William S. Burroughs challenges each reader of Naked Lunch to make meaning of its convoluted pages.  This project explores the two crucial keys to fuller understanding of his groundbreaking literary work:  Logic and Ethics. In "Beating the Dead Horse: Deconstructing the Junk Genius of Naked Lunch," I illustrate Burroughs' means of exposing the flawed binaries that undergird the Aristotelian Logic of language.  In Naked Lunch, the author bares the slippery nature of any such Logical language, whereby each word comes with a range of denotations and connotations, all of which shift constantly according to a concomitantly shifting context.  This project primarily explores Burroughs\' means of subverting traditional logic by exposing the flaws that riddle the foundations of language, essentially undermining the syllogistic system via the system (essentially fashioning a word virus/vaccine chain). I also analyze the Ethical grounding of Naked Lunch, which grows directly from Burroughs' logical/linguistic subversions.  Namely, Burroughs sought to expose the problems with the common Utilitarian Ethic that ultimately pushes the individual to the margins while subsuming the individual within the group (a symptom of the binary logical/linguistic systems that pervade thought and encourages othering).  This article provides substantial evidence that links Burroughs\' ethical equations directly from his Algebra of Need to Jeremy Bentham's Hedonistic Calculus. / Master of Arts

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A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Engiish. / This dissertation grapples With the activity of critical production. It answers not to an interpretation which would constitute the writer within the institutionalised category of effect and object of knowledge, but rather to an explosion, a proliferation of critical paths at the limit of the doxa: a veritable labyrinth. The terms of my title open up a methodological field within which I enact the play of associations, contiguities, relations among four texts: The Name of the Rose, lost. in the Funhouse, The Naked Lunch and 'The library of Babel'. The terms themselves disseminate across the text argument in citations, references, echoes. The labyrinth is used throughout as a trope which deconstructs its own performance within the text. Legends are myths, inscriptions on maps, legenda or "things for reading" (through an etymological supplement), "lesser libraries." Barthes cites the biblical words of the man possessed by demons: "My name is Legion for we are many" and demonstrates how the demonlacal plural brings with it fundamental changes in reading strategies. The notion of the demoniacal plural is used to problernatlse the debates around subjectivity. The belief in unitary, rational selfhood is debunked and the subject is Seen to be plural, irreducible, heterogenous. Subjectivity is further problernatlsed by demonstrating the slippage among the labyrinthine multiplicity of discursive positions occupied by readers: the monoloqlcal models of meaning developed from each reading position constantly shift. The discursive position recuperated and sanctioned by the Law or the institution is impossible to maintain as Subjects are seduced by language into confrontation with other positions through their continuous renarnings of each other. Subjectivity and discursive positioning form .their own labyrinthine intentionality. The argument then moves towards an exploration of the current calculation of the subject for the writer. (Distinctions between author and critic begin to collapse here since meaning is shown to be governed by neither). The reading\writing subject strolls in a vast labyrinth of text - a postmodern flaneur who frustrates the work of exegesis by enacting the play of the signifier. The line traced by this hypothetical traveller does not engender a definitive theoretical or discursive map of the domain but rather a contingent and highly provisional, backward turning path. The demoniacal plural is also used to problematise notions of an original and innovative critical voice which "speaks" the dissertation. The logic regulating the argument is the already-written, The dissertation plavs with each text (both critical texts and fictions) looking for a practice which reproduces them but in another place. My imagined (ideal?) reader wmtreat the argument as that Which. lt was not simply meant to be,will. follow.the argument and be seduced by it: an echoing. structure with dead ends, wrong turns, false entrances fictitious exits; misleading threads and deceptive lines, / AC 2018

Thus far, the novel Naked Lunch has not been discussed from the aspect of critical animal studies, nor has it been connected to the theories of Michel Foucault. This essay however, argues that these diverse fields could be connected through the use of the simians that are frequently employed in Naked Lunch. By analyzing the metaphorical role of the simian, the structure of the normalization process can be revealed. Therefore the simian’s metaphorical role becomes to reveal the different stages character goes through in that process and ultimately revealing its negative effects. They also prove to employ the role of abnormality which normalization wants to subtract from the human in order to render her docile. By applying the power mechanisms such as signals, the concept of panopticism and the theory of the docile body to specific passages where simians are highly prominent, the claim of this paper can be demonstrated. Besides Foucault, the theories of Robin Lydenberg are also used consistently throughout the essay due to her valuable observations such as the struggle between body and mind.

