Der Begriff Performativität geht zurück auf die Sprechakttheorie und wurde von dem Sprachphilosophen John L. Austin 'ins Spiel' gebracht. Er verweist mit dem Terminus auf die handlungspraktische Dimension des Sprechens, d.h. dasjenige zu vollziehen oder zu produzieren, was im Sprechen benannt wird, und es nicht lediglich zu bezeichnen. Vor dem Hintergrund von Derridas Iterabilitätsbegriff hat insbesondere Judith Butler das Konzept in die Gendertheorie eingeführt. Das Sein oder So-Sein eines Geschlechtes ist demnach kein ontologischer Status, der aus einer vordiskursiven Wirklichkeit schöpft, sondern das Ergebnis (sich wiederholender) performativer Inszenierungen, die sich selbst erfolgreich als Sein darstellen.

Dekonstruktion bezeichnet ein durch den poststrukturalistischen Philosophen Jacques Derrida entwickeltes Lektüreverfahren, das sich gegen den tradierten hermeneutischen Ansatz richtet. Es stellt eine letztgültige, im Text enthaltene Bedeutung in Abrede, legt Brüche und Verwerfungen frei und postuliert die Unabschließbarkeit des Interpretationsvorgangs. Statt selbst einen Sinn zu behaupten, erfüllt sich der Zweck der Dekonstruktion in der Prozessualität, das heißt im Akt des Fragens selbst.

This essay attempts to listen to meaning in the borderland, and asks in between which faculties and senses, through which we see and/or listen to the world, do we seek sense? My writing is located on this border, or more precisely on the erased border that I call an interspace or an interval, the place where we look for sense in the relation between language, philosophy, politics, and music. I have done this through the reading of three contemporary philosophers: Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Angela Davis. Derrida and Nancy have provided me with a theoretical and philosophical background for my approach to Davis’s philosophic and political claims. My analysis sets out from Derrida’s différance and what it reveals in the sign system of language. This is continued through a discussion of Nancy’s question: Is philosophy capable of listening, in all senses of the word? Is the philosopher not someone who always hears? In my reading, this connection is established through the blue notes. Davis, finally, provides me with a support for my claim that we, in the political significance of blues, in the traces of meaning that it contains, might be able to listen to Derrida’s différance. Keywords: Listening, meaning, différance, blues, sonority, blue notes, in between, border, subject, Jacques Derrida, Angela Y Davis, Jean-Luc Nancy. / Denna uppsats syftar till att försöka lyssna till meningen i gränslandet – mellan vilka relationer i våra förmågor och sinnen, av att se och/eller lyssna till världen, söker vi mening? Jag vill skriva om den gränsen, eller mer kanske den utsuddade gränsen i platsen jag kallar mellansfär och mellanrum, som den plats där vi söker mening i relationen mellan språk, filosofi, politik och musik. När vi idag söker mening och talar om varat, om individen och subjektivitet, kan det vara så att vi inte längre kan göra det genom fasta tecken, system och former? Istället för att stanna kvar i ett tillstånd av upprepande och separerande som landar i uteslutande och förtryck, i värdeskalor och normer, istället för att endast höra klassiska notsystem, eller förstå språkliga regler hos fasta teckensystem; kan det vara så att vi idag får vända oss till lyssnandet och mellansfären i de blå tonernas différance för att förstå olika individer och subjektivitet i relation till världen? Genom att göra en analys av Derridas term différance i hans text med samma namn: ”Différance” ur boken Margins of philosophy, ska jag försöka närma mig Nancys bok Listening samt läsa hans text genom tanken på différance i Nancys teori och förståelse om lyssnandet.  För att undersöka hur lyssnande och musik kan få ett praktiskt uttryck, av de teoretiska meningarna vi söker i différance, vill jag använda musikgenrerna blues och jazz och de blå toner som bluesen förhåller sig i och mellan. Min teori är att bluesen kan ge en plats (av flera) för var skillnader möts mellan text, värld och musik; platsen där différance kan lyssnas till, synliggöras och hörs. I den teorin vänder jag mig till Angela Davis bok Blues Legacies and Black Feminism som stöd för bluesens utveckling. Det jag ämnar närma mig hos Davis är just bluesens meningssökande och plats i samhället

