Syftet med uppsatsen är övergripande att undersöka hur den tekniska mekaniseringen av samhället kommit att påverka synen på konstens och kulturens värde, vilket rört sig från det ursprungliga rituella värdet till dagens ekonomiska bytesvärde. Den undersöker även hur detta kom att påverka synen på människan som subjekt, då det inte enbart är det tekniska som innebär en mekanisering utan även samhällssystemet i sig. För att utröna på vilket sätt detta kunde komma till uttryck redan i början av 1900-talet, då mekaniseringen ännu var tämligen ny, utgår analysen från romanen Kameran går (1915) av Luigi Pirandello vari han låter filmvärlden representera hela den framväxande kulturindustrin. Genom att analysera Kameran går mot bakgrund av den därefter framväxande industrialiseringen och de politiska faktorer som rådde, samt mot teorierna kring kulturindustrin och mekaniseringen framställda av Walter Benjamin och Theodor W. Adorno, har en slående likhet gått att skönja som tyder på att dessa idéer om bland annat naturbehärskning, objektifiering, värdeförlust och kulturindustrin är tydliga redan i mekaniseringens början. De maskiner som skapas för att vara till hjälp tar istället över produktionen och både människan och konsten objektifieras. Eftersom Kameran går är skriven av en dramatiker som står mellan den allvarliga konstens scen, teatern, och den roande kulturindustrin i form av den framväxande filmindustrin ger analysen även en mer subjektiv upplevelse av denna utveckling och därmed en intressant vinkel på konstens betydelse i samhället.

This thesis analyzes the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict and the historical evolvement of the Palestinian issue by focusing on the practices during the British mandate period. First and foremost, the factors which transformed the Jewish question into the Palestinian question are elaborated. In this context, the emergence of modern political Zionism is presented as the landmark incident in arousing the interest of the Jews dispersed all around the world in the colonization of their promised lands. Although the motive in initiating the colonizing activities in Palestine came with the advent of political Zionist thought, Jewish settlement in Palestine was materialized as a result of the development of British interests in the Middle East. The contradictory promises given to the Arabs and Jews by the British in the course of World War I are treated as the source of the conflict between them. It is stated that the Balfour Declaration, which is the manifestation of the British-Zionist alliance, is the preliminary step of the project of a Jewish state on Palestinian territories. In order to shed light on the implications of Zionist colonization on the Palestinian Arab society, first the socio-economic and socio-political circumstances in the Ottoman era are discussed. Later, the impact of the exclusivist policies of the Jews on communal relations is handled in detail. Moreover, the ways in which the pro-Zionist stance of the British mandate administration contributed to the nation-building efforts of the Jews are argued. Lastly, the causes and consequences of the sporadic Arab tensions, which broke out in 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936 as a reaction against the British and Zionist policies, are analyzed.

Not available / text

Through a focus on four rubrics: emancipatory rationality, anthropology, metaphysics and religion, the dissertation demonstrates clearly that with similar resources yet different emphases, Paul Tillich, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno uniquely structure what are largely complementary critical interpretations of a modernity which they see to be diseased, and whose subjects are unable to realize the promises of enlightenment. They shine similar lights on the 'steel-hard cage' of a modernity which they hope to overcome, and possibly to redeem, in largely compatible ways. In demonstrating this, the dissertation unearths some striking similarities shared by the three thinkers, and simultaneously reveals clear lines of dissimilarity between them in other key areas. This includes important distinctions between Adorno and Horkheimer, not only in the 1930s, but also in the 1940s, by which time they claimed to be writing with a single mind and purpose. Key similarities which will be disclosed include an initial reliance upon Hegel’s dialectical structure and Marx’s emancipatory social vision and a trenchant critique of the reifying and dehumanizing forces of capitalism. The modern subject thinks itself free but cannot achieve the liberation promised by enlightenment; instead, the subject experiences alienation and estrangement. Central shared goals include an increase in justice and the hope for not only ending barbarism and the suffering it causes, but also holding the memories of those who have died without justice alive. In a similar manner, major differences arise from common sources and hopes. The drive for transcendence takes a very different form in Tillich’s theological system than it does in the secular-Jewish longing for a hypothetical messianic moment found in the work of Adorno and Horkheimer during the period 1929-50, on which this study focuses. When the writings of Adorno, Horkheimer and Tillich are placed along side of one another, and in conversation with one another, something greater than demonstrable intellectual influence is revealed. Despite some substantial differences in methodology and assumptions, there are remarkable consonances between the types of critical social theory developed, and when read in concert, new insights into each thinker’s oeuvre become clearer and increasingly reveal a kaleidoscopic consonance.

