La notion de l'absurde a pris dans la pensée et le langage courant un très grand nombre de significations, parfois très éloignées les unes par rapport aux autres. Il est arrivé à au moins deux reprises que le terme « absurde » soit entendu dans le sens d'un courant : dans la philosophie absurde théorisée par Albert Camus en 1942, et dans le Théâtre de l'absurde (Beckett, Ionesco, etc.), qui lui a connu son apogée dans les années cinquante. Ces deux mouvements pourraient être envisagés comme l'expression d'un seul et même courant, l'absurde, qui prend ses racines dans une Europe ébranlée par les horreurs de la guerre et l'affaissement de la religion chrétienne. Pour les contemporains, l'hostilité et le désordre de l'univers, de même que la solitude irrémédiable de l'individu apparaissent comme des vérités à la fois douloureuses et difficile à ignorer. Roman Polanski (1933-), cinéaste à la fois prolifique et éclectique, ouvre à l'absurde de nouveaux horizons, ceux du septième art. L'analyse de son oeuvre (et des éléments autobiographiques qui la sous-tendent parfois) met à jour d'indéniables parentés avec les figures-clés de l'absurde que sont Camus, Kafka, Nietzsche et les dramaturges européens de l'après-guerre. Ces parentés se repèrent tout autant dans les thématiques récurrentes de ses films que dans leurs obsessions formelles. / The idea of absurd has taken a huge amount of different meanings in thought and current speech. Some of these meanings may present important differences with others. There is at least two occurrences where the word “absurd” has been understood as a current: first, in the philosophie absurde, theorized by Albert Camus in 1942, and second, in the Theater of the Absurd (Beckett, Ionesco and others), who had his hours of glory during the 1950s. These two movements can be seen as two branches of a single current, the Absurd, who has its roots in Europe after World War II. The horrors of the conflict and the loss of faith in Christianity pushed the intellectuals and artists of this period to become very sensitive to ideas such as hostility (of men, of world...) and loneliness. Roman Polanski (1933-), film director well-known for the eclecticism of his work, showed very notable acquaintances with Absurd in many of his movies. The analysis of his art (and of the autobiographical elements that sometimes appear in it) proves a clear relation with important figures of the Absurd current, such as Camus, Kafka, Nietzsche, and European playwrights of the post-war era. This relation can be observed in themes as well as in the mise en scène of Polanski's films.

Diss. Univ. Greifswald, 2007 (leicht überarb.). / Bibliographie: S. 263-284.

Zugleich: Diss. Heidelberg, 2008. / Literaturverz.

The thesis "Mirroring of Motives of F. Nietzsche's Critique of Christianity in D. Bonhoeffer's Prison Theology" contemplates Bonhoeffer's thoughts on non-religious interpretation, that Bonhoeffer expands upon in his letters from prison, in the light of critique of Christianity that was expressed by Friedrich Nietzsche. Chapter I looks into the history of interpretation of Bonhoeffer's research and provides a brief overview of past and contemporary efforts to explain Bonhoeffer's approach to philosophy. Chapter II introduces basic principles and key topics of the critique of Christianity first in Nietzsche's work The Antichrist, followed by Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison. Chapter III compares the most obvious motives in the thinking of Nietzsche and Bonhoeffer within the aforementioned scope. Selected themes in works of these two German thinkers overlap particularly in their philosophy of life, understanding of a man come of age, and their critiques of Christianity that is deflecting from this world towards the transcendent sphere of the world beyond (in German, it is expressed as a difference in the meaning of "Diesseits" and "Jenseits"). Bonhoeffer's thoughts on the preaching of Gospel to the man come of age who is free of false, religious misbeliefs, and who feels strong, capable,...

