The philosopher as artist: Ludwig Wittgenstein seen through Edoardo Paolozzi

In this article I argue that the strong fascination that Wittgenstein has had for artists cannot be explained primarily by the content of his work, and in particular not by his sporadic observation on aesthetics, but rather by stylistic features of his work formal aspects of his writing. Edoardo Paolozzi’s testimony shows that artists often had a feeling of acquaintance or familiarity with the philosopher, which I think is due to stylistic features of his work, such as the colloquial tone in which Wittgenstein shares his observation with the reader, but also the lack of long-winded arguments or explanations. In the concluding part I suggest that we can read Wittgenstein’s artworks of a specific kind: as philosophical works of art

Ante-Autobiography and the Archive of Childhood

This essay examines the concept of children’s autobiography via several autobiographical extracts written by the author as a child. Although only a small proportion of people will compose and publish a full-length autobiography, almost everyone will, inadvertently, produce an archive of the self, made from public records and private documents. Here, such works are seen as providing access to writing both about and by children. The essay explores the ethics and poetics of children’s writing via the key debates in life writing; in particular, the dynamic relationship between adults and children, both as distinct stages of life and dual parts of one autobiographical identity. The term “ante-autobiography” is coined to refer to these texts which come before or instead of a full-length narrative. They are not read as less than or inadequate versions of autobiography, but rather as transgressive and challenging to chronological notions of the genre

La lenta mort de la universitat

En el número 51 de la revista L'Espill trobaràs un dossier monogràfic sobre "Consideracions intempestives sobre els Països Catalans", amb contribucions d'Antoni Furió, Gustau Muñoz, Pau Viciano, Ferran Garcia-Oliver i Antoni Rico. A més, articles de Salvador Giner, Terry Eagleton, Georgi K. Marinov, Paola Lo Cascio, Toni Mollà, Gonçal López Pampló i Àlex Broch, així com la correspondència entre Josep Iborra i Josep Garcia Richart, un full de dietari d'Enric Balaguer i una conversa amb Josep Piera, per Ferran Garcia-Oliver

Homenaje a William Hazlitt

Hazlitt was a man of letters who developed his career in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century when the public sphere was still strong. Men of letters were a sort of moral guides in times of profound cultural change and political turbulence; they formed public opinion through speaking and writing to a large non-specialized audience about a wide range of issues of public interest including aesthetics, ethics, politics, religion, and science. The stage was divided between conservatives and radicals and, due to the political relevance of the debate and the intense rivalry between the contending parties, there was a violent exchange of ideas. One of the greatest stylists of the English language, Hazlitt was no detached observer but got involved in the defence of his position no matter the cost at a time when not only ideas but matters of style mattered politically. A radical all his life, he combined the ideas of the Enlightenment and Romanticism to defend equality, freedom, autonomy in art and life, and imaginative empathy.Hazlitt fue un hombre de letras que desarrolló su carrera profesional a finales del siglo XVIII y principios del XIX, cuando la esfera pública era todavía fuerte. Los hombres de letras eran una especie de guías morales en épocas de profundos cambios culturales y turbulencias políticas; formaban la opinión pública hablando y escribiendo para una gran audiencia no especializada sobre una amplia gama de temas de interés público, como la estética, la ética, la política, la religión y la ciencia. El escenario se dividía entre conservadores y radicales y, debido a la relevancia política del debate y a la intensa rivalidad entre los contrincantes, se producía un violento intercambio de ideas. Hazlitt, uno de los más grandes estilistas de la lengua inglesa, no fue un observador indiferente, sino que se involucró en la defensa de su postura sin importar el precio, en una época en la que no solo las ideas sino también las cuestiones de estilo importaban políticamente. Radical durante toda su vida, combinó las ideas de la Ilustración y el Romanticismo para defender la igualdad, la libertad, la autonomía en el arte y en la vida y la empatía imaginativa

Il nazionalismo: tra ironia e adesione

Il saggio analizza il nazionalismo identificando le contraddizioni radicali che lo assillano. I termini oppositivi che il nazionalismo dispiega sono quegli stessi che in ultima analisi deve abolire, ma tale abolizione non è un gesto facile. Le dicotomie inglese/irlandese, protestante/cattolico vanno vissute e attraversate nel presente. Pertanto è necessario che l’adesione ad esse sia sotto l’egida dell’ironia, altrimenti le condizioni oppressive di cui esse sono segno finiranno semplicemente per essere riprodotte. In Europa il progetto dell’estetico è quello di riconciliare il particolare con l’universale. Questo non trova applicazione in Irlanda, dove la visione astratta dell’individuo propugnata dall’Illuminisnmo e la specificità regionalista del nazionalismo irlandese del XIX secolo restano inconciliabili. Qualsiasi politica che abbia un potere trasformativo deve mirare, seppure in forma negativa, alla libertà e all’autonomia del sé che rendano tali politiche non necessarie. The essay analyzes nationalism identifying the radical contradictions that beset it. The oppositional terms nationalism deploys are the very terms it must ultimately abolish, but such abolition is not an easy gesture. The divisions of English and Irish, Protestant and Catholic, must be lived through in the present. It is, therefore, necessary to sustain commitment to them under the aegis of irony; otherwise the oppressive conditions they bespeak will merely be reproduced. In Europe the aesthetic has as its project the reconciliation of the specific and the universal. This has no application in Ireland, where the abstract Enlightenment view of the individual and the regionalist particularity of nineteenth-century Irish nationalism remain inconciliable. Any politics that has a transformative power has to envisage, if in a negative way, the freedom and self-autonomy  that would make such politics unnecessary

親愛なる大橋先生

大橋洋一教授退職記念号メッセージarticl

Revolution and the end of history: Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest

Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest, written and performed very soon after the Romanian revolution in 1990 and performed both in London and Bucharest, is a dynamic, inter-cultural play that represents a variety of perspectives on the revolutionary events, as well as oscillating between English and Romanian cultural and language coordinates. It has a peculiar topicality in its detailed and specific usages of different aspects of the revolutionary narrative, its sketches of family life before and after the revolution, and the inclusion of the revolution as reported in quasi-documentary-style testimony. The perspective in this article is one that places the play within a framework that thinks through Mad Forest’s relationship to the triumphant, neoliberalist heralding of “the end of history,” most famously argued by Francis Fukuyama in his 1989 article of that name. This discourse gained further confidence from the collapse of Eastern Europe, a collapse that was viewed by proponents of the end-of-history argument as signalling the permanent disintegration of communism and a victory for capitalism. However, Mad Forest is considered here as a play that reflects multiple perspectives on the revolutionary period and, while declining to provide political solutions as such, simultaneously refuses to accede to the implications of the end-of-history argument

Little perpetrators, witness-bearers and the young and the brave: towards a post-transitional aesthetics

The aesthetic choices characterizing work produced during the transition to democracy have been well documented. We are currently well into the second decade after the 1994 election - what then of the period referred to as the 'second transition'? Have trends consolidated, hardened, shifted, or have new 'post-transitional' trends emerged? What can be expected of the future 'born free' generation of writers and readers, since terms such as restlessness, dissonance and disjuncture are frequently used to describe the experience of constitutional democracy as it co-exists with the emerging new apartheid of poverty? Furthermore, what value is there in identifying post-transitional aesthetic trends?DHE