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Continuity And Change In European Social Democracy: Reasserting Its Viability Within The Context Of GlobalizationKamalak, Ihsan 01 March 2006 (has links) (PDF)
The arguments concerning the unviability of Social Democracy at the beginning of new century within the context of globalization, and the accusations for its shift towards the New Right/Neo-Liberalism in the case of the Third Way has been criticized in a historico-critical way in this thesis. It is claimed that the insufficiency of these arguments arises from their analysis of Social Democracy merely through policies, or party politics, which have displayed great variety in the evolution of Social Democracy. Their shortage also stems from misunderstandings concerning Social Democracy before 1980, such as that it was against the market economy, that it was a working class ideology, and that it neglected the individual. Against the arguments of unviability and the accusations directed to Social Democracy, the thesis will assert that the theorization of Social Democracy should be based on its principles, such as democracy, progressiveness (movement) and social justice. By focusing on social democratic conception of social justice, this thesis defends that there is continuity within the tradition of Social Democracy, even in the face of globalization and in its encounters with the developments after 1980.
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A green utopia : the legacy of Petra KellyLloyd, Rebecca Jane January 2005 (has links)
[Truncated introduction] This thesis will introduce Petra Karin Kelly, former Green politician and campaigner for social justice and environmental issues to an English-speaking audience as an important figure in the development of ideas relating to ecofeminism, nonviolence, and Green politics and utopias. Kelly, born in 1947 in Germany, spent the latter half of her childhood in the United States, and attended university there before returning to Europe. While working with the European Community in Brussels, Kelly became involved in grassroots politics in Germany and was one of the co-founders of the German green party, Die Grunen, (literally: the Greens) in 1979. She was to become a formidable politician through her passion for grassroots politics, nonviolence and feminism and her excellent leadership skills. Later ostracised by the party, due in part to her inability and unwillingness to conform to party rules, Kelly worked independently, giving speeches and promoting peace and the importance of human rights. However, at the age of 44, she was murdered by her partner, Gert Bastian, who then shot himself. It should be noted that texts so far written on Petra Kelly have been essentially biographies, which, while encompassing much of her academic and political life, focus heavily upon her personal life, in particular her relationships with married men, and her long term relationship with former NATO General Gert Bastian ... Therefore, the aim of the dissertation is not to ignore the importance of personal matters, rather to ensure a professional approach towards them. For this reason, the focus of this sociopolitical and sociohistorical thesis is upon the elements of ecofeminism, nonviolence and utopia as they relate to Petra Kelly’s politics, both within her role with Die Grunen and in her political life outside of German parliament.
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The ghost of Godwin intertextuality and embedded correspondence in the works of the Shelley circle /Stewart, James C. January 2008 (has links) (PDF)
Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Additional advisors: Randa Graves, Daniel Siegel, Samantha Webb. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 10, 2009; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-71).
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From the "death of literature" to the "new subjectivity" : examining the interaction of utopia and nostalgia in Peter Schneider's Lenz, Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Der kurze Sommer der Anarchie, and Bernward Vesper's Die Reise /Krüger, Thomas J. A. January 1900 (has links)
Thesis (Ph. D.)--McGill University, 2008. / Written for the Dept. of German Studies. Includes bibliographical references.
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Islands under threat : heterotopia and the disintegration of the ideal in Joseph Conrad's Heart of darkness, Antjie Krog's Country of my skull and Irvan Welsh's Marabou stork nightmaresPieterse, Annel 03 1900 (has links)
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The stories and histories of the human race are littered with the remnants of
utopia. These utopias always exist in some "far away" place, whether this place
be removed in terms of time (either as a nostalgically remembered past, or an
idealistically projected future), or in terms of space (as a place that one must
arrive at). In our attempts to attain these utopias, we construct our worlddefinitions
in accordance with our projections of these ideal places and ways of
"being". Our discourses come to embody and perpetuate these ideals, which are
maintained by excluding any definitions of the world that run counter to these
ideals. The continued existence of utopia relies on the subjects of that utopia
continuing their belief in its ideals, and not questioning its construction.
