Between Men English Literature And Male Homosocial Desire
01 Jan 2016-
About: The article was published on 2016-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 105 citations till now.
Citations
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Book•
20 Aug 2014
TL;DR: In this article, Now 1 1. Blackness: The Human 17 2. Bare Life: The Flesh 33 3. Assemblages: Articulation 46 4. Racism: Biopolitics 53 5. Law: Property 74 6. Depravation: Pornotropes 89 7. Deprivation: Hunger 113 8. Freedom: Soon 125 Notes 139 Bibliography 181 Index 205
Abstract: Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Now 1 1. Blackness: The Human 17 2. Bare Life: The Flesh 33 3. Assemblages: Articulation 46 4. Racism: Biopolitics 53 5. Law: Property 74 6. Depravation: Pornotropes 89 7. Deprivation: Hunger 113 8. Freedom: Soon 125 Notes 139 Bibliography 181 Index 205
731 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: De Bruyckere's sculptures convey both the fluidity between the psychological inner life and the physical exteriority, as well as other existential concerns as discussed by the authors, as a way of magnifying and drawing attention to the edge of the human condition.
Abstract: This thesis examines, from an affective and art historical perspective, the sculptural practice of Berlinde De Bruyckere, positioning her fragmented figures in the context of contemporary art debates and exploring the role of the artist in changing the visual representation of the body fragment.
De Bruyckere’s fragmented figures, often inspired by actual events and problems, reflect on art, as well as on what transcends it, in order to highlight deeper issues within humanity. Therefore, I argue that through the capacity of the body fragment, as a way of magnifying and drawing attention to the edge of the human condition, Berlinde De Bruyckere’s sculptures convey both the fluidity between the psychological inner life and the physical exteriority, as well as other existential concerns.
By looking closely at De Bruyckere’s artwork from 2004-2013, this research shows how the viewers’ reception of the body fragments presented in De Bruyckere’s sculptures, is particularly related to an embodied form of perception, evoking a multitude of physical and emotional reactions. De Bruyckere’s representations of the body as vulnerable and fragmented, engage the spectator through abjection as well as through compassionate empathy, which in turn heightens intra-subjective awareness through affective knowledge. The investigation highlights the profound influence that feminist scholars and artists had in opening up the opportunities available to artists today. I will particularly focus upon feminism’s impact in shaping the representation and perception of the body, as well as the important, yet often forgotten, contribution of female artists in shaping contemporary art discourses through materiality.
76 citations
Dissertation•
01 Dec 2016
TL;DR: The authors examined the role of Protestant Christianity in movie depictions of the American South, focusing primarily on Hollywood's civil rights narratives, from the 1960s to the present, arguing that the perceived religious zealotry of many segregationists supports Hollywood's recurring presentation of the South as an irrational region, where religiosity and rabid racism cloud all judgment.
Abstract: This thesis examines the presentation and functions of Protestant Christianity in cinematic depictions of the American South, focusing primarily on Hollywood’s civil rights narratives, from the 1960s to the present. It argues that religion is an understudied signifier of the South on film, used to define the region’s presumed exceptionalism. Rooted in close textual analysis and primary research into the production and reception of over a dozen films, the thesis deploys methodologies drawn from history, film, literary, and cultural studies. It questions why scholars have seldom acknowledged the role of religion in popular, especially cinematic, constructions of the South, before providing detailed case studies of specific films that utilize southern religiosity to negotiate regional and national anxieties around race, class, and gender.
Though scholars have recognized the intersections of race, class, and gender evident in the media’s construction of southern white segregationist, this thesis contends that religion adds further interrogative value to existing analyses of civil rights cinema in particular, and of Hollywood’s representations of southern race, class, and gender identities more generally. The thesis argues that the perceived religious zealotry of many segregationists supports Hollywood’s recurring presentation of the South as an irrational region, where religiosity and rabid racism cloud all judgment.
