces blogueurs se situent dans la couche intermédiaire du flux d’informations dans les démocraties occidentales, c'est-à-dire celle qui se trouve entre les médias de masse et les récepteurs. Pour conduire ma recherche, j’ai réalisé une ethnographie virtuelle auprès des blogueurs de la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, pendant la période de la campagne électorale de 2008 à la mairie. Ensuite, j’ai soumis l’ensemble de leur production discursive à une analyse sociolinguistique. Et je conclus que plutôt qu’étant le fruit d’une révolution, l’écologie médiatique contemporaine reprend - en les diversifiant et en les étendant - des processus que l’on ne pensait propres qu’aux dynamiques des médias de masse. / Here I study the relationship between the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, and the ecology of media in which it is inserted. I establish a dialogue with the theorists who believe in the dissemination of the blogs as the final moment of the democratisation of the means of symbolic production, and I come to the conclusion that the blogosphere should more likely be viewed as a filtering instance of the products from the mass media. I borrow the concept of “dispositif” from Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben and I define the media of the contemporary age in terms of a communicative dispositif. I also borrow from Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz the concepts of “two-step flow of communications” and “opinion leader” to find the place of the blogosphere in our communicative space. I argue that today’s bloggers play the function of the opinion leaders described by Katz and Lazarsfeld – which I name the filter-function of the blogosphere – and that they are localized in the intermediate layer of the flow of communications in the contemporary western democracies: the layer in between the mass media and the receptors. To undertake my research I have conducted a virtual ethnography in the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, during the municipal elections in October 2008. Then I submitted the whole of their discursive production to a sociolinguistic analysis. I conclude this work by stating that more than the product of a revolution in the realm of communications, the contemporary media ecology takes over, diversify and extend processes that we once believed were restricted to the dynamics of the mass media.

Dans ce travail, j’étudie les relations entre la blogosphère politique dans la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, et l’ensemble de l’écologie médiatique dans laquelle celle-ci est insérée. En établissant un dialogue avec les théories qui posent la dissémination des blogues comme le moment de répartition des moyens de production et de démocratisation de parole, je propose que la blogosphère doit plutôt être envisagée comme une instance de filtrage des produits des médias de masse. J’emprunte le concept de « dispositif » à Michel Foucault et à Giorgio Agamben, pour définir les médias du monde contemporain selon les termes d’un dispositif médiatique. J’emprunte aussi les concepts de « two-step flow of communications » et de « leader d’opinion » à Paul F. Lazarsfeld et Elihu Katz pour localiser la blogosphère dans l’ensemble de notre espace médiatique. Je défends également l’idée que les blogueurs exercent aujourd’hui une fonction semblable à celle des leaders d’opinion que décrivent Katz et Lazarsfeld – ce que je nomme la fonction-filtre de la blogosphère - et que ces blogueurs se situent dans la couche intermédiaire du flux d’informations dans les démocraties occidentales, c'est-à-dire celle qui se trouve entre les médias de masse et les récepteurs. Pour conduire ma recherche, j’ai réalisé une ethnographie virtuelle auprès des blogueurs de la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, pendant la période de la campagne électorale de 2008 à la mairie. Ensuite, j’ai soumis l’ensemble de leur production discursive à une analyse sociolinguistique. Et je conclus que plutôt qu’étant le fruit d’une révolution, l’écologie médiatique contemporaine reprend - en les diversifiant et en les étendant - des processus que l’on ne pensait propres qu’aux dynamiques des médias de masse. / Here I study the relationship between the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, and the ecology of media in which it is inserted. I establish a dialogue with the theorists who believe in the dissemination of the blogs as the final moment of the democratisation of the means of symbolic production, and I come to the conclusion that the blogosphere should more likely be viewed as a filtering instance of the products from the mass media. I borrow the concept of “dispositif” from Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben and I define the media of the contemporary age in terms of a communicative dispositif. I also borrow from Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz the concepts of “two-step flow of communications” and “opinion leader” to find the place of the blogosphere in our communicative space. I argue that today’s bloggers play the function of the opinion leaders described by Katz and Lazarsfeld – which I name the filter-function of the blogosphere – and that they are localized in the intermediate layer of the flow of communications in the contemporary western democracies: the layer in between the mass media and the receptors. To undertake my research I have conducted a virtual ethnography in the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, during the municipal elections in October 2008. Then I submitted the whole of their discursive production to a sociolinguistic analysis. I conclude this work by stating that more than the product of a revolution in the realm of communications, the contemporary media ecology takes over, diversify and extend processes that we once believed were restricted to the dynamics of the mass media.