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

American artist James Rosenquist is best known for his Pop Art paintings, which existing scholarship has studied in regard to its formal features and social and cultural significance. Rosenquist's manner of working, specifically his process, remains understudied. Focusing on three paintings and three corresponding collages, President Elect (1960-61, 1964), Star Thief (1980), and The Stowaway Peers Out at the Speed of Light (2000), this thesis considers features of Rosenquist's studio practice to propose a new interpretation involving the representational status and significance of the artist's collages and paintings that is elucidated by French theorist Jean Baudrillard's concept of the simulacrum. Additionally, the thesis addresses the treatment of Rosenquist's collages and paintings in publications and exhibitions since 1992 by suggesting how Baudrillard's ideas about the simulacrum clarify the museological narrativizing and consumption of the artist's work.

Studien har undersökt huruvida den specialpedagogiska diskursen så som den presenteras i examensordningen kan sägas generera en hyperreell specialpedagogisk yrkesroll. Det empiriska materialet bestående av examensordningarna för specialpedagogutbildningen (1993-2017) har analyserats med diskursteoretisk metod för att sedan placeras i relation till Jean Baudrillards teorier om det postmoderna samhällets simulerade verklighet. Studiens resultat visar att om examensordningens specialpedagogiska diskurs placeras inom ramen för en Baudrillariansk analys så finns det gemensamma nämnare som kan tolkas som genererande en hyperreell yrkesroll. Dessa gemensamma nämnare diskuteras med hjälp av tidigare forskning, diskursteori och Baudrillards teoretiserande av fenomen inom ramen för det postmoderna samhället. De specialpedagogiska implikationer som skulle kunna bli konsekvensen av ett hyperreellt yrkesutövande utreds också och placeras i en mer konkret, elevnära kontext.

Die Philosophie der Postmoderne sieht sich als eine Bewegung der Befreiung und der kulturellen Emanzipation. Von ihrer anti-totalitären Inspiration her ist die postmoderne Philosophie mit der Hoffnung auf ein Nachkriegs-Zeitalter verbunden, weil sie mit der Zeit der Totalitäten auch die Zeit des Krieges hinter sich bringen zu können glaubt. Hingegen zeigt eine Diskursanalyse der Schriften von drei Philosophen, die für das Gedankengebäude der philosophischen Postmoderne von zentraler Bedeutung sind - Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard und Paul Virilio - zwei besondere Widersprüche auf, welche die pluralistische Option der postmodernen Philosophie in Frage stellen und damit auch ihren Anspruch, mit dem Zeitalter der Totalisierungen die Versuche zur gewaltsamen Assimilation des Anderen zu beenden und eine Rehabilitation der Anerkennung kultureller Unterschiede herbeizuführen. Zum einen beinhaltet der postmoderne philosophische Diskurs keine Ausbildung einer "positiven Barbarei" (Lyotard), sondern eine negativ konnotierte, anarchische Regellosigkeit. Zum anderen ist auch die Idee von der Differenz als der "ontologischen Dignität" der Postmoderne in sich inkohärent; vielmehr ist in postmodernem Gedankengut ein fundamentaler Entdifferenzierungsprozess angelegt. Aufgrund dieser inhärenten Widersprüche können postmoderne Theoretiker zu einer Ausbreitung eben jenes Gedankenguts und jenes Gewaltpotentials beitragen, dessen Verschwinden sie ursprünglich beabsichtigten. Wo immer heute, im Zeitalter eines entstehenden Welt-Innenraums und der vielfältigen interkulturellen Kontakte, das Konzept von Postmodernität als ein Programm zur besseren Akzeptanz des kulturell Anderen und zur Erziehung der verschiedenen Akteure im Geist der Toleranz ins Gespräch gebracht werden sollte, ist daher Skepsis angebracht. / The philosophy of the postmodern regards itself as a movement of liberation and cultural emancipation. In view of its anti-totalitarian inspiration postmodern philosophy is linked with the hope of a post-war age, because it believes it can put the times of war behind it together with the times of totalities. A discourse analysis of the writings of three philosophers who are of central importance for the body of ideas of the philosophical postmodern - Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard und Paul Virilio - however reveals two particular contradictions which place a question mark against the pluralistic option of postmodern philosophy and hence against its claim to end the attempts at violent assimilation of the other together with the end of the age of totalization and to bring about a rehabilitation of the recognition of cultural differences. On the one hand the postmodern philosophical discourse does not comprise the evolution of a "positive barbarity" (Lyotard) but an anarchical lack of rules with negative connotations. On the other hand the idea of difference as the "ontological dignity" of the postmodern is in itself incoherent; it is rather the case that postmodern thought involves a fundamental process of de-differentiation. Because of these inherent contradictions in postmodern discourse postmodern theoreticians can contribute to the spread of precisely those ideas and that potential for violence whose disappearance they originally intended. Wherever today, in the age of a developing world inner space and of a multiplicity of intercultural contacts, attempts are made to propose the concept of postmodernity as a programme for the better acceptance of the cultural other and for the education of the various actors in a spirit of tolerance, these must be encountered with scepticism.