The main topic of this diploma thesis resides in the comparison of the expressionist painting and the existential literature in connection with the motif of screaming. Despite the temporal and geographical distance of the two artistic movements (we are focused more profoundly in the German and Austrian expressionist painting, while the main literary work of this thesis, the existential novel The Fall comes from the great mind of a French writer, Albert Camus), the research aspires to prove the interconnection of the two movements and their common tendencies, based on the analyses of chosen themes, motifs, technics, and structure. We propose the motif of screaming as the main part of the comparison, as it constitutes an essential axis of the occidental art, as well as the crucial contact point between Expressionism and Existentialism. In spite of the bountifulness of the various interpretations this motif offers, we have chosen only selected ideas and concepts. As far as the formal structure is concerned, the work is divided into three chapters, where the first two are focused on the origins, a brief characterization of the main point of the two esthetics. Furthermore, they describe their related counterparts of the visual arts and literature (the Expressionist literature and Existential painting...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The history of Western civilisation is generally demarcated into three broad epochs: ancient, Christian and modern. These eras are usually defined in political terms, but they may also be differentiated in terms of fundamental differences in the nature of the organisations that constitute civil society in each age, how they defined the public good, and even what they consider philanthropic. In the nineteenth century, for instance, 'Scientific philanthropy' displaced 'Christian charity' as the dominant model for charitable giving; a development accompanied by a number of other secularising trends in Western civil society, generally understood as a broad cultural shift in conceptions of public good, from religious to scientific. From the fourth to the sixth century CE, by comparison, another broad cultural shift, from paganism to Christianity, also led to fundamental changes in the nature and composition of ancient civil society. A central premise of this dissertation is that fundamental historical transformations in Western civilisation – from pagan to Christian, to modern, to post-modern – may be traced to the influence of some of the most important philosophers in the Western philosophical tradition, among them: Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Francis Bacon and Friedrich Nietzsche. Each of these philosophers may be seen to have promulgated their teachings in a consciously Promethean manner; as gifts of fire, understood as philosophical teachings intended to be promulgated for the wider benefit of humankind. In Greek myth, Prometheus, whose name is traditionally thought to have literally meant 'forethought', is the one who steals fire from the gods and gives it to humans. Prometheus is also the first figure in history to be described as "philanthropic" (Prometheus Bound, 11 & 28). Plato, Bacon and Nietzsche all employ significant variants of the Promethean mũthos in their philosophical works, and may be seen to personally identify with the figure of Prometheus, as an allegorical figure depicting the situation of the wise, particularly in relation to political power. This dissertation thus closely analyses the Promethean mũthos in order to cast light on the philosophical philanthrôpía and Promethean ambitions of Protagoras, Socrates and Plato, and to provide the basis for consideration of the same in Bacon and Nietzsche.

Silser See, Engadin (1927) est un paysage qui fait partie des œuvres les moins connues de Gabriele Münter. La marginalisation de ce tableau dans le corpus de l’artiste s’explique d’une part par le fait que celui-ci est toujours resté à l’intérieur du cercle restreint des collections privées, et d’autre part, du fait qu’il s’inscrit dans une phase peu productive de Münter. Cette phase correspond aux années 1920-1930, soit une décennie durant laquelle la production de Münter se trouve grandement affectée par les nombreux bouleversements que la Première Guerre mondiale entraîne dans sa vie personnelle et artistique. Le but de ce mémoire est de réfléchir la signification Silser See, Engadin pour Münter et de démontrer comment ce tableau s’intègre dans le dénouement de la crise qu’elle connait en 1920-1930. Pour ce faire, j’explore d’abord les différents événements qui ont défini le développement artistique et personnel de Münter. J’approfondis ensuite l’importance du paysage dans son œuvre en étudiant son rapport à la nature et à Murnau. Puis, je m’intéresse au genius loci de Sils-Maria et à l’influence de Friedrich Nietzsche sur Münter. En tenant compte de l’ensemble de ces éléments, j’analyse finalement les différents symboles contenus dans Silser See, Engadin et démontre comment Münter s’est appropriée les composantes du paysage de Sils-Maria pour exprimer sa renaissance après une longue période de crise. Ce mémoire s’inscrit dans un désir de contribuer à la réflexion sur l’importance de la nature et des lieux dans l’épanouissement de l’être humain. / Silser See, Engadin (1927) is a landscape painting that is among the least known works of Gabriele Münter. The marginalization of this painting in her corpus can be explained on one hand by the fact that it has always remained within the restricted circle of private collections, and on the other, by the fact that Silser See, Engadin is part of a less productive phase of Münter’s work, which has so far received little interest from art historians. This phase corresponds to the years 1920-1930, a decade during which Münter’s production was greatly affected by the many upheavals that the First World War brought about in her artistic and personal life. This thesis argues for the importance of Silser See, Engadin for Münter, and demonstrates how this painting fits into the resolution of the crisis she went through during that decade. To do so, I first explore the various events that defined her artistic and personal development. I then establish the importance of landscape in Münter’s work by examining her relationship to nature and Murnau. Next, I study the genius loci of Sils-Maria and the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche on Münter. Taking all these elements into account, I finally analyze the different symbols contained in Silser See, Engadin and demonstrate how Münter transformed the components of the Sils-Maria landscape to express her rebirth after a long period of crisis. This thesis invites the reader to consider the importance of nature and places in relation to the development of the human being.

