Everything about fascism is aesthetic: this is what our thesis aims to demonstrate, based on the example of interwar French Fascism (1919--1939). It studies both discourses, symbolic practices, and literary texts, in order to show the multiple aspects of fascism's aesthetic dimension. Two theories, discourse analysis and sociocriticism, have guided us and permitted us to explain the interaction between aesthetics and ideology. / Our thesis is divided in three parts, each one devoted to one of fascism's central themes: the leader, the youth, and the group. In our first chapter, we examine the charismatic leader's many faces, among which are the poet and the warrior. We then show that fascism's discourse on heroism makes of the epic hero an ideological model and that, in its turn, this ideological hero greatly influenced Pierre Drieu la Rochelle's representation of the hero. But, as we indicate, Drieu's novels reveal that the cult of the hero is both a glorification of the self and a self-hatred. In our second chapter we examine fascism's cult of youth such as it was in Italy and Germany, after which we have demonstrated that, in a way, French fascism was an extreme radicalization of the contemporary French discourse on youth. Then, we analyse one of Robert Brasillach's novels which brings to the fore the dark side of fascism's cult of youth: its death drive. / In our last chapter, we unearth the aesthetic principles underlying fascism's political spectacle, principles that we also find at the heart of Drieu's texts. We consequently state that Drieu has adopted fascism's aesthetic years before he realized he had fascist ideas. Going a little further yet, we stipulate that Drieu thus reveals that the aesthetic was one of the main roads towards fascism. We then establish, in our final conclusion, a synthetic description of fascist aesthetics: an aesthetics of pathos, exhibition, sublime, violence, and death.

Thesis (M.V.A.)--Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed 26 May 2008). "Glass"--At the foot of t.p. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Visual Arts to the Sydney College of the Arts. Degree awarded 2005; thesis submitted 2004. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-210).

No description available.

Removed from its artistic origins in the French avant-garde during the interwar period, the European based group known as the situationist international is often represented as being solely occupied with politics to the exclusion of all else, particularly art and aesthetics. In what follows I argue that throughout the sixties the anti-aesthetic position was actually the governing model in France obliging the avant-garde to adjust their strategies accordingly. Artists and artists' collectives that placed politics before aesthetics were the norm, enjoying widespread popularity and recognition from both the public and the French State. These overtly partisan groups and individuals sapped art of the power it had enjoyed in the fifties as a venue removed, or at least distanced from, formal politics. In response, the situationists officially rejected the art world, turning to the popular and vernacular culture of the streets in an attempt to get beyond both classical aesthetic principals and the overt propagandistic objectives of groups such as le Salon de la jeunePeinture. Turning to the climactic moment of 1968 I track the ways in which these debates informed the posters and graffiti which marked the unfinished revolution, sorting out the various aesthetic positions and political persuasions that dominated the events. My thesis contends that the situationists were not anti-aesthetic, that they simply advocated a different kind of aesthetics: one that rejected traditional notions of beauty for the more active and open concept of poiesis or poetry. Beyond words on a page, this notion implied art as a way of life, emphasizing production, creation, formation and action and can be traced back to the groups prewar origins in the Dada and surrealist movements. Moreover, this concept of poetry was not adverse to issues of form being highly dependent on the materiality and physicality of the urban centre, specifically the streets. Finally my conclusion expands upon the similarities between this notion of poetry and the 17th century understanding of beauty, the latter concept being associated with a subtle criticality and strategic wit. It was this interpretation of beauty that defined and produced the art of 1968.

Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Universiẗat, Diss., 2003.

Mémoire (M.E.L.)--Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1999. / Ce mémoire a été réalisé à Chicoutimi dans le cadre du programme de maîtrise en études littéraires de l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières extensionné à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. CaQCU Bibliogr.: f. [99-101]. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2005. / Principal faculty advisor: Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Dept. of Art History. Includes bibliographical references.

Removed from its artistic origins in the French avant-garde during the interwar period, the European based group known as the situationist international is often represented as being solely occupied with politics to the exclusion of all else, particularly art and aesthetics. In what follows I argue that throughout the sixties the anti-aesthetic position was actually the governing model in France obliging the avant-garde to adjust their strategies accordingly. Artists and artists' collectives that placed politics before aesthetics were the norm, enjoying widespread popularity and recognition from both the public and the French State. These overtly partisan groups and individuals sapped art of the power it had enjoyed in the fifties as a venue removed, or at least distanced from, formal politics. In response, the situationists officially rejected the art world, turning to the popular and vernacular culture of the streets in an attempt to get beyond both classical aesthetic principals and the overt propagandistic objectives of groups such as le Salon de la jeunePeinture. Turning to the climactic moment of 1968 I track the ways in which these debates informed the posters and graffiti which marked the unfinished revolution, sorting out the various aesthetic positions and political persuasions that dominated the events. My thesis contends that the situationists were not anti-aesthetic, that they simply advocated a different kind of aesthetics: one that rejected traditional notions of beauty for the more active and open concept of poiesis or poetry. Beyond words on a page, this notion implied art as a way of life, emphasizing production, creation, formation and action and can be traced back to the groups prewar origins in the Dada and surrealist movements. Moreover, this concept of poetry was not adverse to issues of form being highly dependent on the materiality and physicality of the urban centre, specifically the streets. Finally my conclusion expands upon the similarities between this notion of poetry and the 17th century understanding of beauty, the latter concept being associated with a subtle criticality and strategic wit. It was this interpretation of beauty that defined and produced the art of 1968. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation concerns itself with the period of the 1920's and 1930's in French intellectual history. Three prominent figures have been chosen from French culture of this period--Nobel Prize-winning author Roger Martin du Gard, cubist painter George Braque, and Christian existentialist Gabriel Marcel--to illustrate the thesis that this era witnessed a major breakdown in the "romantic style." This latter term is employed to describe the prevailing culture of the West dating from the eighteenth century. It is the view of this study that beyond the catastrophic wars and destruction that afflicted the West during this time, there was an underlying crisis taking place in this "romanticism" that caused as much, as was caused by, the events. Hence, the theme of this dissertation is cultural despair and illness. The subjects are used to portray this illness in the state it had reached by the 1920's and 1930's. It is concluded that basic inherent weaknesses that were latent to romanticism came to the surface in the twentieth century because that era was marked by a culmination of historical crises which exposed the hidden cultural one. The study deals with all the general tendencies of romanticism in a critical manner. The intention is to point out the dangers of some of these tendencies, and in what manner they were dealt with by the three subjects, whose approaches to romanticism were varied.