Thesis (M.A.)--Stony Brook University, 2008. / This official electronic copy is part of the DSpace Stony Brook theses & dissertations collection maintained by the University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives on behalf of the Stony Brook Graduate School. It is stored in the SUNY Digital Institutional Repository and can be accessed through the website. Presented to the Stony Brook University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy; as recommended and accepted by the candidate's degree sponsor, the Dept. of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-60).

Denna uppsats analyserar blick och agens i Kate Zambrenos roman Green Girl. Detta görs främst genom Foucaults begrepp panopticism och Baudrillards teorier om konsumtionssamhället. Uppsatsens syfte är att studera Zambrenos framställning av huvudkaraktären Ruth i relation till Foucaults och Baudrillards teorier. Detta för att via Zambrenos bok göra en feministisk analys av hur konsumism och normativ femininitet fungerar som disciplinerande krafter som villkorar kvinnors och flickors agens. Den huvudsakliga frågeställningen lyder: Hur går Ruths tillvaro att jämföra med den isolerade fångens i Foucaults och Benthams Panoptikon? En underfråga är: Hur disciplineras Ruth av konsumtionssamhället? Analysmetoden som tillämpas är en närläsning av Zambrenos roman, med påföljande jämförelser med den valda teorin. Genom denna analys framgår att det går att göra en jämförelse mellan fången i panoptikon och karaktären Ruth, i det att den senare internaliserar omvärldens blickar och sedermera disciplinerar sig och sin kropp för att behaga den tänkta betraktaren. Uppsatsen visar också att denna disciplinering är kopplad till konsumtionssamhället och idealiserade bilder av kvinnor och flickor, så som det framställs i romanen. Slutligen påvisas att detta illustreras genom den i texten mycket närvarande författarrösten i Green Girl, som till sin karaktär är voyeuristisk och kommenterande. I detta tar författarrösten också med sig läsaren.

M.A. / When fighting against the dominance of instrumental reason, aesthetic consciousness always admitted its allegiance to ‘another state of being,’ i.e., to the explosive break with the continual inertia of linear social development. In the literature written at the turn of the 20th century this was symbolized in the ‘life of danger’ that contrasted with the normality of ordinary bourgeois life. This study shows that Baudrillard no longer believes in ‘another state of being’ with explosive force. In Baudrillard's theory of simulation, the crisis of overproduction in capitalism is to be understood as the total shift of production into reproduction. His position has consequences for the idea of the catastrophic nature of the present social situation and for the aesthetic means with which it can finally be thought. Baudrillard calls the catastrophic effect of the threat emanating from simulation an implosion not an explosion, it results from the fact that under pressure from a merely simulated reality, every social energy is expended internally in the play of signifiers, evaporating in some catastrophic process. His aesthetic fascination with events does not seem to have disappeared completely in the process. For Baudrillard, on September 11 2001, the terrorists countered simulation with simulation itself. This is what makes it a true event. What is unthinkable in this event is the use of death in a staged exchange where a whole culture could be attacked. The attack brings back death to a world that pretends it is not there. If political economy is the most rigorous attempt to put an end to death, it is clear that only death can put an end to political economy. Baudrillard encounters an indifference, a void and death at the heart of thought. This leads to apocalyptic tones. For Baudrillard, one only attains to thought when one interiorizes the limit and displaces it. Thinking no longer works except by breaking down and dismantling itself. For Deleuze, on the other hand, to dissent is to affirm other modes of life. Deleuze constructs an entire philosophy of life – conceived as a philosophy of difference. This enables Deleuze to have an affirmative notion of the aesthetic impulse: the artwork as an unexpected event that actualizes the virtual. The virtual is not a general idea, something abstract and empty, but the concept of difference (and of life) rendered adequate. The concept of the virtual gives us the time of life. Pure, virtual being is real and qualified through the internal process of differentiation. Being differs with itself. It does not look outside itself for another or a force of mediation because its difference rises from its very core, from ‘the explosive internal force that life carries within itself’ (Deleuze, 1988: 105). Deleuze conceives of a discrete art with metamorphic force. Deleuze, unlike Baudrillard, manages to pull back from the capitalist void and construct a ‘desiring machine’ to manipulate capitalist simulacra.

The story you are about to read is one revealing how art infiltrated my home. It is an unplugged speech describing the methodology, visions. interests, and relationships behind my photographs. My photographs document my ideas of space in places personal to me. I talk about carrying the idea of space and its relationship to Jean Baudrillard’s theories of simulation and simulacra. I do not want to enforce any illusions of metaphysical importance behind my work. This work was made out of creative science. My goal was to convey a thought, and this thesis is to share the experience of doing so.