This project is by and large a project of elucidation: it may add something to studies of Kenneth Burke, but I doubt it adds much to Kenneth Burke's studies. This thesis begins and ends with analyses of Burke's famous motto Ad Bellum Purificandum (or Toward the Purification of War). The Introduction focuses on "war" while the Conclusion focuses on "purification." In short, purified war is a dialectical activity which actively and perpetually pits divergent perspectives against each other. Such an activity keeps the conflictual nature of divergent perspectives in verbal and symbolic arenas rather than physical ones. Burke owes this formulation to Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of "war" as an attitude toward life. Even as a project of elucidation, this formulation of Ad Bellum Purificandum still suggests related areas of study too extensive for one essay. The chapters of this thesis each comprise a foray into these areas. First, it is clear that Burke intends Ad Bellum Purificandum to be a means toward approaching more universal vocabularies, or what Burke calls a "consciousness of linguistic action generally" (Burke, Grammar 317). This poses a significant difficulty especially in regards to Burke's critical basis in Nietzsche. The problem is this: if all language, symbols, and thought are irreducibly and subjectively metaphoric (as both Nietzsche and Burke clearly agree on) then a universal frame of epistemological reference is impossible. Resolving this paradox is key in the purification of war. This involves resituating Burke's "representative anecdote" which he connects to the purification of war. Next, a study of dialectic itself is necessary since Burke's use of war is essentially dialectical. Because dialectic is the proving of equal contraries, and because dialectic implies learning new perspectives, such a project would view dialectic vis-à-vis democracy vis-à-vis education. Finally this project explains whereby a study of war's purification turns toward Kantian concerns having begun from Nietzschean questions. These projects (and others) serve toward an understanding (and therefore more effective purification) of Burke's use of "war."

The thesis constitutes the analysis of selected Czech dramas from the beginning of the 20th century representing various portrayals of national leaders. In my view, the dramas are Apollonian images of a kind representing the dreams of their creators about the strength and greatness, both individual and national. That is because, on one hand, the national leader is an exceptional individual, an exquisite human specimen and as such he or she corresponds to Nietzsche's characterization of a tragic hero as the highest phenomenon of the will. But at the same time, he or she is a national educator. Individual works represent various forms of how the leader educates and edifies the nation and whether he or she leads by command or by example. The dramas show us the leaders, who not only tame, purify, but also urge to growth those, whom they lead. The approach of the Czech playwrights is essentially mythopoetic. Their works constitute contributions to the creation or re-creation of national mythology, in other words, they deal with the meaning of the existence of the nation, or the national condition. They represent a dialogue or a polemic with one particular national mythology formed at the time that of T. G. Masaryk as he stated it in his works Česká otázka (1895), Naše nynější krise (1895), and Jan Hus...

The dissertation thesis deals with the interpretation of the "beyond-the-man" concept, which is being interpreted, on one hand, as a part of the art-theoretical and art-historical European modernity of the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, on the other hand, as a theoretical and methodological starting point for an interpretation of the transformation of the human image in the painting of the second half of the 1940s until the beginning of the 1960s. The foundation for such an interpretation is an assumption of the necessary transformation of the intellectual concepts after the World War II, as it was postulated by Theodor W. Adorno and how it was researched by Giorgio Agamben and Miroslav Petříček in the political-philosophical discourse. The thesis thus researches the "beyond-the-man" concept in the theory and history of art of the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century in a way of it being as re-formulated art-creative concept after 1945, evident especially in abstract painting. The interpretation of the "beyond-the-man" concept is developed on reading of Fritz Novotny's interpretation of Paul Cézanne's art from the beginning of the 1930s. Novotny in Cézanne's painting described the concept of "beyond-the-man" (Außermenschlichkeit) as a breaking point of the...