I offer a cloud of observations about language and art. I will prioritize my questions about how language operates in art, the way it functions within my own studio practice, and locate aesthetic interstices throughout. There will be insights gleaned from the various orderers of order (Lacan, Saussure) and orderers of disorder (Derrida, Agamben), walks in terra-incognita, and even some poetry on my part. I will take this chance to orient myself among different structures and deconstructions that have piledup around language, aesthetics and art.

The numerous and varied conspiracy theories which circulate in the contemporary discourse are subject to hyperstition, insofar as they are grouped into wider, more elaborate structures. Some of them become hierarchic to such a degree, that they may, in Michael Barkun's typology, be labeled as "superconspiracy" constructs. No author is more prolific and systematic in the crafting of these constructs than the guru of anglophone conspiracy theory belief, David Icke. The work attempts to keep as its object of study the work of David Icke and his "reptoid hypothesis," as it is effectively one of the most elaborate and baroque conspiracy theories which populate contemporary political discourse. It is Icke's oeuvre which this thesis attempts to recontextualize within the confines of critical social theory and Žižekian psychoanalysis. The existence of a "paranoid style" as professed by Richard J. Hofstadter can be noted throughout the history of western culture, from the Homeric gods, scheming behind the scenes, to its modern incarnations culminating in the superconspiracy constructs of David Icke, Alex Jones, and others. The work focuses not on specific conspiracy theories and their claim to facticity, but rather attempts to trace the structural features of Icke's construct and establish their underlying...

Submitted by Setor de Tratamento da Informa??o - BC/PUCRS (tede2@pucrs.br) on 2016-05-10T13:24:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TES_ALMERINDO_ANTONIO_BOFF_COMPLETO.pdf: 1424543 bytes, checksum: c5fc6845e6654e6a216e1767b6bd2718 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-10T13:24:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TES_ALMERINDO_ANTONIO_BOFF_COMPLETO.pdf: 1424543 bytes, checksum: c5fc6845e6654e6a216e1767b6bd2718 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-03 / In creating psychoanalysis, at the end of the 19th century, Freud dedicated himself to explain the epistemological foundations in which he grounds his assumption of having created a new science, a new branch of natural sciences, with which it shared these epistemological foundations as well as its Weltanschauung. In mid-twentieth century, originating at the critique of psychoanalytical scientificity that came especially from neopositivist epistemology, it fell to Jacques Lacan to resume the question of psychoanalytical epistemology and to consolidate it over new foundations. The present thesis seeks to highlight the fact that, after the lacanian approach to the issue, an original way of conceiving psychoanalysis comes from outside of the psychoanalytical field, more precisely from Jacques Derrida?s philosophy. According to Derrida, psychoanalysis not only doesn?t fit in its entirety within the limits of a regional science, but it also comes to constitute, in harmony with derridean graphemathics, an original way of viewing the constitution of reality in general. The thesis follows the path of derridian critique to freudian epistemology and to lacanian structuralist psychoanalysis of the 1950?s, regarding the contemporary thought that seeks, in the last Lacan through the psychoanalytical field, and in Alain Badiou through the field of philosophy, the foundations of both in the fields of mathematical formalisation. Other than allowing to conceive a new psychoanalytical epistemology consolidated in his philosophy, the thesis follows Derrida in pointing at the challenging paths of a psychoanalysis to come. / Ao criar a psican?lise, a partir do final do s?culo XIX, Freud dedicou-se a explicitar os fundamentos epistemol?gicos em que alicer?ava sua pretens?o de haver criado uma nova ci?ncia, um novo ramo das ci?ncias naturais, com as quais ela compartilhava, portanto, tanto estes fundamentos epistemol?gicos quanto sua Weltanschauung. Em meados do s?culo XX, e agora a partir da cr?tica ? cientificidade da psican?lise provinda especialmente da epistemologia neopositivista, coube a Jacques Lacan retomar a quest?o da epistemologia da psican?lise para alicer??-la sobre outros fundamentos. A presente tese procura evidenciar que, ap?s a abordagem lacaniana do problema, vem de fora da psican?lise, mais precisamente da filosofia de Jacques Derrida, uma maneira original de conceber a psican?lise. Para Derrida, a psican?lise n?o apenas n?o cabe toda dentro dos limites de uma ci?ncia regional, como vem a constituir, em harmonia com a grafem?tica derridiana, uma maneira original de pensar a constitui??o da realidade em geral. A tese percorre os caminhos da cr?tica derridiana ? epistemologia freudiana e ? psican?lise estruturalista lacaniana dos anos 50 do s?culo XX, at? encontrar-se com o pensamento contempor?neo que busca, no ?ltimo Lacan pelo campo da psican?lise, e em Alain Badiou pelo campo da filosofia, a fundamenta??o destas no campo da formaliza??o matem?tica. Al?m de permitir pensar uma nova epistemologia da psican?lise alicer?ada em sua filosofia, a tese acompanha Derrida ao apontar para os desafiadores rumos de uma psican?lise por vir.

