This study brings the insights of Slavoj Žižek’s Lacan-inspired approach to bear upon a series of influential 20th century plays and their engagement with what Lacan calls the Real. The plays to be explored share a focus on experiences, events or encounters which transcend, exceed, disrupt, and in some cases shatter characters’ normal, familiar realities. Examined through the lens of Žižek, these confrontations with the sublime and the fantastic reveal a crucial relation to the plays’ contemporary contexts, prompting us to “look awry” upon the dynamics of our own symbolically-regulated reality and the ever-changing and precarious nature of our relation to it. Similarly crucial is the relation of the Lacanian Real to our theatrical forms and modes of perception in the theatre. In staging “encounters with the Real,” these plays prompt us simultaneously to explore the ways in which the Real operates —and “appears” — in our own theatrical experience, ensnaring our gaze and the force of our desire. The study offers a Žižekian approach to works including Peter Shaffer’s Equus, John Mighton’s Possible Worlds, S. An-sky’s The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds, Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker, Tony Kushner’s The Illusion, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Enigma Variations.

Through the broader contextualization of ethnographic fieldwork in Havana’s newly reformed housing market, this study theorizes the Cuban late socialist condition through a lens of utopian ideological conflict. A popular narrative of free market utopia has emerged in the face of the state’s recalcitrant ideology of state socialism. The popular narrative is reproduced through growth in the informal economy, while the socialist utopian narrative is maintained by the ubiquity of its bureaucratic apparatus. Inspired by postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation (1994), this thesis theorizes the Cuban state narrative as an ideological simulation, supported only through its strongest simulacrum – the government bureaucracy. Previous work on Cuba has cited the importance of access to government-purchased goods to fuel the informal economy and individual wealth accumulation. This study highlights the reproduction of a narrative of free market utopia in the desire for access to transactions as intermediaries, particularly as the deals increase in hard currency value. The passage of Decreto-Ley Number 288, which authorized the buying and selling of homes has served to rapidly capitalize the market and encourage further development of an informal network of brokers. Greater economic hybridization in the housing sector, among others, is gradually eroding the totalizing nature of the state’s socialist utopia. / text

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This project is centered on two primary concerns. First, to reformulate Adornos notion of ethical subjectivity in a way that allows for a clearer articulation of his normative position, and second, to make it more relevant to our contemporary social context and advances in social theory. My claim is that we can achieve this by rejecting Adornos philosophical method (negative dialectics and constellations) by reading his ethics through the lens of ieks method which I am calling autoprohibition. As I will show, autoprohibition is ieks strategy for breaking the deadlock of the dialectic of enlightenment and its accompanying defeatist politics by developing a dialectical theory that neither rests on pure negation nor falls into the totalising and reifying trap of orthodox Marxism. It is in the context of autoprohibition that one can rearticulate Adornos normative imperatives (specifically, the imperative to end suffering, and to recognise the truth-content of the body) without these imperatives being negated by the totalising dictates of the dialectic of enlightenment. The best way to redeem the important normative components of Adornos formulation of ethical subjectivity is to reject its underlying philosophical method and resituate it in another. I frame this methodological shift as one from constellations to autoprohibition, which allows for a more positive articulation of Adornos ethics; a plan for actively practising an ethical life vs. one premised on the rejection of participating in an unethical system (which Adornos ethics amounts to on my account).

Exploring both political aesthetics and the politics of aesthetics to outline an environmental ruralism for art in public spaces, this practice lead research project postulates a “complemental practice”, outlining its methodology and contexts for operation, the rural, spaces of leisure and the public realm. It is a response to threats to spatial and environmental commons from heritage, place-making and nostalgia, psychological inhibition such as a sense of global contingency and widespread economic exploitation. Responses by artists to this situation can be characterised as a binary of dialogism (Kester, 2004) and relational antagonism (Bishop, 2004), i.e. consensual/collaborative or antagonistic/autonomous practices. Informing both is the work of Jacques Rancière who theorises an ethical and social turn in the arts. Through both commissioned and self-initiated projects this thesis offers an interpretation of Jacques Rancière’s conception of dissensus (Rancière, 2010) modulated through an application of the work of philosopher Slajov Žižek on environmental politics and complementarity - the inscription of the universal within the particular (Žižek, 2011). The thesis’ originality lies in this theoretical synthesis which sets out a complemental practice based on dissensus and the undecidability of subject and context, but which dismisses any inflexible schema of either aesthetic autonomy or ethico-political egalitarianism. In addition it suggests an approach to practice in this field and a situation for this - a dissensual infrastructure for the common public realm which is socially relational and evolutionary over time.

