This thesis offers an analysis of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body in the light of feminist philosophy. It reconstructs this philosopher’s account of corporeity, before showing its main weaknesses: that of obscuring the gendered dimension of the body, in particular in its sexual aspect. Thus, I point out the blind spots of a phenomenology of the body widely criticized for its phallocentrism. However, by focusing largely on the Phenomenology of perception, feminist phenomenology obscures an ontology of the flesh which is nevertheless rich for thinking the body in its gendered and sexual dimensions. By then focusing on a critical and feminist reformulation of a phenomenology of the erotic, this dissertation offers to analyze the later reformulations of the concept of corporeality in that of flesh in order to respond to certain issues localized in the Phenomenology of Perception, notably that of the very possibility of a thought of sexual difference. Finally, I apply the revised concepts of body and intentionality in a contemporary debate in feminist philosophy of sexuality: I propose a redefinition of the concept of sexual consent from a phenomenological perspective drawing from Merleau-Ponty, in order to show the emancipatory potential of thinking sexuality and the erotic in phenomenological, critical, and feminist terms. / Ce mémoire propose une analyse de la phénoménologie du corps de Maurice Merleau-Ponty à l’aune de la philosophie féministe. Il reconstitue la pensée de ce philosophe sur le concept de corporéité, avant de montrer ses faiblesses notoires : celles d’occulter la dimension genrée des corps, en particulier dans la sexualité. Ainsi, ce mémoire relève les angles morts d’une phénoménologie du corps largement critiquée pour son phallocentrisme. Or, en se concentrant sur la Phénoménologie de la perception, la phénoménologie féministe oublie l'ontologie de la chair pourtant riche pour penser le corps dans sa dimension genrée et sexuelle. En s’intéressant à une reformulation critique et féministe d’une phénoménologie de l’érotique, ce mémoire propose en somme d’analyser les reformulations tardives du concept de corporéité dans celui de chair pour répondre à certains problèmes inhérents à la Phénoménologie de la perception, notamment celui de la possibilité même d’une pensée de la différence sexuelle. Finalement, ces concepts de corps et d’intentionnalité sont appliqués à un débat actuel en philosophie féministe et en philosophie de la sexualité sur les limites du concept de consentement sexuel. Dans une perspective phénoménologique de tradition merleau-pontienne, ce mémoire a pour but de montrer le potentiel émancipateur issu d'une pensée de la sexualité et de l’érotique en des termes critiques et féministes.

Figure majeure de la scène contemporaine, tant sociale que conceptuelle, le corps est à la fois au centre de tout un discours "corporéïste" (qui en fait le lieu du sujet et travaille à le rendre le plus transparent possible à l'identité individuelle) et investi par des pratiques médicales bénéficiant de moyens techniques jusqu'alors inédits, tendant de plus en plus à l'instrumentaliser. A partir de ce double constat, nous avons choisi d'interroger trois exemples de biotechnologies, les greffes, les techniques de chirurgie esthétique et celles des procréations médicalement assistées mettant en évidence la variété de l'intervention technique, l'humanisation ou l'aliénation qu'elle rend possible. La phénoménologie, et notamment la notion de "corps propre" dégagée par Merleau Ponty nous permettra d'affiner notre compréhension de la corporéïté, avant de confronter la pensée du philosophe au concret des pratiques évoquées et d'examiner si les concepts phénoménologiques permettent d'articuler la rencontre du corps et de la technique et de poser des balises éthiques à certaines interventions médicales.

