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The discourse of conflict
Get PDFThis dissertation deals with two problems central to contemporary philosophy: the unacknowledged bias of structuralist theory towards linguistic signs and the lack of a coherent theorisation of social conflict. In order to address these conundrums, I reconcile Saussurean and Peircean semiotics and then use Ruthrof's corporeal pragmatics to break from the verbocentric idea of language as a closed system, showing instead that verbal meanings originate from the body, its senses and its imagination, as informed by the deixis of individual communities. With the transformation of linguistic semiotics into corporeality, Foucault's notion of discourse and the neglected category of discursive practice are then reworked to show how statements based on nonverbal signs might function discursively.
The culmination of the 1970s Northern Irish prison war in the events of the 1981 hunger strikes offers a study that unites the focus upon nonverbal discourses with the examination of conflict. In exploring the ways in which republican hunger strikers struggled for legitimacy with the prison authorities, I am able to show how previous notions of conflict, especially Lyotard's differend, are thrown into disrepute by a corporeal perspective recognising the intersemiotic and heterosemiotic character of communication. The availability of diverse semiotic media such as the visual, the haptic, the proximic, etc., offers positions in which conflicts may be regulated without ending in the stalemate that Lyotard describes. The division of semio-discursive phenomena into verbal and nonverbal elements, and the tracing of the effects that these elements have upon ideational and pragmatic planes of action, also reveal a variety of strategies related to conflict that are superposable upon other instances. As a result, the thesis suggests that the role of political violence in politics and the meanings associated with the taking of life can be approached from a new angle
The poetics of being
Get PDFThe aim of The Poetics of Being is to inquire into how the apperception of the Being of beings is produced. We will recognize this production not primarily in philosophy, but in a medium accessible to us all, theatre. Although the Romantic tradition of literary criticism from Herder to Bloom has noted that Shakespeare produces an exceptional sense of what is [true], so much so that he is said to create the impression of nature or life, no one has so far attempted to show how precisely Shakespeare affects this experience. Contrary to T. S. Eliot, who is unable to discern any kind of poetics in Shakespeare's plays, we have discovered an insistent and consistent pattern of inadequation, a kind of mismatch. The thesis argues, that the predominant tropes of inadequation are falsity, dissimilarity, nothing, indefinition, elision and substitution. We shall show that these figures of inadequation are the universal means by which Shakespeare, almost imperceptibly, compels the spectator to infer the apperception of what is [true].
On the basis of these tropes of inadequation the thesis makes the fundamental philosophical claim that the cognition of Being through non-Being is a negative form of what Heidegger calls the ontological difference. We call this the negative ontological difference. The thesis demonstrates that with the exception of some Pre-Socratic thinkers, Plato in the Sophist, the work of Pseudo-Dionysius, and the writings of Derrida, the bulk of the tradition of Western philosophy has argued Being in terms of positivities. While the thesis does not question the possibility of realizing the ontological difference in a positive fashion, as does Heidegger's philosophy of unconcealment, the thesis claims that the negative ontological difference, or ontological contradiction, is the more forceful process by which we become aware of what is [true]
Archi-texture: meditations on the mediations of dwelling
Get PDFThis thesis is an inter-disciplinary and inter- cultural exploration of home as understood as the place in which we usually live. Empirical research in an Australian suburb and an Indian town provide the fabric from which cultural studies engages with phenomenology to produce a design used to cut and style this exploration. Motivated by an interest in what threads contribute to the weave of contemporary household dwelling, this thesis revisits the two questions used by Heidegger to frame his essay 'Building Dwelling Thinking': What is it to dwell? and How does building belong to dwelling? It is an inquiry committed to its respondents as bearers and representatives of 'structures of feeling' circulating within the socio-cultural milieu or habitus in which they live and engage with the idea of 'home'. This inquiry offers an exploration of the chief constituent mediums of home which I call its 'archi-texture'. As such, it looks at location, physical and material attributes, domestic technology and household membership as framed by the presence or absence of a family. This thesis is almost certainly the only example of an empirically grounded examination of Heidegger?s ontological exposition of dwelling. Hence I position it as a meditation on the mediations of dwelling rather than a judgmental critique, although in no sense do I believe it to be either a dispassionate position nor an impartial digest of the research material
Reclaiming the Raven: Irish-Australian Memory in the Post Modern Moment
Get PDFThis thesis looks at the processes of memory, imagination and cultural development in a single family of Irish extraction. The line in question derives from a western Irish sept known as the Ui Fiachrach, whose symbol was that of the raven.
