This thesis critiques the notion of development based on a philosophy of Being. Development, and learning, can only occur within Becoming. Inspired by Nietzsche and Deleuze’s project of...Show moreThis thesis critiques the notion of development based on a philosophy of Being. Development, and learning, can only occur within Becoming. Inspired by Nietzsche and Deleuze’s project of overthrowing Platonism, it is shown that transcendental principles explain the conditioning of reason, not its generation. To explain the process of genesis (of reason) we have to understand the principles that make order out of the chaos of life. My main hypothesis is that development is a process of the embodiment of differences, as a process of becoming. And learning is the process of encountering and internalising differences through involuntary memory and pure thought. Conditioning, on the contrary, is a process that reduces development and thought to functions in service of a final state, an Ideal, and therefore obstructs development. The process of development is a process of individuation where essences of becoming, grounded on an eternal return of difference, become internalised and increase someone’s power to resonate with the World. The production of a subject, however, is problematic because it is the result of conditioning, the internalisation of general identities (the symbolic order) in reaction to overpowering negative tensions. Development has its spiritual equivalent in learning and pure thought. Conditioning stops thought, it allows access to a desired feeling against the condition that someone accepts a certain state, or fact, without question. Because of this, conditioning always produces the unfortunate side-effect of anxiety, since the assumed truths lack any grounding in univocity.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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Slow cinema benaderd als een subjectieve, in plaats van een realistische filmstijl, aan de hand van Tijdservaring en Hechting, middels fenomenologie benaderd.
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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In veel van Franz Kafka's verhalen vervullen dieren een centrale rol, waar pas sinds recente jaren in toenemende mate vanuit de academische wereld nadrukkelijk aandacht aan wordt besteed. Hoewel de...Show moreIn veel van Franz Kafka's verhalen vervullen dieren een centrale rol, waar pas sinds recente jaren in toenemende mate vanuit de academische wereld nadrukkelijk aandacht aan wordt besteed. Hoewel de verhalen die hij vroeg in zijn leven schreef nog expliciet een onderscheid tussen mens en dier onder de loep nemen, lijken de verhalen die hij later schreef juist op zoek te gaan naar een overeenkomst, of een gedeelde dimensie tussen mens en dier. Aan de hand van het becoming-animal begrip van Gilles Deleuze en Félix Guattari en het creaturely life van Eric N. Santner neem ik Kafka's "Onderzoekingen van een hond" en "Josefine de zangeres, of het muizenvolk" onder de loep.Show less
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the social composition of the mechanical devices portrayed in E. M. Forster’s novel The Machine Stops and of Franz Kafka’s In der Strafkolonie and how...Show moreThe purpose of this study is to demonstrate the social composition of the mechanical devices portrayed in E. M. Forster’s novel The Machine Stops and of Franz Kafka’s In der Strafkolonie and how this can be effectively used in order to interpret their imminent implosion within the stories. Beyond providing allegorical expressions for the destruction of Forster’s and Kafka’s machines, I will confront these devices with scholarly literature that highlight the social aspect of the machinic concept and, simultaneously, propose its transcendental dimension that exceeds its material structure and expands within social fields. Thus, the machines within Forster’s and Kafka’s stories are not merely operational structures or tools, but social entities with affective propositions.Show less
This thesis examines different types of ethical singularity which can be read in the novel the Waves by Virginia Woolf. Its focus is on the interpretations by Maurice Blanchot and Gilles Deleuze of...Show moreThis thesis examines different types of ethical singularity which can be read in the novel the Waves by Virginia Woolf. Its focus is on the interpretations by Maurice Blanchot and Gilles Deleuze of this novel. Both Blanchot and Deleuze read their version of ethical singularity in the Waves, in this thesis I will present their views and confront them to my own reading of ethical singularity in the novel. Blanchot understands ethical singularity from a transcendent perspective and Deleuze within a framework of immanence. It is peculiar to see that their different readings can be defended with evidence from the same novel, and their different strategies make for an interesting comparison. I will discover if the novel complies with either of these readings, or if it takes up a position of its own. I will argue that both Blanchot’s transcendentaltist approach and Deleuze’s immanentist approach provide justified insights into the Waves but that the novel exemplifies a different account of ethical singularity which combines and exceeds both.