含混，做為形容，描述我們生活的經驗世界是一個未完成的豐富。 含混，做為隱喻，突顯客觀論述以為的清楚明晰的不清楚。 含混，做為動詞，是不斷延伸出去的可能性張力。 含混，做介係詞，從不清楚到清楚的偷渡。 含混，做為名詞，是清楚的根。 含混，動詞變化，開始。

相對於意識傳統為了滿足知識全知的條件，將身體的隱而未顯視為有缺陷的模糊，現象學重回日常生活世界裡的原初知覺經驗領域，身體作為缺席的模糊不再是認知的障礙，反倒作為潛在的背景是認知得以成立的必要條件。梅洛龐蒂強調完全還原的不可能，將理論重新寓居於身體，身體與世界交錯糾結無法分別，無法外於身體一語道破，只能夠不斷的描述身體與世界的關聯，使得不斷說明成為模糊效能的延續以堆疊出逸離的身體。 為了追求身體最大程度的逸離，本文還必須繼續借道拉崗精神分析，潛意識作為超出主體言說意圖，指向不可見、自我與他人外的他者，連串的取代系列圍繞在缺席旁作離心的循環。於是拉崗認定部分的身體作為象徵的身體才能發揮效能，始終處於異化的過程，但是並不是迷惑在身體的諸種表象中，或者以斷裂確保真實的身體，而是對身體的想像成為身體的不斷延續，身體的諸種表象就是身體的實質存在，使得回歸身體也是逸離身體。 / On contrary to the western philosophical tradition , to set consciousness as priority, builds transparent knowledge. It regard the ambiguity character of body as fault. Phenomenology summons us to go back to primary field of lifeworld. Body is no more the barrier of cognition, instead body become the potential background as necessary condition of cognition. Merleau-Ponty stresses the impossibility of complete reduction. The consciousness inhabit in body in motion. Body is interwined with world and hard to divide. We can’t explore body as objective observer as if we were outside the world. What we can do is to descript the relationship between body and world. Make the descriptions to become the parts of invisible body. In order to catch the character of body’s exceed, we need to have aid of Lacan’s psychoanalysis. Lacan develop that unconsciousness is like the structure of language. It designates the subjectivity speaks beyond what he intend. People desire the lost Other outside the self and other as the third term, instead people used to series of substitutes around the absence as decentered circulation. Lacan identify people is in process of alienation, even in the initial stage. The real body which is fragmented could have effects as symbol. It’s not what people confused with imaginary images, but what people imagine is to continune body. The different body images is body’s substantial existence.

Artistic meaning via visual art and literary fiction is debated in modern aesthetic thought. Language is a cognitive component in postmodernist aesthetic projects. This thesis investigates Maurice Merleau-Ponty's and Paul Ricoeur's writings on painting and language, respectively, whose phenomenological aim is the revelation of being in works of the imagination in tandem with Lambert Zuidervaart's approach to artistic truth which opens the lifeworld to the biotic context of the earth. For him, imaginative disclosure is integral to techno-scientific and art realms. Embodiment, natality, and expression illuminate the problematic of meaning in forms of postmodern visual art. Metaphoric imagination and metaphor are used for metaphor is a principle of articulation, not a figure of speech. Aesthetic projects connect with the lifeworld in a hermeneutic circle of meaning.

Detta är ett skriftligt arbete om ett musikaliskt verk jag studerat in inför min examenskonsert som avslutar min kandidatutbildning vid Kungliga Musikhögskolan. Det skriftliga arbetet ska tillsammans med min inspelning ses som en helhet. Här presenterar jag mina reflektioner över musikaliskt uttryck, tekniska lösningar och tankar kring musik i allmänhet. Verket heter Hard- Boiled Capitalism And The Day Mr. Friedman Noticed Google Is A Verb och är ett solo för vibrafon komponerad av den amerikanske slagverkaren Ben Wahlund. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt har jag Maurice Merleau–Pontys (1908-1961) filosofi, och jag börjar mina resonemang utifrån ett avsnitt i hans bok Kroppens Fenomenologi (1945). I den försöker han komma fram till hur förhållandet ser ut mellan kroppen och världen: att det är genom erfarenheten vi når objekten. Övning som metod ser jag ur det ljuset. Resultatet är en övergripande analys av verket samt nedslag i olika delar, med beskrivningar av – och resonemang kring – musiken. Jag följer musiken kronologiskt och avslutar arbetat med en Coda.