Uppsatsen ämnar belysa hur Harry Martinsons Aniara (1956) förebådar postmodernismen trots att verket är rotat i den modernistiska traditionen. Analysen tar upp två aspekter med fokus på innehåll och berättarteknik där verket visar prov på en postmodern idévärld. Först behandlas miman, och resonemang förs kring att hon och hennes produktion bör ses som en masskulturell företeelse snarare än som elitistisk diktkonst. Analysen anknyter till Baudrillards teori om hyperverklighet och simulacrum och visar på hur miman skapar detta med sin kultur­produktion. Här framstår två tolkningsalternativ: ett där miman i egenskap av masskultur upp­värderar synen på masskulturen och pekar framåt mot postmodernismen, och ett andra där hon blir en negativ symbol för masskulturen. Detta eftersom hon döljer verkligheten för befolkningen så pass länge att de slutar försöka lösa sin situation. Den andra aspekten är Aniaras förhållande till metanarrativ, vilket belyses utifrån Lyotards teorier om vad som kännetecknar det postmoderna samhället. Analysen visar hur metanarrativen ses som omöjliga inom fiktionen och istället byts ut mot lokalt meningsskapande. Verket i sin helhet bjuder också på motstånd mot metanarrativ genom att (1) utge sig för att vara en klart av­gränsad händelse, (2) skriva ut ett motstånd mot djuplodande tolkningar och slutligen genom att (3) mimaroben som ska förmedla revyn över människan i tid och rum inte är pålitlig nog att lägga fram en allmän sanning. Sammantaget konstateras att verket är rotat i modernismen men att det samtidigt förebådar postmodernismen i dess syn på masskultur, hyperverklighet och meta­narrativ. / The aim of this essay is to highlight tendencies of postmodernism in Harry Martinson’s Aniara (1956), a work that has traditionally been placed in a modernist context. The analysis centers around two aspects in the text with the aim of finding traces of a postmodern world view. First the “mima”, an enigmatic machine that consoles the passengers in the first six years of the journey, is reasoned to be a mass cultural phenomenon rather than an elitist poetic device, as pre­vious studies have suggested. The cultural production of the machine is then analyzed in the light of the theories of hyper reality and simulacrum, as conceived by Jean Baudrillard. The analysis renders two possible implications, one where the machine can be viewed as a precursor to a post­modern positive attitude of mass culture, and one more modernistic where the machine in its role as mass culture numbs the passengers and prevents them from acting on their situation in time. The second part of the analysis focuses on the view of metanarratives, as expressed within the fiction and in the wok as a whole. Jean-François Lyotard and his explanation of postmodernism’s incredulity towards metanarratives is used as a theoretical standpoint. The analysis shows that metanarratives are considered impossible within the fiction of Aniara as during the course of the journey, they are replaced with more local methods of creating meaning. On the whole, the book could be seen to replace the metanarrative of human progress by one telling of the inadequacy and inert destructibility of humanity. However, the analysis shows that metanarratives are rejected all together. The construction of a new metanarrative is made impossible by (1) the fictitious accounts clearly being a local event, (2) the text openly stating the impossibility of deeper interpretation and finally (3) the work employing a narrator too unreliable to be able to convey the unarguable truths necessary to create a new metanarrative.

