OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Horn, Peter"

Browsing by Author "Horn, Peter"

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Der Begriff der Aura und einer Kunst ohne Aura im Werk von Walter Benjamin
(1991) Loots, François; Horn, Peter
Walter Benjamin formulated the concept of the aura in 1930 while experimenting with hashish. He describes an aura as the essence of an object that is only present in the act of perception. The aura changes from one occurrence of its perception to another. After the hashish trance, the perceiver can not remember the essence of an object - it's aura. The aura has an ambiguity, as well as various meanings in Benjamin's works: a) The aura is used in bourgeois art appreciation and criticism as a criteria to access art. Aura refers to subjective perception or ability, the paradigm of enlightenment. b) The aura is the unique perception of the essence or materiality of an object, one that cannot be represented by means of the signification of language. c) The aura exists in perception, therefore in the relationship between subject and object. d) Benjamin attributes perception of the aura as close, yet distanced in order to describe an auratic perception. e) An auratic perception exists outside of everyday life/routine and only as an autonomous artistic perception. f) An experience can be auratic in so far as an individual can understand the essence of his/her environment in relation to history. By postulating an auratic experience that grasps materiality in its totality Benjamin 4uestions the position of the subject in German Idealism, epitomised by Hegel's practical idea. At the same time Benjamin realises that materiality cannot be represented in its totality in the discourse of signification. Thereby the aura can only gain a metaphoric access to representation. Technology denies any auratic perception or experience, as such the auratic exists only in the hypothesis of a historical origin, such as a metaphysical paradisical condition. The commodity structure stands as a paradigm for modern perception and experience. Commodity fetishism denies the subject an auratic interaction and the relation between subject and object is phantasmagoria!. An auratic perception or experience is replaced by one determined by technology. Benjamin calls the latter one of actuality. Thereby the commodity denies an experience leading to the concept of totality. Benjamin's formulation of the concept of the aura has been seen as his turn to Marxism. A clear demarcation has been drawn between his metaphysical and Marxist writings. My thesis argues that such a division is inadequate and that the common demoninator between Benjamin's earlier and later work has not been analysed sufficiently. Bibliography: pages 225-236.
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Die "Elis-Gedichte" Georg Trakls
(1979) Grapow, Gudrun; Horn, Peter
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Die repräsentation der männlichkeit in Fassbinders Lola
(1998) Prins, Jo-Anne Juliana; Horn, Peter
The thesis is an analysis of the definition of masculinity. Sociological and psychological studies have been referenced, in particular feminist, gender and current men's studies. The German director,·Rainer Werner Fassbinder's life and work are briefly illustrated to gain an insight into the main themes in his films. Lola (1981) is the film chosen for analysis of the representation of masculinity. The main characters, the power dynamics of the gaze and prostitution are the main themes of the analysis.
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Frau und Kirche im literarischen Werk von Gertrud von Le Fort
(1977) Kessler, Hannah; Horn, Peter
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Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben und D.F. Malherbe's Hans-die-skipper : ein Vergleich
(1990) Bertelsmann, Richard; Pakendorf, Gunther; Horn, Peter
Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben (1855) and D. F. Malherbe's Hans-die-Skipper (1929) can both be read as reactions to early industrial capitalism, although neither text refers directly to this phenomenon. This dissertation attempts to show that both novels display a similar, ambivalent attitude, whilst defending the "logic of the market" against proponents of the moribund semi-feudal system, they pre-empt the moral indifference of the market by positing a "new" value in absolute terms. In either case, this value is "industry", in both the economical and the moral sense of the term. This aspect of both texts is analysed in terms of the literary theory of Peter V. Zima. On closer inspection, it is found that both authors attribute the moral value of "industry" exclusively to one social group, namely the group whose interests they hope to advance. In Freytag' s case, this is the conservative, pre-industrial German bourgeoisie; in Malherbe's case, the impoverished, Afrikaans-speaking rural population of the early 20th century. However, in translating their "ideological projects" into a literary "figuration" (in the sense of Pierre Macherey), both authors encounter certain problems, which only appear in the "absences" and the "silences" of their texts. These are analyzed in terms of the literary theory of Pierre Macherey. Finally, in both texts, the moral value of "industry", and the social hierarchy established in its name, are subliminally or temporarily threatened by the "pleasure principle". This aspect is analyzed- in terms of Klaus Theweleit's findings gained from "pre-fascist" texts of the early 20th century.