Ce travail met sur un plan de comparaison deux auteurs apparemment écartées l’un de l’autre: C.E.Gadda et M.Merleau-Ponty. La "Meditazione Milanes"e constitue le premier plan d'approche entre eux: écrite dans le cadre de l’éventuel diplôme de Gadda en philosophie, ce texte est aussi point de référence et de départ de son œuvre littéraire, plus connue et importante. Sur les rélations entre philosophie et littérature s'axe la confrontation avec Merleau-Ponty, qui pérçoit l’exigence d’élargir le domaine de la philosophie à l'art, et la littérature notamment. La première partie, «Une phénoménologie», analyse d'abord la problématique posée à la philosophie et à la littérature par la phénoménologie, et se concentre ensuite sur la comparaison entre la conception merleau-pontienne de corps et les propositions corporelles présentées dans l’œuvre de Gadda.La deuxième partie, «Le baroque», scrute de près les structures du baroque (gaddien et merleau-pontien) à travers l’analyse des notions de structure et de monade, puis des problématiques liées à l’expression et au travail de Saussure; ensuite introduit les thèmes de la multiplicité et du devenir à partir de la confrontation des deux auteurs avec le langage cinématographique. Le chapitre final approfondit le thème gaddien du rapport entre totalité et multiplicité par le biais des figures merleau-pontiennes du chiasme et de la chair, et montre tout acte de language comme déformation, c'est-à-dire tant comme création que comme passivité, où le silence est cosubstantiel aux paroles. / This doctoral thesis conducts a comparison between two authors seemingly distant from each other: C. E. Gadda and M. Merleau-Ponty. The Meditazione milanese represents a first step of approximation between them: written by Gadda with a view to his eventual philosophy degree, this text is also the point of departure of his more noted and important literary work. The comparison with Merleau-Ponty is based on the relationship between philosophy and literature, as, like Gadda, Merleau-Ponty maintains that philosophy must abandon its conceptual vocabulary in order to broaden its own horizon towards art and literature in particular. Entitled “A Phenomenology”, the first part of this thesis analyses above all the contribution of phenomenology to philosophy and literature; subsequently, it concentrates on the analogies between Merleau-Ponty’s notion of the body and the theme of corporeality as it is present in Gadda’s writings. The second part, “The Baroque”, scrutinises the baroque structures evident in the works of Gadda and Merleau-Ponty by examining the ideas of the system and the monad; it then broadens the topic of language on the grounds of F. Saussure’s Cours de linguistique; finally, departing from an engagement with cinematic language, it introduces the themes of multiplicity and becoming which the two authors have in common. The final chapter deepens Gadda’s concern with the relationship between totality and multiplicity through Merleau-Ponty’s figures of the chiasm and the flesh, describing every linguistic and expressive act as a deformation, i.e. as a movement which is both creation and passivity, where silence is the co-substance of words. / Questo lavoro mette a confronto due autori apparentemente distanti tra loro: C.E Gadda e M. Merleau-Ponty. La Meditazione milanese costituisce un primo livello di accostamento tra loro: questo testo, scritto da Gadda in previsione dell'eventuale laurea in filosofia, è anche il punto di partenza della sua opera letteraria, più nota e importante.Sulla relazione tra filosofia e letteratura si struttura il confronto con Merleau-Ponty, il quale, al pari di Gadda, ritiene che la filosofia debba rinunciare ad un vocabolario concettuale, per allargare il proprio orizzonte all'arte, e alla letteratura in particolare.La prima parte di questo lavoro, “Una fenomenologia”, analizza anzitutto il contributo della fenomenologia alla filosofia e letteratura; si concentra in seguito sulle analogie tra la nozione merleau-pontiana di corpo e le tematiche della corporeità presenti negli scritti di Gadda.La seconda parte, “il barocco”, scruta le strutture del barocco (gaddiano e merleau-pontiano) attraverso l'analisi delle nozioni di sistema e di monade; approfondisce poi il tema del linguaggio sulla base del Cours de linguistique di Saussure; introduce infine i temi della molteplicità e del divenire a partire da un confronto con il linguaggio cinematografico, comune ai due autori. Il capitolo conclusivo, approfondisce il problema gaddiano del rapporto tra la totalità e la molteplicità attraverso le figure merleau-pontiane del chiasma e della carne, e mostra ogni atto linguistico ed espressivo come una deformazione, ovvero come un movimento che è insieme creazione e passività, dove il silenzio è consustanziale alle parole.

