This thesis analyses the hegemonic processes that are maintained by traditions, institutions and formations by discussing over the process of value construction the characters in Kazuo Ishiguro&rsquo / s two novels are engaged in. A Marxist approach is used along the way and the discussions over the novels were taken as an opportunity of underlining the necessity of a Marxist approach towards art in order to make use of its propaedeutic value and extract the hegemonic substance the artwork inheres. This thesis seeks to use the propaedeutic value of Ishiguro&rsquo / s novels to point out to the hegemony that is prevailing over our actual lives. It argues that the person always has to relate himself to a society, and hence that society and &lsquo / the hegemonic&rsquo / forces operant on that society come to shape his values and judgements at the end. In the end, what this study finds are the traces of the hegemonic processes that are hidden behind the individualized experience of Ishiguro&rsquo / s characters. Neither Stevens, nor Kathy can be underestimated to their individual choices. It is the hegemony, and the tradition and the institutions of that hegemony that construct their existence. Also, it is found out that it is again the hegemony that shapes the existence of Ishiguro&rsquo / s value judgements and his works&rsquo / value schemes that are studied here.

This thesis is concerned with the negotiation of cultural and literary matters in South African public life during the period 1938 to 1960. While I begin with an exploration of the more 'orthodox' or 'academic' traditions of literary-cultural discussion in South Africa, the far more urgent preoccupation has been to explore a hitherto undocumented tradition of cultural-political debate in the South African public sphere, one which arose in the ' counter-public' circles of oppositional South African political groups. What has emerged is a rich and heterogeneous public debate about literature and culture in South Africa which has so far gone unrecorded and unrecognised. What sets this 'minority' discussion apart from more mainstream cultural discourses, I argue, is its overt engagement with contemporary socio-political issues. Articulated mainly by 'subaltern' writer-intellectuals - who occupied a precarious position in the social order either by virtue of their racial classification, class position or political affiliation - this is a cultural debate which offers a forthright critique of existing race and class norms. In these traditions, literary-cultural discussion becomes a vehicle for the articulation of radical political views and a means whereby marginalised individuals and groups can engage in oppositional public debate. In this regard, I argue, literary-cultural debate becomes a means of engaging in the kind of public political participation which is not available in the ' legitimate' public sphere. Focusing in the first instance on literary criticism 'proper', this thesis considers the distinctive reading strategies, hermeneutic practices, and evaluative frameworks which mark these alternative South African discursive traditions . Here I argue that the political, content-oriented, historical and ideological emphases of an alternative South African tradition are in marked contrast to the formalist, abstracted and moralising tendencies of more normative approaches. What the thesis points to is not only the existence of a substantial body of anti-colonial criticism and response in South Africa from the mid-1930s onwards, but also to a vigorous tradition of Marxist literary criticism in South Africa, one which predates the arrival of Marxist approaches in South African universities by some thirty years. Aside from the more traditional critical arena of literary consumption and evaluation, the thesis also considers a more general public discussion, one in which questions such as the place of politics in art, the social function of literature/culture, and the complex 'postcolonial' questions of cultural allegiance, identity and exclusion are debated at length. In this regard, culture becomes one of the primary sites of a much broader contestation of ruling class power. Regarded by many in these traditions as intrinsic to the operations of class and colonial oppression, culture also figures as one ofthe primary nodes of resistance. In seeking out these marginal South African 'subaltern counterpublics', the project has sought to retrieve a history of radical cultural-political debate in South Africa which is not available as part of the existing literary-cultural archive. In this regard, I hope not only to keep these ideas ' afloat' as a way of complicating and interrogating the present, but also seek to provide a more accurate and inclusive sense of the South African public sphere during the period under review. In particular, I offer a sense of the many competing intellectual discourses which formed the broader intellectual context out of which the dominant English Studies model was eventually constellated. I also give attention to the complex social processes by means of which certain intellectual discourses are granted legitimacy and permanence while others are discarded: what emerges in this regard, as I suggest, is gradual 'outlawing' of politics from South African cultural debates which coincides with the rise of the apartheid state. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Political Science, 2000. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 448-476).

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-133).

