This thesis is an investigation into the ontological basis of pessimism. I develop a Nietzschean interpretive framework of pessimism, based on a distinction Nietzsche makes between two types of...Show moreThis thesis is an investigation into the ontological basis of pessimism. I develop a Nietzschean interpretive framework of pessimism, based on a distinction Nietzsche makes between two types of pessimism in The Gay Science 370: romantic and Dionysian pessimism. According to Nietzsche, this distinction is based on a dynamic articulated using the language of physiology. This dynamic is either expanding or degenerating. The thesis relates this distinction to Schopenhauer's and Nietzsche's notions of a 'world of appearance' to test if their ontology testifies to a romantic or Dionysian pessimism. Their ontologies are interpreted as either a transfiguration of romantic or Dionysian pessimism. I then develop a reading of Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy. I argue that Schopenhauer’s notion of representation or appearance is central to his metaphysics. I then interpret his punctum pruriens of philosophy as a priori pessimism permeating the whole of Schopenhauer’s philosophy resulting in an ethics of renunciation. I then lay out Nietzsche’s critique of Schopenhauer in the Genealogy, based on the aforementioned physiological dynamic. In the last chapter, I investigate Nietzsche’s world of appearance, characterized as semblance or ‘Schein’. I relate this to Nietzsche’s aesthetics and art as a transfiguration of Dionysian pessimism. However, the question is whether Nietzsche’s philosophy itself is the transfiguration of Dionysian pessimism. I then explain how Nietzsche does this by means of a project of life affirmation through the notions of perspectivism and the will to power.Show less
In this thesis, I will argue that the individual can resist the status quo, that is the existing state of affairs. A resistance through art. I do not interpret art as just a painting, but I use a...Show moreIn this thesis, I will argue that the individual can resist the status quo, that is the existing state of affairs. A resistance through art. I do not interpret art as just a painting, but I use a broader conceptualization in which all aspects of human life guided by aesthetics, that is guided by a demand for a creative and beautiful sensual existence, can be seen as art. I will explore resistance as an aesthetic practice by reading the twentieth-century philosophers Herbert Marcuse and Michel Foucault alongside one another. Both authors analysed how individuals are constituted within systems of power and how dominant structures of power can be resisted. I will argue that their theories are not only compatible with each other, but that they also complement one another. Taken together, both theories present the individual with the opportunity to resist the status quo through a form of aesthetic practices.Show less
Nietzsche's Revaluation of Schein offers an extensive developmental account of Nietzsche's usage of the term 'Schein', which is tranlsated as semblance. The term, it is argued, is revalued over the...Show moreNietzsche's Revaluation of Schein offers an extensive developmental account of Nietzsche's usage of the term 'Schein', which is tranlsated as semblance. The term, it is argued, is revalued over the course of three stages of Nietzsche's thinking on the conception of reality: first a metaphysics of art, then an aesthetic idealism and finally an aesthetic perspectivism. These three stages, it is further argued, represent three different attempts at life-affirmation.Show less
This thesis is a contribution to the debate about the relation between art and politics. I argue that art is political insofar as it is transformative, but that any further political determination...Show moreThis thesis is a contribution to the debate about the relation between art and politics. I argue that art is political insofar as it is transformative, but that any further political determination exceeds the bounds of the essence of art. Aesthetic art does not serve any specific political agenda as its reorganizational effect is unpredictable and dispersive. This does not exclude that art can also be an ordinary political tool when engaged with non-aesthetically, activist art being an example of art with a high probability of affording such an engagement. As such, activist art – being merely a (more elaborate) form of propaganda – does not do justice to the specialness of art. I will conclude by submitting that aesthetic art is a strange political tool as it aids in forming our aesthetic sense – thereby affording us to unveil our being organized in the world and facilitating general emancipation.Show less
This project explores the relation between 20th century Italian Fascist ideology and aesthetics, investigating the influence of the latter in the development of the former. To this end relevant...Show moreThis project explores the relation between 20th century Italian Fascist ideology and aesthetics, investigating the influence of the latter in the development of the former. To this end relevant literature, speeches, manifestos, and figures are consulted . I contend that aesthetics held a significant role, directly affecting the formation and development of Fascist ideology. However, I further argue that aesthetics was not the nature of Fascism, only an important tool. Socio-political developments lead to my conclusion that aesthetics was a significant component of Fascism which imploded under political pressures in the 1930’s, becoming subservient to an ideological component best interpreted as a civic religion. As such, I dismantle the intuitive notion that aesthetics were simply reflective, with artists as coerced mouthpieces of a totalitarian regime. But I also dismantle the modern academic consensus that Fascism is inherently aesthetic – a politics of spectacle. This project therefore provides a theory on the relation of aesthetics and Fascist ideology, further illuminating the nature of Fascism and outlining how politics can be aestheticized – plus the potential dangers of this.Show less
