There is a consensus today that we have witnessed the end of postmodernism in both fiction and theory. Due to contemporary fiction’s break with postmodernism being recent, little research has been done to outline the parameters of what exactly this break entails and its relationship to theory and current socio-political issues. The aim of this thesis is to attempt to differentiate between postmodernist fiction and contemporary fiction that was produced from the late 90’s up to today, outline its main characteristics and suggest alternative ways theory may be used to critically analyse fiction. We will be looking at how Habermas’s, Agamben’s, Žižek’s and Badiou’s theories, as well as, a reconsideration of some of Derrida’s and Baudrillard’s theories, can help elucidate certain aspects of contemporary fiction and vice versa. Some of the novelists that will be considered in this discussion are Paul Auster, Don DeLillo, Douglas Coupland, J G Ballard, Julian Barnes, Jonathan Coe and Michel Houellebecq due to their close association with postmodernism and its aftermath. The thesis is divided thematically in five chapters. In the first chapter we will be discussing the impact of 9/11 on contemporary fiction in relation to Derrida’s, Habermas’s, Baudrillard’s and Žižek’s responses to the attacks. The second chapter is concerned with notions of reality and its representations in contemporary fiction. It will be discussed how they differ from Baudrillard’s conceptualisation of hyperreality during postmodernity in light of Badiou’s and Žižek’s theory mainly. The realist/antirealist debate will also be addressed. The third chapter is a consideration of notions of subjectivity in both contemporary theory and fiction and how they may be said to differ from playful, schizophrenic representations of the subject during postmodernity. The fourth chapter is concerned with the return of the political in both theory and fiction after the supposed apoliticality of the postmodern novel, which we will also be addressing. The final chapter is an investigation of the re-emergence of the religious in contemporary culture, including the novel, which proves that the death of meta-narratives may not have been that final after all.

This study creates and develops a concept called the untimely-image including two sub-concepts called contours of the new and the untimely-site. The untimely-image concerns the clearing for and the expression of figures of “potential” in thought in the form of moving-images. The aim of these concepts is to form a critical framework for evaluating and conceptualizing political film as expressive, not of the new itself but of its “untimely” contours. The untimely-image, and its many implications, is developed over the course of six chapters. Chapter 1 extensively defines “contours” and “new” as operative in this study, and also introduces a theme that runs through all the chapters: how to think the contours of the new in relation to the cult of the new in consumer culture and in relation to the larger mechanisms of advanced capitalism. Chapter 2 defines the parameters of the untimely-image as specifically regarding moving images, and continues the development of this concept. In Chapters 3 to 6, The Wire (David Simon, 2002-2008) serves the double function of complicating and giving specification to the elaboration of the untimely-image as well as a case in which the untimely-image is used as a critical framework. The Wire and the untimely-image relate in processes of juxtaposition, wherein they meet, cross over, separate, and reproblematize each other. An untimely-image is fully defined in relation to concrete political issues. The untimely-image is therefore advanced by articulating the components and characteristics that, independently of the concrete issue, remain in every case, as well as by putting the concept to work regarding two specific problems in The Wire: its expression of blackness and its mapping of advanced capitalism.

No description available.

This thesis re-examines Shakespeare’s creation of tragic character through the concept of ‘arrivals’. What arrives is not an ‘individual’ but what I call a ‘subject’, which is a diffused dramatic process of arriving, rather than a self-contained entity that arrives in a final form. Not all characters are ‘subjects’. A subject only arrives through dramatic ‘events’ that rupture the existing structures of the play-world and the play-text. The generators of these irruptions are found equally in the happenings of plot and in changes of poetic intensity and form. The ‘subject’ is thus a supra- individual irruption that configures new forms of language, structure, and action. Accordingly, I explain why scrupulous historicism’s need for nameable continuums is incommensurate to the irruptive quality of Shakespearean character. The concepts of ‘process’, ‘subject’ and ‘event’ are informed by a variety of thinkers, most notably the contemporary French philosopher Alain Badiou. Badiou develops an ‘evental’ model of subjectivity in which the subject emerges in fidelity to a ‘truth- event’, which breaks into a situation from its ‘void’. Also important is the process- orientated philosophy of Bergson and Whitehead, which stresses that an entity is not a stable substance but a process of becoming. The underlying connection between the philosophers I embrace – also including the likes of Žižek, Kierkegaard, Latour, Benjamin, and Christian thinkers such as Saint Paul and Luther – is that they establish a creative alternative to the deadlock between treating the subject as either a stable substance (humanism) or a decentred product of its place in the world (postmodernism). The subject is not a pre-existing entity but something that comes to be. It is not reducible to its cultural and linguistic circumstances but is precisely what exceeds those circumstances. Such an excessive creativity is what gives rise to Shakespeare’s subjects and, I argue, underpins the continuing force of his drama. But it also produces profound dangers. In Shakespeare, ‘events’ consistently expose subjects to uncertainty, catastrophe, and horror. And these dangers imperil both the subject and the relationship between Shakespeare and the affirmative philosophy of the event.