The first chapter deals with the origins of the Ui Fiachrach and the impossibility of reaching an “Ur text”. It also critiques the notion of culture, noting that cultural difference (often defined on terms such as ‘blood’) can be a source of conflict. Finally, the problematic nature of the term ‘authenticity’ was explored.
The second chapter is concerned with the politics of ethnographic representation and the uses of English and Gaelic as representational tools.
The third chapter focuses on the differend that existed up till the later part of the 20th century against oral cultures (including Irish culture) and the imagination, as opposed to the realist/positivist/social Darwinist paradigm.
The fourth chapter takes into account the notions of alterity and ambivalence: a brief history of prejudice against the Irish and the dilemma of preserving one’s culture versus fitting in.
The fifth chapter examined the source material gained from research which represents a core sample of my family’s collective memory. The limits of storytelling were delineated, and the motifs classified into themes.
The sixth chapter showed how there is considerable scope and play in the symbol of the raven, in stark contrast to stereotypes typified by Poe’s Raven. In such play is the potential to reclaim the raven as a positive symbol.
The seventh chapter looked at the common characteristics between the visual Irish imagination and the modern genre of magic realism. It also examined the internal dynamics of, and the potential for, continued cultural development into the 3rd millennium
Discourse, diegesis and the real: An integrative theory of meaning
No full textIntroduction
If there is one time and place to which I can allocate the origins of the concerns of this dissertation, it is the occurrence of a dialogue at Murdoch University between one of my students and myself over Saussure's definition of a signified as a concept. I chose an example from the medium film, specifically Andy Warhol's eight-hour uninterrupted shot of the Empire State Building in New York. (I did not claim to have seen it: conceptual art is always more fun to hear about than to experience.) The signified, at least the denotative signified, of this shot was, I argued, of the concept of the Empire State Building. Had I seen the film I might never have said this, but even so my rationalization of this view fell dead upon my own ears: of course the denotative signified of this shot was the accursed building itself, although connotatively it may, as the title suggests, hold all sorts of meanings about American imperialism and hubris in constructing such a monument to 'manifest destiny.' ..
Liminal performance
No full textMy thesis offers a description of a range of performative types which I have tentatively assembled under the heading of "Liminal Performance".
Typical liminal works are: in theatre, the hybridized performances of Robert Wilson's and Philip Glass' operatic "theatre of images", Einstein on the Beach, Pina Bausch's Tanztheater, the "synthetic fragments" of Heiner Muller's Hamletmachine, and the "social sculptures" of the Viennese Actionists; in film, the "painterly" aesthetics of Greenaway's Prospero's Books, transgressing borders with Wender's and Handke's Der Himmel iiber Berlin/Wings of Desire, the liminal politics of Derek Jarman's Edward II, and the limits of fragmentation in Von Triers's Europa/Zentropa\ and in music, the digitized performance of sampled music and the neo-gothic sound of Einsttirzende Neubauten and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.
In the absence of any effective critical tools with which to interpret such works, I survey traditional aesthetics and current critical theory, including the writings of Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, and Lyotard, for an appropriate analysis. For example, the notion of the sublime in its Kantian as well as in its most recent definition by Lyotard in Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime (1991), when tested against the phenomena of liminal performance demonstrates a certain inadequacy of even the latest critical equipment. In this particular case Lyotard's linguistic bias leaves us with the fundamental lacunae of an account of non-verbal signification.