Counter-discourse to utopia manifests in the same space as the original utopia
and gives rise to questions that threaten the stability of the ideal. Questions
challenge belief, and therefore the discourse of the ideal must neutralise those
who question and challenge it. This process of neutralisation requires that more
definitions be constructed within utopian discourse - definitions that allow the
subjects of the discourse to objectify the questioner. However, as these new
definitions arise, they create yet more counter-definitions, thereby increasing the
fragmentation of the aforementioned space. A subject of any "dominant" discourse, removed from that discourse, is exposed
to the questions inherent in counter-discourse. In such circumstances, the
definitions of the questioner - the "other" - that have previously enabled the
subject to disregard the questioner's existence and/or point of view are no longer
reinforced, and the subject begins to question those definitions. Once this
questioning process starts, the utopia of the subject is re-defined as dystopia, for
the questioning highlights the (often violent) methods of exclusion needed to
maintain that utopia.
Foucault's theory of heterotopia, used as the basis for the analysis of the three
texts in question, suggests a space in which several conflicting and contradictory
discourses which seemingly bear no relation to each other are found grouped
together. Whereas utopia sustains myth in discourse, running with the grain of
language, heterotopias run against the grain, undermining the order that we
create through language, because they destroy the syntax that holds words and
things together.
The narrators in the three texts dealt with are all subjects of dominant discourses
sustained by exclusive definitions and informed by ideals that require this
exclusion in order to exist. Displaced into spaces that subvert the definitions
within their discourses, the narrators experience a sense of "madness", resulting
from the disintegration of their perception of "order". However, through embracing
and perpetuating that which challenged their established sense of identity, the narrators can regain their sense of agency, and so their narratives become
vehicles for the reconstitution of the subject-status of the narrators, as well as a
means of perpetuating the counter-discourse. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Utopias spikkel die landskap van menseheugenis as plekke in "lank lank gelede"
of "eendag", in "n land baie ver van hier", en is dus altyd verwyderd van die
huidige, óf in ruimte, óf in tyd. In ons strewe na die ideale, skep ons definisies
van die wêreld wat in voeling is met hierdie idealistiese plekke en
bestaanswyses. Sulke definisies sypel deur die diskoers, of taal, waarmee ons
ons omgewing beskryf. Die ideale wat dan in die diskoers omvat word, word
onderhou deur die uitsluiting van enige definisie wat teenstrydig is met dié in die
idealistiese diskoers. Die volgehoue bestaan van utopie berus daarop dat die
subjekte van daardie utopie voortdurend glo in die ideale voorgehou in en
onderhou deur die diskoers, en dus nie die diskoers se konstruksie bevraagteken
nie.
Die manifestering van teen-diskoers in dieselfde ruimte as die utopie, gee
aanleiding tot vrae wat die bestaan van die ideaal bedreig omdat geloof in die
ideaal noodsaaklik is vir die ideaal se voortbestaan. Aangesien bevraagtekening
dikwels geloof uitdaag en ontwrig, lei dit daartoe dat die diskoers wat die ideaal
onderhou, diegene wat dit bevraagteken, neutraliseer. Hierdie
neutraliseringsproses behels die vorming van nog definisies binne die diskoers
wat die vraagsteller objektiveer. Die vorming van nuwe definisies loop op sy
beurt uit op die vorming van teen-definisies wat bloot verdere verbrokkeling van
die voorgenoemde ruimte veroorsaak. "n Subjek van die "dominante" diskoers van die utopie wat hom- /haarself buite
die spergebiede van sy/haar diskoers bevind, word blootgestel aan vrae wat in
teen-diskoers omvat word. In sulke omstandighede is die subjek verwyder van
die versterking van daardie definisies wat die vraagsteller - die "ander" - se
opinies of bestaan as nietig voorgestel het, en die subjek mag dan hierdie
definisies bevraagteken. Sodra hierdie proses begin, vind "n herdefinisie van
ruimte plaas, en utopie word distopie soos die vrae (soms geweldadige)
uitsluitingsmetodes wat die onderhoud van die ideaal behels, aan die lig bring en,
in sommige gevalle, aan die kaak stel.
Hierdie tesis gebruik Foucault se teorie van "heterotopia" om die drie tekste te
analiseer. Dié teorie veronderstel "n ruimte waarin die oorvleueling van verskeie
teenstrydighede (diskoerse) plaasvind. Waar utopie die bestaan van fabels en
diskoerse akkommodeer, ondermyn heterotopia die orde wat ons deur taal en
definisie skep omdat dit die sintaks vernietig wat woorde aan konsepte koppel.