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / No inicio dos anos 1990 do sÃculo XX, presenciamos um forte discurso no Ãmbito nacional e internacional da necessidade de melhoria da educaÃÃo pÃblica, sendo, a formaÃÃo de professores, um dos eixos norteadores dessa perspectiva. Desse modo, a dÃcada que antecede a virada do sÃculo fora instituÃda como a âDÃcada da EducaÃÃoâ, espaÃo de acontecimentos de congressos, fÃruns e encontros sobre educaÃÃo que resultaram em declaraÃÃes, recomendaÃÃes, metas e planos de aÃÃes estabelecidas pelos organismos internacionais, sobretudo o Banco Mundial. Nesse quadro, o construtivismo desponta como pedagogia dominante, a ser assumida pelas diretrizes orientadoras do processo de formaÃÃo docente, exigindo, por esse turno, uma proposta educacional â a construtivista â que compreendesse a inteligÃncia como um processo adaptativo, condiÃÃo absolutamente indispensÃvel para o processo de (re)produÃÃo do capital. Diante desse contexto, nossa pesquisa assume como objetivo analisar, à luz da crÃtica marxista, a relaÃÃo existente entre o ideÃrio construtivista e as principais diretrizes das polÃticas de formaÃÃo do educador, especificamente, a do pedagogo, investigando as determinaÃÃes impostas à prÃxis docente. Nessa direÃÃo, com base na perspectiva marxiana, buscamos o desvelamento e a apropriaÃÃo crÃtica dos elementos que nos apontam o real significado do construtivismo no curso de formaÃÃo de professores, analisando as relaÃÃes entre construtivismo e a formaÃÃo docente contemporÃnea, particularmente, do curso de formaÃÃo do pedagogo. Consoante com este referencial teÃrico, desenvolvemos uma investigaÃÃo de cunho teÃrico-bibliogrÃfico e documental sobre a formaÃÃo de professores encaminhada, particularmente, aos Cursos de Pedagogia, frente aos paradigmas atuais da educaÃÃo, enfocando o construtivismo e o alcance deste referencial no processo de formaÃÃo do Pedagogo. Para tanto, cuidamos primeiramente de realizar uma revisÃo teÃrica acerca da centralidade do trabalho, enfocando a relaÃÃo deste com os outros complexos sociais, especialmente, a educaÃÃo. De posse desse estudo passamos a analisar as bases piagetianas do construtivismo, retomando, ademais, uma anÃlise dos pressupostos teÃricos do construtivismo em Piaget, apoiados em teÃricos afinados com a perspectiva marxiana. No que se refere à particularidade da formaÃÃo do pedagogo e a sua relaÃÃo com o ideÃrio construtivista, tratamos inicialmente de esboÃar uma breve retrospectiva da histÃria do curso de pedagogia, avanÃando, por essa via, para anÃlise das DCNs-Diretrizes Curriculares para o Curso de Pedagogia (2006) e seu entrelaÃamento teÃrico-prÃtico com o ideÃrio construtivista. Por fim, destacamos o profundo poder de seduÃÃo exercido pelo ideÃrio construtivista e as conseqÃÃncias dessa adesÃo no campo da formaÃÃo do pedagogo, em particular, e da prÃtica docente, em geral, aprofundando, desse modo, o carÃter alienador das polÃticas de formaÃÃo de professores, jà que esse modelo teÃrico tem despontado como um forte modismo na educaÃÃo. / In the beginning of the years 1990 of the XXth Century, we watched a strong speech, in the national and international scopes, about the necessity of public education improvement. This way, the decade which precedes the century changing had been instituted as the âEducation Decadeâ; place in which congresses, forums and meetings have happened. These events have resulted in declarations, recommendations, aims and plans of actions established by the international organisms, mainly by the World Bank. According to this situation, the constructivism emerges as dominant Pedagogy, to be assumed by the orientating guidelines of the teaching formation process, demanding, by this time, an educational proposal â the constructivist â that could understand the intelligence as an adaptative process, essential condition for the capitalâs (re)production process. In face of this context, our research assumes as objective to analyze, by the Marxist criticism, the relation that exists between the constructivist ideary and the main guidelines of the politics of educators formation, specifically the teachersâ one, investigating the determinations which are imposed to the teaching praxis. In this direction, based on the marxian perspective, we search the discovering and the critic appropriation of the elements that show us the real meaning of constructivism in the teachers formation course, analyzing the relations between constructivism and contemporary teaching formation, particularly, of the teachers formation course. According to this theoretical perspective, we developed a theoretical-bibliographical and documental investigation about the teachers formation directed, particularly, to the Pedagogy Courses, in the face of the current educational paradigms, hanging the constructivism and the reach of this perspective in the teachersâ formation process. Towards this, we took care, first of all, about making a theoretical revision of the labor centrality, emphasizing its relation with the other social complexes, specially the education. Having done this study, we analyzed the piagetian basis of constructivism, retaking, moreover, an analysis of the theoretical presupposed of constructivism in Piaget, basing ourselves in authors who guide themselves by the marxian perspective. Concerning to the particularity of the teachers formation and its relation with the constructivist ideary, we initially sketched a brief retrospective of the Pedagogy Course, advancing, thorough this way, to the analysis of the DCNs - National Curricular Guidelines for the Pedagogy Course (2006) and its theoretical-practical entwining with the constructivist ideary. For the ending, we emphasize the great power of seduction practiced by the constructivist ideary and the consequences of this adhesion in the sphere of the teachersâ formation, particularly, and of the teaching practice, in general, deepening, this way, the alienating character of the politics of teaching formation, in face of the fact that this theoretical model has emerged as a strongly current practice in the education.