The perceived ‘southernization’ of America through the culture wars of the late twentieth-century encouraged many Americans to reconsider the legacy of the civil rights era, a movement that was being concurrently reshaped in the popular imagination by Hollywood dramas such as Mississippi Burning, A Time to Kill, and Ghosts of Mississippi among many other films. Examining the presentation of both white and black Christianity in these films, the thesis illuminates how cinema has routinely fabricated a simplistic binary of good and evil that pits a noble, yet reductive and static, religious African American community against zealous white trash and fundamentalists operating on the margins of society. So often to blame for the incendiary racial violence that marks such movies, these white villains are often associated with fundamentalism, in both rhetoric and actions, enabling filmmakers to offer a clear culprit for the South’s, and therefore the nation’s, legacy of racial intolerance and violence.
67 citations
16 Dec 2016
TL;DR: This paper investigated attitudes to happiness in the early modern period and literary representations of positive emotion, and found that people accommodated themselves to the conditions of their lives by searching for happiness through forming meaningful personal relationships.
Abstract: This thesis investigates attitudes to happiness in the early modern period and literary representations of positive emotion. It is situated methodologically at the nexus of a number of interconnected approaches. Against a background of body studies and Freudian psychology, it engages with current research in the history of the emotions and work being done in the field of positive psychology. The insights provided by positive psychology into the power of positive emotions, such as optimism, resilience and emotional intelligence, open up a way to access the originality of Shakespeare’s understanding of the emotions and their power in people’s lives. An interdisciplinary approach provides a methodology that can incorporate analysis of imaginative and non-fiction texts with research into the historical, cultural, religious and political influences that shaped how people might have thought and felt about happiness. It considers the extent to which people could be happy in the context of religious beliefs that emphasised the fallen nature of man. As a result of increasing political absolutism and the failure of political theory to provide for societal or personal happiness, people engaged in a process of myth making. They imagined utopian societies, and they imposed their beliefs in the possibility of discovering a lost paradise on the new worlds they discovered in the Americas. More realistically, they accommodated themselves to the conditions of their lives by searching for happiness through forming meaningful personal relationships. Ethical theories about happiness formulated by Aristotle in The Nicomachean Ethics were influential, but came into conflict with theology, especially Augustine’s emphasis on original sin. Aquinas attempted to reconcile philosophy with theology, offering hope that a limited form of happiness might be found in this life. Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas were formative influences on the ways in which Shakespeare dramatizes the search for happiness in his comedies, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. He reflects the influence of Aristotle in his representation and evaluation of different types of happiness in the comedies. He also creates fallen political and religious worlds in which his characters must grapple with adversity. Aristotle believed that happiness was dependent on living in a benign political state. Living in fallen worlds, some of Shakespeare’s characters demonstrate an aspect of happiness that Aristotle did not address, that it is a condition that can be achieved through adversity.
54 citations
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Bures and Matthew as discussed by the authors investigated the role of friendship in the circle around the writer Ernst Junger (1895-1998) and found that these needs and anxieties were closely bound up with the radical conservative critique of modernity, including its elitism, ultranationalism and disdain for mass society and mass culture.
