The thesis develops a comprehensive account of human political ontology through the discussion of Plato, Rousseau, Lacan, Lyotard, Hugo, Conrad, Tolstoy and Nietzsche. At the heart of this account lies the dialectical struggle between an individual's need to belong and their fidelity to an intuitively recognisable, yet difficult to define good (or set of goods), that has, over the millennia, been conceptualised as, amongst other things, the form of the good, self interest, compassion, love, friendship, the event, conscience, reason and truth. Through the development of this account of human political ontology the thesis will elucidate the stakes involved in emancipatory acts, be they broad social movements or individual transformations. Its most important argument is that people almost always fail to recognise that to which they belong; the consequence of this being that they mistake the acts which function to reaffirm their belonging for acts that are indicative of their sovereign being. This phenomenon becomes particularly troubling once we recognise that the acts which function to reaffirm an individual??s belonging can depend upon the individual sacrificing both themself and others.

The thesis develops a comprehensive account of human political ontology through the discussion of Plato, Rousseau, Lacan, Lyotard, Hugo, Conrad, Tolstoy and Nietzsche. At the heart of this account lies the dialectical struggle between an individual's need to belong and their fidelity to an intuitively recognisable, yet difficult to define good (or set of goods), that has, over the millennia, been conceptualised as, amongst other things, the form of the good, self interest, compassion, love, friendship, the event, conscience, reason and truth. Through the development of this account of human political ontology the thesis will elucidate the stakes involved in emancipatory acts, be they broad social movements or individual transformations. Its most important argument is that people almost always fail to recognise that to which they belong; the consequence of this being that they mistake the acts which function to reaffirm their belonging for acts that are indicative of their sovereign being. This phenomenon becomes particularly troubling once we recognise that the acts which function to reaffirm an individual??s belonging can depend upon the individual sacrificing both themself and others.

This thesis examines the forces that affect subjectivity in two novels by the author Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. The close reading of these two novels makes use of postmodernist theory as its theoretical foundation. In these works, stable subjects are fractured through a series of disconcerting incidents originating in a “reality shift,” an event that sees the seemingly solid state of Dick’s speculative future worlds collapse. Split into three sections, this paper first positions Dick within a postmodernist tradition developed mainly by Lyotard, Hutcheon, and Baudrillard, supported by critics such as Sim, Malpas, and Kellner, among others. It then defines the reality shift and its underlying causes, three types of science fictional drugs across the two novels: Can-D, Chew-Z, and KR-3. Finally, this essay examines the full extent of Dick’s inquiry into subjectivity by exploring the metamorphoses the subjects of his novels endure.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze award-winning author Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 through the lens of postmodernism. The focus will be on identifying symbols and signs of the hyperreal when it comes to freedom of speech, censorship, and technology through Jean Baudrillard’s orders of simulacra from his book Simulacra and Simulation. The images of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451 are analyzed, as well as the main characters and their relationship to technology, books, censorship, and freedom of speech. This essay also argues that the hyperreal is relevant today and has been throughout history if knowledge is suppressed or controlled by society as presented in Fahrenheit 451.

Le projet proposé est le suivant : d’abord tenter de comprendre quelle place joue l’indicible dans le langage et quelle forme prend — au niveau fondamental — la violence exercée à son endroit en suivant l'oeuvre d'Emmanuel Levinas et de Ludwig Wittgenstein. Ensuite, poursuivre l’analyse des formes de violence du langage en se penchant sur les conditions de possibilité d’une telle violence ou plutôt sur certaines manifestations historiques d’un tel exercice à l'aide du Différend (1983) de Jean-François Lyotard. Et finalement, appliquer les distinctions établies dans les deux chapitres précédents pour mettre en place les conditions d’établissement d’un espace discursif ouvrant à la possibilité du témoignage non-violent visant à reconnaître l’expérience de la survivante auparavant réduite au silence. / The current project aims to understand the role played by the “unspeakable” in language and what form—at a fundamental level—does the violence perpetrated towards it take by following the works of Emmanuel Levinas and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Then, the analysis of linguistic violence continues by examining the different manifestations of this wrong and their conditions of possibility or more precisely, by scrutinizing certain historical incidences of such a reproduction of violence by proposing a close reading of Jean-François Lyotard’s Le Différend (1983). Finally, an attempt will be made at establishing the conditions necessary for the construction of a discursive safe-space opening the possibility of a non-violent witnessing and testimony oriented towards the recognition of the experience of the once silenced survivor.