This thesis argues that it is both necessary and possible to change the world. Changing the world requires engaging with, to try to understand it from the basis of lived reality, and then acting. Our ability to do this is, however, affected by hegemony, which attempts to convince us that the way things are is either normal and natural and the only possible way they could be, or that it is impossible to change them. Nevertheless, there is always resistance to this, and I suggest that we might learn something useful by examining how this happens. The thesis thus explores Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, and its applicability to our current world; and also considers resistance to this. I argue that the nature of capitalism has shifted, and discuss how this shift has impacted on hegemony, identifying three current interlocking hegemonic ideologies. I consider current resistance to this hegemony, including the role of social movements. Much resistance, and many social movements, I argued, cannot properly be called counter-hegemonic in that, although it/they may critique the dominant economic system, it/they remain trapped within hegemonic logic. However, it is clear that there is existing truly counter-hegemonic resistance, including some social movements, and I argue that Abahlali baseMjondolo is one such counter-hegemonic movement. Thus it is possible that those who join/align themselves with this movement might be considered to have ‘unlearned’ hegemony and be useful subjects for this study. I thus consider the life stories of seven people who have aligned themselves to this movement, in order to determine whether they have indeed ‘unlearned’ hegemony, and if so, how. I discuss relevant and appropriate theory for examining this phenomenon, including experiential learning, transformative learning and Freirean emancipatory learning. I argue that whilst these theories of learning are helpful, they cannot entirely account for unlearning. I then turn to the theory of the event of Alain Badiou as a possible complementary or alternative way into thinking about unlearning. I apply both the learning theories and Badiou’s theory of the event to the stories, all of which show strong evidence of unlearning,, and consider how useful the theories are in understanding this. I conclude that all of the theories help to some extent in understanding the unlearning in stories. There are, however, fundamental differences between the learning theories on the one hand and Badiou’s theory on the other. I construct a model showing that the basis of the difference between the adult learning theories and Badiou’s theory of the event rests on the locus of the trigger for transformation. I argue that Badiou’s theory provides a very useful additional perspective to adult learning theory; but that it cannot be considered to have replaced existing theories in understanding how people learn informally to think and act in counter-hegemonic ways. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

The aim of this research is to discuss the reception of Latin American cyberpunk fiction, in other words, the Latin American reception of cyberpunk fiction. The cyberpunk fiction emerged in North American social and economic context in the 1980 s, and it depicts several topics linked to place and moment of production: the failed States and neoliberalism; the emergence of cyberspace and free circulation of capital beyond national borderlines; the dystopian background, the disbelief in future and grand narratives collapse as it is proposed by the lyotardian postmodernity, etc. These characteristics lead to identify the cyberpunk fiction as the supreme representation of late capitalism (Jameson). However, how can the cyberpunk fiction in Latin America be thought, it means, a place that is inside and outside of the world system at the same time? The hypothesis of this research points out to utopian way of Latin American cyberpunk fiction that does not exist in North American version. The representation of utopia