國立政治大學研究所碩士論文提要 研究所別： 英國語文研究所 論文名稱： 閱讀溫特森«銘刻在身»的爽 指導教授： 劉建基教授 研究生： 張惠慈 論文提要內容： （共一冊，約 31500 字，分五章） 本研究關於溫特森的《銘刻在身》旨在探究在閱讀此文本過程中，不同程度及不同形式的爽(jouissance)。此研究將著重於三方面：其一，追求愛情的爽；其二，在幻想中永恆的爽；其三，閱讀文本《銘刻於身》的爽。本論文將分五個章節。 我在第一章的前半部簡介溫特森及她的小說，在後半部，描繪拉岡心理學中三個限界（幻真界[the real]，想像界[the imaginary]，及象徵界[the symbolic]），及此三界與爽的交互作用。這三個限界及爽，將是本研究的理論基石。 第二章的討論旨在解釋，為何敘述者著迷於不斷陷入愛情，及為何露伊絲在小說結尾莫名其妙的消失了。乍看之下，敘述者對露伊絲的愛相當矛盾：敘述者對露伊絲宣稱其無窮的愛，卻又刻意地悄悄的遠離了她。然而事實上，敘述者的矛盾行為堪稱合理：因為愛與失去是共生的。在浪漫愛情故事裡，一段介於愛的主體(the loving subject)及被愛客體(the loved object)之間的距離是必要的。表面上，愛的主體（敘述者）的追求過程裡看來痛苦，而實際上他正無意識的，享受著對被愛客體無限的追求時的爽。在這迷戀他者的過程中，主體實際上是自我迷戀(narcissism)，而在這自我迷戀的過程中，主體將其自我理想(an ego-ideal)投射在被愛客體上，並美化被愛客體成為一理想的自我(an ideal ego)。 在第三章，我將對敘述者迷戀愛情的現象做更深入的探討：到底敘述者打算由露伊絲的完美形象中挖掘什麼，以及為何敘述者得與一個理想戀人，住在一個理想愛情的幻象之中？我發掘出其中最主要的原因來自於，主體懼怕被去勢及懼怕象徵界中的無能（例如婚姻、老去、死亡）。主體具有一個原生的欲望：期待完滿及永恆（此欲望是期待回歸幻象界以及獲得爽），然而在現實世界（象徵界）的短缺及壓迫之下，回歸的可能被榨乾。幻象(fantasy)於是成為主體（敘述者）的護欄，它一方面讓主體相信自己是全能，另一方面它掩蔽事實，讓主體忘卻自身的不完整和無能為力。 在第四章，我跳出單單在文本內容中的討論，進而探討文本與讀者之間的關係；本討論的立論基礎為羅蘭巴特的書寫式文本(writerly text)。在文本╱讀者及露伊絲╱敘述者之間，有一類似的有趣現象：文本之於讀者正如同露伊絲之於敘述者。在這兩個情況當中同時都有一被動的客體(the desired or probed object)勾引探索中的主體(the probing subject)，然後再由主體的追求中脫逃而去。閱讀《銘刻於身》，表面上痛苦萬分，而實際上卻令人陶醉：因為閱讀的爽正源自於，作者刻意設計的不確定因素(uncertain elements)。這些不確定因素，一方面玩弄讀者，一方面也在文本上形成一未填滿的空間，其特徵就是不斷的衍生(endless generation)－－讀者可以參與創造各式各類的可能性，而意義的系統將不斷延伸。一個單一的文本，在此不斷延伸的系統下，便成了多重文本，而閱讀此類書寫式文本之樂趣，就在於讀者不得不參與創造意義的過程。 最後我在第五章的結論部份，總結了愛與閱讀的爽具有相同的條件與模式：在追求的主體（讀者與愛的主體）與被追求的客體（文本及被愛客體）之間，空間與距離是不可避免的要素，因為隱藏在人體內的爽本身就是一個矛盾體。 Chapter One Introduction Chapter Two The Jouissance of Pursuing Love Chapter Three The Jouissance of Being Immortal in Fantasy Chapter Four The Bliss of Reading Written on the Body: A Writerly Text with Jouissance Chapter Five Coda / Abstract In this study of Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body I would like to explore jouissance in different forms and levels in the process of reading this novel. The emphasis will be laid upon three aspects: first, the jouissance of pursuing love; secondly, the jouissance of being immortal in fantasy; and thirdly, the jouissance of reading this novel. The thesis is divided into five parts. In the first chapter, the beginning section is devoted to a general introduction of Jeanette Winterson and her novels; in the ensuing section, I will picture the interrelationships between the three registers—the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic—and jouissance in Lacanian psychoanalysis, which will be adopted as the interpretative model to account for the theme of jouissance in the whole thesis. In the second chapter, I will stress on the narrator’s exalted love toward Louise and the construction of his/her ego. On the surface, it is odd that the narrator’s sublime love for Louise contradicts his/her decision—to leave Louise; however this paradox is reasonable, because love and loss is in fact symbiosis. A distance between the loving subject and the loved object is necessary in the case of romantic love; though painful, the loving subject enjoys itself in the act of endless pursuit for the loved object, which is actually an ideal ego of the subject’s self. The paradox of love in company with suffering explains the narrator’s addiction in love and the disappearance of Louise. In the third chapter, my interest is getting deeper: what does the narrator want to grub out of the ideal image of Louise, and why does the narrator have to live in the fantasy of ideal love and to be with an ideal lover? The principal cause that I will explore is the fear of being castrated and of the impotency of the symbolic. The subject has an essential desire to be integral and immortal (which is the concept of the real and is allied to jouissance), but there are forces from the reality (or the symbolic) to drain this desire. Therefore, fantasy becomes a protective talisman for the narrator (as well as for every subject) to forget its fragmentation and inability. In the fourth chapter, the interrelation between the text and the reader is the dominant consideration, and Roland Barthes’ theory of writerly text that engenders bliss (jouissance) will be the critical base. There is an interesting formula between the text/the reader and Louise/the narrator. The text for the reader is similar to Louise for the narrator: in both situations, the desired one seduces and slides from the probing other. Reading Written on the Body on the surface is painful and irritating; in a sense, the act of reading is ecstatic. The origin of the bliss of reading is the uncertain elements intentionally created by the author. The unfilled space in the text that entertains readers is characterized by its feature of endless generation—various possibilities are created, and the network of meanings extends. Therefore, to conclude the whole scheme of love and reading in the fifth chapter, I will point out that a space or a distance between the pursuing subject (the reader or the loving subject) and the pursued object (the text of the loved object) is inevitable because jouissance inherent in the human body is in its essence paradoxical.

