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M.A. / When fighting against the dominance of instrumental reason, aesthetic consciousness always admitted its allegiance to ‘another state of being,’ i.e., to the explosive break with the continual inertia of linear social development. In the literature written at the turn of the 20th century this was symbolized in the ‘life of danger’ that contrasted with the normality of ordinary bourgeois life. This study shows that Baudrillard no longer believes in ‘another state of being’ with explosive force. In Baudrillard's theory of simulation, the crisis of overproduction in capitalism is to be understood as the total shift of production into reproduction. His position has consequences for the idea of the catastrophic nature of the present social situation and for the aesthetic means with which it can finally be thought. Baudrillard calls the catastrophic effect of the threat emanating from simulation an implosion not an explosion, it results from the fact that under pressure from a merely simulated reality, every social energy is expended internally in the play of signifiers, evaporating in some catastrophic process. His aesthetic fascination with events does not seem to have disappeared completely in the process. For Baudrillard, on September 11 2001, the terrorists countered simulation with simulation itself. This is what makes it a true event. What is unthinkable in this event is the use of death in a staged exchange where a whole culture could be attacked. The attack brings back death to a world that pretends it is not there. If political economy is the most rigorous attempt to put an end to death, it is clear that only death can put an end to political economy. Baudrillard encounters an indifference, a void and death at the heart of thought. This leads to apocalyptic tones. For Baudrillard, one only attains to thought when one interiorizes the limit and displaces it. Thinking no longer works except by breaking down and dismantling itself. For Deleuze, on the other hand, to dissent is to affirm other modes of life. Deleuze constructs an entire philosophy of life – conceived as a philosophy of difference. This enables Deleuze to have an affirmative notion of the aesthetic impulse: the artwork as an unexpected event that actualizes the virtual. The virtual is not a general idea, something abstract and empty, but the concept of difference (and of life) rendered adequate. The concept of the virtual gives us the time of life. Pure, virtual being is real and qualified through the internal process of differentiation. Being differs with itself. It does not look outside itself for another or a force of mediation because its difference rises from its very core, from ‘the explosive internal force that life carries within itself’ (Deleuze, 1988: 105). Deleuze conceives of a discrete art with metamorphic force. Deleuze, unlike Baudrillard, manages to pull back from the capitalist void and construct a ‘desiring machine’ to manipulate capitalist simulacra.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar o romance Assombro, de Chuck Palahniuk, como retrato e sintoma do comportamento da sociedade pós-moderna ocidental, cujos valores correspondem, de acordo com palavras do próprio autor, ao “inverso do sonho americano”. A principal característica de tal sociedade é a dificuldade dos indivíduos em lidar com as exigências e constantes mudanças nos âmbitos individual, social e psicológico, o que se configura na obra do escritor estadunidense através de personagens marginais em busca (na maioria das vezes, aparentemente inconsciente) de autoaceitação ou adaptação social. A leitura desenvolvida aqui se baseia principalmente nos escritos do teórico francês Jean Baudrillard, que apresenta o pressuposto de que o mundo contemporâneo encontra-se num estado de “pós-orgia”, assombrado por três fantasmas que o teórico chama de câncer, travesti e terrorismo, os quais simbolizam questões sociais contemporâneas relacionadas à política, sexualidade, comunicação e relacionamentos humanos, entre outros aspectos. Os conceitos de Baudrillard que norteiam a análise são: 'estado de pós-orgia', 'hiperrealidade', 'simulação', 'virulência' e 'sedução' e 'fantasmas'. O trabalho também apresenta as características da literatura de Chuck Palahniuk e sua recém-iniciada fortuna crítica, apontando os principais aspectos da sociedade pós-moderna presentes em suas obras e culminando em um cotejo de Assombro com o gótico e sua vertente pós-moderna, além de uma comparação entre a dinâmica estabelecida entre as personagens do romance e aquela percebida nos reality shows e falsos documentários (mock-documentaries). A conclusão retoma aspectos na estrutura, imaginário e conteúdo do romance, que permitem defini-lo como retrato e sintoma de uma nova configuração social, resultado das inevitáveis mudanças por que o mundo passa. / This dissertation aims at presenting Chuck Palahniuk‟s novel Haunted as a portrait and symptom of the behavior perceived in the postmodern Western society, whose values, according to the author himself, correspond to “the opposite of the American Dream”. The main characteristic of such society is the individuals‟ difficulty in dealing with demands and constant changes in the individual, social and psychological spheres, a fact observed in the work of this American writer through the presence of marginal characters in a more often than not apparently unconscious search of self-acceptance or social adaptation. The reading proposed is mainly based on the writings of French theoretician Jean Baudrillard, who presents the assumption that the contemporary world is in a “post-orgy” state, haunted by three phantasies he denominates