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Realism and anti-realism in the work of George Lukács
(1989) Le Roux, Evert; Horn, Peter
This essay sets out to explore Lukács's views on realism and its polar opposite. anti-realism, in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature. As a Marxist, Lukács's views on literature are closely interwoven with his views of society and and social development. This necessitates first looking at Lukács's theory of society and history as expressed in the epochal History and Class Consciousness. The essay firstly attempts to present and criticize the central Lukácsian concept of concrete totality. Totality, for Lukács, is not a static concept but a dynamically evolving, ever-changing idea. However, he tends to view totality as simply a concept of contemplation. Lukács indicates the proletariat as the subject-object of Western European history.
Open Access
Realistischer Diskurs und dialogischer Text : eine Strukturanalyse von Peter Handkes Roman "Der Kurze Brief zum langen Abschied"
(1983) Pakendorf, Gunther; Horn, Peter
The question whether the critical tools developed by, the structuralist approach can stand up to a text which alienates or deviates from traditional narrative discourse is one of the main theoretical concerns of this thesis. The investigation is based on two premises: firstly, that the contemporary novel is as much the literary expression of bourgeois consciousness as its predecessor in the 18th and 19th centuries, whose mode of expression was that of realism; secondly, that the paradigm shift from classic bourgeois realism to the modern novel must be seen as a dialectic process: modern fiction can thus be said to be engaged in an intertextual dialogue with traditional realist discourse. In confronting the method and conclusions of S/Z by Roland Barthes with a contemporary text, the thesis aims to reflect this dialogue on a meta-literary level. Starting from a detailed analysis of the structural elements of the text and their arrangement, the thesis proceeds to a description of the technique of deviation on the microstructural level as well as in conjunction with contextual, ideological and symbolic reference. The complex relation between fiction and reality is then investigated with regard to the configuration and in conjunction with the notion of identity, the focal point of the novel. Handke's complex understanding of reality and consequently also his response to the realist tradition are derived from the unstated realization of the fictionality of the bourgeois concept of the subject. This is the background to the discussion of the structures of traditional realist discourse and the ambivalent portrayal of reality in Handke's novel, which amounts to the application of realist discourse in order to subvert it. Finally, Handke's rigorous anti-ideological position is evaluated in conjunction with Bakhtin's theory of the dialogic text and the concept of intertextuality as developed by Julia Kristeva. While Handke's novel can thus be seen to be critical both in its perception of, and response to contemporary reality and in its refusal to accept any systematic modes of thought, its contradictions remain unresolved since it registers but does not transcend the problematic nature of the core of bourgeois ideology, the self-image of the subject.
Open Access
Space and spatiality in the colonial discourse of German South West Africa 1884-1915
(1988) Noyes, John Kenneth; Horn, Peter
The present study sets out to accomplish two things: first, to demonstrate that space and spatiality is the domain in which discourse partakes of the colonial project, and second, to isolate a number of textual strategies employed in the discursive production of colonial space. The first aim requires a lengthy theoretical discussion which occupies the first part of the study. Here I develop the thesis that spatiality as a philosophical preoccupation has never been divorced from the questions of sigmfication and subjectivity, and that the production of significant and subjective space is always a production of social space. In support of this thesis, it is shown that vision and writing are the two functions in which subjective space becomes meaningful, and that in both cases it becomes meaningful only as social space. It is thus in the context of looking and writing that the production of colonial space may be examined as a social space within which meaning and subjectivity are possible. The second aim requires an analytical study of a number of colorual texts, which I undertake in part II of the study. For simplicity, I have confined myself to the colonial discourse of German South West Africa in the period 1884-1915. The central thesis developed here is that discourse develops strategies for enclosing spaces by demarkating borders, privileging certain passages between spaces and blocking others. This organization of space is presented as the ordering of a chaotic multiplicity and, as such, as a process of civilization. The contradiction between the blocking and privileging of passages results in what I call a "ritual of crossing": an implicit set of rules prescribmg the conditions of possibility for crossing the borders it establishes. As a result, in its production of space, the colonial text assumes a mythical function which allows it to transcend the very spaces it produces. It is here that I attempt to situate colonial discourse's claims to uruversal truth. In conclusion, the detailed analysis of the production of space in colonial discourse may be understood as a strategic intervention. It attempts to use the texts of colonisation to counter colonization's claims to universal truth and a civilizing mission.
