The academic study of religion has for too long laboured under a flawed understanding of the relationship between modernity and religion. Any narrative of the displacement of religion by a universal and secularising modernity fails to recognise the complexity of the historical and cultural realities. While modernity has demonstrably contributed to the erosion of certain forms of religion, there is a growing body of evidence, and new interpretations of existing evidence, which suggest that the interconnections between modernity and religion are far more complex than any simple opposition could account for. Indeed, modernity appears, in certain circumstances, to be capable of producing its own religious effects. This thesis seeks to answer what then becomes a fundamental question: what does it mean for the study of religion if we accept that modernity can generate the religious? New conceptual tools are needed to deal critically with the far-reaching consequences of embracing the true density of modernity. The study of religion can be greatly enhanced by one such concept: reenchantment. However, reenchantment, as an interpretive framework, must be carefully formulated. Reenchantment cannot be properly understood as a reversal of disenchantment, a conception this thesis will be calling thin reenchantment, but as an ongoing dialectic of reenchantment and rationalisation, which this thesis will be calling thick reenchantment. The formulation of a credible and useful concept of reenchantment can in turn be aided by the work of the philosopher and cultural critic Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard�s work is not itself an expression or example of reenchantment, but it demonstrates a remarkable congruence with the concept of thick reenchantment, as both interrogate dominant understandings of modernity in relationship to differing systems of value. The thesis is divided into two sections. The first, substantially longer, section presents in some detail thick reenchantment as an interpretive frame. Though it does not claim to offer any new evidence, the first chapter outlines the evidential background for the thesis, which adopts the concept of religious modernity, developed by sociologist Danièle Hervieu-Léger, as a way of framing this evidence. The second chapter develops the concept of reenchantment and the typology of thin and thick reenchantment in relation to the foundational work of Max Weber. The third chapter is an analysis and review of the extant multidisciplinary discourse on reenchantment. The fourth chapter, the theoretical core of the thesis, presents an innovative reading of Baudrillard�s considerable body of work. The second section elaborates on a further insight of the first - that text is a necessary element in the study of religious modernity - by offering detailed readings of the work of three contemporary authors - novelists Douglas Coupland and Chuck Palahniuk and filmmaker Tom Tykwer - as instantiations of the sorts of cultural artefacts that the conceptual framework of thick reenchantment means to explore. Though its claims remain conceptual and interpretive rather than evidential, normative, or explanatory, this thesis, interdisciplinary as it is, is intended as a contribution to a number of related fields, from the study of contemporary literature and film to the exploration of Baudrillard�s work, which the study of religion has to date largely neglected, to its detriment However, its primary purpose is to suggest new and fruitful ways to approach the study of religion in modernity.

The thesis presented here explores the relevance of the classical works of Emile Durkheim and George Herbert Mead to contemporary postmodern cultural critiques. Postmodern social theory specifically that of Richard Rorty and Jean Baudrillard have come to offer a type of social theory that challenges the notion of the social. This referential problem of the social becomes a striking attack on the epistemology of sociology, which purports to offer scientific knowledge about the human condition as a social process. The theoretical works of Durkheim and Mead especially their respective concepts of the "collective consciousness" and the "generalized other" are offered here as closely related articulations of the core sociological concept of "the social." It is argued that postmodernism, by postulating an excessively precarious social theory, falls short as a theory of society when juxtaposed to the classic sociologies of Durkheim and Mead. However, it is also noted that the transformation of the field of sociology from a primarily textual discourse to a quantitative enterprise increasingly exposes the field of sociology to uniquely postmodern critiques.

The purpose of this study is to show what melancholy and irony in my poems express and what techniques that are used to accomplish these effects. Many theorists, among them Sigmund Freud and Julia Kristeva, characterize melancholy as an experience of loss, and therefore one of my questions is what kind of losses appear in my poetry. In search for an answer I analyze the texts from both a psychoanalytic and a sociological point of view. In the latter perspective I discuss the postmodern society using concepts from contemporary thinkers like Zygmunt Bauman, Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard. Finally, I also examine if melancholy has an influence on the form of the poems. The result of my investigation shows that the psychoanalytic perspecitve of Kristeva with great accuracy can predict the elements in melancholy poems but not provide interesting information about the cultural content in them. On the contrary, the sociological perspective shows a multitude of interesting connections between the feeling of loss in the poems and a dysfunctional society. My analysis also shows that both the melancholy and the irony in the poems are expressions of an alienation in a society that is characterized by an abundance of invading images, a rigid system of self control in an ”open society” and the extreme difficulty to plan for the future as a consequence of the ”unleashed market”. Furthermore, several poems have an abrupt irony in the ending and I establish that this technique has several functions in common with the parabasis in the comedy of the Greek Attic theatre. / Morgan Svensson