cancer, transvestitism and terrorism, which symbolize contemporary social issues related to politics, sexuality, communication and human relationships, among other aspects. The concepts by Baudrillard that underlie the analysis are: 'post-orgy state', 'hyperreality', 'simulation', 'virulence', 'seduction' and 'phantasies'. The work also presents the features of the literature produced by Chuck Palahniuk and its newly-started critical fortune, highlighting the main aspects of postmodern society present in his works, culminating with an approximation of Haunted to the postmodern variation of Gothic literature, besides a comparison between the dynamics established among the characters in the novel to the one perceived in reality shows and mock-documentaries. The conclusion strengthens aspects in the structure, imaginary and content of the novel that enable the definition of Haunted as portrait and symptom of a new social organization, resulting from the inevitable changes the world goes through.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar o romance Assombro, de Chuck Palahniuk, como retrato e sintoma do comportamento da sociedade pós-moderna ocidental, cujos valores correspondem, de acordo com palavras do próprio autor, ao “inverso do sonho americano”. A principal característica de tal sociedade é a dificuldade dos indivíduos em lidar com as exigências e constantes mudanças nos âmbitos individual, social e psicológico, o que se configura na obra do escritor estadunidense através de personagens marginais em busca (na maioria das vezes, aparentemente inconsciente) de autoaceitação ou adaptação social. A leitura desenvolvida aqui se baseia principalmente nos escritos do teórico francês Jean Baudrillard, que apresenta o pressuposto de que o mundo contemporâneo encontra-se num estado de “pós-orgia”, assombrado por três fantasmas que o teórico chama de câncer, travesti e terrorismo, os quais simbolizam questões sociais contemporâneas relacionadas à política, sexualidade, comunicação e relacionamentos humanos, entre outros aspectos. Os conceitos de Baudrillard que norteiam a análise são: 'estado de pós-orgia', 'hiperrealidade', 'simulação', 'virulência' e 'sedução' e 'fantasmas'. O trabalho também apresenta as características da literatura de Chuck Palahniuk e sua recém-iniciada fortuna crítica, apontando os principais aspectos da sociedade pós-moderna presentes em suas obras e culminando em um cotejo de Assombro com o gótico e sua vertente pós-moderna, além de uma comparação entre a dinâmica estabelecida entre as personagens do romance e aquela percebida nos reality shows e falsos documentários (mock-documentaries). A conclusão retoma aspectos na estrutura, imaginário e conteúdo do romance, que permitem defini-lo como retrato e sintoma de uma nova configuração social, resultado das inevitáveis mudanças por que o mundo passa. / This dissertation aims at presenting Chuck Palahniuk‟s novel Haunted as a portrait and symptom of the behavior perceived in the postmodern Western society, whose values, according to the author himself, correspond to “the opposite of the American Dream”. The main characteristic of such society is the individuals‟ difficulty in dealing with demands and constant changes in the individual, social and psychological spheres, a fact observed in the work of this American writer through the presence of marginal characters in a more often than not apparently unconscious search of self-acceptance or social adaptation. The reading proposed is mainly based on the writings of French theoretician Jean Baudrillard, who presents the assumption that the contemporary world is in a “post-orgy” state, haunted by three phantasies he denominates cancer, transvestitism and terrorism, which symbolize contemporary social issues related to politics, sexuality, communication and human relationships, among other aspects. The concepts by Baudrillard that underlie the analysis are: 'post-orgy state', 'hyperreality', 'simulation', 'virulence', 'seduction' and 'phantasies'. The work also presents the features of the literature produced by Chuck Palahniuk and its newly-started critical fortune, highlighting the main aspects of postmodern society present in his works, culminating with an approximation of Haunted to the postmodern variation of Gothic literature, besides a comparison between the dynamics established among the characters in the novel to the one perceived in reality shows and mock-documentaries. The conclusion strengthens aspects in the structure, imaginary and content of the novel that enable the definition of Haunted as portrait and symptom of a new social organization, resulting from the inevitable changes the world goes through.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar o romance Assombro, de Chuck Palahniuk, como retrato e sintoma do comportamento da sociedade pós-moderna ocidental, cujos valores correspondem, de acordo com palavras do próprio autor, ao “inverso do sonho americano”. A principal característica de tal sociedade é a dificuldade dos indivíduos em lidar com as exigências e constantes mudanças nos âmbitos individual, social e psicológico, o que se configura na obra do escritor estadunidense através de personagens marginais em busca (na maioria das vezes, aparentemente inconsciente) de autoaceitação ou adaptação social. A leitura desenvolvida aqui se baseia principalmente nos escritos do teórico francês Jean Baudrillard, que apresenta o pressuposto de que o mundo contemporâneo encontra-se num estado de “pós-orgia”, assombrado por três fantasmas que o teórico chama de câncer, travesti e terrorismo, os quais simbolizam questões sociais contemporâneas relacionadas à política, sexualidade, comunicação e relacionamentos