Die drie vertellers is elkeen "n subjek van "n "dominante diskoers" wat onderhou
word deur uitsluitende definisies in "n utopia waar die voortgesette bestaan van
die ideale wat in die diskoers omvat word op eksklusiwiteit staatmaak. Omdat die
vertellers verplaas is na ruimtes wat hulle eksklusiewe definisies omverwerp,
vind hulle dat hulle aan "n soort waansin grens wat veroorsaak is deur die
verbrokkeling van hul sin van "orde". Deur die teen-diskoers in hul stories in te bou as verteltaal, of te implementeer as die meganisme van oordrag, kan die
vertellers hul "selfsin" herwin. Deur vertelling hervestig die vertellers dus hul
status as subjek, en verseker hulle hul plek in die opkomende diskoers deur
middel van hulle voortsetting daarvan.
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L'entreprise idéale entre usine et communauté : une biographie intellectuelle d'Adriano Olivetti / The ideal enterprise between factory and community : an intellectual biography of Adriano OlivettiMaffioletti, Marco 14 November 2013 (has links)
Entrepreneur, urbaniste, homme politique, éditeur et intellectuel italien, Adriano Olivetti (1901-1960) a proposé une lecture singulière de la modernité et a démontré qu'une voie alternative, complexe et désintéressée vers le bien collectif était praticable. S'appuyant sur des recherches peu connues, sur la consultation de la bibliothèque d'Olivetti et des fonds d'archives auparavant peu exploités, cette biographie intellectuelle reconstruit les parcours qu'Adriano Olivetti a tracé à travers son territoire, sa famille, l'organisation scientifique du travail, l'urbanisme, l'antifascisme, l'activité entrepreneuriale et la politique, permettant ainsi une interprétation globale et fondée historiquement de cet homme et de sa pensée. Adriano Olivetti est né à Ivrée, dans le Canavais. Entre Aoste et Turin, cette petite ville était peu industrialisée au début du XXème siècle, lorsque son père Camillo y a fondé une entreprise de machines à écrire. Etudiant en ingénierie, Adriano soutenait les principes de l'autonomie et du socialisme fédéraliste avant de se concentrer sur l'organisation scientifique du travail observée aux Etats-Unis. Au début des années 30 il a pris la direction de l'entreprise où il a inauguré une gestion rationnelle d'une production désormais de masse. Olivetti a ainsi observé que la modernisation de l'industrie, conçue comme le seul moyen pour généraliser le bien-être, créait de graves problèmes sociaux et urbanistiques. Ainsi, lorsque l'entreprise grandissait et conquérait les marchés internationaux, il a coordonné un plan urbanistique du Val d'Aoste. Antifasciste, il a conspiré avec les Alliés et a contribué à la chute de Mussolini. Pendant son exile en Suisse il a élaboré un plan de réforme des institutions italiennes qui aurait mis au centre de la chose publique les territoires, les «Communautés» qui auraient permis aux citoyens de participer de façon immédiate à la gestion de la vie politique, économique, urbanistique et sociale. Après son retour en Italie, en 1945 Olivetti a décidé de se consacrer à la politique et s'est inscrit au Parti Socialiste. Déçu par la partitocratie, il est rentré à Ivrée et a mis l'entreprise sur une voie où se rencontraient la préoccupation pour le bien-être matériel et spirituel des travailleurs, l'esthétique, la recherche technologique et le succès au niveau global. Entre 1946 et 1948 Olivetti a fondé la revue «Comunità», la maison d'édition Edizioni di Comunità et le Mouvement Comunità, qui dans les années 50 avait administré plusieurs communes du Canaveis et du Sud d'Italie par des pratiques de gestion du territoire inspirées par la rationalité scientifique à la base du dessein d'Olivetti. Un projet qui vers la fin des années 50 a dû se heurter à un insuccès double : celui du Mouvement, qui n'obtenait pas de consensus en dehors du Canaveis, et celui de l'entreprise, où l'alliance de succès et de redistribution des profits gênait les capitalistes italiens qui s'opposaient aux principes socialistes, keynésiens et fordistes d'Olivetti. Qui est mort en 1960, avant de terminer ses projets réformistes. Cette recherche reconstruit le contexte historique-culturel où Adriano Olivetti a développé et appliqué une conception innovante de la gestion de l'entreprise, de la culture et de la société, dont le centre était la personne et sa Communauté. Tout en évitant d'actualiser cet entrepreneur «modèle», cette thèse considère qu'Olivetti peut donner des réponses alternatives à des problématiques de la cohabitation sociale qui en Europe sont encore à l'ordre du jour, par son affirmation de la centralité du travail, de la valeur de la solidarité et de la liberté, par sa tension vers la juste reconnaissance de la personne au-delà des limites socio-économiques et vers des formes politiques qui prennent en compte la complexité sociale tout en permettant sa représentation dans les institutions. / Entrepreneur, urban planner, politician, editor, the Italian intellectual Adriano Olivetti (1901-1960) proposed a novel reading view of modernity and demonstrated that an alternative way, one that was complex and disinterested in the common good, was possible. Relying on previously unexploited research drawn from Olivetti's library and various archives, this intellectual biography reconstructs the life of Adriano Olivetti looking through the lens of the specifics of his territory and his family, the scientific management, urban planning, anti-fascism, entrepreneurial activity and politics, thereby providing a global and historically-based interpretation of the man and his thought. Adriano Olivetti was born in Ivrea, in the Canavese. Situated between Aosta and Turin, this small rural town had little industry when, in the early twentieth century, his father Camillo Olivetti founded a typewriters' factory. Camillo was a socialist of Jewish origin, whose wife was Waldensian, and his son was educated in religious freedom and would become a Catholic. As