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Mémoire en recherche-création / Sōma, c’est le temps de l’inscription de l’écrit sur et dans le corps, c’est le temps de la somatisation, de la révélation de l’affect comme symptôme, du corps qui réplique à la violence extérieure. C’est également un recueil de fragments qui se suivent comme tant de scènes et qui, à la manière d’un « corps sans organes », se lient les uns aux autres selon des connexions productives, « des circuits de conjonctions, des étagements et des seuils, des passages et des distributions d’intensité, des territoires et des déterritorialisations […] ». Un peu comme chez Collobert, l’aventure des fragments s’inscrit avant tout dans un parcours phénoménologique, dans les moyens que se donne le texte pour traduire l’expérience corporelle de la souffrance. Dans Sōma, la narration oscille entre le passé, temps de l’enfermement, de la maladie, des premiers balbutiements de l’écriture, et le présent de l’écriture, source de maux comme de soulagement, qui préside à la création du recueil. Grâce à l’enchevêtrement de ces deux temps narratifs, le je poétique explore les différents états du corps féminin souffrant, qu’il s’agisse de souffrance physique comme de souffrance psychologique. « Corps là, noué aux mots » : plasticité de l’écriture et voilement du je dans Dire II de Danielle Collobert interroge d’abord la plasticité à l’œuvre dans le recueil Dire II de Danielle Collobert. Grâce à une étude approfondie du concept de plasticité tel qu’explicité par la philosophe Catherine Malabou, qui emprunte la notion à Hegel, il nous est permis d’en dégager quelques fonctions : potentiel de donation et d’explosion de la forme, du corps et du sujet. Formellement à l’œuvre dans le recueil à l’étude, ces fonctions innervent et décrivent la nature scripturaire du passage de Dire I à Dire II et qualifient, avec justesse, les métamorphoses internes qui ont lieu dans Dire II. Ces fonctions s’incarnent concrètement grâce à un changement de paradigme textuel : la parataxe remplace la phrase longue, l’horizontalité laisse place à la verticalité, les vers deviennent de plus en plus hachurés, le sujet morphologique semble progressivement disparaître. Ce dernier point ouvre la réflexion sur le second pan principal de l’essai, soit, le voilement du je au sein du recueil. Intrinsèquement reliée à la question de la plasticité, l’apparition et la disparition du sujet poétique soulèvent celle de l’assujettissement, c’est-à-dire de la formation du sujet qui, elle aussi, s’inscrit sous le signe de la plasticité puisque le sujet poétique est en constant devenir, il n’est jamais stable, pareil et identique à lui-même. Les métamorphoses ainsi que les différents états du sujet mènent à une étude approfondie des liens qui existent entre celui-ci et son corps, dont la représentation hante le texte. Examinant les liens entre texte, sujet et corps, l’essai esquissera, notamment grâce à l’apport de Maurice Blanchot, Évelyne Grossman, Gilles Deleuze de Jacques Derrida, une pensée de l’écriture comme souffrance corporelle, de la souffrance comme inscription textuelle. / Sōma is the time of an inscription of the text on and in the body, it is the time of somatization, of the revelation of the affect as a symptom, of the body responding to external violence. It is also a collection of fragments which follow one another like so many scenes and which, like a body without organs, are linked to each other according to productive connections, " circuits of conjunctions, stages and thresholds, passages and distributions of intensity, territories and deterritorializations […]2 ". A bit like with Collobert, the adventure of fragments is first and foremost part of a journey towards a phenomenological writing, in the means that the text gives itself to translate the bodily experience of suffering. In Sōma, the narration oscillates between the past, a time of confinement, illness, the beginning of writing, and the present of writing, a source of pain and relief, which governs the creation of the collection. Through the entanglement of these two narrative tenses, the poetic subject explores the different states of the suffering female body, whether it is physical suffering or psychological suffering. " Body There, Tied to Words " : Plasticity of Writing and Veiling of the I in Dire II by Danielle Collobert first questions the plasticity at work in Danielle Collobert's Dire II. Thanks to an indepth study of the concept of plasticity as explained by the philosopher Catherine Malabou, who borrows the notion from Hegel, we are able to identify some functions: potential for donation and explosion of form, the body and the subject. Formally at work in the work under study, these functions innervate and describe the scriptural nature of the passage from Dire I to Dire II and aptly qualify the internal metamorphoses that take place in Dire II. These functions are concretely embodied thanks to a change of textual paradigm: the parataxis replaces the long sentence, horizontality gives way to verticality, the lines become more and more hatched, the morphological subject seems to gradually disappear. This last point opens the reflection on the second main part of the essay, that is, the veiling of the I within the collection. Intrinsically linked to the question of plasticity, the appearance and disappearance of the poetic subject raises that of subjugation, that is to say of the formation of the subject which, too, is inscribed under the sign of plasticity since the poetic subject is in constant evolution: it is never stable, the same and identical to itself. The metamorphoses as well as the different states of the subject lead to an indepth study of the links that exist between him and his body, the representation of which haunts the text. Examining the links between text, subject and body, the essay will sketch, thanks in particular to the contributions of Maurice Blanchot, Évelyne Grossman, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida, a thought of writing as bodily suffering, of suffering as textual inscription.