Open Access
Vom "Steppenmythos" zum "Revolutionsschicksal" : Wolgadeutsche Geschichte und Identität in Russlanddeutschen Erzählungen der Zwischenkriegszeit
(1993) Wozniak, Janina; Horn, Peter
This thesis analyses the literary representation of the Volga-German population group during the Third Reich, using eleven fictional historical accounts, contrasting them with respect to three aspects: their history and the real conditions of existence of this linguistic enclave, psychological and sociological issues of the identity of minorities and the intertextuality of the works and the period of their publication. The themes of the primary literature are categorised according to historical criteria, because the narrative shows a close proximity to historical reality, despite its ideological colouring. The representation of the settlement in Russia emphasises the difficulties facing the emigrants, and creates the basis for the Volga-German self-concept as a "highly productive, rural population group". The considerable disadvantages of their separatism, however, are interpreted as an advantage, a "guard for culture". A comparison with publications from the early twentieth century illustrates that the pan-germanic propaganda of all ethnic Germans as an international family (Volksgemeinschaft) has been combined with Volga-German separatism to form a ''volkisch"-nationalist discourse; without, however, demanding an "Anschluss" to Germany. Only after the bolshevist destruction of the Volga-German way of life, the characters project their hopes towards Germany. During World War One, they already experience a distinct sympathy for Germany, which is emphasised all the more in retrospective to avoid recognising the escape of individual characters to Germany, the "mother country", as sheer opportunism. Descriptions of the atrocities of the time of revolution and civil war serve to legitimate the escape, but also to set a memorial to the suffering of the Volga-Germans. Some authors attempt to find a meaning for the destruction of their home in Russia through no fault of the group, by postulating a collective fate of all Germans in the world. The reader in the Third Reich, however, would perceive this suffering of German people as anti-Soviet propaganda. The authors do not understand that the national-socialist interest in ethnic Germans was a political strategy, to which they unwittingly contributed since they were unable to place the "volkisch"-national theme in its correct position in the Reich. Early soviet-German representations of this population group emphasise the gradual rebuilding after the revolution, but attribute its success to the socialist system. Volga-German traditions are negated, while the unlimited optimism typical for Socialist Realism abounds. These accounts lack a critical analysis of the drastic changes, as shown, for instance, in the Cossack main character of the lauded novel, And Quiet flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov, making him a tragic hero, and hence they form the opposite of the conservative refugees' narratives.
Open Access
Wertungskriterien in Heinrich Heines
(1981) Selzer, Brigitte; Horn, Peter
Das Thema dieser Arbeit könnte natürlich eine sehr viel umfangreichere Bearbeitung verlangen, als das hier der Fall ist: ich habe mir aber bewußt folgende Grenzen gezogen: 1. Eine eingehende Diskussion mit der Literatur zur Wertung habe ich vermieden, weil die vorliegende Literatur zu diesem Thema fast durchwegs von Wertungskriterien ausgeht, die eher der Goetheschen , 'Kunstperiode' als Heines modernem Verständnis der Literatur entsprechen. Hilfreich war allein der Aufsatz von Lothar Pikulik ("Das zeitgemäße als kategorie der literarischen wertung" in Georg Pilz/Erich Kaiser (Hrsg.), Literarische Wertung und Wertungsdidaktik, Kronberg/Ts. 1976). Weniger hilfreich waren die Bücher von Norbert Mecklenburg und Manon Maren-Grisebach (vgl. das Literaturverzeichnis). 2. Die Untersuchung der Entwicklung von Heines eigenen Wertungskriterien wurde nach der Romantischen Schule und der Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland abgebrochen und nur ausnahmsweise spätere Aussagen Heines in die Arbeit aufgenommell. 3. Vom Umfang der Arbeit her war es auch geboten, die Auseinandersetzung mit den Primärquellen der romantischen Literatur sehr stark zu begrenzen. Es ging mir in erster Linie unt Heines Wertungskriterien und nicht so sehr um eventuelle Fehlinterpretationen der romantischen Literatur.

Browsing by Author "Horn, Peter"

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