Given the importance of corporeality in liminal performance, Lyotard's and a range of other critical tools need to be "retooled". From the perspective of liminal performance, the "linguistic turn" needs to be adjusted to allow for an intersemiotic analysis and hence for the prominence of the "body"
Imagination, reason and learning: Toward a pragmatic account of creative thinking
No full textThe principle theme of this thesis concerns the nature of the human cognitive process. Currently, the use of the computer metaphor to describe brain processes is ubiquitous. However, this is not an apt model to use when specifying what is going on in the brain. This is because, firstly, the complex and dynamic nature of neurological processes cannot be captured using the computer model of mind, and secondly, it cannot adequately account for cognitive capacities such as understanding, critical thinking, and creativity.
I have suggested that the application of the computer model in mainstream educative praxis may contribute to the teaching/learning dilemma in our classrooms. One major outcome of this dilemma is graduates who are unable to effectively and equitably participate in our everchanging and complex socioeconomic environment. Consequently, I have attempted to provide an alternative conceptual model of what may be happening when we cognize and learn.
To establish an empirical basis for my model, I have applied the insights from quantum theory to explain the unpredictable and intricate nature of neural responses to stimuli. This culminates in a model which characterizes the mind as being inherently creative. By synthesizing the main tenets of Peirce's theory of abduction with Lockwood's conception of the world-brain-mind interface, my model was able to give an explanation of how we may actualize our representations of the world in a particular cognitive event. This model, in a natural way, not only incorporates brain capacities like understanding, critical thinking and creativity, but also explains our logico-calculative learning. This model changes the way we should view cognitive processes and learning.
It implies that teaching strategies need to be implemented which enhance our students' inherent creativity. Indeed, data from researchers into creativity demonstrate the pragmatic successes that can be achieved when creative learning strategies are employed. If all educators encouraged and stimulated critical thinking and their students' natural curiosity, we may see a more tolerant and flexible world community
Towards a theory of absence: Subjectivity, desire and signification
No full textThis study is concerned with the epistemic and hermeneutic functions of absence, particularly within certain paradigms of post-structuralist theory. It argues a theory of absence in two ways: the significance of systems of absence to the theoretical issues of post-structuralism, in particular the works of Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva and Jacques Derrida; and the formation of a semiotics of absence.
The post-structuralist field (in its heterogeneity) is examined according to the ways in which subjectivity, discourse and desire can be seen to be based on principles of absence. The study argues that we can speak of a dialectization of absence, which produces primary absences (those absences divorced from any sense of presence), secondary absences (those absences which necessarily imply a binary presence), and non-absence (a register of presences). It is also noted that primary absences are not posited as transcendental signifiers, inserted in the place of the privileged presences (subjectivity, language, logos, etc.), but as demonstrations of the active processes of absence in the production of models of signification (which includes the formation of the subject, the actions of desire, and discursive practices). To this end subjectivity is seen as an absence based on sites of subjectivity/the subject as type; discourse is seen as a series of practices of absence, or at the very least as depending on absences for production and operation; and desire is seen as a motivational system of absences, that is, producing absences and being based on absence itself.