Abstract: Author(s): Bures, Eliah Matthew | Advisor(s): Jay, Martin E | Abstract: This dissertation argues that ideas and experiences of friendship were central to the thinking of German radical conservatives in the twentieth century, from the pre-WWI years to the emergence, beginning in the 1970s, of the New RightI approach this issue by examining the role of friendship in the circle around the writer Ernst Junger (1895-1998) Like many in his generation, Junger's youthful alienation from a "cold" bourgeois society was felt via a contrast to the intimacy of personal friendship A WWI soldier, Junger penned memoirs of the trenches that revealed similar desires for mutual understanding, glorifying wartime comradeship as a bond deeper than words and a return to the "tacit accord" that supposedly marked traditional communities After 1933, Junger turned from a right-wing opponent of democracy into a voice of "spiritual resistance" to the Nazi regime For Junger and other non-Nazi Germans, friendship was a crucial space of candid communication and nonconformity to the norms of the Third Reich Junger's writings from these years also issued coded signals to sympathetic readers to keep alive conservative values for a post-Nazi future After WWII, Junger became one of Germany's most controversial figures, a critic of modernity who was at the center of a friendship network that joined the veterans and heirs of Weimar's radical right into a counterculture opposed to what they believed was the decadence of German life In Junger's later works, he portrayed friendship as the last true site of community, an idea that shaped the elitist attitudes of new members of the German right I use published texts and letters alongside new archival material to make two broad contributions First, by investigating friendship among twentieth-century German radical conservatives, I bring to light the important work that friendship has done for those facing quintessentially modern problems like alienation and social fragmentation I argue that the work of friendship for figures like Ernst Junger has primarily been the provision of needs for affirmation, communication, and mutual understanding Recognizing these needs helps us see that anxieties about being understood, longings for fellowship, and concerns for the quality of interpersonal relationships have often underlain radical conservatism's explicit ideas about, say, the virtues of "organic" community or the perils of democratic leveling I show how these needs and anxieties were closely bound up with the radical conservative critique of modernity, including its elitism, ultra-nationalism, and disdain for mass society and mass culture It is through friendship, I argue, that German radical conservatives have understood the shortcomings of modern life and envisioned ways to overcome or cope with modernityMy second contribution is methodological The study of friendship, I argue, can uncover emotional needs and intimate states of mind that are otherwise difficult for the historian to bring to light Examining friendship among twentieth-century radical conservatives provides fundamental insights into motives, helping us understand why certain emotional demands were felt at certain moments in German history, and how these emotions in turn drove the decision for particular ideological positions Asking these questions of the German radical right offers a fresh angle on a group usually dealt with through a reductive focus on cultural pathologies and formal ideology Taking Ernst Junger and his many friends and interlocutors as a case study, I provide a rich biographical historicization of German radical conservative thinking as it developed over multiple stages throughout the twentieth century Stressing recurring needs for communication and mutual understanding, I locate new motives for radical conservative ideas
53 citations
References
More filters
Book•
20 Aug 2014
TL;DR: In this article, Now 1 1. Blackness: The Human 17 2. Bare Life: The Flesh 33 3. Assemblages: Articulation 46 4. Racism: Biopolitics 53 5. Law: Property 74 6. Depravation: Pornotropes 89 7. Deprivation: Hunger 113 8. Freedom: Soon 125 Notes 139 Bibliography 181 Index 205
Abstract: Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Now 1 1. Blackness: The Human 17 2. Bare Life: The Flesh 33 3. Assemblages: Articulation 46 4. Racism: Biopolitics 53 5. Law: Property 74 6. Depravation: Pornotropes 89 7. Deprivation: Hunger 113 8. Freedom: Soon 125 Notes 139 Bibliography 181 Index 205
731 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: De Bruyckere's sculptures convey both the fluidity between the psychological inner life and the physical exteriority, as well as other existential concerns as discussed by the authors, as a way of magnifying and drawing attention to the edge of the human condition.
Abstract: This thesis examines, from an affective and art historical perspective, the sculptural practice of Berlinde De Bruyckere, positioning her fragmented figures in the context of contemporary art debates and exploring the role of the artist in changing the visual representation of the body fragment.
De Bruyckere’s fragmented figures, often inspired by actual events and problems, reflect on art, as well as on what transcends it, in order to highlight deeper issues within humanity. Therefore, I argue that through the capacity of the body fragment, as a way of magnifying and drawing attention to the edge of the human condition, Berlinde De Bruyckere’s sculptures convey both the fluidity between the psychological inner life and the physical exteriority, as well as other existential concerns.
