This work reopens the question of Nietzsche’s relationship to Early German Romanticism through critical readings of moments of enchantment in the writings of Novalis. It unveils the seemingly conciliatory gestures of enchantment as moments of discord between subject and figure, self and world. These readings attend to the tropes, ironic registers, and performative dimensions of texts that occlude rather than facilitate a strict demarcation between Novalis and Nietzsche. That the thinkers in question are shown to anticipate their critical reception is consonant with the present work, which, in foregrounding both the entanglement between self and language and the materiality of reading, attunes itself to enchantment as the manifestation of compulsion, imposition, and ecstasy. The principle of continuity that allows Nietzsche and Novalis to be read and to read each other is asceticism. Its secret ally, following Nietzsche, is the absolute will to truth. In its function of assigning an aim to the aimless, asceticism provides for both truth and its incessant undermining, for form as well as flight. It engenders a mode of expression that is only as true as it is provisional. Through a reading of Nietzsche’s Apollonian and Dionysian as the collision of epistemological anxiety and its anthropological stopgap, this work advocates an operation of double-reading that views the conceptual sphere itself as palliative and the nonconceptual as the possibility of an ascetic flight from ossification. In setting such double-reading into motion, this work traces the subterranean relations between Novalis and Nietzsche that allow the proto-Modernism of the former to interrogate the residual Romanticism of the latter. An erudite study that combines problems of representation with discussions of the theater, painting, and music, this dissertation seeks to reenchant questions of interpretation and reading that constantly threaten to petrify into all-too-self-evident truths.

O presente trabalho realiza uma abordagem sobre o Narrador em diferentes contextos e sua relação, na atualidade, com a criança, tendo em vista o encantamento que caracteriza e surge de tal vínculo. Neste sentido, partimos de reflexões de W. Benjamim e P. Zumthor, dentre outros autores sobre os assuntos abordados, enriquecidas pela visão nascida da experiência prática com a narração para as crianças e o encantamento com ela relacionado, utilizando, como exemplo para análise, experiências da autora em teatro narrativo para crianças. Abrangemos aspectos diversos da arte do narrador e elementos que compõem sua atuação e destacamos a imprescindibilidade da relação próxima, direta e afetiva para a instauração do encantamento, que torna possível a troca de experiências, e o papel da vocalidade poética como protagonista nesse processo. / This work performs an approach on the Narrator in different contexts and their relationship, nowadays, with the child, considering the enchantment that characterizes and arises from this bond. Accordingly, W. Benjamin and P. Zumthor\'s reflections, as well as other authors, on the issues addressed were taken into account, enriched by the vision gained from the practical experience with storytelling for children and enchantment associated with it, based on the author\'s experiences with narrative theatre for children. Several aspects of the art of the narrator and elements that make up its performance were comprehended, and the indispensability of the close, direct and affective relationship for the development of enchantment was stood out, which makes possible the exchange of experiences and the role of poetic vocality as the protagonist in this process.

O presente trabalho realiza uma abordagem sobre o Narrador em diferentes contextos e sua relação, na atualidade, com a criança, tendo em vista o encantamento que caracteriza e surge de tal vínculo. Neste sentido, partimos de reflexões de W. Benjamim e P. Zumthor, dentre outros autores sobre os assuntos abordados, enriquecidas pela visão nascida da experiência prática com a narração para as crianças e o encantamento com ela relacionado, utilizando, como exemplo para análise, experiências da autora em teatro narrativo para crianças. Abrangemos aspectos diversos da arte do narrador e elementos que compõem sua atuação e destacamos a imprescindibilidade da relação próxima, direta e afetiva para a instauração do encantamento, que torna possível a troca de experiências, e o papel da vocalidade poética como protagonista nesse processo. / This work performs an approach on the Narrator in different contexts and their relationship, nowadays, with the child, considering the enchantment that characterizes and arises from this bond. Accordingly, W. Benjamin and P. Zumthor\'s reflections, as well as other authors, on the issues addressed were taken into account, enriched by the vision gained from the practical experience with storytelling for children and enchantment associated with it, based on the author\'s experiences with narrative theatre for children. Several aspects of the art of the narrator and elements that make up its performance were comprehended, and the indispensability of the close, direct and affective relationship for the development of enchantment was stood out, which makes possible the exchange of experiences and the role of poetic vocality as the protagonist in this process.

