|
| |
|
|
On Changing and Differing Types of Bodies and Their Relationships to Their Souls or/and Minds in Western Culture
Jakešová, Markéta ; Ritter, Martin (advisor) ; Morin, Marie-Eve (referee) ; Weidtmann, Niels (referee)
On Changing and Differing Types of Bodies and Their Relationships to Their Souls or/and Minds in Western Culture Markéta Jakešová Abstract: On Changing and Differing Types of Bodies and Their Relationships to Their Souls or/and Minds in Western Culture is a collection of loosely connected chapters that answer the question of how to make Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology more inclusive. The first chapter, devoted to Jean-Luc Nancy, serves as an introduction to the topic of alternative embodiments and the question of the soul in the body. In the following chapters, Merleau-Ponty is confronted with selected authors associated with Actor-Network Theory (ANT). First, the comparison with Bruno Latour shows that the integrity of all beings and entities, including the most privileged humans, is not to be taken for granted. The pathologies in the Phenomenology of Perception and Annemarie Mol's depiction (enactment) of atherosclerosis are then used as an analogy for the inferior status of women in our society, while the fourth chapter shows the empowerment that can grow out of it through an interpretation of Elfriede Jelinek's novel The Piano Teacher. The last two chapters focus on unconventional modes of intersubjectivity and kinships as ways of being in the world. The confrontation with Eduardo Viveiros de Castro...
|
|
|
What can literature do? An analysis of the power of literature and literary language
Cheng, Chau Fung ; Maesschalck, Marc (advisor) ; Goddard, Jean-Christophe (referee) ; Lisse, Michel (referee)
This thesis aims to unpack the power and potential of literature, examining a historic 1964 debate between prominent figures in literature and philosophy (Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jorge Semprun, Jean Ricardou, Jean-Pierre Faye, and Yves Berger). The study subsequently explores the pivotal distinction between ordinary and literary language, engaging with the perspectives of Maurice Blanchot and Merleau-Ponty to reveal the inherently dynamic nature of language and the power of literary language in revealing truth. The final stage of the study applies these insights to the pressing issue of hermeneutical injustice, proposing that literature can serve as a remedy for this form of injustice. Ultimately, this study contends that literature is not an insignificant player but possesses considerable potential to address and resolve societal issues. Keywords: literature; power of literature; 1964 debate; literary language; ordinary language; hermeneutical injustice; Simone de Beauvoir; Jean-Paul Sartre; Jean Ricardou; Maurice Blanchot; Maurice Merleau-Ponty
|
|
|
The Roundness of the Crystal
MOLÍKOVÁ, Veronika
The thesis uncovers latent relations binding Maurice Merleau-Ponty´s theory of perception and Gaston Bachelard´s theory of reverie. Through finding the common basis of both modes of experiencing the world - through outlining the interaction of the flesh and imagination whose purpose was to clarify Bachelard´s confused, nontransparent concept of r?verie - the thesis focuses on the works by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The brief interpretation aims to look at Munch´s work through the prism of Bachelard´s especially elemental oneiric pictures and follow their "crystallization" both in literary and fine arts line. Fundamental root system nourishing "the corpus of the explanation" becomes a dialectic of heights and precipices (it is treated in Bachelard´s books Air and dreams and Earth and Reveries of Will) whose tension, which is like an invisible stream, imprints the rhythm to whole Munch´s magnum opus. Thus, both the motive of vertigo and the mirror glint of the fear of fall, the motive of lust for disembodiment, release from the confinement of "metabolism", liberation from "incarnation of the subject" takes a relevant position in this vertical range. The final chapter then literally "completes the circle" by the insight of phenomenology of roundness. The phenomenon of a line becomes a relevant medium that sketches links of both halves of the thesis and through which a defence of vision as in essence performative act is constructed. The character of line acquires the value of a key unlocking possibility to apply the Bachelardian method to the art of visual type, uncovers implicit possibility of epiphany of oneiric pictures in fine arts - it shows, that painting is not spiritless flat dispassionate mimesis, but it contents affective invisible dimension.
|
|
|
Metafictional novels of the 30s and 40s in the Czech literature
SELNER, Ondřej
This doctoral thesis focuses on literary texts containing speech acts that are in literary history and theory usually known as self-reflexive. In the first part author attempts to find inspirations for self-reflexivity in a broader historical and cultural European context as well as its potential connections to modernism. Then it tries to find relations between these modernist tendencies and Czech literary production of the day. It also deals with different views of self-reflexivity in the Czech literary theory. After dealing with these perspectives and after analysis of their potential drawbacks, thesis then moves to an attempt to find a precise meaning of self-reflexivity with respect to the term itself. On that account it analyses reflexive philosophy of major philosophers of the 1st half of the 20th century - Edmund Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The analysis of relevant works of these philosophers dealing with reflexivity leads to the formulation of a thought-map that embodies evident parallels between self-reflexivity in literature and reflexivity in philosophy. In order to verify these parallels, thesis then focuses on interpretation of major texts of Czech literature that are usually considered to be prototypes of self-reflexive novels. These are works Hra doopravdy by Richard Weiner, Rozhraní by Václav Řezáč and Hlava umělce by Milada Součková.
|
|
|
Phenomenological Conception of Space
Luhanová, Eliška ; Kouba, Pavel (advisor) ; Novotný, Karel (referee) ; TASSIN, Étienne (referee)
of Ph.D. Thesis Phenomenological Conception of Space Eliška Luhanová The thesis focuses on the nature of experience which a perceiving self has with other beings and on the conditions which make such an encounter possible. It emphasises the role of the spatiality, which is seen as a defining characteristic of corporeal sensible beings. Broadly speaking, the work belongs to post-phenomenological philosophy. The Introduction summarises the main methodological principles of a phenomenological approach and presents post-phenomenology as a specific discourse which rejects the egocentrism typical of classical, especially Husserlian phenomenology. The exposition proper starts with an outline of a phenomenological theory of perception (Chapter I) and continues by offering an outline of the basic ontological characteristics of sensibly given entities, especially of their trans- empirical nature (Chapter II). The following chapter briefly treats some issues related to the nature of a phenomenal field, which is described as a structure of possible ways in which beings can manifest themselves (Chapter III). The subsequent chapters form the main core of the thesis. They deal with the spatial manner of being of entities which manifest themselves (Chapter IV) and of the self which experiences them (Chapter V). The...
|
guest ::