I’m interested in the way we stage our identity through objects. How objects relate to identity and body. I have been looking into how the self conception and creation of identity is affected by living in an individualistic, capitalistic and mass medial time. I carry a question, how much of the self is really just a replica of a replica? In this essay I discuss how the consumption of different kinds of media gives us knowledge and experiences of the world that is secondary. I explain how I experience that social media creates a thinking where I’m looking at my self from the outside and that this thinking makes my experiences indirect. I look at the individualization of the society and how I think the individualization affects the way we create collective and individual identities. Furthermore, I discuss how object become signifiers of identity and how we, within the consumer society, consume signs rather than objects. I look at the home, as a keeper of identity and memory, I also resemble the home with an organism where the human body only become a part of a bigger body. I discuss how body and object are intertwined both mentally and physically. Jewellery art and corpus is located between art and utility objects, my field gives me the opportunity to discuss the symbolism of the objects we surround ourselves with. In this essay I give a summary of my thinking around materials, methods and sources of inspiration in my work with Replika på replika. I go through my thinking around padded textile objects, the colour pink, the use of aluminium and how I work with reflection and figurative painting. I connect my work with my thoughts on caricatures, cartoons, pop musicians ways of working with characters and to art within different fields.

The aim of this study is to question the relationality between conception of image, social condition of an era and architecture. With acceptance of a transition to a new kind of relationality in contemporary era, a trialectical analysis is carried on, in order to understand changes in this relationality and its effects on contemporary architecture. Image, mainly depicted as the tool for communication, loses its transcendental and ideal status and degrades to an artificial and tricky state under the contemporary social condition. Likewise, current state of both image and social condition manipulates architecture, architectural production and the position of architect. Therefore, in this study, for understanding the new social condition, it is referred to the world constituted as a system of sign in philosophy of French thinker, Jean Baudrillard which originates from new status of image. For comprehension of contemporary architecture, it is referred to the practice of French architect, Jean Nouvel who features special value to image in his architecture. Finally, for consequences of this collision and effects on architecture, it is referred to the analysis of the book of &ldquo / The Singular Objects of Architecture&rdquo / which is composed of dialogues between Jean Baudrillard and Jean Nouvel.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilken funktion designföremål har utöver den praktiska användarfunktionen. Jag har utgått från två designföremål, det så kallade Perstorpsbordet och Miss Blanche som studieföremål. Mina frågeställningar har varit att undersöka hur dessa föremål representeras utifrån webbannonser samt designföremålens sociala och känslomässiga funktionsaspekt.   Materialet som har använts i analysen har varit webbannonser, blogginlägg, artiklar och instagramminlägg som beskriver dessa designföremål. Som teoriska perspektiv har jag utgått från Jean Baudrillards objektteori, Pierre Bourdieus fältteori samt den populärvetenskapliga filosofen Alan de Bottons resonemang från ”Happiness of Architecture”. Varje kapitel utgår från varsin filosof och som metod har jag bland annat använt mig av semiotik för att tolka tecken och symboler i designföremålens.

Gilt der französische Soziologe, Medien- und Kulturtheoretiker Jean Baudrillard in traditionellen Kreisen immer noch als ,neokonservativer Modephilosoph', ,AntiFeminist', ,theoretischer Anarchist' und ,Sandkorn im Getriebe der Wissenschaften', so gewinnen nicht nur angesichts virtueller Cyberwelten, gentechnologischer Fortschritte, elektronischer Kriege, viraler Angriffe auf Computersysteme und verheerender terroristischer Anschläge viele seiner Prognosen und Theorien zunehmend an Bedeutung. Und dies sowohl im soziologischen, politisch-ökonomischen, medientheoretischen als auch kultur- und literaturwissenschaftlichen Bereich.Doch während Baudrillard im anglo-amerikanischen Sprachraum bereits seit langem zum Gegenstand zahlreicher Einführungen und Studien geworden ist - ich verweise nur auf die ,Auseinandersetzung' zwischen Douglas Kellner und Mike Gane zu Anfang der neunziger Jahre - und dort allein in den letzten Jahren zahlreiche Neuerscheinungen zu verzeichnen sind, scheint sich in Deutschland die Lage anders darzustellen.