L’art performance est un art contemporain difficile à définir. Néanmoins il peut se décrire par l’action d’un artiste de performance qui, à la différence du théâtre traditionnel, se présente lui-même devant un public, s’infligeant parfois de véritable blessure. Cet art questionne le « pour de vrai » et le « vrai ». En le comparant au théâtre il semble moins fictif car les blessures est le sang sont « vrais », et sa trace (captations vidéos, captations sonores, photographies, objets, croquis, écrits, etc.) le prouve. La fiction et la trace paraissent opposées, là où la première est une invention (le « pour de vrai ») l’autre est un élément pérenne d’une action vécue (le « vrai »), l’art performance permettrait alors de penser ces deux notions non plus comme opposés mais comme corrélatives. L’art performance présente sa trace comme un élément pérenne d’une action plus ou moins inventée : le « vrai » dont la frontière avec le « pour de vrai » peut être questionné. Cette thèse argumente ces hypothèses à travers une première partie comparative entre l’art performance et l’art théâtral, avec comme problématique la fiction qui semble opposée au « vrai ». Et une seconde partie corrélative sur le possible « pour de vrai » de la trace, qui permet l’étude de trois traces épistémologiques : la mémoire, l’écriture et l’indice à travers des exemples respectifs d’artistes de performance. / Performance art is a contemporary art is hard to define but which can be described as an action made an audience by a performance artist who, in contrast to the traditional theater, is the artist himself is inflicting sometimes real physical injuries. This art questions the 'like true' and the 'true' and seems less fictitious than traditional theater because blood’s physical injuries is 'true' and that he uses his trace as evidence (video recordings, sound recordings, photographs, objects, sketches, written, etc.). If the fiction and the trace seem opposed, because the first is an invention (the "like true") the other is a sustainable living action (the ' true') element, performance art then would think these two concepts not as opposites but as Horn related. As performance art, object of study here, presents his trail as a perennial element of a more or less invented action: as the 'true' including the border with the "like true" can be questioned. This thesis argues its assumptions through a comparative part between performance art and theatrical art, with as problematic fiction that seems opposite to 'true'. And a second consequential part on the possible "like true" of the trace, which allows the study of three epistemological traces : memory, writing, and trifle through respective examples of performance artists.

This thesis seeks to interpret the cinematic representations of Hong Kongers’ identity quest during a transitional state/stage related to the sovereignty transfer. The Handover transition considered is an ideological one, rather than the overnight polity change on the Handover day. This research approaches contemporary Hong Kong cinema on two fronts and the thesis is structured accordingly: Upon an initial review of the existing Hong Kong film scholarship in the Introduction, and its 1997-related allegorical readings, Part I sees new angles (previously undeveloped or underdeveloped) for researching Hong Kong films made during 1982-2002. Arguments are built along the ideas of Hong Kongers’ situational, diasporic consciousness, and transformed ‘Chineseness’ because Hong Kong has lacked a cultural/national centrality. This part of research is informed by the ideas of Jacques Derrida, Homi Bhabha and Stuart Hall, and the diasporic experiences of Ien Ang, Rey Chow and Ackbar Abbas. With these new research angles and references to the circumstances, Part II reads critically the text of eight Hong Kong films made during the Handover transition. In chronological order, they are Boat People (Hui, 1982), Song of the Exile (Hui, 1990), Days of Being Wild (Wong, 1990), Happy Together (Wong, 1997), Made in Hong Kong (Chan, 1997), Ordinary Heroes (Hui, 1999), Durian Durian (Chan, 2000), and Hollywood Hong Kong (Chan, 2002). They meet several criteria related to the undeveloped / underdeveloped areas in the existing Hong Kong film scholarship. Hamid Naficy’s ‘accented cinema’ paradigm gives the guidelines to the film analysis in Part II. This part shows that Hong Kongers’ self-transformation during transition is alterable, indeterminate, and interminable, due to the people’s situational, diasporic consciousness, and transformed ‘Chineseness’. This thesis thus contributes to Hong Kong cinema scholarship in interpreting films with new research angles, and generating new insights into this cinematic tradition and its wider context.