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The focus of this essay is Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. My central claim is that a theme of belonging underpins the novel and is recurrent in a number of different ways. In my reading, I utilise Jean Baudrillard’s postmodern critical concepts to produce this interpretation. I argue that the theme of belonging can be interpreted using Baudrillard’s loss of the real and hyperreal concepts. The usefulness of these concepts is primarily based on the element of clones and cloning in the narrative. Baudrillard’s theories deal with signs and images that do not correspond with the realities that they are meant to represent, mirroring the predicament of the Hailsham students in Never Let Me Go. My essay presents three main areas of discussion in relation to the theme of belonging. Firstly, Hailsham and the students are examined using the loss of the real/hyperreal concepts. The second area deals with belongings as a recurrent motif. In my reading, the dual meaning of the word belonging is an important factor in identifying the theme. This particular discussion deals also with ownership. The final area of discussion revolves around the issue of genre, or rather genres. The novel’s mixture of character drama and science-fiction dystopia is discussed in relation to the loss of the real/hyperreal. / Uppsatsens fokus är Kazuo Ishiguros Never Let Me Go. Min huvudtes är att det finns ett tema av tillhörighet som utmärker romanen. I min läsning applicerar jag Jean Baudrillards postmoderna kritiska begrepp i tolkningen av texten. I uppsatsen argumenterar jag att temat av tillhörighet kan tolkas med hjälp Baudrillards begrepp förlust av verkligheten samt hyperverkligheten. Användbarheten av dessa begrepp bygger på förekomsten av kloner och kloning i texten. Baudrillards teorier handlar om tecken och bilder som ej motsvarar verkligheten på ett tydligt sätt, och denna brist på korrespondens mellan verklighet och representation avspeglar Hailsham-elevernas situation i Never Let Me Go. Min uppsats har tre huvuddiskussioner i förhållande till temat tillhörighet. För det första, undersöks Hailsham och eleverna med med hjälp av begreppen förlust av verkligheten/hyperverkligheten. Andra diskussionsområden handlar om tillhörighet/er som återkommande tema. I min läsning, är det faktum att ordet tillhörighet har två definitioner en viktig aspekt när man ska identifiera temat. Denna diskussion handlar också om äganderätt. Den sista diskussionen handlar om romanens genre, eller genrer. Även romanens blandning av karaktärsdrama och science-fictiondystopi diskuteras i förhållande till Baudrillards begrepp förlust av verkligheten/hyperverkligheten.

Drei fast zugleich veröffentlichte Texte französischer Philosophen zu lesen, mag zum Nachdenken über den Zusammenhang auffordern - hier soll einmal bewußt den Unterschieden nachgegangen werden, zum Erweis der Brüchigkeit des philosophischen Diskurses, der von vielen für manifest gehalten wird. Gibt es eine postmoderne, post-strukturalistische, post-analytische Philosophie? Das ist zweifelhaft. Es gibt Fraktionen. Es gibt so verschiedene Autoren wie Jean Baudrillard, JeanFrancois Lyotard und Jean-Luc Nancy.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar o romance Assombro, de Chuck Palahniuk, como retrato e sintoma do comportamento da sociedade pós-moderna ocidental, cujos valores correspondem, de acordo com palavras do próprio autor, ao “inverso do sonho americano”. A principal característica de tal sociedade é a dificuldade dos indivíduos em lidar com as exigências e constantes mudanças nos âmbitos individual, social e psicológico, o que se configura na obra do escritor estadunidense através de personagens marginais em busca (na maioria das vezes, aparentemente inconsciente) de autoaceitação ou adaptação social. A leitura desenvolvida aqui se baseia principalmente nos escritos do teórico francês Jean Baudrillard, que apresenta o pressuposto de que o mundo contemporâneo encontra-se num estado de “pós-orgia”, assombrado por três fantasmas que o teórico chama de câncer, travesti e terrorismo, os quais simbolizam questões sociais contemporâneas relacionadas à política, sexualidade, comunicação e relacionamentos humanos, entre outros aspectos. Os conceitos de Baudrillard que norteiam a análise são: 'estado de pós-orgia', 'hiperrealidade', 'simulação', 'virulência' e 'sedução' e 'fantasmas'. O trabalho também apresenta as características da literatura de Chuck Palahniuk e sua recém-iniciada fortuna crítica, apontando os principais aspectos da sociedade pós-moderna presentes em suas obras e culminando em um cotejo de Assombro com o gótico e sua vertente pós-moderna, além de uma comparação entre a dinâmica estabelecida entre as personagens do romance e aquela percebida nos reality shows e falsos documentários (mock-documentaries). A conclusão retoma aspectos na estrutura, imaginário e conteúdo do romance, que permitem defini-lo como retrato e sintoma de uma nova configuração social, resultado das inevitáveis mudanças por que o mundo passa. / This dissertation aims at presenting Chuck Palahniuk‟s novel Haunted as a portrait and symptom of the behavior perceived in the postmodern Western society, whose values, according to the author himself, correspond to “the opposite of the American Dream”. The main characteristic of such society is the individuals‟ difficulty in dealing with demands and constant changes in the individual, social and psychological spheres, a fact observed in the work of this American writer through the presence of marginal characters in a more often than not apparently unconscious search of self-acceptance or social adaptation. The reading proposed is mainly based on the writings of French theoretician Jean Baudrillard, who presents the assumption that the contemporary world is in a “post-orgy” state, haunted by three phantasies he denominates cancer, transvestitism and terrorism, which symbolize contemporary social issues related to politics, sexuality, communication and human relationships, among other aspects. The concepts by Baudrillard that underlie the analysis are: 'post-orgy state', 'hyperreality', 'simulation', 'virulence', 'seduction' and 'phantasies'. The work also presents the features of the literature produced by Chuck Palahniuk and its newly-started critical fortune, highlighting the main aspects of postmodern society present in his works, culminating with an approximation of Haunted to the postmodern variation of Gothic literature, besides a comparison between the dynamics established among the characters in the novel to the one perceived in reality shows and mock-documentaries. The conclusion strengthens aspects in the structure, imaginary and content of the novel that enable the definition of Haunted as portrait and symptom of a new social organization, resulting from the inevitable changes the world goes through.