La prémonition occupe une place majeure dans l'œuvre de Maeterlinck, de Proust et des surréalistes (Breton, Crevel) alors même que la rationalité positiviste dominante en fin de XIXème siècle conteste son existence. Partant de ce paradoxe, la thèse établit la généalogie esthétique des phénomènes prémonitoires et constate leur négation au plan synchronique par la pensée rationnelle (Freud, Bergson). L'étude écarte les modèles critiques issus du structuralisme inaptes à décrire pleinement le phénomène dans les textes et se dote par contrecoup d'un modèle critique de dispositif de temporalité en étendant la théorie des dispositifs à l'étude du temps. Ainsi elle peut envisager l'articulation dans les œuvres des dispositifs de temporalité entre l'ouvert du réel (ou du Réel) et la réalité représentée. Elle examine alors les phénomènes dynamiques de la prémonition comme des modes de translation entre ces deux plans temporels au cœur de la représentation dramatique ou littéraire. Il s'agit in fine de situer le texte au centre d'un jeu de relations dans lequel les auteurs renégocient le régime de temporalité en pleine mutation vers 1900 et produisent une matrice esthétique du temps destinée au spectateur ou au lecteur; la prémonition, au cœur de ces dispositifs, leur offre de rejouer l'expérience vertigineuse du contact avec l'"autre scène. Replaçant enfin les jeux de relations des dispositifs de temporalité à hauteur des sciences de l'homme (anthropologie et neurobiologie), l'étude revendique dans un troisième plan décrit par la psychanalyse l'espace vital de liberté offert aux créateurs pour conduire leur expérience fondamentale, fondatrice et esthétique d'un temps propre. / Although at the end of the nineteenth century, Positivist rationalism con tests the existence of premonition, it occupies a major place in the productions of Maeterlinck, Proust and the Surrealists (Breton, Crevel). Starting from this paradox, the thesis establishes the genealogy of premonitory phenomena and attests their denial by synchronic rational thinking (Freud, Bergson). The study dismisses the critical patterns belonging to structuralism for being unable to fully describe the phenomenon in the texts and relies instead on the critical concept of temporality apparatus ('di spositif de temporalité') while extending apparatus theory ('théorie des dispositifs') to temporal studies. Thus it becomes possible to explore the connections between the real (or Real) and representations of reality in works. The essay also investigates the dynamic phenomena of premonition as fundamental means of translation between these two temporal planes at the heart of dramatic or literary representation. In conclusion, the text is shown to be a focal point where authors rethink the changes in temporal systems around 1900 and produce these temporal apparatus in order to allow the spectators or reader to experience the vertiginous contact with what Lacan calls the other scene ('l 'autre scène'). Replacing he play of relations within the temporal apparatus in the Human Sciences field (anthropology and neurobiology), this study claims, at a third level described by psychoanalysis, the vital free space offered to creators to conduct their fundamental, original aesthetic experiments in singular time.

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / This investigation draws on theories of sacrifice to explore Wim Botha’s sculpture Premonition of War: Scapegoat in relation to nationalist and patriarchal thought. Since the artist deals with myth, his approach is discussed in terms of Barthes’ formulation of myth as a meta-language. It is maintained that Botha is using a meta-mythical language to deconstruct the narratives he deals with. Sacrifice is seen as an act that binds communities together but that also separates them from threats (Nancy Jay 1992:17). It is argued that the crucifix has been used as symbol of sacrifice to denote immortality, and that this over-emphasis of continuity has been to the detriment of those that do not fall within the boundaries of the “same” as defined by white men. The incorporation and exclusion of the feminine into male structures are discussed, as well as the role that institutionalised religious thought has played in South African Nationalism. An interpretation of Scapegoat using Freud and Žižek seems to point to the necessary compromise made by the Church with the dualisms it has created between its definitions of good and evil. Nietzsche’s conception of sacrifice as a system of debt when applied to the Scapegoat also seems to point to a contradiction inherent within it, since Botha’s inversion puts into question the idea of a gift given outside of a creditor/debtor system. The burnt appearance of the Scapegoat appears to indicate that the attempt to sacrifice the act of sacrifice is futile, since sacrifice eternally returns. However, the “pure gift”, or don pur that Derrida writes of, seems to point to a way beyond dialectics, towards a morality freed from duty.