By looking closely at De Bruyckere’s artwork from 2004-2013, this research shows how the viewers’ reception of the body fragments presented in De Bruyckere’s sculptures, is particularly related to an embodied form of perception, evoking a multitude of physical and emotional reactions. De Bruyckere’s representations of the body as vulnerable and fragmented, engage the spectator through abjection as well as through compassionate empathy, which in turn heightens intra-subjective awareness through affective knowledge. The investigation highlights the profound influence that feminist scholars and artists had in opening up the opportunities available to artists today. I will particularly focus upon feminism’s impact in shaping the representation and perception of the body, as well as the important, yet often forgotten, contribution of female artists in shaping contemporary art discourses through materiality.
76 citations
Dissertation•
01 Dec 2016
TL;DR: The authors examined the role of Protestant Christianity in movie depictions of the American South, focusing primarily on Hollywood's civil rights narratives, from the 1960s to the present, arguing that the perceived religious zealotry of many segregationists supports Hollywood's recurring presentation of the South as an irrational region, where religiosity and rabid racism cloud all judgment.
Abstract: This thesis examines the presentation and functions of Protestant Christianity in cinematic depictions of the American South, focusing primarily on Hollywood’s civil rights narratives, from the 1960s to the present. It argues that religion is an understudied signifier of the South on film, used to define the region’s presumed exceptionalism. Rooted in close textual analysis and primary research into the production and reception of over a dozen films, the thesis deploys methodologies drawn from history, film, literary, and cultural studies. It questions why scholars have seldom acknowledged the role of religion in popular, especially cinematic, constructions of the South, before providing detailed case studies of specific films that utilize southern religiosity to negotiate regional and national anxieties around race, class, and gender.
Though scholars have recognized the intersections of race, class, and gender evident in the media’s construction of southern white segregationist, this thesis contends that religion adds further interrogative value to existing analyses of civil rights cinema in particular, and of Hollywood’s representations of southern race, class, and gender identities more generally. The thesis argues that the perceived religious zealotry of many segregationists supports Hollywood’s recurring presentation of the South as an irrational region, where religiosity and rabid racism cloud all judgment.
The perceived ‘southernization’ of America through the culture wars of the late twentieth-century encouraged many Americans to reconsider the legacy of the civil rights era, a movement that was being concurrently reshaped in the popular imagination by Hollywood dramas such as Mississippi Burning, A Time to Kill, and Ghosts of Mississippi among many other films. Examining the presentation of both white and black Christianity in these films, the thesis illuminates how cinema has routinely fabricated a simplistic binary of good and evil that pits a noble, yet reductive and static, religious African American community against zealous white trash and fundamentalists operating on the margins of society. So often to blame for the incendiary racial violence that marks such movies, these white villains are often associated with fundamentalism, in both rhetoric and actions, enabling filmmakers to offer a clear culprit for the South’s, and therefore the nation’s, legacy of racial intolerance and violence.
67 citations
16 Dec 2016
TL;DR: This paper investigated attitudes to happiness in the early modern period and literary representations of positive emotion, and found that people accommodated themselves to the conditions of their lives by searching for happiness through forming meaningful personal relationships.
Abstract: This thesis investigates attitudes to happiness in the early modern period and literary representations of positive emotion. It is situated methodologically at the nexus of a number of interconnected approaches. Against a background of body studies and Freudian psychology, it engages with current research in the history of the emotions and work being done in the field of positive psychology. The insights provided by positive psychology into the power of positive emotions, such as optimism, resilience and emotional intelligence, open up a way to access the originality of Shakespeare’s understanding of the emotions and their power in people’s lives. An interdisciplinary approach provides a methodology that can incorporate analysis of imaginative and non-fiction texts with research into the historical, cultural, religious and political influences that shaped how people might have thought and felt about happiness. It considers the extent to which people could be happy in the context of religious beliefs that emphasised the fallen nature of man. As a result of increasing political absolutism and the failure of political theory to provide for societal or personal happiness, people engaged in a process of myth making. They imagined utopian societies, and they imposed their beliefs in the possibility of discovering a lost paradise on the new worlds they discovered in the Americas. More realistically, they accommodated themselves to the conditions of their lives by searching for happiness through forming meaningful personal relationships. Ethical theories about happiness formulated by Aristotle in The Nicomachean Ethics were influential, but came into conflict with theology, especially Augustine’s emphasis on original sin. Aquinas attempted to reconcile philosophy with theology, offering hope that a limited form of happiness might be found in this life. Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas were formative influences on the ways in which Shakespeare dramatizes the search for happiness in his comedies, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. He reflects the influence of Aristotle in his representation and evaluation of different types of happiness in the comedies. He also creates fallen political and religious worlds in which his characters must grapple with adversity. Aristotle believed that happiness was dependent on living in a benign political state. Living in fallen worlds, some of Shakespeare’s characters demonstrate an aspect of happiness that Aristotle did not address, that it is a condition that can be achieved through adversity.
