Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät--Universität Zürick, 2002. / Bibliogr. p. 287-302.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät--Universität Jena, 1998. / Bibliogr. p. 317-336.

Zugl.: Berlin, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2006

In this study I investigate the early work of the German writer Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) in relation to contemporary discourses of religious revival and secularization. Kracauer was one of the most renowned journalists of Weimar Germany. By the time he fled to Paris in 1933, he had written hundreds of articles for the Frankfurter Zeitung and other periodicals; he also had written sociological works and a novel. In this variegated collection of writing, Kracauer outlined a critique of mass culture that in some respects anticipated both the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and the concerns of cultural studies in our own day. His subsequent work, written after his emigration to the United States in 1941, contributed to the early development of film studies, and it is for this work that he is primarily known. My dissertation explores the prehistory of Kracauer’s critique of mass culture, in particular, the origins of this critique in his writing prior to 1926. In this period, he closely observed and participated in contemporary philosophical debates on questions of religion and secularism. I argue that these issues occupy a position of fundamental importance in Kracauer’s idea of criticism. Between the collision and collusion of discourses concerning the religious and the profane, Kracauer defined a space for critical practice, a space that accepted a theologically influenced view of the secular age as an age of crisis. Even after Kracauer turned, later in his career, towards a more positive valuation of secular modernity, the modern remained for him a crisis-ridden state that required the mediating efforts of the critic. His critical practice, moreover, was informed by his attempt to secularize theological concepts, in terms of both substance and rhetorical strategy. Messianic and Gnostic traditions within Judaism influenced Kracauer, but his approach to this issue was ultimately eclectic, responding to a wide array of sources including the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. Though previous studies have pointed out that metaphysical impulses informed Kracauer’s work, an extensive analysis of his engagement with contemporary religious movements is still needed. This dissertation situates Kracauer within these movements and discusses how his criticism evolved in relation to the claims of these competing discourses. Using Kracauer as a case study, I argue that the confrontation between the religious and the profane was a common reference point for intellectual debate, and that this conflict was pervasive in the bitterly contested cultural politics of the Weimar Republic, preparing the ground for National Socialism.

In this study I investigate the early work of the German writer Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) in relation to contemporary discourses of religious revival and secularization. Kracauer was one of the most renowned journalists of Weimar Germany. By the time he fled to Paris in 1933, he had written hundreds of articles for the Frankfurter Zeitung and other periodicals; he also had written sociological works and a novel. In this variegated collection of writing, Kracauer outlined a critique of mass culture that in some respects anticipated both the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and the concerns of cultural studies in our own day. His subsequent work, written after his emigration to the United States in 1941, contributed to the early development of film studies, and it is for this work that he is primarily known. My dissertation explores the prehistory of Kracauer’s critique of mass culture, in particular, the origins of this critique in his writing prior to 1926. In this period, he closely observed and participated in contemporary philosophical debates on questions of religion and secularism. I argue that these issues occupy a position of fundamental importance in Kracauer’s idea of criticism. Between the collision and collusion of discourses concerning the religious and the profane, Kracauer defined a space for critical practice, a space that accepted a theologically influenced view of the secular age as an age of crisis. Even after Kracauer turned, later in his career, towards a more positive valuation of secular modernity, the modern remained for him a crisis-ridden state that required the mediating efforts of the critic. His critical practice, moreover, was informed by his attempt to secularize theological concepts, in terms of both substance and rhetorical strategy. Messianic and Gnostic traditions within Judaism influenced Kracauer, but his approach to this issue was ultimately eclectic, responding to a wide array of sources including the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. Though previous studies have pointed out that metaphysical impulses informed Kracauer’s work, an extensive analysis of his engagement with contemporary religious movements is still needed. This dissertation situates Kracauer within these movements and discusses how his criticism evolved in relation to the claims of these competing discourses. Using Kracauer as a case study, I argue that the confrontation between the religious and the profane was a common reference point for intellectual debate, and that this conflict was pervasive in the bitterly contested cultural politics of the Weimar Republic, preparing the ground for National Socialism.

Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach, inwiefern die von Kracauer diagnostizierte "geistige Obdachlosigkeit" der Angestellten auch auf die Figur des Pinneberg aus Falladas "Kleiner Mann - Was nun?" zutrifft.