This thesis aims to explore how the idea of American Dream is presented in White Noise, how the Dream is represented as ¡§American magic,¡¨ and how eventually it turns into ¡§American dread,¡¨ the ultimate American nightmare. In Chapter One, I provide a brief historical survey on the concept of the American Dream, the idea that mainly shaped the American nation in history. I turn to Jim Cullen¡¦s The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation and Andrew Delbanco¡¦s The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope to explore how the idea of the American Dream changes through the course of American history as well as construct a historical background of the American Dream. Chapter Two explores how the American Dream in White Noise is exposed and transformed into what DeLillo terms in the novel as the ¡§American magic¡¨ via the novel¡¦s extreme emphasis on the issue of mass media, the operation of simulated magic. First, I briefly analyze the American Dream succeeded in White Noise based on my survey of the American Dream in the previous chapter. Reading DeLillo¡¦s ¡§American magic¡¨ as the simulated dream in White Noise in light of Baudrillard¡¦s theory of simulacra and simulation, I argue that White Noise is in fact a novel based on the critique of the American Dream due to the falsehood of the protagonists¡¦ American Dream televised through media and consumer culture. In Chapter Three, by recalling the novel¡¦s emphasis on the protagonists¡¦ fear of death, I aim to examine the true reason for such fatal fear. While many may read White Noise simply as a postmodern representation of man¡¦s uncontrollable natural fear of death, I examine the connection of this major theme of fear towards death to DeLillo¡¦s American magic and point out the possibility of American magic acting both as a cause and reinforcement of this fear as well as relating it to the larger issue of DeLillo¡¦s ¡§American dread¡¨ ¡Xa portrayal of the American Dream and magic brought to its extremity and stirred towards a possible apocalyptic end.

Mina Loy’s work explores the gaudiness of consumer culture in its spectacle, extravagance and underlying falsity. “Giovanni Franchi,” “Three Moments in Paris” and “Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots” question the perceptive powers and autonomy of Baudelaire’s flâneur when applied particularly to the modern female subject. Moreover, “Hot Cross Bum” explores the excess involved in consumer extravagance, while “Feminist Manifesto” uses that extravagance to re-appropriate advertising towards Loy’s own ends. Throughout, consumer culture is seen as a false veneer; ultimately, however, Loy admits the paradoxical reality of this false consumer culture, and its real implications on modern life in “On Third Avenue” and “Mass Production on 14th Street.” Consequently, Loy gives a nuanced and sophisticated critique and exploration of consumer culture, and can be connected to theorists of spectacle like Guy Debord, of advertising like T.J. Jackson Lears, and to Baudrillard’s hyperreality.

This thesis uses the photographic portrait as an example of contemporary art practice to examine developments in aesthetic sensibility and constructions of meaning with particular address to ineffable qualities in both the subject and in the photograph. It examines the contribution of practice to a wider cultural debate, predominantly described as poststructural. Thomas Ruff's contention that it is impossible to photographically depict an individual, establishes a methodology that interrogates assumptions and directs examination toward reconfiguring issues of theory and practice. In the photographic portrait, what is `essential' equates with the expectation of visual statements that are definitive and what is 'ineffable' is that which transcends words. The persistent premise of capturing the 'essence' is dependant on the notion of 'presence', the certainty of pure perception or essential meaning, now undermined by poststructuralism in terms of conceptions of meaning and authorship. If essential depiction is problematic, how might a correlative adjustment to conceiving and validating photographic meaning be framed? How are essential or ineffable qualities displaced, formed and manifested? What constitutes the contemporary 'meaningful' portrait? Realigned as 'depictions of people', the 'portrait' serves a complex function, adjusted in the light of psychoanalysis and poststructuralism and visibly manifested as metaphor for contemporary consciousness. With particular reference to texts by Julia Kristeva, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard, this thesis demonstrates photographic practice as a form of discourse that visualises implicit truth-values, and participates in debate. It asserts figural interpretations to photographs over literary systems like narrative, and immanent property over aspirations to 'transcendence' or 'essence' and proposes reconfigurations of psychological, critical or poetic 'fiction' as alternatives. It repositions the ineffable as a conceptual domain of possibility that assimilates the dynamic of differance as its poststructural equivalent and proposes a conceptual aesthetic that celebrates aspects of poststructuralism and is rooted in what the photograph provokes rather than what it depicts.