Submitted by Setor de Tratamento da Informa??o - BC/PUCRS (tede2@pucrs.br) on 2016-05-10T13:24:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TES_ALMERINDO_ANTONIO_BOFF_COMPLETO.pdf: 1424543 bytes, checksum: c5fc6845e6654e6a216e1767b6bd2718 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-10T13:24:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TES_ALMERINDO_ANTONIO_BOFF_COMPLETO.pdf: 1424543 bytes, checksum: c5fc6845e6654e6a216e1767b6bd2718 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-03 / In creating psychoanalysis, at the end of the 19th century, Freud dedicated himself to explain the epistemological foundations in which he grounds his assumption of having created a new science, a new branch of natural sciences, with which it shared these epistemological foundations as well as its Weltanschauung. In mid-twentieth century, originating at the critique of psychoanalytical scientificity that came especially from neopositivist epistemology, it fell to Jacques Lacan to resume the question of psychoanalytical epistemology and to consolidate it over new foundations. The present thesis seeks to highlight the fact that, after the lacanian approach to the issue, an original way of conceiving psychoanalysis comes from outside of the psychoanalytical field, more precisely from Jacques Derrida?s philosophy. According to Derrida, psychoanalysis not only doesn?t fit in its entirety within the limits of a regional science, but it also comes to constitute, in harmony with derridean graphemathics, an original way of viewing the constitution of reality in general. The thesis follows the path of derridian critique to freudian epistemology and to lacanian structuralist psychoanalysis of the 1950?s, regarding the contemporary thought that seeks, in the last Lacan through the psychoanalytical field, and in Alain Badiou through the field of philosophy, the foundations of both in the fields of mathematical formalisation. Other than allowing to conceive a new psychoanalytical epistemology consolidated in his philosophy, the thesis follows Derrida in pointing at the challenging paths of a psychoanalysis to come. / Ao criar a psican?lise, a partir do final do s?culo XIX, Freud dedicou-se a explicitar os fundamentos epistemol?gicos em que alicer?ava sua pretens?o de haver criado uma nova ci?ncia, um novo ramo das ci?ncias naturais, com as quais ela compartilhava, portanto, tanto estes fundamentos epistemol?gicos quanto sua Weltanschauung. Em meados do s?culo XX, e agora a partir da cr?tica ? cientificidade da psican?lise provinda especialmente da epistemologia neopositivista, coube a Jacques Lacan retomar a quest?o da epistemologia da psican?lise para alicer??-la sobre outros fundamentos. A presente tese procura evidenciar que, ap?s a abordagem lacaniana do problema, vem de fora da psican?lise, mais precisamente da filosofia de Jacques Derrida, uma maneira original de conceber a psican?lise. Para Derrida, a psican?lise n?o apenas n?o cabe toda dentro dos limites de uma ci?ncia regional, como vem a constituir, em harmonia com a grafem?tica derridiana, uma maneira original de pensar a constitui??o da realidade em geral. A tese percorre os caminhos da cr?tica derridiana ? epistemologia freudiana e ? psican?lise estruturalista lacaniana dos anos 50 do s?culo XX, at? encontrar-se com o pensamento contempor?neo que busca, no ?ltimo Lacan pelo campo da psican?lise, e em Alain Badiou pelo campo da filosofia, a fundamenta??o destas no campo da formaliza??o matem?tica. Al?m de permitir pensar uma nova epistemologia da psican?lise alicer?ada em sua filosofia, a tese acompanha Derrida ao apontar para os desafiadores rumos de uma psican?lise por vir.