in this fiction is only possible due to places out of world system: marginalized urban groups, Indian ethnics, ecological enclaves, religious movements, etc. This research is composed by four chapters: the first one discusses science fiction, while a genre which involves cyberpunk fiction, contesting its values (ephemerality, particularity and imitation) in face to mainstream literature (eternity, universality and originality); the second one approaches the Marxist model base-superstructure, which is considered pertinent to analyze the relationship between text and context; the third one verifies the kind of reception produced by Latin American cyberpunk fiction, in order to that, it is elected the Argentinean magazine Neuromante Inc. as a sample of this reception; and the forth one analyzes some novels in order to prove the hypothesis: Mañana, las ratas ( Tomorrow, the rats , 1977), by José B. Adolph; Silicone XXI ( Silica 21st century , 1985), by Alfredo Sirkis; Flores para un cyborg ( Flowers for a cyborg , 1996), by Diego Muñoz Valenzuela; 2010: Chile en llamas ( 2010: Chile in flames , 1998), by Darío Oses; El viaje ( The trip , 2001), by Rodrigo Antezana Patton; El delirio de Turing ( Turing s Delirium , 2003), by Edmundo Paz Soldán; De cuando en cuando Saturnina ( From time to time Saturnina , 2004), by Alison Spedding; A mão que cria ( The hand that creates , 2006), by Octavio Aragão; La segunda enciclopedia de Tlön ( The second encyclopedia of Tlön , 2007), by Sergio Meier; Os dias da peste ( The days of the plague , 2009), by Fábio Fernandes; and Cyber Brasiliana (2010), by Richard Diegues. / O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir a recepção da ficção cyberpunk latino-americana, ou melhor, a recepção latino-americana da ficção cyberpunk. Surgida nos anos 1980, no contexto sócio-econômico norte-americano, a ficção cyberpunk representa vários tópicos ligados ao local e momento de produção: os Estados falidos e o neoliberalismo; a emergência do ciberespaço e a livre circulação do capital para além das fronteiras nacionais; o cenário distópico, a descrença no futuro e o fim dos grandes relatos históricos como propõe a pósmodernidade lyotardiana; etc. Estas características levam a identificar a ficção cyberpunk como representação suprema do capitalismo tardio (Jameson). Entretanto, como pensar a ficção cyberpunk na América Latina, ou seja, num lugar que se encontra ao mesmo tempo dentro e fora do sistema mundial? A hipótese que este trabalho apresenta aponta para o viés utópico da ficção cyberpunk latino-americana, inexistente na versão norte-americana. A representação da utopia nesta ficção somente é possível devido aos lugares que se encontram fora do sistema mundial: os grupos urbanos marginalizados, as etnias indígenas, os enclaves ecológicos, os movimentos religiosos, etc. Este trabalho organiza-se em quatro capítulos: no primeiro capítulo se discute a ficção científica, gênero que abarca a ficção cyberpunk, contrapondo seus valores (efemeridade, particularidade e imitação) aos da literatura mainstream (eternidade, universalidade e originalidade); no segundo capítulo se aborda o modelo marxista base-superestrutura, considerado pertinente para analisar as relações entre texto e contexto; no terceiro capítulo se verifica o tipo de recepção realizado pela ficção cyberpunk latino-americana, elegendo a revista argentina Neuromante Inc. como caso exemplar desta recepção; e no quarto capítulo se analisa alguns romances para comprovar a hipótese: Mañana, las ratas (1977), de José B. Adolph; Silicone XXI (1985), de Alfredo Sirkis; Flores para un cyborg (1996), de Diego Muñoz Valenzuela; 2010: Chile en llamas (1998), de Darío Oses; El viaje (2001), de Rodrigo Antezana Patton; El delirio de Turing (2003), de Edmundo Paz Soldán; De cuando en cuando Saturnina (2004), de Alison Spedding; A mão que cria (2006), de Octavio Aragão; La segunda enciclopedia de Tlön (2007), de Sergio Meier; Os dias da peste (2009), de Fábio Fernandes; e Cyber Brasiliana (2010), de Richard Diegues.