This dissertation considers why fantasy has been so slow to be valued in literary circles, how those conditions are changing, and the implications of these changes for the broader topic of literary value. What makes literature worthy of study? It has become commonplace to observe, on the one hand, the increasing significance and ubiquity of cultural productions, and on the other hand, the waning significance of the humanities in higher education. Literary study, in particular, has seemed to be in danger of losing the basis for its justification. Over the last several decades, critique has become one of the most popular means of justifying the study of literature, as a practice of awakening resistance to ideological forces. And yet, literature has much more to offer besides critique, such as the affirmative values of communication, integration, and well-being. This dissertation seeks to enhance the relevance of literary study by outlining ongoing revisions to literary value through interpretations of contemporary fantasy. Previously, under modernism, literary value was defined as autonomy from the marketplace. However, following the rise of postmodernism, this ontological definition of literary value became questionable, legible only as a cultural construction. Critique functions as a means of preserving the movement towards, if not the content of, ideals of autonomy. The method of critique locates value in the insights of the critic or the author who demystifies, debunks, or otherwise criticizes social and cultural structures. To the extent that literary value has become identified with the aims of critique, these practices of negation offer an apparent certainty that glosses over the fact that constructions of value continue to require acts of faith from both readers and authors. Recent shifts in literary value point towards the inclusion of affirmative practices of construction, in addition to negative practices of deconstruction. Taking up these trends, this dissertation interprets how recent fantasies work to reconstruct the grounds for faith in literary value. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, especially, fantasists have begun to experiment with new ways of combining the values of critique with the values of affirmation. A postcritical approach to fantasy re-opens avenues in academic valuing for discussing the positive, embodied elements of literary value—particularly the value of escaping into a different world in order to understand, and to cope with, one’s own world better. As a form of genre fiction involving the mode of enchantment, fantasy has long been devalued along gendered lines, criticized for its supposed positioning of readers as passively manipulated. Part One, “Recovering Enchantment,” considers how fantasists have built on the growing recognition of the role of genre as a mode of communication; through enchanted reading, both authors and readers engage in relatively passive acts of absorption, which can be constructed to be more nourishing than other acts of consumption. Building on the substance of enchantment, Part Two, “Integrating the Values of Critique and Affirmation,” interprets how recent fantasies overcome the theoretical divergence that associates critique with literary autonomy and affirmation with popular manipulations, moving towards solutions for re-enchanting literary value. The methodology emphasizes the contributions of individual texts in the context of emerging and established uses of fantastic genres. Because reading fantasy involves an encoded act of faith, this literature is particularly suited for investigating new directions in literary value, and for producing literary artifacts that both recall and progress the inquiry into what it might mean to ‘believe in books.’

Within this thesis I explore what can be achieved when culture is critically assessed through a series of theories that mobilise a spatial imaginary. I place the concepts of atmosphere, connection, site and encounter, and theories of emergence via terms such as movement, practice and embodiment, into tension with a single case study: Goth. Goth is a music based grouping, emerging from Punk, New Romantic, Indie and Glam Rock style and music cultures in the late 1970s, with a significant near-global presence in the popular culture industries and links to several salient media controversies; including the Columbine High School massacre, the murder of Sophie Lancaster, and fears over self-harm and suicide. I specifically draw on the vocabularies from within non-representational geographies of performance, relational materiality, affect and social anxiety to re-work understandings of this collectivity. I question what is involved in the material practices of Goth, explore how the practice and experience of Goth is articulated through specific sites, examine how Goth participates in the production and circulation of cultures of anxiety or (un)popularity; and reconsider the concept of ‘subculture’. To do so, I employ a range of methodologies, from guided walks to photo-diaries, within multi-site field research throughout the UK, Tokyo and New York City. I conclude that Goth and culture more generally can be theorised in a number of ways: it emerges as a performed series of embodied acts; it is co-produced in complex relations with non-humans; it can be thought of as a series of modulating affective atmospheres; it coalesces as a collectivity and circulates through events; and it is co-produced through sites and media events. None of these dominates over or diminishes the other; rather they are co-constitutive and interdependent.

Este trabalho recupera elementos do Sufismo via mística originalmente islâmica , nota-­ damente da obra de Ibn \'Arabî, e busca inseri-­los no contexto da sociedade e do pensa-­ mento atuais a fim de pensar as primeiras linhas de um modelo pedagógico voltado para a singularidade e a cidadania. / The present paper brings back subjects found in Sufism, especially the works of Ibn \'Arabî, and tries to integrate them into the context of present society and contemporary thought, in order to sketch the first lines of a pedagogical model directed towards singularity and citizenship.