humanos, entre outros aspectos. Os conceitos de Baudrillard que norteiam a análise são: 'estado de pós-orgia', 'hiperrealidade', 'simulação', 'virulência' e 'sedução' e 'fantasmas'. O trabalho também apresenta as características da literatura de Chuck Palahniuk e sua recém-iniciada fortuna crítica, apontando os principais aspectos da sociedade pós-moderna presentes em suas obras e culminando em um cotejo de Assombro com o gótico e sua vertente pós-moderna, além de uma comparação entre a dinâmica estabelecida entre as personagens do romance e aquela percebida nos reality shows e falsos documentários (mock-documentaries). A conclusão retoma aspectos na estrutura, imaginário e conteúdo do romance, que permitem defini-lo como retrato e sintoma de uma nova configuração social, resultado das inevitáveis mudanças por que o mundo passa. / This dissertation aims at presenting Chuck Palahniuk‟s novel Haunted as a portrait and symptom of the behavior perceived in the postmodern Western society, whose values, according to the author himself, correspond to “the opposite of the American Dream”. The main characteristic of such society is the individuals‟ difficulty in dealing with demands and constant changes in the individual, social and psychological spheres, a fact observed in the work of this American writer through the presence of marginal characters in a more often than not apparently unconscious search of self-acceptance or social adaptation. The reading proposed is mainly based on the writings of French theoretician Jean Baudrillard, who presents the assumption that the contemporary world is in a “post-orgy” state, haunted by three phantasies he denominates cancer, transvestitism and terrorism, which symbolize contemporary social issues related to politics, sexuality, communication and human relationships, among other aspects. The concepts by Baudrillard that underlie the analysis are: 'post-orgy state', 'hyperreality', 'simulation', 'virulence', 'seduction' and 'phantasies'. The work also presents the features of the literature produced by Chuck Palahniuk and its newly-started critical fortune, highlighting the main aspects of postmodern society present in his works, culminating with an approximation of Haunted to the postmodern variation of Gothic literature, besides a comparison between the dynamics established among the characters in the novel to the one perceived in reality shows and mock-documentaries. The conclusion strengthens aspects in the structure, imaginary and content of the novel that enable the definition of Haunted as portrait and symptom of a new social organization, resulting from the inevitable changes the world goes through.

This dissertation examines two films directed by Quentin Tarantino, whom I have situated as a postmodern film director, within the theoretical context of the philosophies of two postmodern philosophers: Jean Baudrillard and Jean-François Lyotard. I argue that the major institutions of society, such as the family and religion, are viewed as grand narratives, in Lyotard’s sense of the term, which Tarantino repeatedly subverts. Overlapping with this intersection of Lyotard’s philosophy in Tarantino’s films is the Baudrillardian loss of the real, which manifests as hyperreality in many scenes. I suggest that Tarantino makes a conscious effort to create such hyperreality with the creation of playful signifiers in his films. I examine selected scenes to find Baudrillard’s “successive phases of the image” (Baudrillard 2010:6) that lead to the creation of a simulacrum. The compelling intersections between the creation of Baudrillardian simulacra and the subversion of Lyotard’s grand narratives are explored within selected scenes which are deconstructed by means of film narratology, semiotic analysis and narrative analysis. The combination of the various methods of media research in this thesis enables what Jane Stokes calls “a more textured understanding” (2008:27) of the films under discussion. A close reading from a semiotic point of view facilitates a deconstruction of some obscure elements, such as the embedded meaning in lyrics and dialogue or the messages implicit in the mise en scène. / English Studies / M. A.

This dissertation examines two films directed by Quentin Tarantino, whom I have situated as a postmodern film director, within the theoretical context of the philosophies of two postmodern philosophers: Jean Baudrillard and Jean-François Lyotard. I argue that the major institutions of society, such as the family and religion, are viewed as grand narratives, in Lyotard’s sense of the term, which Tarantino repeatedly subverts. Overlapping with this intersection of Lyotard’s philosophy in Tarantino’s films is the Baudrillardian loss of the real, which manifests as hyperreality in many scenes. I suggest that Tarantino makes a conscious effort to create such hyperreality with the creation of playful signifiers in his films. I examine selected scenes to find Baudrillard’s “successive phases of the image” (Baudrillard 2010:6) that lead to the creation of a simulacrum. The compelling intersections between the creation of Baudrillardian simulacra and the subversion of Lyotard’s grand narratives are explored within selected scenes which are deconstructed by means of film narratology, semiotic analysis and narrative analysis. The combination of the various methods of media research in this thesis enables what Jane Stokes calls “a more textured understanding” (2008:27) of the films under discussion. A close reading from a semiotic point of view facilitates a deconstruction of some obscure elements, such as the embedded meaning in lyrics and dialogue or the messages implicit in the mise en scène. / English Studies / M. A.