54 citations
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Bures and Matthew as discussed by the authors investigated the role of friendship in the circle around the writer Ernst Junger (1895-1998) and found that these needs and anxieties were closely bound up with the radical conservative critique of modernity, including its elitism, ultranationalism and disdain for mass society and mass culture.
Abstract: Author(s): Bures, Eliah Matthew | Advisor(s): Jay, Martin E | Abstract: This dissertation argues that ideas and experiences of friendship were central to the thinking of German radical conservatives in the twentieth century, from the pre-WWI years to the emergence, beginning in the 1970s, of the New RightI approach this issue by examining the role of friendship in the circle around the writer Ernst Junger (1895-1998) Like many in his generation, Junger's youthful alienation from a "cold" bourgeois society was felt via a contrast to the intimacy of personal friendship A WWI soldier, Junger penned memoirs of the trenches that revealed similar desires for mutual understanding, glorifying wartime comradeship as a bond deeper than words and a return to the "tacit accord" that supposedly marked traditional communities After 1933, Junger turned from a right-wing opponent of democracy into a voice of "spiritual resistance" to the Nazi regime For Junger and other non-Nazi Germans, friendship was a crucial space of candid communication and nonconformity to the norms of the Third Reich Junger's writings from these years also issued coded signals to sympathetic readers to keep alive conservative values for a post-Nazi future After WWII, Junger became one of Germany's most controversial figures, a critic of modernity who was at the center of a friendship network that joined the veterans and heirs of Weimar's radical right into a counterculture opposed to what they believed was the decadence of German life In Junger's later works, he portrayed friendship as the last true site of community, an idea that shaped the elitist attitudes of new members of the German right I use published texts and letters alongside new archival material to make two broad contributions First, by investigating friendship among twentieth-century German radical conservatives, I bring to light the important work that friendship has done for those facing quintessentially modern problems like alienation and social fragmentation I argue that the work of friendship for figures like Ernst Junger has primarily been the provision of needs for affirmation, communication, and mutual understanding Recognizing these needs helps us see that anxieties about being understood, longings for fellowship, and concerns for the quality of interpersonal relationships have often underlain radical conservatism's explicit ideas about, say, the virtues of "organic" community or the perils of democratic leveling I show how these needs and anxieties were closely bound up with the radical conservative critique of modernity, including its elitism, ultra-nationalism, and disdain for mass society and mass culture It is through friendship, I argue, that German radical conservatives have understood the shortcomings of modern life and envisioned ways to overcome or cope with modernityMy second contribution is methodological The study of friendship, I argue, can uncover emotional needs and intimate states of mind that are otherwise difficult for the historian to bring to light Examining friendship among twentieth-century radical conservatives provides fundamental insights into motives, helping us understand why certain emotional demands were felt at certain moments in German history, and how these emotions in turn drove the decision for particular ideological positions Asking these questions of the German radical right offers a fresh angle on a group usually dealt with through a reductive focus on cultural pathologies and formal ideology Taking Ernst Junger and his many friends and interlocutors as a case study, I provide a rich biographical historicization of German radical conservative thinking as it developed over multiple stages throughout the twentieth century Stressing recurring needs for communication and mutual understanding, I locate new motives for radical conservative ideas
53 citations