Not available / text

This thesis investigates the transatlantic manifestation of the debate regarding the aesthetics of commitment in the modernist literary and theatrical tradition. Within the debate theatre occupies a privileged position since (because of its two-fold roles both as theory and performance) it allows a critique both of performative conventions and methods and also a dialectical consideration of the audience’s socio-political consciousness. The debate, often referred to as form versus content – schematically re-written as ‘autonomy’ versus ‘commitment’ – and its transatlantic evaluation are central to modernist aesthetics, as they bring into question the established modes of perceiving and discussing the issue. A parallel close reading will reveal the closely related development of the European and the American traditions and evaluate their critical strengths and shortcomings. The first part of the thesis discusses the positions of Georg Lukács and Bertolt Brecht, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin in tandem with those of the New York Intellectuals, especially as expressed in the latters’ writings in the Partisan Review. The second part extends this transatlantic dialogue through a consideration of the theatrical works of the New York Living Newspaper unit of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) in the USA and Bertolt Brecht’s vision of and relationship with ‘Americana’ as revealed through such plays as In the Jungle of Cities, Man Equals Man, St Joan of the Stockyards and the 1947 version of Galileo. The Federal Theatre and Brecht’s respective dramaturgies demonstrate differences in the articulation and application of the aesthetics of commitment and politics of engagement. A close reading of four plays by the Living Newspaper unit will not only reveal the influence of the Russian Blue Blouse groups and Meyerhold’s theatrical experimentations, but also how the unit’s playwrights and administration attempted to re-write this aesthetic. Hallie Flanagan (the director of FTP), recognising the limitations of Broadway and having sensed the audience’s need for a new kind of theatre, realised early on the importance of ‘translating’ the European aesthetics of commitment to conform with the American New Deal discourse. Brecht’s plays manifest not only the differences with respect to the European aesthetics of commitment, but also its highly complicated development. His American experiences revealed that the failings of the FTP’s attempt to establish a viable national theatre with a social agenda prohibited a more powerfully theatrical connection (theoretical and performative) between the two traditions. Both the European and the American modernist aesthetics are informed by Marxist cultural and literary theory, particularly by the writings centred on the political efficacy of a work of art with respect to its reception and its modes of production. The politico-aesthetic encounter of the Marxist tradition of engagement with a commitment to aesthetic formalism (often associated with the autonomy position) led to a confrontational and polemical rather than dialectical argumentation. However, this thesis maintains that the arguments were not simply articulated by theorists at opposing ends of the political spectrum. At the same time, Brecht and the Federal Theatre Project’s interest in the advancements of the European avant-garde and fascination with the notion of ‘Americana’ demonstrate the necessity to examine the issue of commitment in a more dialectical manner. While their notion of the aesthetics of commitment differed, this thesis argues for the necessity, not only of revisiting some of the fundamental premises regarding the role and function of this aesthetics in modernist political theatre, but also of reading the two traditions in conjunction.

No description available.

Thèse (D. en histoire de l'art)--Université du Québec à Montréal, 2005. / En tête du titre: Université du Québec à Montréal. Bibliogr.: f. 273-289. Publié aussi en version électronique.

TU, Diss.--Chemnitz, 2006.

Zugl.: Augsburg, Univ., Diss.