an engineering student, Adriano Olivetti supported the principles of autonomy and of federalist socialism, before focusing on scientific management which he had observed in the USA. In the early '30s he became the director of the company, where he inaugurated the scientific management of mass production. He subsequently noticed that the modernization of industry, conceived as the only means to generalize the well-being, generated serious social and urban problems. As a result, as the company grew larger and conquered foreign markets, he coordinated an urban plan of the Val d'Aosta. An antifascist, he contributed to the fall of Mussolini by working with the Allies. While exiled in Switzerland, he developed a plan for the reform of Italian institutions which would set the territories at the center of politics, the "Communities" that would allow the citizens to participate more directly in the management of politics, economics, urban and social development. When in 1945 he returned in Italy, Olivetti decided to dedicate himself to politics and joined the Socialist Party and its Center for Socialist Studies. Disappointed by the party system, he returned to Ivrea and introduced a new direction for the company, one which combined a concern for the material and spiritual welfare of workers with aesthetics, technological research and global success. Between 1946 and 1948 Olivetti founded the magazine “Comunità”, the Edizioni di Comunità and the Community Movement, which in the '50s administered several municipalities in Canavese by management practices inspired by scientific rationality which was based on the Olivettian design, a project that in the late '50s collided with a double political failure: of the Movement, which could not achieve consensus out of the Canavese, and that of the company, where the idea of success equated with the redistribution of profits bothered Italian capitalists, who opposed the Socialist, Keynesian and Fordist principles of Olivetti. Olivetti died in 1960, before finishing his reformist projects. This thesis reconstructs the historical and cultural context in which Adriano Olivetti developed and applied his innovative concepts of company management, culture and society, centered on the person and his community. While avoiding to update this "model" entrepreneur, this thesis considers that Olivetti may provide alternative answers to some problems of social cohabitation that in Europe are still current, drawn from his affirmation of the centrality of work , the value of solidarity and freedom, its tension with the proper recognition of the person beyond the socio-economic boundaries, and with political forms that consider social complexity and allow its representation in the institutions.
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Entre lírios e liras: a mitopoética utópica da Jurema Sagrada / Between lirios and liras: the utipian mythopoetics of Sacred JuremaSilva , Analice da Conceição Leandro da 01 December 2017 (has links)
Informed by the Utopian and Literary Studies on Mythopoetic, I propose, with this work, the analysis of the lirios of Jurema, religious hymns of public domain that are part of the Brazilian religion Jurema. The corpus is composed of a sample of 100 lirios that I chose and categorized from a survey that involved bibliographic and audio visual sources, centralizing a significant number of poems for analysis. The construction of this study implied in the presentation of a panorama of the Jurema traditions and beliefs, pointing to understanding its lyrical production; and in an investigation of the work of criticism, from the beginning of Jurema studies until the present moment. Following, I present a more analytical perspective on the interpretation of the poems. I end my exploration of the theme by emphasizing the approximations between Jurema and utopia, which in my view are presented in three distinct levels: in the expression of mythopoetic discourse; in the representation of mythical spiritual places, wonderful paradises / secret places; and, finally, in the perpetuation of human being, through enchantment and its connections with Sebastianism. With this work, I aim to collaborate with the expansion of research in
the area of critical studies of utopia in national texts and contribute to the critical fortune of Jurema’s poems, promoting the visibility of the mythopoetic of this rich religious and cultural manifestation. / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Situada na interface dos Estudos da Utopia com os Estudos literários sobre a mitopoética, proponho, com este trabalho, a análise dos “lírios de Jurema”, hinos religiosos de domínio público que fazem parte da liturgia da religião brasileira Jurema Sagrada. O corpus é composto por uma amostra de 100 lírios que escolhi e categorizei a partir de um levantamento que envolveu fontes bibliográficas e mídias eletrônicas, centralizando um número significativo de poemas para análise. A construção deste estudo implicou na apresentação de um panorama da tradição juremeira, com vistas a compreensão de sua produção lírica; e em uma investigação do trabalho da crítica, desde o surgimento da Jurema como objeto de estudos até o presente momento. Na segunda parte do trabalho, apresento uma perspectiva mais analítica interpretativa dos poemas e finalizo minha incursão pelo tema ressaltando as aproximações entre a jurema e a utopia que, a meu ver, apresentam-se em três níveis distintos: na expressão do discurso mitopoético; na representação de lugares míticos espirituais, paraísos/lugares secretos maravilhosos; e, por último, na eternização do ser pela palavra, através do encantamento e suas ligações com o sebastianismo. Com este trabalho, visei colaborar com a ampliação da investigação na área dos estudos críticos da utopia em textos nacionais e contribuir com a fortuna crítica dos poemas de Jurema, promovendo a visibilidade da mitopoética desta rica manifestação religiosa e cultural.