Det här är en kvalitativ undersökning på hur en del använder black metal som en väg till religiös livsåskådning. Den är baserad på semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem män som är fans eller musiker inom black metal. Syftet är att studera hur dessa människor använder black metal och dess uttryck som en arena för religiös praktik. Dessa intervjuer är sedan analyserade med hjälp av teorierna re-enchantment och occulture. Studien visar på att black metal är en individuationsprocess där unga fans börjar att bygga upp sin personlighet och lär sig att både bearbeta och hantera känslor. Studien visar även på de negativa aspekterna av subgenren, så som kyrkobränder och mord, som uppkommit inom kultiska miljöer. Med dess resultat visar det att deltagarnas sökande efter en religiös livsåskådning som mötte upp med deras känslor och behov, var influerat av black metal.

This essay researches the prevalence of Gnostic influences in contemporary music lyrics, more exclusively within the context of the extreme metal scene. A resurgence of such topics has also been evident in contemporary music; not surprisingly, as music in general is part of the foundations of culture, and in a wider aspect, of society at large. The essay is performed using a hermeneutic method, interpreting music lyrics and discussing them from a background of cultural and religious theory. The purposes of researching the influences of Gnosticism in this environment are to determine the presence of Gnostic thought in extreme metal lyrics, research the eventual re-interpretations of historical sources of Gnosticism, and to discuss the acknowledged Gnostic influences in the displayed art form in a contemporary cultural perspective, related to cultural aspects such as secularization, modernity and globalization. Sources include music lyrics appropriate to the subject matter at hand as well as previously published interviews. The results of the investigation demonstrate that there are multiple interpretations of Gnostic thought apparent in extreme metal lyrics, varying from slight re-interpretations to more extensive ones, as apparent in what is identified as a chaos-gnostic current. The Gnostic material has in the latter scenario been integrated into an originally satanic worldview and as a result has become a major part of the chaos-gnostic belief system. The chaos-gnostic current has appeared in a highly secular surrounding, and the results of the essay propose that a secular surrounding can breed elements of trangression within individuals, leading to the resurgence of oppositional counter-cultural characteristics and an awakening of alternative spirituality with oppositional overtones.

This paper seeks to forge a grounds for conversation between the affective turn in contemporary theory and a vital materialist ontology. This conversation focuses on materials and their affects through the experience of weirdness. I use weirdness to describe a register of enchantment which is disruptive and alienating, rather than enticing and delightful. The project is motivated by a desire for ways to think about our relationship to the natural world that afford for fuller experiences of perception. The paper works through four major sections; the first three form a conceptual framework while the fourth is an exercise in mobilizing the concepts through subjective readings of affect. It begins by establishing a concept of vitalism with which to think about interactions with a moving, active world and, in following vitalism across borders of embodied flora and fauna, agitates the notion of what constitutes life. To put vitalism into a dynamic of engagement between entities, I then chart processes of affect through various conditions and situations, such as haunting, hallucination, anticipation and psychotropics. I then address the concept of the event in order to trace the contours of affect as it manifests through situated, temporal passages of force. This conceptual netting culminates in episodic readings of affective experiences, taking a kaleidoscopic form oriented toward anxious fascination. / text

This thesis considers The Winter's Tale and The Tempest as William Shakespeare's last great plays which foster re-enchantment for an age suffering spiritual disenchantment. Chapter 1 identifies a critical context for studying these between theological studies of the arts and literary-critical studies of Shakespeare and religion. Section 1 surveys David Brown's work on religious enchantment and imagination through the arts. Section 2 takes in literary criticism's turn to Shakespeare and religion. Section 3 explores recent theological studies of theatre and Shakespeare. Section 4 revives overlooked criticism from religious poets of the past. Chapter 2 introduces a progression of theoretical constructs that revitalize these plays as spiritually re-enchanting. Section 1 looks at affect theory as a means to understand the body-spirit relationship in the context of performance. Section 2 draws on Scott Crider's reading of The Winter's Tale as the performance of a complete ethical rhetoric demanding both theatrical and mythical interpretations. Section 3 expands T. G. Bishop's study of the theatre of wonder as Shakespeare's affective convergence of reason and emotion. Section 4 builds on the preceding sections to re-establish Renaissance alchemy as the most directive evidence for reading these plays as spiritually re-enchanting. Chapter 3 is my reading of The Winter's Tale. I argue that a wondrous, alchemical reading of the play suggests Hermione dies and is bodily resurrected in the last scene. Paulina's alchemical art is cryptic, but the resolution is a corporate miracle that re-enchants the audience through the awakening of faith. Chapter 4 is my reading of The Tempest. I identify Prospero as an all-powerful and benevolent alchemist who, instead of imposing vengeance on everyone within his control, at the end relinquishes his potent art in exchange for the less certain but greater spiritual enchantment of redemption through the free and loving act of forgiveness.