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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In the The Waves (1931) Virginia Woolf is approaching the possibilities of true knowledge in fiction. She does so both on the level of content and form. Bernard, one of the novel’s speakers, has an...Show moreIn the The Waves (1931) Virginia Woolf is approaching the possibilities of true knowledge in fiction. She does so both on the level of content and form. Bernard, one of the novel’s speakers, has an epiphany while shaving as a middle-aged man. He discovers that time has changed. Time no longer indicates the possibility of the future, but rather the missed possibilities of the past. This new experience of time results in Bernard losing his urge to describe the world. Instead Bernard attempts a different mode of narration in order to communicate and grasp his new experience of life. Bernard’s problem with representation is also Woolf’s problem. The Waves is similarly qua its form an experimental piece of fiction that is following the rhythm of the sea rather than a traditional plot structure. By doing so Woolf is posing the same questions to fiction as Bernard: How is it possible to describe the world objectively? The thesis is investigating this question by extensively using Ann Banfield’s book The Phantom Table (2000).Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis researches a Sanskrit law code called the Manusmrti or Manava Dharmasastra, translated in English as "The Laws of Manu". Through a critical analysis of the translations and...Show moreThis thesis researches a Sanskrit law code called the Manusmrti or Manava Dharmasastra, translated in English as "The Laws of Manu". Through a critical analysis of the translations and interpretations of Indologists Wendy Doniger and Patrick Olivelle, it will be argued that the current interpretations of the Manusmrti are starkly Western and prove a continuation of a discourse initiated in British colonial India. This discourse entails a framework of Western law and law code. The Manusmrti, however, is concerned with the Sanskrit concept of "dharma". With the help of the translation theories of Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida it will be argued that "dharma" is a concept very distinct from the Western "law" and proves untranslatable. Furthermore, this thesis proposes a reading for the Manusmrti different from the current Western framework of law. The proposed new interpretation is based upon the concept of "aphorism" as described by Friedrich Nietzsche. To elucidate the differences in philosophy between the current interpretations and the interpretation proposed in this thesis, the theories of Gilles Deleuze and Benedictus Spinoza will be deployed. Their ideas will help to show that the proposed interpretation will ultimately entail another, more productive world-view for the Manusmrti and the conceptualisation of its key term "dharma".Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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What makes it possible to turn science, a field that is supposedly grounded in fact and objectivity, into a topic that untrained readers can engage with and enjoy? Connecting science with art,...Show moreWhat makes it possible to turn science, a field that is supposedly grounded in fact and objectivity, into a topic that untrained readers can engage with and enjoy? Connecting science with art, popular science writing relies heavily on the evocation of affect as a rhetorical strategy. In works that are written for children, and not intended as textbooks, creating an affective bond with the work is necessary in order to entice a child to voluntarily engage with the object outside the classroom. I have investigated Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles’s Horrible Science series (1997-present) as a case study, as the long-lasting international success of these works indicates the effectiveness of their rhetorical strategies. The ways in which the authors attempt to evoke an affective response ranges from the direct evocation of positive affects such as enthusiasm, to employing negative affect such as disgust. Such affective responses are an effective way to mark reading the book as different from engaging with knowledge in the classroom, which in its turn is marked as tedious and dull. The affect theories of Silvan Tomkins in psychology and Gilles Deleuze in philosophy might at first sight look dissimilar, but both make the distinction between positive and negative affects a centrepiece of their theories: Deleuze calls this ‘joy’ and ‘sadness’. The Horrible Science series problematises this distinction, as it employs the evocation of negative affects to strengthen the bond with the reader, a method that at first sight seems to be counterintuitive. Therefore, I will look at what defines whether an affect is considered positive or negative, and to what extent it is a rhetorically effective strategy to evoke what at first sight seems to be a negative affective response in the young reader.Show less