Esta tese objetiva analisar a obra do intelectual judeu-alemão Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) produzida até o ano de 1933. Especialmente em sua atividade como publicista, Kracauer desenvolveu procedimentos de observação social que tinham como objetivo a análise de fenômenos de superfície, expressos por objetos relativamente marginais, pontuais e de extração cotidiana (por exemplo, o best-seller, a dança, o cinema, a moda etc.). Kracauer acompanhou elementos da vida social alemã durante a República de Weimar sob uma perspectiva epistemológica peculiar, que visava entender o conteúdo múltiplo de uma época a partir da interpretação minuciosa de suas manifestações mais ínfimas. Acompanho a trajetória de seu pensamento e procuro oferecer um modo de ler seus textos sobre as mais variadas e inusitadas temáticas. Nessa leitura, emergem as perspectivas de que esses trabalhos oferecem, por um lado, um diagnóstico de época; por outro, viabilizam uma forma específica de análise social, pautada na observação de fenômenos relativamente marginais. Durante o processo de interpretação dos ensaios kracauerianos, procuro expor o diálogo que ele manteve com o pensamento social contemporâneo e a constelação teórica que possibilitou tal junção entre sociologia e superfícies para o oferecimento de uma crítica do presente; além disso, aponto para o teor iluminista da sua reflexão, em contraposição a movimentos nostálgicos e regressivos que marcaram o período / The aim of this thesis is to analyze the works of the Jewish-German intellectual Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) in the period up to 1933. Especially during his career as a publicist, Kracauer developed methods for social observation in order to analyze surface phenomena, represented by relatively marginal, particular and everyday life objects (the best seller, dance, movies and fashion, for example). During the Weimar Republic, Kracauer monitored elements of German social life, making use of a singular epistemological perspective that sought to understand the multiple contents of an epoch through the in-depth interpretation of its minutest manifestations. I set out to track the development of his thought and present a reading of his texts centering on varied and unusual themes. Such a reading offers two perspectives: a diagnosis of the times (Zeitdiagnose) on the one hand, and a specific form of social analysis based on relatively marginal phenomena on the other. During the process of interpreting Kracauers essays, I present his dialogue with social thought from the time as well as the theoretical constellation that allowed for such a connection between sociology and surface phenomena in creating a critique of the present. Additionally, I highlight the enlightened content of his reflections, in opposition to the nostalgic and regressive movements that marked the period

L'oeuvre de Michael Cimino (1939-2016) constitue un objet atypique dans le paysage de la production cinématographique américaine contemporaine. Féru d'histoire, de géographie, de peinture et de littérature, le cinéaste n'aura en définitive donné naissance qu'à sept long métrages ; après des débuts prometteurs (le succès mondial de son second film), ses ambitions artistiques sont brutalement, et irrémédiablement, contrariées par la réception très négative, tant publique que critique, de sa représentation de la mise en valeur des territoires occidentaux dans Heaven's Gate. Desinit in piscem écrivait Horace : avec ses trois dernières réalisations relevant davantage de la commande que de la création (The Sicilian, Desperate Hours et Sunchaser), la filmographie ne donne pas une forme achevée à l'immense ambition historiographique et esthétique révélée par la vaste fresque construite de The Deer Hunter (1978) à Year of the Dragon (1985). Pour autant, Cimino est parvenu à édifier une grammaire cinématographique exigeante et originale, à même d'exprimer un rapport à l'histoire qui, réfutant tout didactisme, relève fondamentalement d'une entreprise de déconstruction du grand roman national américain. Dans une telle perspective, l'enjeu ultime du propos s'apparente à un voyage, une quête des traces laissées par le passage du temps, non dans les institutions (les « superstructures » des catégories marxistes) mais au niveau infra, celui des individus et de la gemeinschaft. Du Vietnam aux plaines du Wyoming en passant par la métropole new-yorkaise, le continuum historique est appréhendé, modelé, à l'aune des changements qui affectent les existences humaines. La filmographie de Cimino doit en réalité peu au cinéma : elle tire sa raison d'être non des images préexistantes mais de la vie elle-même ; c'est pourquoi la pensée de Siegfried Kracauer, qui voyait dans la « rédemption de la réalité matérielle » la fonction essentielle du septième art, mais aussi ses développements ultérieurs (conduits notamment par Antoine de Baecque) fournissent l'assise théorique nécessaire à la bonne intelligence d'une pensée animée par la célébration de l'ineffable beauté des choses qui s'effacent, c'est à dire de l'histoire. / Michael Cimino’s work makes up an atypical item in the contemporary American film scene. Keen on history, geography, art and literature, the filmmaker actually only produced seven feature films ; after some promising beginnings (the global success of his second movie), the way he portrayed the emphasizing on Western territories in Heaven’s Gate was very badly received by both the audience and the critics, those negative reviews suddenly and irreversibly hampered his artistic ambitions. Horace wrote Desinit in piscem ; as his last three productions issued more from orders than from creation (The Sicilian, Desperate Hours and Sunschaser), the filmography does not stand for the completed historiographical and aesthetic ambition revealed by the historical epic depicted from The Deer Hunter (1978) to Year of the Dragon (1985). Nonetheless Cimino managed to develop a demanding and original cinema grammar capable of expressing a link with history which disproves all didactic and stems from an urge to deconstruct the great national American novel. With such a purpose in mind the issue at stake is similar to that of a trip, a quest for the traces left by the passing of time, not in the institutions (the ‘superstructures’ in the Marxist groups) but in the infrastructures, those of the individuals and the gemeinschaft. From Vietnam to the plains of Wyoming via New York City, historical continuity is considered in terms of -and affected by- the changes in human beings’ lives. Cimino’s filmography cannot be claimed by the cinema : it does not arise from preexisting pictures but from life itself. That’s why Siegfried Kracauer, who thought ‘redeeming material reality’ was the ultimate role for the cinema - as his further work (lead by Antoine de Baecque ) also showed - gave a necessary theoretical basis to a sensitive thought stoked by the celebration of the indescribable beauty of things that fade, i.e. of history .