Orientador: Fausto Castilho / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T03:08:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Azara_H.O._D.pdf: 1631494 bytes, checksum: e26383ca657090125921c431f8e9d7e5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Esta tese procura reconstituir as categorias essenciais do "conceito marxiano de capital como tal", entendido como o núcleo da crítica de Marx à Economia Política e à sociedade capitalista, a que esta ciência corresponde. Nessa reconstituição nosso fio condutor é o uso heurístico feito por Marx de operadores da Lógica hegeliana. Procuramos explicitar o modo como Marx se utiliza da dialética da finitude, que tem como operadores lógicos as noções de limite e barreira, para caracterizar a subjetividade do capital, uma subjetividade marcada pela infinitude da vontade de valor e mais-valor. Essa vontade infinita de valorização se constitui no traço característico do capital como tal, ou seja, o não reconhecimento de limites ou a transformação reiterada de seus próprios limites em barreiras e sua consequente superação. Procuramos mostrar em que consiste a afirmação do capital como relação, isto é, como o capital tem o poder de fixar e subordinar a si o seu outro, o trabalho assalariado. Buscamos explicitar ainda como o capital, seguindo seu impulso sem limites por mais-valor, irá revolucionar completa e incessantemente as bases técnicas e científicas da produção e com isto gerar o processo de negação do trabalho vivo pelo morto que caracteriza a contradição-capital / Abstract: The thesis intends a reconstruction of the essential categories of the "marxian concept of capital as such", which is understood as a pivotal Marx's critique both the political economy and capitalist society in which this science is related. We aim to perceive the heuristic use done by Marx with the operators of the hegelian logic. We seek to demonstrate how Marx takes into account the Hegel's dialectic theory of finitude - which has as logic operators the notions of limit and barriers - to characterize the subjectivity of the capital, which is defined by the infinitude of the will of the value and surplus value. This will infinity of valorization is a fundamental feature of the capital as such. It does not recognize the limits of its own limits in barriers and your consequent overcoming. Furthermore we demonstrated what means the statement of the capital as a relation, this is, how it has the power to fix and subordinate itself and the others - the wage labor. Moreover we addressed how the capital following its momentum without limits from surplus value will increase both the structure of the technique and science production, engendering therefore the process of the denial of living labor by the dead labor which features the contradiction-capital / Doutorado / Filosofia / Doutor em Filosofia

This dissertation politically analyses the principles of literary evaluation (here called "axiology") argued and applied by the English critics Christopher Caudwell, Raymond Williams, and Terry Eagleton. The paradoxical fact that all three claim to be working within a Marxist framework while producing mutually divergent rationales for literary evaluation prompts a detailed examination of Marx and Engels. Moreover, since Caudwell and Eagleton acknowledge Leninism to be Marxism, and, further, since Eagleton and I both in our own ways argue that Trotskyism--as opposed to Stalinism--is the continuator of Leninism, the evaluative methods of Lenin and Trotsky also become relevant. Examined in light of that revolutionary tradition, however, and in view of the (English) critics' high political self-consciousness, the latter's principles of "literary" evaluation reveal definitive political differences between each other and with Marxism itself, centrally over the question of organised action. Thus, each of the chapters on the English critics begins with an examination of the chosen critic's purely political profile and its relationship to his general theory of literature. Next, I show how the contradictions of his "axiology" express those of his politics. Finally, with Hardy as a focus, I show the influence of each critic's political logic on his particular "literary" assessment of individual authors and texts. The heterogeneity of these critics' evaluations of Hardy, the close correspondence of each critic's general evaluative principles to his political beliefs, and the non-Marxist nature of those beliefs themselves all concretely suggest that none of the three English critics is strictly a Marxist. I do not know whether a genuinely Marxist axiology is inevitable; however, I do admit such a phenomenon as a logical possibility. In any case, I argue, this possibility will never be realised unless aspiring Marxist axiologists seek to match their usually extensive knowledge of literature with an active interest in making international proletarian revolution happen. And, since it can only happen if it is organised, the "Marxist" axiologist without such an orientation will be merely an axiologist without Marxism. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The dissertation explores how quality-judgments on works of art are created within the contemporary art world. The research starts with the examination of modernist art theories supported by the museum, and continues with the exploration of the impact of the art market on quality-judgments. Although the art market had already distorted the idea of quality, further contradictions and difficulties have risen within judgment-making after the 1960s due to the dematerialisation of the work of art. Art criticism should have been able to deal with this complexity, but it is demonstrated that art criticism is a subjective field and even if there is a universal theory on quality, it often fails when applied to the particular work of art. Throughout the dissertation it is demonstrated that although ‘good art’ is a subjective, power- and discourse-dependent concept, all art professionals seek something that is an inherent quality of the artwork. However, regardless of the existence of such inherent value, judgments on quality are constructed by and subjected to power-struggle. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)