Dans son texte princeps " Dementia praecox ou groupe des schizophrénies " Paul Eugène Bleuler note que " l'autisme est à peu près la même chose que ce que Freud appelle autoérotisme ". Pourtant, en examinant en détails les autres définitions de l'autisme proposées par Bleuler, tout comme les travaux sur lesquels il a fondé ses élaborations, ainsi que les divers ouvrages de Sigmund Freud, rédigés pour répondre à Paul Eugène Bleuler, on peut constater, que cette remarque concernant la substitution pure et simple de l'auto-érotisme par l'autisme, en essayant éviter ainsi toute référence à la sexualité, est loin d'être exhaustive. La thèse de Bleuler selon laquelle " nous appelons autisme ce détachement de la réalité combiné à la prédominance relative ou absolue de la vie intérieure " ouvre des perspectives fort intéressantes pour la clinique. Ainsi ce n'est pas le narcissisme primaire, mais plutôt le narcissisme secondaire qui correspond à l'autisme bleulérien. Néanmoins cette réponse ne satisfait ni Sigmund Freud, ni Jacques Lacan qui essayent tous les deux d'affiner la conceptualisation psychanalytique des psychoses. Si Jacques Lacan a bien repris à son compte certains concepts freudiens, issus des tentatives de Freud de retravailler le concept bleulérien de l'autisme selon la théorie de la libido (comme le principe de plaisir / le principe de la réalité, la réalité psychique ou la perte de la réalité dans la névrose et dans la psychose), il les remanie à sa façon, souvent d'une manière subversive. C'est en questionnant et en remettant en cause le concept du narcissisme primaire, issu de la discussion à propos de l'autisme bleulérien, que Jacques Lacan en arrive à l'élaboration du stade du miroir et au cheminement qui lui permet la conceptualisation de l'aliénation / séparation, tout comme au questionnement du rapport du sujet et de l'Autre dans l'autisme. C'est ainsi qu'il indique également la perspective qui peut mener à la conception d'une certaine disposition du réel, de l'imaginaire et du symbolique selon la théorie des nœuds borroméens qui, à notre avis, pourrait correspondre à l'état autistique

This study brings the insights of Slavoj Žižek’s Lacan-inspired approach to bear upon a series of influential 20th century plays and their engagement with what Lacan calls the Real. The plays to be explored share a focus on experiences, events or encounters which transcend, exceed, disrupt, and in some cases shatter characters’ normal, familiar realities. Examined through the lens of Žižek, these confrontations with the sublime and the fantastic reveal a crucial relation to the plays’ contemporary contexts, prompting us to “look awry” upon the dynamics of our own symbolically-regulated reality and the ever-changing and precarious nature of our relation to it. Similarly crucial is the relation of the Lacanian Real to our theatrical forms and modes of perception in the theatre. In staging “encounters with the Real,” these plays prompt us simultaneously to explore the ways in which the Real operates —and “appears” — in our own theatrical experience, ensnaring our gaze and the force of our desire. The study offers a Žižekian approach to works including Peter Shaffer’s Equus, John Mighton’s Possible Worlds, S. An-sky’s The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds, Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker, Tony Kushner’s The Illusion, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Enigma Variations.