Esta tese objetiva analisar a obra do intelectual judeu-alemão Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) produzida até o ano de 1933. Especialmente em sua atividade como publicista, Kracauer desenvolveu procedimentos de observação social que tinham como objetivo a análise de fenômenos de superfície, expressos por objetos relativamente marginais, pontuais e de extração cotidiana (por exemplo, o best-seller, a dança, o cinema, a moda etc.). Kracauer acompanhou elementos da vida social alemã durante a República de Weimar sob uma perspectiva epistemológica peculiar, que visava entender o conteúdo múltiplo de uma época a partir da interpretação minuciosa de suas manifestações mais ínfimas. Acompanho a trajetória de seu pensamento e procuro oferecer um modo de ler seus textos sobre as mais variadas e inusitadas temáticas. Nessa leitura, emergem as perspectivas de que esses trabalhos oferecem, por um lado, um diagnóstico de época; por outro, viabilizam uma forma específica de análise social, pautada na observação de fenômenos relativamente marginais. Durante o processo de interpretação dos ensaios kracauerianos, procuro expor o diálogo que ele manteve com o pensamento social contemporâneo e a constelação teórica que possibilitou tal junção entre sociologia e superfícies para o oferecimento de uma crítica do presente; além disso, aponto para o teor iluminista da sua reflexão, em contraposição a movimentos nostálgicos e regressivos que marcaram o período / The aim of this thesis is to analyze the works of the Jewish-German intellectual Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) in the period up to 1933. Especially during his career as a publicist, Kracauer developed methods for social observation in order to analyze surface phenomena, represented by relatively marginal, particular and everyday life objects (the best seller, dance, movies and fashion, for example). During the Weimar Republic, Kracauer monitored elements of German social life, making use of a singular epistemological perspective that sought to understand the multiple contents of an epoch through the in-depth interpretation of its minutest manifestations. I set out to track the development of his thought and present a reading of his texts centering on varied and unusual themes. Such a reading offers two perspectives: a diagnosis of the times (Zeitdiagnose) on the one hand, and a specific form of social analysis based on relatively marginal phenomena on the other. During the process of interpreting Kracauers essays, I present his dialogue with social thought from the time as well as the theoretical constellation that allowed for such a connection between sociology and surface phenomena in creating a critique of the present. Additionally, I highlight the enlightened content of his reflections, in opposition to the nostalgic and regressive movements that marked the period

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier le cinéma américain indépendant du point de vue de la différence qu’il instaure avec le cinéma hollywoodien, comme une ligne de fuite qui le déterritorialise tout en créant pour lui-même des formes nouvelles d’expression et de contenu. Cela suppose de considérer ses rapports avec le cinéma hollywoodien comme rapports entre deux plans d’immanence surgis au même niveau d’individuation à l’intérieur d’un plan d’immanence plus large, celui du cinéma nord-américain. Et, en même temps, il suppose de considérer la différence entre ces sous-plans dans ce qu’elle implique pour une pensée en cinéma, à savoir en blocs d’images-mouvement et d’images-durée, qui se trouve en face des tensions particulières qui caractérisent la société américaine. Dans cet esprit, la distinction principale qu’il faut considérer est celle qui passe entre : d’une part, le cinéma hollywoodien et ses différentes façons (genres, récit organico-actif) de « sauver » la différence, en la représentant ; et de la représenter en la rapportant aux exigences d’une seule grande forme en affinité directe avec ce que je définis comme rêve de continuité et de cohérence de la société américaine ; et, d’autre part, le cinéma indépendant et ses différentes façons de témoigner d’un fond rebelle qui déterritorialise le sens prédéterminé vers lequel les actions et les situations du cinéma hollywoodien convergent. Ce qui se trouve au-delà ou en-deçà de la représentation organique-hollywoodienne et que le cinéma indépendant arrache à cette dernière est un espace de distribution errante, intensive, entre forces et rapports de forces. / The objective of this thesis is to study the American independent cinema from the point of view of the difference which it founds with the Hollywood cinema, as a line of flight which deteritorialises the latter, while creating for itself new forms of expression and content. That supposes to consider its relation with the Hollywood cinema as one between two plans of immanence emerged on the same level of individuation inside a broader plan of immanence, that of the North-American cinema. And, at the same time, it supposes to consider the difference between these under-plans in what it implies for a cinema-thought, namely a thought in terms of blocks of movement-images and time-images, facing the particular tensions which characterize the American society. Within this framework, the principal distinction that should be considered is that which passes between: on the one hand, the Hollywood cinema and its various ways (genres, organico-active régime) “of saving” the difference, by representing it; and of representing it by bringing it back to the requirements of only one great form in direct affinity with what I define as a dream of continuity and of coherence of American society; and, on the other hand, the independent cinema and its various ways of testifying to a rebellious core which deteritorialises the predetermined direction towards which the actions and the situations of the Hollywood cinema converge. What is beyond or below Hollywood organic representation and that the independent cinema tears off from the latter is a space of wandering and intensive distribution between forces of power and forces of resistance.