Ce mémoire prend comme point de départ la question « Après Auschwitz », héritée de Theodor W. Adorno et Jean-François Lyotard, afin de réfléchir sur la place et le rôle de la philosophie après les événements de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. En employant un outillage conceptuel emprunté à diverses disciplines telles que la sémiologie, la psychanalyse, la philosophie du langage et du marxisme français post- 68, le texte cherche à identifier la nécessité pour la philosophie de continuer à phraser « après Auschwitz », pour ensuite dégager des familiarités qui ont eu et peuvent encore avoir lieu avec la pensée nationale-socialiste. Finalement, le mémoire s’achève sur une discussion sur la logique – qu’il conviendra alors de qualifier de « spéculative » - qui œuvre à rendre compossibles la nécessité philosophique de phraser, le risque du retour dans la barbarie, de même que la possibilité omniprésente du différend, concept central bien qu’il ne soit pas systématiquement nommé. / This thesis takes as its starting point the question “After Auschwitz”, written by Theodor W. Adorno and Jean-François Lyotard, in order to reflect on the place and role of philosophy after the events of the Second World War. By employing conceptual tools borrowed from various disciplines such as semiology, psychoanalysis, philosophy of language and post-68 French Marxism, the text seeks to identify the need for philosophy to continue to phrase "after Auschwitz", in order to then extricate familiarities that have had and can still take place with National Socialist thought. Finally, the thesis ends with a discussion of logic – which should then be described as “speculative” – which works to make compossible the philosophical necessity of phrasing, the risk of returning to barbarism, as well as the ubiquitous possibility of the différend, a central concept although it is not systematically named.

Ce mémoire propose une étude du thème de l’enfance et du concept d’infantia que contient la philosophie de Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998). Puisque la notion ne se laisse pas réduire au concept tardif d’infantia, ce mémoire mobilise les travaux de Lyotard depuis sa période militante (1954-1966) et ses premières œuvres, où l’enfance se laisse déduire, jusqu’à ses derniers textes, où il la conceptualise explicitement. Suivant la piste de la notion, nous argumentons qu’elle ne représente pas qu’un fil rouge dans sa pensée mais qu’elle fait aussi signe vers l’existence, dans l’œuvre de Lyotard, d’une philosophie de l’enfance et de l’éducation à part entière. Ainsi, nous soutenons qu’au-delà du repère qu’incarne le concept pluriel d’enfance pour les études lyotardiennes, il comporte également des intuitions pertinentes et fécondes pour permettre aux sciences de l’éducation et aux études sur l’enfance (Childhood Studies) de sortir de l’impasse dans laquelle elles se trouvent actuellement. En effet, il nous apparait que la conception de l’enfance que nous propose le texte lyotardien s’offre comme un contrepoint nécessaire à la conception développementale qui est aujourd’hui hégémonique en éducation ainsi qu’en études sur l’enfance, et qu’elle invite à une reconfiguration tout aussi essentielle de la rencontre pédagogique. S’inscrivant en faux contre l’impératif de performativité et le paradigme de l’efficacité qui dominent les sciences de l’éducation, Lyotard nous permet de penser une éducation attentive aux exigences éthiques de la relation pédagogique, affranchie de la logique de la reproduction, et donc génératrice de sens. / This thesis addresses the theme of childhood and the concept of infantia in the philosophy of JeanFrançois Lyotard (1924-1988). Since the notion cannot be confined to the late concept of infantia, this paper draws on Lyotard's work from his activist days (1954-1966) and early works, where childhood can be inferred, to his later texts, where he explicitly conceptualizes it. Tracking down the concept, we argue that childhood is not only an underlying thread of his oeuvre, but that it also heralds the existence of a genuine philosophy of childhood and education in Lyotard's work. Thus, we argue that beyond the key figure that the plural concept of childhood embodies for Lyotardian studies, it also offers relevant and fruitful intuitions to enable educational sciences and Childhood Studies to break out of the deadlock in which they are currently caught. Indeed, Lyotard's concept of childhood strikes us as a necessary counterpoint to the developmental approach that is currently hegemonic in education and childhood studies, and as an invitation to an equally essential reconfiguration of pedagogical encounters. Taking a stand against the imperative of performativity and the paradigm of effective pedagogy that dominates educational sciences, Lyotard allows us to contemplate an education that would be attentive to the ethical demands of the pedagogical relationship, liberated from the logic of reproduction, and therefore generative of meaning.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the novel “The Magus” written by John Fowles through the theoretical lens of postmodernism, and the aim is to highlight the existentialism behind the story. The study seeks to explain the intricate relationship described in the novel between societal norms and manipulation, and existential themes such as the fragmentation of reality, the autonomy to choose, and the search for meaning in life. The analysis focuses on four characters, in particular their role in the narrative, as well as the use of intertextuality and specific narratological solutions like the first-person narrator and non-linear storytelling. Through the understanding of the sub-stories in the novel, this paper aims to offer a better understanding of Fowles’ ability to interconnect postmodernism with existential themes to create a rich and complex story, and ultimately to underscore the human condition within our society.