Textile had a major ceremonial role in the Inca empire, and is therefore often researched in Andean archaeology. However, the focus is often on either the production process of the cloth, or on the...Show moreTextile had a major ceremonial role in the Inca empire, and is therefore often researched in Andean archaeology. However, the focus is often on either the production process of the cloth, or on the symbolic value. These approaches are rarely combined. This research focusses on the clothing of five Inca Capacocha mummies: The three individuals from mount Llullaillaco, the young boy from mount El Plomo, and the female adolescent from mount Ampato. The connection between the technology and the meaning of the woven garments is investigated through literature analysis. Technology and style meet in the structure of the textile, as the design is embedded in and part of the woven fabric itself, and the completeness of the structure can be considered a stylistic feature. The two aspects also meet in what the designs depict. These are abstract patterns that represent symmetry, repetitions, contrasts and inversions, all concepts that are found back in Inca socio-political systems, ideology, and the actual structure of woven cloth. Finally, technology meets symbology in the artisans, the people who infuse the raw material with meaning through the process of production. Their social identity and their investment of labour and time gives the textile its value and prestigious status. Treating textile as the unity that it is, brings us one step closer to understanding the people involved in the production and consumption of these goods. When approached holistically, textile holds the potential to inform us on culturally specific ideas, preferences, and values within a society, through the messages that it carries within both its structure and symbols.Show less
The poetry of the Afghan Taliban offers an interesting angle to look at the organization. It shows that aesthetics are a relevant way to observe political organizations in order to discover things...Show moreThe poetry of the Afghan Taliban offers an interesting angle to look at the organization. It shows that aesthetics are a relevant way to observe political organizations in order to discover things that would have remained undiscovered by other research.Show less
In her book-length works "i is a long memoried woman" and “Picasso, I Want My Face Back,” the Guyanese-British poet Grace Nichols uses poetry to give a voice to a particular woman in history. The...Show moreIn her book-length works "i is a long memoried woman" and “Picasso, I Want My Face Back,” the Guyanese-British poet Grace Nichols uses poetry to give a voice to a particular woman in history. The lyrical subjects speaking in these works, an unnamed enslaved woman and the artist Dora Maar, respectively, bear witness to the past injustices they have endured. Through close reading, I show that both testimonial accounts address not only the historical violence suffered by these women but also the epistemic violence perpetrated by a modernist representation of them in writing and in painting. This epistemic violence presents them as non-agents, in crisis and as victims. I argue that at the heart of Nichols’ two testimonial projects lies an ethics of agency which not only seeks to make these particular women’s voices heard, but which also presents a mode of writing that demonstrates their agency as an inspiration for future women’s voices.Show less
A study of the 2016 movement against the "Loi Tavail" in France through the lenses of aesthetics and geography. This works tries to shed light on the prefigurative politics of the anticapitalist...Show moreA study of the 2016 movement against the "Loi Tavail" in France through the lenses of aesthetics and geography. This works tries to shed light on the prefigurative politics of the anticapitalist movement.Show less
This paper sets out to investigate the interpretations of contemporary Chinese art within the international art context. In this sense the paper aims to highlight whether, and how, such...Show moreThis paper sets out to investigate the interpretations of contemporary Chinese art within the international art context. In this sense the paper aims to highlight whether, and how, such interpretations reflects latent assumptions about the positional superiority of western academic practices and by extension western practices. Concurrently the paper also sets to highlight the potential limitations of contemporary art practices both within Chinese, but also, broader international contexts.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis examines the relationship between Nietzschean Aesthetics and the writings signed under the names of Pessoa's major heteronyms. It analyzes Nietzsche and Pessoa's treatment of philosophy...Show moreThis thesis examines the relationship between Nietzschean Aesthetics and the writings signed under the names of Pessoa's major heteronyms. It analyzes Nietzsche and Pessoa's treatment of philosophy and the aesthetic and dramatic manner in which they write it. I argue that common to the texts by both writers, particularly in Pessoa's case, his tentatively titled 'Fictions of the Interlude', lies a tension between aesthetic, if not ironic, distancing and earnest formative discourse.Show less