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Enquête sur la fabrique du visible dans le web : utopies, photographies et algorithmes à l'oeuvreProulx, Christelle 12 1900 (has links)
Cette recherche porte sur les manières dont les entités dominantes du web fabriquent le visible. Pour ce faire, la thèse examine les liens entre les aspirations utopiques de Google, Facebook et de la vision artificielle, les algorithmes spécifiques qu’ils développent, la relation qu’ils entretiennent avec les images, principalement photographiques, et leurs façons de moduler les visibilités. Afin de mener l’enquête sur les modalités de production, de présentation et d’acquisition du savoir visuel dans le web, l’approche théorique et méthodologique employée s’inspire de la sociologie de l’acteur-réseau, de l’étude féministe des sciences et inscrit des œuvres d’art dans le rôle d’analyseurs. L’œuvre hypermédiatique Image Atlas (2012) de Taryn Simon et Aaron Swartz installe l’examen de Google et de Google Images qui reconduisent les aspirations à l’accès universel, tandis que les captures d’écran de la série street view (2009) de Michael Wolf sont l’occasion de poursuivre l’étude de cette fonction photographique de Google Maps. L’exposition « After Faceb00k: Okanagan Valley » (2014) est le point de départ de l’examen de l’utopie facebookienne de la communauté planétaire. Le dépliage des éléments de l’œuvre vidéo The Future is Here! (2019) de Mimi Ọnụọha pose ensuite les éléments nécessaires à l’analyse du développement de l’apprentissage machine de la vision et des aspirations à l’automatisation radicale que ces programmes intensifient. Diverses modalités du visible sont ainsi mises au jour : la pertinence, l’autorité et la localisation, les affinités et le partage, la reconnaissance et la prédiction sont autant de stratégies par lesquelles Google, Facebook et la vision artificielle fabriquent le visible pour le rendre opérationnel plutôt que représentationnel. La thèse vient ainsi révéler, en suivant les œuvres, l’opérationnalisation de la photographie, en tant qu’objet et que notion, dans l’établissement et le maintien d’un capitalisme cognitif parasitaire produit par les assemblages sociotechniques à l’étude. / This research addresses on the ways in which internet's dominant entities fabricate the visible. To do so, the thesis focuses on the links between the utopian aspirations of Google, Facebook and computer vision, the specific algorithms they develop, the relationship they have with images – mainly photographic – and how they modulate visibilities. To investigate the modalities of production, presentation and acquisition of visual knowledge online, the theoretical and methodological approach used is inspired by the actor-network sociology, the feminist study of science, and inscribes artworks in the role of analyzers. Taryn Simon and Aaron Swartz's hypermedia work Image Atlas (2012) installs the examination of Google and Google Images that re-conduce aspirations for universal access. The screenshots from Michael Wolf's street view series (2009) are an opportunity to further investigate this Google Maps' photographic function. "After Faceb00k: Okanagan Valley" (2014) is the starting point for the examination of Facebook’s utopia of the global community. The unfolding of elements from Mimi Ọnụọha's video The Future is Here! (2019) then lays the groundwork necessary to analyze the development of machine learning of vision and the aspirations for radical automation intensified by these programs. Various modalities of the visible are thus uncovered: relevance, authority and localization, affinity and sharing, recognition and prediction. These are all strategies by which Google, Facebook and computer vision manufacture the visible to make it operational rather than representational. Following the artworks, the thesis thus comes to reveal the operationalization of photography, as an object and as a notion, in the establishment and maintaining of a parasitic cognitive capitalism produced by the sociotechnical assemblages under study.