Within the science fiction genre, utopian as well as dystopian experiments have found equal representation. This balanced treatment of two diametrically opposed social constructs results from a focus on the future for which this particular genre is well known. Philip K. Dick’s VALIS, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, Samuel R. Delany’s Babel-17, and Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby, more aptly characterized as speculative fiction because of its use of magic against scientific social subjugation, each tackle dystopian qualities of contemporary society by analyzing the power that language possesses in the formation of the self and propagation of ideology. The utopian goals of these texts advocate for a return to the modernist metanarrative and a revision of postmodern cynicism because the authors look to the future for hopeful solutions to the social and ideological problems of today. Using Slavoj Žižek’s readings of Jacques Lacan and Theodor Adorno’s readings of Karl Marx for critical insight, I argue these four novels imagine language as the key to personal empowerment and social change. While not all of the novels achieve their utopian goals, they each evince a belief that the attempt belies a return to the modernist metanarrative and a rejection of postmodern helplessness. Thus, each novel imagines the revision of Žižek’s big Other through the remainders of Adorno’s inevitably failed revolutions, injecting hope in a literary period that had long since lost it.

This is an explication of Lacan’s Seminar XVII. The introduction situates the Seminar in its time and in relation to other theories of discourse. In part one I examine the changes which it brings to a variety of ideas already known in Lacan’s oeuvre such as Jouissance, Master Signifier(s) and Oedipus. Part two looks the four discourses in detail after considering the positions common to each. I provide accounts of each discourse as taking place internally to a subject and between subjects. The coda examines areas where further research is possible, reviews and critiques some scholarship on this seminar and inquires into the use value of the discourse theory, both generally and as a means of getting beyond Lacan.

This study brings the insights of Slavoj Žižek’s Lacan-inspired approach to bear upon a series of influential 20th century plays and their engagement with what Lacan calls the Real. The plays to be explored share a focus on experiences, events or encounters which transcend, exceed, disrupt, and in some cases shatter characters’ normal, familiar realities. Examined through the lens of Žižek, these confrontations with the sublime and the fantastic reveal a crucial relation to the plays’ contemporary contexts, prompting us to “look awry” upon the dynamics of our own symbolically-regulated reality and the ever-changing and precarious nature of our relation to it. Similarly crucial is the relation of the Lacanian Real to our theatrical forms and modes of perception in the theatre. In staging “encounters with the Real,” these plays prompt us simultaneously to explore the ways in which the Real operates —and “appears” — in our own theatrical experience, ensnaring our gaze and the force of our desire. The study offers a Žižekian approach to works including Peter Shaffer’s Equus, John Mighton’s Possible Worlds, S. An-sky’s The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds, Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker, Tony Kushner’s The Illusion, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Enigma Variations.

From September 19th through October 3rd, 2008, Congress debated the largest government bailout in America history—the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA). Those sixteen days generated a vibrant conversation regarding the nature and severity of America’s economic crisis and the proper role of government in responding to such juggernauts. In this dissertation I explore the rhetoric generated by this bill and its context in hopes of illuminating the more general role of rhetoric in mitigating and exacerbating crises in capitalism. My hypothesis is that, in a global capitalist economy increasingly dependent on immaterial production (i.e., finance, the Internet, mass media, etc.), economic crisis rhetoric has become as essential to economic order as monetary and fiscal policy. To explore this claim, I focus on two key rhetorical tensions that drove much of the crisis rhetoric produced. The first of these battles is a rhetorical struggle over the spatial delineation between Wall Street and Main Street, while the second is a conflict between Keynesianism and neoliberalism in a rhetorical contest over the values of government interventionism. By analyzing a variety of policy and expert discourses that constitute the parameters of these discrete areas of debate, I argue that all rely on moral and ethical appeals to substantiate their meaning and validity. At the same time, I contend that these discourses are indebted to logics of institutional form and therefore cannot be abstracted from the financial and political contexts in which they reside. This insight leads me to forward a new theory of economic crisis rhetoric called the economic imaginary. By beginning with real economic events and then taking into account the discursive and extra-discursive forces that “overdetermine” its mediated understanding, the economic imaginary offers us a more empirical and cartographic account of how economic rhetoric actually operates in society. / text