Based on extended research on Chinese medical and epidemiological archival material dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, and on six months of internship in epidemiology in Beijing’s Medical School and in Haidian District’s Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, this thesis explores the conjunction of three major epidemiological crises in modern Chinese history with processes of State formation: the 1911 Manchurian pneumonic plague, the 1952 germ-warfare, and the 2003 SARS outbreak. Analysing the three crises as Events in line with Alain Badiou’s epistemology it seeks to establish how different strategies of governmental fidelity to the imagined cause of each crisis have led to distinct modes of organisation and valorisation of the social: Republican China and its decline to fascism; the clash between professional revolutionaries and technocrats in Maoist China; and the emergence of the “Harmonious Society” of mass exploitation and repression today. This conjunction between State formation and epidemiological Events is explored with the use of Foucault’s genealogical method in a quest for a historical materialist approach that posits at its epicentre processes of class composition, decomposition and recomposition, and their contested enclosure by the governmental apparati of capture. The present thesis thus examines the three major epidemiological crises of modern China as forming grounds for biopolitical strategies that give rise to modes of subjectivation and circuits of debt/guilt within the context of the class struggle. And at the same time, it aims to create a new field of investigation for anthropology: the relation of State and Event, from a viewpoint that contests the accepted relation of event and structure expounded by Marshall Sahlins, proposing as the main object of this investigation the conjunction between necessity and will that can never be reduced either to the naturalism of historical determinism, nor to the culturalism of subjective contingency.

Gilles Deleuze’s ontology is often understood to ground a kind of radical pluralism, the political defense of which is thought to be articulated most strongly in the Capitalism and Schizophrenia books. It is clear, however, that this “politics” is defined in a wholly negative way, and that the revolutionary dimension of these books is animated by a strictly ethical logic. In my view, if there is a politics in Deleuze it must be understood in relation to the central problem of his ontology: namely, the problem of understanding how Being is produced. To grasp politics as a singularity, as a mode of ontological production, has a number of radical consequences – consequences, however, that Deleuze himself did not embrace. Ultimately, Deleuze’s conception of ontological production appears marked by an apolitics, in that any effective mobilization of Being’s transformative potential requires that we stand posed to sacrifice anything of the integrity and organizational capacity of political existence that limits the expression of Being itself.

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.

Gilles Deleuze’s ontology is often understood to ground a kind of radical pluralism, the political defense of which is thought to be articulated most strongly in the Capitalism and Schizophrenia books. It is clear, however, that this “politics” is defined in a wholly negative way, and that the revolutionary dimension of these books is animated by a strictly ethical logic. In my view, if there is a politics in Deleuze it must be understood in relation to the central problem of his ontology: namely, the problem of understanding how Being is produced. To grasp politics as a singularity, as a mode of ontological production, has a number of radical consequences – consequences, however, that Deleuze himself did not embrace. Ultimately, Deleuze’s conception of ontological production appears marked by an apolitics, in that any effective mobilization of Being’s transformative potential requires that we stand posed to sacrifice anything of the integrity and organizational capacity of political existence that limits the expression of Being itself.

The thesis takes the French revue Lignes (1987-present) as its object of study to provide a new account of French intellectual culture over the last twenty-five years. Whilst there are now many studies covering the role of such revues throughout the twentieth-century, the majority of such monographs extend no further than the mid-1980s: the major novelty of this thesis is extending these accounts up until the present moment. It is largely assumed that a reaction against the Marxist and structuralist theories of the 1960s and 1970s led to embrace of liberalism and an intellectual drift to the right in France from the 1980s onwards: whilst largely supporting this account, the thesis attempts to nuance this narrative of the fate of the intellectual left in the following years by showing the persistence of what can be called a politicised 'French theory' in Lignes, and a returning left-wing militancy in recent years. In doing so, it will both reveal under-studied aspects of well-known thinkers, such as Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Rancière and Alain Badiou, as their thought develops through their participation in a collaborative, periodical publication, and introduce lesser known thinkers who have not received an extended readership in Anglophone spheres. Lignes also argues for the continued persistence and relevance of the thought of a previous generation of thinkers, notably Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot and Dionys Mascolo, and the thesis concludes by examining the potential role 'French Theory' could still have in France. Furthermore, as revues provide a unique nexus of intellectual, cultural, social and political concerns, the thesis also provides a unique history of France from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the 2007 financial crisis and the Arab Spring. Much of the thesis is concerned with contextualising intellectual debates within a period characterised by the moralisation of discourses, a return of religion, the global installation of neo-liberalism and the eruption of immigration as a controversial European issue. From a relatively theoretical and politically stable position to the left of the Parti socialiste, Lignes therefore provides a privileged vantage point for the mutations in French social and cultural life throughout the period.