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Orientador: Fabio Akcelrud Durão / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T12:16:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Felix_JoseCarlos_D.pdf: 4164030 bytes, checksum: 109f30ea5add2340905cadbf1e7bbc39 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Expressão mais sintomática do sistema capitalista, a indústria cultural opera em uma lógica que incorpora e harmoniza expressões estéticas antagônicas, emulando uma tensão dialética análoga às obras de arte. O cinema, dada sua natureza industrial, desponta como uma das esferas da indústria cultural a atingir o mais alto grau de sofisticação e controle técnico, firmando padrões estético-narrativos rígidos seguidos não apenas por filmes convencionalmente chamados de comerciais, mas também por aqueles circunscritos ao circuito alternativo e independente. Assim, considerando o argumento de que filmes produzidos fora do esfera comercial estariam mais propensos a romper e subverter a hegemonia do idioma tecnicamente controlado do cinema padrão, a proposta deste trabalho é examinar os filmes Mistérios e paixões [Naked lunch, David Cronenberg, Canadá, 1991] e Cidade de Deus [Fernando Meirelles, Brasil, 2002], a fim de verificar como se estabelece a tensão entre as convenções do idioma tecnicamente controlado do cinema padrão e os gestos que visam a sua desestabilização. A primeira parte está dividida em dois capítulos correlatos, cujo objetivo é discutir como as convenções estético-narrativas do cinema mainstream de Hollywood sintetizam de maneira sui generis o idioma tecnicamente controlado da indústria cultural. O primeiro capítulo investiga os procedimentos a partir dos quais o conjunto de protocolos visuais do cinema norte-americano (composição de quadro, montagem, sonorização, etc.) estabeleceu um modelo diegético prescritivo de bases rígidas, convertendo-se na norma-padrão para a cultura cinematográfica ao redor do planeta. O segundo capítulo discute a maneira pela qual esse mesmo modelo de cinema, movido por tendências do mercado e objetivando alcançar um status de obra de arte, absorve inovações estéticas advindas justamente de movimentos cinematográficos contrários à sua norma estética sem, contudo, alterar suas bases. A segunda parte está dividida em dois capítulos voltados às interpretações dos filmes. O terceiro capítulo aborda o caráter autoral e transgressor na filmografia de Cronenberg em relação ao cinema padrão a partir da problemática do embate entre controle técnico e espontaneidade na criação artística. A hipótese interpretativa centra-se no argumento de que Mistérios e paixões apropria-se da defesa de Burroughs acerca da intoxicação como um mecanismo de subversão de convenções artísticas para forjar uma estrutura de narrativa fílmica que inverte a oposição entre as categorias de alucinação e sobriedade. Como resultado, a inversão dessas valências converte a alucinação em procedimento narrativo modulado justamente por fórmulas e convenções do cinema padrão de Hollywood. O quarto capítulo investiga como a tensão entre controle técnico e liberdade criativa engendra em Cidade de Deus uma nova forma de realismo fílmico contemporâneo em que estéticas e procedimentos cinematográficos historicamente revolucionários são absorvidos pela maquinaria do cinema dominante. Essa tese é discutida a partir de uma leitura cerrada de algumas cenas do filme que evidenciam a fabricação de uma espontaneidade programada, na qual a cinematografia clássica é utilizada para recompor um imaginário da favela com ecos do sertão do Cinema Novo. A discussão assinala ainda como, em sua estruturação narrativa e estilística, Cidade de Deus acomoda uma representação vanguardista da criminalidade e violência juntamente com uma estética padrão de cinema e televisão, apagando qualquer traço de tensão histórica entre ambas. O resultado das interpretações aponta para o fato de que, nos dois filmes, a força do ímpeto criativo, expresso por meio do acaso, aleatoriedade e improviso, é incorporada pelo idioma tecnicamente controlado do cinema, não apenas perdendo seu poder desestabilizador, mas também reduzindo esse ímpeto a mero dispositivo com função estilística / Abstract: The culture industry, a central expression of the capitalistic system, operates through a logic that incorporates and conciliates antagonistic aesthetic expressions by emulating a dialectic tension akin to artworks. Cinema, given its industrial nature, stands out as one of the domains of culture industry to achieve the highest level of sophistication and technical control, establishing stable aesthetic-narrative patterns followed by not only the so-called mainstream films (produced by Hollywood film industry) but also by those labelled as independent. Thus taking into account the argument that films produced out of the mainstream production system are more likely to break with and subvert the hegemony of the technical controlled language of mainstream cinema, the objective of this dissertation is scrutinize the films Naked lunch [David Cronenberg, Canadá, 1991] e City of God [Cidade de Deus, Fernando Meirelles, Brasil, 2002], in order to verify how the tension between the cinematic protocols of mainstream cinema and the artistic expressions that operate against it is established. The first part of this work is divided into two correlated chapters which aim at discussing how the aesthetic-narrative conventions of mainstream Hollywood cinema particularly epitomize the technical controlled language of culture industry in general. Chapter one investigates the procedures upon which the bulk of the mainstream cinema visual protocols (frame composition, montage, sound-system, etc.) set up a stable prescriptive diegetic framework which ends up being the parameter for cinematic culture worldwide. Chapter two discusses the way in which the very type of cinema, triggered by marketing tendencies and aiming to reach the same status of artwork, absorbs aesthetic innovations engendered by cinematic movements contrarious to its aesthetic norms without altering its rigid aesthetic principals. The second part is divided into two chapters devoted to the interpretations of both films. The third chapter focuses on Cronenberg's status as an auteur filmmaker as well as his transgressions with regards to mainstream cinema taking into account the tension established between technical control and spontaneity in the artistic process. The interpretative hypothesis states that Naked Lunch incorporates Burroughs' well-known claim about the intoxication as a means to subvert artistic conventions in order to create a narrative film structure that inverts the opposition between the categories of hallucination and sobriety. The outcome of such inversion transforms the hallucinating experience into a narrative procedure shaped by mainstream cinematic conventions. Chapter four investigates how, in City of God, the tension between technical control and creative freedom results in a new type of film realism in which both aesthetic and cinematic protocols historically revolutionary is absorbed by the mainstream cinematic language. Such argument is discussed through a series of close readings of the film's scenes which evince the forging of a controlled spontaneity in which the classic cinematic conventions are employed to recreate an imagery of the favela that echoes the Cinema Novo portrait of wilderness. The discussion also points out how the narrative and stylistic structure of City of God adjust an avant-gardist depiction of criminality and violence alongside with both cinematic mainstream and television aesthetics, effacing any trace of historical tension between them. In a nutshell, these film interpretations conclude that the power of creative impulse, materialized in elements such as chance and improvisation, is incorporated by cinematic technical controlled language in a way that it does not only wanes their disruptive powers but converts them into sheer stylistic devices / Doutorado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Doutor em Teoria e História Literária