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Utopian Marriage in Nineteenth-Century America: Public and Private DiscourseAndrus, Brenda Olsen 01 January 1998 (has links) (PDF)
This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of utopian discourse about marriage in mid-nineteenth-century America. Although utopian communities are usually approached within the fields of history and sociology, a rhetorical analysis adds to the discussion by uncovering the discursive complexity of marriage beliefs within a rapidly changing culture. Discursive features of the Shaker, Oneida Community and Latter-day Saint texts are outlined and compared according to the following format:Chapter One examines the textures of conflict within the dominant culture's views of marriage and gender roles in nineteenth-century America, with a brief overview of reform efforts of the day. This chapter provides a wide context of marriage discourse in this era, which situates emergent utopian discourse of alternative marriage constructs.Chapter Two narrows the focus to utopian discourse, analyzing how utopian rhetoric responded to concerns of the dominant culture (outlined in Chapter One) and shaped their cultural identities. This chapter outlines several general features of utopian discourse about marriage and gender roles, with detailed analyses of the rhetoric of Shakers and the Oneida Community regarding thier alternatives to traditional marriage constructs.Chapter Three builds on the context of the first two chapters and further narrows the scope of analysis to Mormon Polygamy dsicourse. Public and private accounts are considered in a comparison of official church rhetoric with women's discourse about the principle. The last two chapters also show utopian departures from and similarities to mainstream discourse about marriage and gender roles.Although the three groups examined responded to mainstream concerns with some discursive similarities, rhetorical analysis shows that differences also exist, such as their rhetoric of gender identity and church authority. The Latter-day Saints stand out against the wider context of utopian discourse for their patriarchal model, their tenets of both continuous and personal revelation, and their enduring success as a religion.
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Das Volk bilden: The Pursuit of Volkstümlichkeit by Berthold Auerbach, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gottfried HerderVaughn, Chloe January 2024 (has links)
Das Volk bilden: The Pursuit of Volkstümlichkeit by Berthold Auerbach, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gottfried Herder examines the theorization of the concept of the Volk and Volkstümlichkeit by three authors from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: Berthold Auerbach, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gottfried Herder.
The term “volkstümlich” has no exact equivalent in English, although it has been rendered as “popular” “folkish” or even the slightly pejorative “folksy.” In German, it expresses both the quality of something proper to a given people or Volk, and the notion of popularity or commonness at which the English terms gesture. I analyze how these authors aim to expand the contemporaneous reading public by shaping the reading practices of audiences otherwise ignored by traditional belletristic literature. It also interrogates how they conceive of the Volk as a co-producer of literature and culture.
Each author uses the terms “Volk” and “Volkstümlichkeit” in programmatic texts to refer to shared characteristics among a given people and as a distinction between high and low culture. All three also pursue the goal of creating a widespread reading public through their own literary practices: Herder in his collections of song and poetry, Heine in his poetry, criticism and journalism, and Auerbach through a thematic focus on the village in his fiction and the serial form of the Volkskalender in his role as editor. Each of them pursues a program that is both national and cosmopolitan, writing as they did during a period when invocation of the Volk was not yet primarily the province of conservative nationalists.
Chapter one shows how Berthold Auerbach used his dual role as author of the immensely popular Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten and as editor of and contributor to various Volkskalender to elevate the way of life he portrays. In doing so, he aimed at uniting the disparate audiences of the common people and the educated, as well as urban and rural populations into a single Volk. Chapter two focuses on several key texts of Heinrich Heine’s to show that he conceived of the Volk as an ideal addressee capable of resolving the contradictions that plague civilization.
Contrary to much of the scholarship that sees a pessimistic turn in Heine’s later work, I use his many remarks on the common people throughout his work to draw out a utopian, trans-historical element in his thinking. Two early texts by Johann Gottfried Herder, Über die neuere deutsche Literatur: Fragmente and the Volkslieder project, make up the focus of the third chapter. By importing genres associated with oral traditions and performance into his collections, together with texts by Shakespeare, Herder effaces existing distinctions between popular forms and high literature. The chapter shows that Herder conceives of the Volk not just as a public, but as active participants in literary world-making. My dissertation intervenes in existing scholarship on the literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by centering Volk as one of the defining concepts of the era and demonstrating how different literary media has been used to imagine and establish relations to it.
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