Šiame darbe teorinį galios diskurso pagrindą sudaro keturi prancūzų tradicijos teoretikai – M. Foucault, P. Bourdieu, M. de Certeau ir J. Baudrillard. Remiantis jų darbais yra analizuojami skirtingi aspektai, kurie sudaro galios cirkuliacijos sistemą šiuolaikiniuose miestuose. Esminį vaidmenį šioje sistemoje vaidina galios tarpininkai, kurie leidžia galiai sklisti nepriklausomai nuo to, ar yra tiesioginis ryšys tarp galios šaltinio ir kasdienio veikėjo. Darbo tikslas yra apibrėžti, kas būdinga galios tarpininkams, kurie lemia galios santykius šiuolaikinių miestų viešosiose erdvėse. Tam, visų pirma buvo išanalizuoti svarbiausi aspektai iš M. Foucault disciplinuojančios galios, P. Bourdieu laukų teorijos, M. de Certeau kasdienio gyvenimo praktikų, J. Baurillard simuliacijų ir daiktų bei individų santykio koncepcijų. Remiantis teorinės analizės rezultatais, sudarytas galios cirkuliacijos modelis, atsižvelgiant į tai, kad jis turi būti pritaikomas empiriškai nagrinėti galios santykiams miestų viešosiose erdvėse. Empirinę darbo dalį sudarė dviejų etapų kokybinis tyrimas. Pirmame etape buvo taikoma fotodokumentacija ir užfiksuoto vaizdo analizė, kurios rezultatas – 732 fotografijos, o antrajame – atlikta 16 pusiau struktūruotų interviu. Medžiaga buvo renkama dviejuose miestuose – Berlyne ir Vilniuje. Tyrimo rezultatai atspindėjo išryškintus galios tarpininkų aspektus ir leido pamatyti, kaip jie atsispindi tikrovėje – dviejų skirtingų miestų viešosiose erdvėse. Teorinė analizė ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The theoretical groundwork of power discourse used in this paper is based on the works of four French authors: M. Foucault, P. Bourdieu, M. de Certeau and J. Baudrillard. The different aspects that these authors explore in their search for the meaning of power enable one to look at different aspects in a system of power relations: power itself, which emanates from a power source and reaches everyday agents by means of a power mediator. As the separation of the power source from the everyday agents that it strives to influence increases predominantly, the power mediator plays a crucial role, as it enables power to dissipate without direct contact between the two acting parts of the power equation. The aim of this paper is to define what characterizes the power mediators that influence power relations in contemporary urban public space. In order to achieve this aim, first of all the main theoretical aspects were analyzed from M. Foucault's concept of disciplinary power, P. Bourdieu's field theory, M. de Certeau's practice of everyday life and J. Baudrillard's simulations. A theoretical analysis of the aforementioned allows for constructing a model of power circulation in a form which may later be applied to further research power relations in urban public space. Qualitative research was conducted in two stages in Berlin and Vilnius. The first stage used photographic documentation as the primary method for data gathering. 732 photographs were made and analyzed. During the second... [to full text]