O presente trabalho visa discutir, a partir das últimas obras de Merleau-Ponty, a articulação entre sua noção de desejo e o conceito de negativo. A pesquisa buscou primeiramente traçar o que o filósofo denomina de arqueologia do contato primordial do corpo com o mundo, buscando a camada pré-objetiva de abertura perceptiva a ele, a sentidos que não foram constituídos pelo sujeito, que o ultrapassam e lhe determinam vetores de sentido. Os temas arqueológicos enfocam as noções de instituição e passividade, a relação da corporeidade humana com a animalidade, e o esquema corporal como abertura estesiológica e libidinal ao mundo, questões que nos abrem a dimensão transtemporal e transespacial do corpo, que arrasta consigo um passado que retoma e antecipa as possibilidades do porvir. A partir desses tópicos, compreende-se que o desejo é busca de ser o dentro do fora e o fora do dentro no sistema de trocas do corpo com o mundo. É nesse sentido que se podem ressaltar algumas noções psicanalíticas, pois elas permitem apreender essa topologia arqueológica do contato, as estruturações de sentido que nos permitem significar o mundo, e que não são de autoria de uma consciência constituinte. Por outro lado, o trabalho discutiu a ideia de negativo na obra do filósofo, a partir de seu diálogo com Sartre, tratando-o a partir da noção de invisível e de imaginário, que representam o avesso e a espessura do ser, como um oco eficaz que se manifesta à percepção. Partindo dessas construções merleau-pontyanas, discute-se a relação desejo-negatividade, a partir da crítica que o filósofo faz a Sartre e à própria Psicanálise, que interpretam o desejo como, respectivamente, estando destinado ao fracasso, e de ser em sua essência falta por um objeto para sempre perdido. Focou-se então na compreensão de uma negatividade natural enquanto latência, espessura do sensível e do corpo, que é condição mesma da percepção e que delineia uma relação de desequilíbrio entre o sujeito e a inesgotabilidade do mundo. Concebendo a Natureza como esse tecido carnal que provoca a carne do corpo, e o corpo senciente enquanto dobra do sensível sobre si mesmo, como retomada e explicitação privilegiada dessa potência interrogativa da vida, pode-se ver que o desejo é inerente ao sentir, contato à distância, espessura denominada pela noção de negatividade natural. / The following thesis aims to discuss, from the latest works by Merleau-Ponty, the balance between the notion of desire and the concept of negative. The research looked for, at first, trace what the philosopher called archeology of the primordial contact of the body to the world, seeking the pre-objective layer of the perceptual opening to him, to senses wich were not composed by the subject, that exceeded himself and gave him arrays of sense. The archeologicals themes focus the notions of institution and passivity, the relation between human corporeality and animality, and the body scheme as esthesiologic and libidinal opening to the world, issues that bring us the transtemporal and trans-spatial dimensioning of the body, that draws a past which comes back and anticipates the possibilities of the future. Based on these topics, we understand that the desire is the seeking of being the inside of outside and the outside of the inside in the system of trading between the body and the world. In this sense we can highlight some psychoanalytic concepts, as they allow us to capture this archaeological topology of the contact, the structuring of the senses which allow us mean the world, and do not belong to a constitutive conciousness. On the other hand, the thesis discussed the idea of the negative in the work of the philosopher, from his dialogue with Sartre, dealing it from the notion of invisible and of imaginary, that represent the inside out and the thickness of the being, as a efficacious hollow that manifest itself to the perception. From these merleau-pontyans concepts, it is discussed the relation between desire and negativity, from the critical note the philosopher have made on Sartre and on his own Psychoanalysis, which interpreted the desire as, respectively, being intended to failure, and of being in its essence, the lack of an object forever lost. So, focused in the comprehension of a natural negativity while latency, thickness of the sensible and of the body, which is the same as perception and that outlines a imbalanced relationship between the subject and the inexhaustibility of the world. Conceiving the Nature as this flesh tissue that provokes the flesh of the body, and the body being sentient while fold from sensible over itself, as retaking and privileged explanation of this interrogative potency of the life, it is possible to realize that the desire is inherent to the feel, distance contact, through thickness called by the notion of natural nagativity.