Unter dem Begriff des Poststrukturalismus wird eine disparate, auf den Axiomen des Strukturalismus aufbauende und diese zugleich überwindende Strömung verstanden, die sowohl innerhalb der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften als auch in interdisziplinär organisierten Feldern wie den Gender Studies von großer Tragweite ist. Geteilt wird die Auffassung, dass kulturelle Phänomene allgemein sprachlich strukturiert sind. Seine Tendenz, unter die Oberfläche vermeintlich stabiler, monolithischer Strukturen zu schauen, qualifiziert den Poststrukturalismus für eine Anwendung auf genderwissenschaftliche Kategorien wie Weiblichkeit und Männlichkeit, deren Bedeutung nicht aus sich selbst erwächst, sondern die als Signifikate innerhalb eines (phallokratischen) Systems zu denken sind.

This thesis examines the desire and efforts to 'do something' about what is variously called 'modern slavery' or 'human trafficking'. Neoabolitionist efforts to fight such phenomena are typically wedded to a simplistic and essentialist ontology, unaware of or rejecting their own performativity. The thesis is not about slavery: it is about the ethico-political problem of responsibility and hospitality toward the other in the context of contemporary anti-slavery. What constitutes an ethical response to modern slavery? I explore the often violent effects of particular answers to this question but ultimately argue that the focus on doing something (and knowing it) threatens the very possibility of hospitality - of an ethical response. Through a conceptual vocabulary of 'scenes' I explore the performative interrelation of ontology and ethics. It is intended to help resist the metaphysical seductions of ontology and moral urgency. Scenes bundle specific ontologies, frames, conjured histories and futures, roles and narrative structures, distributions of concern, desire and enjoyment. Response begins with the discursive and affective co-constitution of the self, the one to whom we respond, and the scene in which it takes place. Scene-specific forms of responsibility can operate as a defence against the full force of responsibility to the other. Chapters 1 and 2 develop the notion of scenes and explore how neoabolitionism sets its scenes and locates favoured solutions. The remaining chapters explore those solution areas. Chapter 3 looks at how a US movement against 'sex trafficking' in internet advertising reproduces a Manichean world of simplicity by a game of Whac-A-Mole with websites, ritualistic repetition of baseless 'facts', silencing of sex workers, and aggressive demonization of those who disagree or argue for greater complexity; Chapters 4 and 5 draw on time I spent in San Francisco with two very different organisations. One, Not For Sale, makes a product of experiencing neoabolitionism, joining together charity, capitalism, consumer enjoyment, technology and the excitement of a movement of 'true believers', producing innovative approaches but in the process reinforcing problematic gendered and colonial stereotypes. The other, Anti-trafficking Collaborative of the Bay Area, works quietly and tactically in a messy immigration system, aware of the political and performative nature of their work. They actively take responsibility for their own preconceptions and desires to ground a profoundly hospitable client-centred approach avoiding many pitfalls identified in earlier chapters. The thesis has a performative element woven through it - the ethos of the work is one of unsettling both existing practices and literatures, and the writer and reader. The concluding chapter explores the impossibility of hospitality, its interrelation with juridical subjectivity and the ethics demanding and giving accounts in light of the preceding chapters, suggesting a performative approach toward the other is possible.

<p>This thesis examines the social theory of Lacanian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It focuses on Žižek’s work between 1989 and 2006, and offers an interpretation based on a reading of three central concepts: the Other, fantasy, and the act. All these concepts occupy the intersection between Lacan’s three orders (Imaginary, Real, Symbolic), which in Žižek’s theory means that they express a tension shared by all social order. The first chapter approaches Žižek’s conception of “the social” through an introduction of the Lacanian concept of "the Other." Attention is paid to how (a) the Other is constitutively split between its role as a Symbolic network of signifiers, and its enigmatic (Real and Imaginary) capacity to support this Symbolic network; (b) a similar split marks several of Žižek’s Lacanian and Hegelian concepts. Moreover, the chapter contrasts Žižekian sociality with those of Giddens, Luhmann and Althusser. The second chapter gives an account of the topological place of fantasy in Žižek’s theory. Relating Žižek’s theory to Critical Theory, deconstruction and Deleuzian philosophy, fantasy is presented as a concept countering new forms of “bad infinity” (Hegel) in modern social theory. The third chapter links Žižek’s theory of the act to the theories of Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Alain Badiou. Commenting on Rex Butler’s brilliant reading of Žižek, the thesis argues that Butler’s definition of the act is too negative. Instead, the thesis proposes a definition which emphasises the act's productive dimension, insisting on how the act ultimately involves the transformation from masculine to feminine enjoyment. The last chapter critically observes the different treatments Lacan and Derrida receive in Žižek’s text. The argument concludes that the Žižekian text relapses into a "masculine logic of exception", insofar as it leaves Derrida’s phallus untouched, while treating Lacan as the only one lacking phallus.</p>