The academic study of religion has for too long laboured under a flawed understanding of the relationship between modernity and religion. Any narrative of the displacement of religion by a universal and secularising modernity fails to recognise the complexity of the historical and cultural realities. While modernity has demonstrably contributed to the erosion of certain forms of religion, there is a growing body of evidence, and new interpretations of existing evidence, which suggest that the interconnections between modernity and religion are far more complex than any simple opposition could account for. Indeed, modernity appears, in certain circumstances, to be capable of producing its own religious effects. This thesis seeks to answer what then becomes a fundamental question: what does it mean for the study of religion if we accept that modernity can generate the religious? New conceptual tools are needed to deal critically with the far-reaching consequences of embracing the true density of modernity. The study of religion can be greatly enhanced by one such concept: reenchantment. However, reenchantment, as an interpretive framework, must be carefully formulated. Reenchantment cannot be properly understood as a reversal of disenchantment, a conception this thesis will be calling thin reenchantment, but as an ongoing dialectic of reenchantment and rationalisation, which this thesis will be calling thick reenchantment. The formulation of a credible and useful concept of reenchantment can in turn be aided by the work of the philosopher and cultural critic Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard�s work is not itself an expression or example of reenchantment, but it demonstrates a remarkable congruence with the concept of thick reenchantment, as both interrogate dominant understandings of modernity in relationship to differing systems of value. The thesis is divided into two sections. The first, substantially longer, section presents in some detail thick reenchantment as an interpretive frame. Though it does not claim to offer any new evidence, the first chapter outlines the evidential background for the thesis, which adopts the concept of religious modernity, developed by sociologist Danièle Hervieu-Léger, as a way of framing this evidence. The second chapter develops the concept of reenchantment and the typology of thin and thick reenchantment in relation to the foundational work of Max Weber. The third chapter is an analysis and review of the extant multidisciplinary discourse on reenchantment. The fourth chapter, the theoretical core of the thesis, presents an innovative reading of Baudrillard�s considerable body of work. The second section elaborates on a further insight of the first - that text is a necessary element in the study of religious modernity - by offering detailed readings of the work of three contemporary authors - novelists Douglas Coupland and Chuck Palahniuk and filmmaker Tom Tykwer - as instantiations of the sorts of cultural artefacts that the conceptual framework of thick reenchantment means to explore. Though its claims remain conceptual and interpretive rather than evidential, normative, or explanatory, this thesis, interdisciplinary as it is, is intended as a contribution to a number of related fields, from the study of contemporary literature and film to the exploration of Baudrillard�s work, which the study of religion has to date largely neglected, to its detriment However, its primary purpose is to suggest new and fruitful ways to approach the study of religion in modernity.

To view the Shelves Catalogue in the correct format: 1. Click "view"; 2. Click "page display"; 3. Click "Two Page View"; 4. Click "Show Cover Page in Two Page View" / This study explores how a narrative view of collecting can be expanded and applied to Ilya and Emilia Kabakov’s installations, as well as to my own artworks. It focuses on personal and intimate collections of everyday objects that serve to edify their owner’s sense of being. The project is undertaken in order to arrive at new interpretations of the themes of loss, meaning and absence through Mieke Bal’s (2006) narrative theory, Susan Pearce (1994) and Mikhail Epstein’s (1995) methods of collecting and Jean Baudrillard’s (1996) notions of the collector. These theories are applied to selected installations from the Kabakovs’ series Ten Characters. My own exhibition, S(h)elves, is an exploration of collections, underpinned by conceptually relevant theories. Conclusions are reached by means of literary analysis and comparison of selected theorists and artworks. A reflexive approach to art-making means that theories inform art-making processes while practical developments facilitate re-evaluated perceptions which lead to new insights. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology

Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-07T18:46:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 000407212-Texto+Completo-0.pdf: 1480901 bytes, checksum: 1dd955e964d3a9104f5e86dcf5f0f4a1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / The purpose of this scientific work is to analyze the “simulacrum” meanings as “love and seduction” in the movies from the work of Jean Baudrillard considering the viewpoint of communication philosophy. At first, the objective of this search is to approach the simulacrum as hiper-real, the movie meanings, and what is movie as the simulacrum of reality. Following we’ll study with greater emphasis the simulacrum meanings as “death, immortality and fate” and as “seduction and love”. The work also proposes to establish a dialogue between communication philosophy and movie, interpreting the simulacrum meanings as seduction and love in the Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), both directed and written by Richard Linklater. / Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar os significados do "simulacro" como sedução e amor no cinema do ponto de vista da filosofia da comunicação a partir da obra do filósofo francês Jean Baudrillard. Em um primeiro momento, a pesquisa se propõe a abordar o que é "simulacro" equivalente ao "hiper-real", o que é cinema e o que é cinema como "simulacro" da realidade. Logo em seguida aprofundarei o estudo dos significados do "simulacro" como "morte, imortalidade e destino" e como "sedução e amor". O trabalho se propõe a estabelecer um diálogo entre filosofia da comunicação e cinema interpretando os significados do simulacro como sedução e amor nas narrativas fílmicas Antes do Amanhecer (Before Sunrise), de 1995 e Antes do Pôr-do-Sol (Before Sunset), de 2004, ambos escritos e dirigidos por Richard Linklater.