La presente tesis busca, a partir de un análisis fenomenológico de la primera infancia, explicar la génesis del individuo humano en el pensamiento de Merleau-Ponty. Sostenemos que el individuo se origina a partir de la organización de los movimientos que realiza su cuerpo, oscilando entre el anonimato brindado por el mundo natural y el anonimato del mundo cultural, sin los cuales no podría existir. Analizaremos cómo se va instituyendo esta “oscilación” del cuerpo en el recién nacido y le va dando un estilo particular de relacionarse con el mundo, pero que solo puede darse si entendemos la génesis de la individualidad como una relación intersubjetiva. Para ello, hemos dividido la tesis en tres capítulos. En el primero describimos cómo Merleau-Ponty sitúa al cuerpo como ser al mundo proponiendo, a través de los movimientos que son estimulados por la madre, que el niño vaya adquiriendo su propia manera de relacionarse con las cosas y consigo mismo. En el segundo capítulo analizamos la adquisición del lenguaje a través de los movimientos propiciados por el cuerpo del niño en el proceso de separación madre-hijo, y que van creando gestos y palabras de diferentes grados de complejidad. En el tercer capítulo, analizamos la dialéctica entre lo sedimentado y lo instituyente, dentro del contexto de la reflexión del fenomenólogo sobre la historicidad y su vinculación con la naturaleza en la que retoma ideas planteadas por el materialismo histórico. Estos tres capítulos han sido planteados como ejes (cuerpo, expresión, historicidad) de una reflexión sobre la génesis del individuo descrita en la etapa infantil y puesta bajo la noción de Fundierung / Tesis

In the early 20thcentury, a “crisis of ocularcentrism” arose in philosophy, replacing the Cartesian epistemological notion of a disembodied mind inspecting the object-world from the outside with an ontological and phenomenological approach to vision and being, embedding humans corporeally in a world exceeding their perceptual horizon (Jay 94). In response, modernist artists abandoned realist and naturalist techniques, rejecting mimetic representation, and experimented with new artistic forms, trying to account for the new complexity of life.  In this context, Virginia Woolf wrote her novel The Waves (1931), “an abstract mystical eyeless book” (DIII 203). Despite countless studies on The Waves and vision, its “eyelessness” has never been thoroughly examined before. Since Woolf considered vision and being to be inherently embodied and communal and longed for capturing moments of being, this thesis proposes to unlock Woolf’s eyeless writing in The Waves through Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s late corporeal phenomenology. Alongside his concepts of the flesh and chiasm, this thesis claims that eyeless writing is Woolf’s method to go beyond vision in order to reveal the inherent corporeal interconnectedness of all beings in a hidden, visually imperceptible pattern—the eyeless flesh of the world—by creating a narrative that is eyeless in several ways. It is at once eye- and I-less due to lacking a single focalising point and denoting an anonymous visibility enveloping all beings. Rather than being structured by a narrative eye/I, it is governed by the characters’ bodies and their chiasmatic relations with the world. On this basis, emphasising the carnal adherence of all human and non-human beings, their eyeless kinship thus comes to light, creating a nonanthropocentric conception of Being-in-and-of-the-world. In this sense, The Waves uncovers that since the Wesen (essence) of Being lies in the common, visually imperceptible flesh, it can only be reached eyelessly, via the body.