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The screen, as recent studies in a number of fields indicate, is a cultural object due for critical reappraisal. Work on the theoretical status of screen objects tends to focus upon the materialisation of surface; in other words, it attempts to rethink the relationship between the supposedly 'superficial' facade and the 'functional' object itself. I suggest that this work, while usefully chipping away at the dichotomy between the 'superficial' and the 'functional', can lead us to a more radical conclusion when read in the context of subjectivity. By rethinking the relationship between the surface and the obverse face of the screen as the terms of a dialectic, we can ‘read’ the screen as the vital component in a process which constitutes the Subject. In order to demonstrate this, I analyse productions of subjectivity in literary texts of the twenty-first century — in doing so, I assume the novel as nonpareil arena of the dramatisation of subjectivity — and I propose a reading of the work of Jacques Lacan as hitherto unacknowledged theorist par excellence of the form and function of the screen. Lacan describes, with the function of desire and the formation of the screen of fantasy, the primary position this ‘screen-form' inhabits in the constitution of the Subject. Lacan’s work forms a critical juncture through which we must proceed if we are to properly read and understand the chosen texts: The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber; The Tain by China Miéville; Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood; and Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald. In each text, I analyse the particular materialisations of the screen and interrogate the constitution of the subject and the locus of desire. By analysing the vicissitudes of subjectivity in these texts, I make a claim for the study of the screen as constituting a central question in the field of contemporary literature.

This paper delves into the realms of tragedy, memory and representation. Drawing upon the phenomenon of the Phantom Limb and extending it towards a theory of Phantom Bodies, various artworks - literary, theatrical and visual - are examined. After the conflagration of the terrorist attack, how are these absences grieved over and remembered through artistic representation? The essay examines this question by positioning itself amongst the scarred landscapes of post-September 11 New York and suicide bombings in Israel (2000-2006). Furthermore, it investigates whether humanity can be restored in the aftermath of an event in which certain individuals have sought to eradicate it. The fragmentation of the affected body in these scenarios is understood as further complicating processes of grief and remembrance. Artists who reject political polemic and engage with the dimensions of human loss are seen to have discovered means of referring to the absence caused by the act of terrorism. Three such recurring representations present themselves: ash and remnants, presence/absence and memory building. Phantom Bodies are perceived as simultaneously functioning as a reminder of the event itself, insisting upon the response of bearing witness, and as a symbol of the overwhelming power of humanity. Challenges arise when individuals or sections of the affected society deem these artworks to be inappropriate or explicit. Works considered include: Neil LaBute's play The Mercy Seat, Sigalit Landau's art installation The Country, Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Spike Lee's 25th Hour, Daniel Libeskind's architectural plans for the World Trade Center site, Eric Fischl's sculpture 'Tumbling Woman', Honor Molloy's autodelete://beginning dump of physical memory and A.B.Yehoshua's A Woman in Jerusalem. The accompanying play, Tales of Ash: A diptych for the theatre, is set in Melbourne, New York and Tel Aviv and deals with life in the face of and after terror. It veers between naturalism, poetic monologue and the epic. Tales of Ash contains two plays. The first centres on Mia, a young sculptor living in New York, who loses both her lover and her creativity on September 11. Upon returning to her home in Melbourne, she finds familial bonds still entwined with guilt and family trauma. The second play revolves around Ilana and Benny, two people living in Tel Aviv, who find themselves suddenly thrust together after a devastating bombing. As they attempt to resume rhythms of life, in the face of all the inherent ferocity of a modern existence in Israel, the struggle between The Ash Woman and The Ash Takers escalates.

I denna uppsats avhandlas alternativ till det sociokulturella perspektivet inom lärande och språkutveckling om hur förståelse konstitueras. Denna syn på språket grundar sig i Ludwig Wittgensteins teorier om till exempel språkspel som utvecklat en språktradition som kallas fenomenografi. Det fenomenografiska perspektivet ta i beaktande den föregående lärandeprocessen i medvetandet om hur konceptualisering av förståelse konstitueras. Detta är vad som inom filosofin kallas intentionalitet. Språket kan inte förstås utifrån en förutbestämd vokabuläranvändning eller logiska ideal. Inlärning borde istället förstås utav hur språket används i en kontext i en konkret användning. Förståelse blir därför något som inte går att utforska utifrån sociala relationer eller ideala lösningar.

Does the individual really matter in the post-modern world, brimming with countless signs and signifiers? My main objective in this writing is to demonstrate how this happens in Verhoeven's films, exploring his central themes and subtext and doing what science fiction does: hold a mirror up to the contemporary world and critique it, asking whether our species' current trajectory is beneficial or hazardous.; Dutch director Paul Verhoeven is a polarizing figure. Although many of his American made films have received considerable praise and financial success, he has been lambasted on countless occasions for his gratuitous use of sex, violence, and contentious symbolism--1995s Showgirls was overwhelmingly dubbed the worst film of all time and 1997s Starship Troopers earned him a reputation as a fascist. Regardless of the controversy surrounding him, his science fiction films are a move beyond the conventions of the big blockbuster science fiction films of the 1980s (E.T. and the Star Wars trilogy are prime examples), revealing a deeper exploration of both sociopolitical issues and the human condition. Much like the novels of Philip K. Dick (and Verhoeven's 1990 film Total Recall--an adaptation of a Dick short story), Verhoeven's science fiction work explores worlds where paranoia is a constant and determining whether an individual maintains any liberty is regularly questionable. In this thesis I am basically exploring issues regarding power. Although I barely bring up the term power in it, I feel it is central. Power is an ambiguous term; are we discussing physical power, state power, objective power, subjective power, or any of the other possible manifestations of the word? The original Anglo-French version of power means "to be able," asking whether it is possible for one to do something. In relation to Verhoeven's science fiction work each demonstrates the limitations placed upon an individual's autonomy, asking are the protagonists capable of independent agency or rather just environmental constructs reflecting the myriad influences surrounding them.