MARINHO, Cristiane Maria. Pensamento pós-moderno e educação na crise estrutural do capital. 2008. 286f. Tese (Doutorado em Educação) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Faculdade de Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Brasileira, Fortaleza-CE, 2008. / Submitted by Maria Josineide Góis (josineide@ufc.br) on 2012-07-04T14:50:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2008_tese_CMMarinho.pdf: 2314155 bytes, checksum: 28f7ba6d6a324f0c375a1e97a6e67b7d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2012-07-04T16:02:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2008_tese_CMMarinho.pdf: 2314155 bytes, checksum: 28f7ba6d6a324f0c375a1e97a6e67b7d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-07-04T16:02:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2008_tese_CMMarinho.pdf: 2314155 bytes, checksum: 28f7ba6d6a324f0c375a1e97a6e67b7d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / This thesis analyzes post – modern thinking and education in Lyotard and Vattimo under the context of the structural crisis of contemporary capital. It aims at working out in detail a critical view on post – modern thinking and its central category of difference, featuring it as ideological expressions of the material output of such crisis, proving, critically its reflections and its ideological impact on education, based on the marxist theoretical framework: Mandel, enphasising the late capitalism concept and the third revolution; Meszáros, setting priority on the structural crisis of capital and its uncontrolability, activation of absolute limits and decreasing rate of utilization of goods; Jameson and Harvey, focusing on their criticism on post – modern thinking as ideological expression of late capitalism. The critical study as shown here examines if post – modern thinking and its view on education expresses the logic of capital: in Lyotard, it has been examined the role of university; in Vattimo, reflection has been about liberation of differences through media and the new hermeneutic ideal for education. The outcome of this study proves that post – modern thinking and its influence on education express the movements and concerns of contemporary capital in its structural crisis. Determination of late capitalism on education has been studied through influence of the third technological revolution on superior teaching based on Mandel’s thinking. The influence of the structural crisis on education has been examined based on Meszáro’s reflections. However, this study has proved, in addition, that post modern thinking, in spite of its epistemological and educational limits, also has contributed to improvements and possibilities of emancipation. / Esta tese analisa o pensamento pós-moderno e a educação em Lyotard e Vattimo no contexto da crise estrutural do capital contemporâneo. Tem por objetivo elaborar uma crítica ao pensamento pós-moderno e a sua categoria central da diferença apresentando-os como expressões ideológicas da produção material dessa crise, demonstrando criticamente suas reflexões e seu impacto ideológico na Educação a partir do referencial teórico marxista: Mandel, com ênfase no conceito de capitalismo tardio e a terceira revolução; Meszáros, com prioridade na crise estrutural do capital e sua incontrolabilidade, ativação dos limites absolutos e taxa decrescente de utilização da mercadoria; Jameson e Harvey, com a elaboração de sua crítica ao pensamento pós-moderno como expressão ideológica do capitalismo tardio. O estudo crítico aqui apresentado investiga se o pensamento pós-moderno e sua idéia acerca da Educação expressa a lógica do capital: em Lyotard, foi explorado o papel da universidade; em Vattimo, a reflexão foi sobre a libertação midiática das diferenças e o novo ideal hermenêutico para a educação. O resultado da pesquisa demonstra que o pensamento pós-moderno e sua influência sobre a educação expressam o movimento e os interesses do capital contemporâneo na sua crise estrutural. A determinação do capitalismo tardio sobre a educação foi vista por meio da influência da terceira revolução tecnológica no ensino superior, partindo do pensamento de Mandel. A influência da crise estrutural do capital na educação foi analisada, a partir das reflexões de Meszáros. Contudo, a investigação demonstrou, ainda, que o pensamento pós-moderno, apesar de seus limites epistemológicos e educacionais, também contribuiu com avanços e possibilidades emancipatórias.

Having been introduced in Sweden in the 1980’s, one would perhaps have thought postmodern philosophy to be a thing of the past. As it turns out, the debate on postmodernism is still very much alive. But the term ‘postmodernism’ in 2021 is complex and sometimes misunderstood. In public discourse, the term has moved beyond its status as a continental philosophy or as a denomination for certain historical conditions of the late twentieth century. Today, it appears, people use ‘postmodernism’ as an invective for relativism, post-truth and ‘empty words’. Two books, published in 2020, even warn the Swedish people for a postmodern invasion of both the academics and Swedish government. The humanities, apparently, are especially corrupted by postmodern thinking. Is this true? As a rhetorician, I ask myself to what extent postmodern theory has had an influence on Swedish rhetoric in the 40 years since the discipline was re-established within higher education.  This essay examines course syllabuses, teaching material, Swedish articles in the periodical Rhetorica Scandinavica, doctoral theses, and the complete works published by Sweden’s eight professors of rhetoric. Early on, I found that there was very little information available about the development of  Swedish rhetoric –even less about a postmodern rhetoric in a Swedish context. Thus, this essay is to be looked at as both a history of Swedish postmodern rhetoric – the first of its kind – and as an examination of the occurrence of postmodern theory within Swedish rhetoric. I find that postmodernism has not, as opposed to the critics’ claims, played a key role in the development of Swedish rhetoric. Its presence has, however, significantly increased within the field of rhetoric since 2010, and I discuss why that might be. Further, I discuss what can be said to define the Swedish postmodern rhetoric, and what the future might hold for this specific branch of rhetorical studies and research.