A semiotics of absence is devised in terms of two conceptual frames: that absence is vital to the understanding of semiotics as a critical model; and that semiotics can be developed to understand the operation of absence. This involves examining a number of feamres of semiotic theory in terms of absence (including the structure of the sign, the operation of codes, absence and signification, and the axes of metaphor and metonymy) as well as considering how semiotics operates as an interpretative model (the examples considered include the gaze and the scopic drive, absences in the textualisation of the body, absence and discursive practices)
Bureaucracy and Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory: 1900-1968
No full textFrom 1901 until 1968 the Commonwealth bureaucracy essentially ran the Northern Territory. The way the Territory was administered was dictated by the remoteness of the Government and the difficulty in communications, both within and outside of the Territory. This power facilitated a situation which pitted the dominant colonists and bureaucracy against the Aboriginal peoples in a conflict over scarce resources. The pastoralists required water for the stock; the Aboriginal Peoples required water to survive; the pastoralists and the miners needed cheap labour. Various methods were employed to discipline the People on the pastoral properties—provide ration stations designed to attracted the People from the wild and seduce them into a sedentary lifestyle; harassment by the police and an incomprehensible legal system administered in a foreign language; hound them into ‘reserves’, a euphemism for land that was seen as of no use to the colonisers or their stock. Finally assimilate them into the dominant race through a form of eugenics. My research transported me from expecting a simple ‘documentary reality’ relationship between the bureaucrats and the Aboriginal peoples towards a more conspiratorial connection between the dominant class, the bureaucracy and the Aboriginal Peoples. Paradoxically, these same pastoralists and miners were dependent on Aboriginal labour to enable their enterprises to be viable. To this end the bureaucracy administered laws that controlled standards of habitation, provision of food and clothing, and wage rates provided to the Aboriginal workers. The pastoralists and the miners observed such provisions in the breach, but other provisions controlling: where the Peoples could work and who they could work for, who they could marry, and where they could go were implemented assiduously. Working and living conditions for all but the Peoples in the most remote areas were bad to say the least.
In the administration of the law the actions of certain police were horrific by any measure and the Supreme Court under Judge Wells made a mockery of justice and court procedures. The most celebrated case to come before the worthy judge was that of R. v Tuckiar, which was later appealed on the grounds of the judgement and court proceedings and gave rise to scathing criticism by the High Court Judges in unison.
Of course, the ultimate expression of conflict between the bureaucracy and the Aboriginal Peoples was the doctrine of assimilation. This doctrine was designed to actively absorb the Aboriginal Peoples into the general Australian population along with their culture and languages. Resulting from a selective form of eugenics the so-called ‘stolen generations’ and its undesirable results have emerged. This thesis records much of that conflict through the eyes of the bureaucracy and to a lessor extent the Aboriginal Peoples themselves
Pulp literature: a re-evaluation
Get PDFThe purpose of this dissertation is to redress the literary academy?s view of Pulp Literature as an inconsequential form, which does not merit serious contemplation, or artistic recognition. Although it is true that recent literary criticism has attempted to elevate the importance of Pulp by positing it as the natural postmodern 'other' to 'high' literature, the thesis demonstrates how this dichotomy has proven to be counter-productive to its aim. That is, although this theoretical approach does invite legitimate investigation of the form, many academics simply use this technique to reinforce their claims for the superiority of so-called 'canonic' texts. Therefore, rather than continuing along this downward path, this thesis focuses more on the subversive machinations of Pulp Literature as a social, economic, political, and theoretical force with its own strategies and agendas, opening with an investigation of the history of Pulp Literature as a cultural form.
I argue that, from its very conception with the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, Pulp has always offered a radical alternative to the mainstream by providing a voice for the marginalised and the oppressed in the societies of the world. The thesis traces this political role as the aesthetic evolves into the new forms and technologies of a contemporary culture, where many academics still refuse to acknowledge Pulp as an important agent for the transmission of ideological views, and an impetus to instigate social change. The concluding arguments move away from the quantitative, to the more theoretically evaluative section of the thesis. This consists of a discussion of the conceptual boundaries surrounding the aesthetic of Pulp, broaching such subjects as literary evaluation, canonicity, and canon formation. This debate ultimately revolves around the question, 'if literary theorists cannot 'objectively' determine what literary 'quality' is, then how can we hope to define Pulp?'
In an attempt to answer this question, the thesis juxtaposes the criteria of a number of literary theorists from this field of inquiry, namely, Thomas R. Whissen, Clive Bloom, Thomas J. Roberts, Harold Bloom, Andrew Calcutt and Richard Shephard, to formulate an aesthetic that is not only markedly different to their's, but more significantly, one which situates Pulp Literature at the head of the literary academic table
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