Öffentlichkeit and Law’s Behind the Scenes: Theatrical and Dramatic Appearance in European and US American Criminal Law

In the present situation, law's Öffentlichkeit, or its principal "open-ness to the public," needs to be distinguished from its being the object of publicity as dominated by modern media. Law's public open-ness has historically been dependent on, and determined by, two theatrical modes of appearance: The theatrical-proper and the dramatic. Paradoxically, in both cases the jurisdictional "openness to the public" works not only through forms of visibility but also forms of invisibility. These two theatrical modes--and their dynamic play with visibility and invisibility--have been portrayed in works of art that have influenced the way general audiences imagine the law to work. These works also correlate with the different histories and public appearances and openness of the European and the Anglo-American systems of law. Historically speaking, the European system has been more theatrically inclined, in the context of a distinctly imperial trajectory that has been dominated by the desire to stage the law and to follow correct procedure. The Anglo- American one, by contrast, is more dramatically inclined, and has followed a distinctly anti-imperial trajectory--whether anti-royal or anti-state--influenced by the desire to stage trials in which peers determine the dramatic outcome. Although both systems are basically open to the public, they both work via a dynamic of protective invisibility. Yet due to current developments, the elements of invisibility in both systems tend to predominate over the elements of visibility. This suggests that both systems are moving toward a form of legal closure that is averse to the original theatrical and dramatic appearance and openness of law

Alles inclusief! Het poëtische en het kapitalisme

Oratie van Frans-Willem Korsten voor de leerstoel “Literatuur en samenleving” aan de Erasmus Universiteit te Rotterdam, Faculteit der Historische en Kunstwetenschappen,18 oktober 2007. Sinds het ontstaan van het moderne productie-kapitalisme in de negentiende eeuw bekritiseren schrijvers (en kunstenaars in het algemeen) dit systeem onophoudelijk. Zij vinden een kapitalisme dat werkt door “creative destruction” ongetwijfeld creatief, maar achten de ongekende vernietiging en vervreemding, het fetisjisme, de eenvormigheid, of de bedreiging van de menselijke leefwereld onacceptabel. Opvallend genoeg is ruim anderhalve eeuw van artistiek en intellectueel protest vrijwel vruchteloos gebleken. Korsten zoekt een verklaring voor die vruchteloosheid en vraagt zich af of er niet een structurele overeenkomst bestaat tussen het poëtische en het kapitalisme

Historical prefigurations of vitriol: communities, constituencies and plutocratic insurgency

Modern and Contemporary Studie

Populists in court: wager, match, and chance considered as generic forms of playful legalities

A principal element of law is the unpredictable outcome of its proceedings. This unpredictability has fueled the hopes of many and the fears of equally as many. In recent years populists and other political mavericks have become highly capable at exploiting the element of chance in law, aiming not so much to prove guilt or maintain innocence, but rather to reconfigure the judiciary affectively as a game of winners and losers. Populists’ legal and luysory tactics make it urgent to reconsider the relation between the fields of law and the humanities. By paying more attention to the genres and media of play and game we can better assess the ways in which contemporary actors are playing with law and exploring the limits of the rules of the game. Here, the plurality that characterizes culturally and medially determined forms of legality, as Greta Olson calls it, has a counterpart in an equally culturally inspired and mediatized form of totalitarianism. In analyzing the populist play with law, my guide will be Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens, in which he considers law’s origin in play and chance. For Huizinga, play is serious, as is the law. The populist play with law is equally serious, since it may have serious consequences for the Rechtsgefühle of citizens.Modern and Contemporary Studie

Besmirching judges, undermining authority: populists playing with feelings of law and justice

Modern and Contemporary Studie

The status of documents: medical files and literary genres – the case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Commentary on Franssen

Modern and Contemporary Studie

Using Spielraum for a normative definition of politics: Obama’s play politics and Trump’s asceticism

The terms “politics” and “political” have become so overdetermined that it is difficult to use them in any effective manner. We argue that this has dangerous political consequences, and that this could be addressed by providing a new, sounder, notion of politics. This paper argues that defining politics in relation to the notion of play can provide a notion both intuitively appealing and able to withstand the problematic overdeterminations. We argue that politics is the set of practices through which the indeterminate of Spielraum is made more determinate. This suggests that politics is always partly a matter of play: it is about instituting values without making any claims about the legitimacy of this instituting act. With reference to Huizinga and Nietzsche’s analyses of play, we define play as the living unity of seriousness and frivolity, and non-play as either seriousness without frivolity or frivolity without seriousness. In order to illustrate this, we comparatively analyse the attitudes of Barack Obama and Donald Trump in the single context of the well-known yearly White House Correspondent’s Dinner. There, we see two opposed attitudes to playfulness. Our analysis allows us to apply our Spielraum model of politics to show that the thrust of Obama’s attitude involves an embrace of the non-foundational nature of politics as play, whereas Trump’s attitude is politicidal: it is animated by a refusal to acknowledge its own lack of foundation, leading to an oscillation between over-seriousness and over-frivolity.NWOModern and Contemporary Studie

Öffentlichkeit and Law’s Behind the Scenes: Theatrical and Dramatic Appearance in European and US American Criminal Law

In the present situation, law's Öffentlichkeit, or its principal "open-ness to the public," needs to be distinguished from its being the object of publicity as dominated by modern media. Law's public open-ness has historically been dependent on, and determined by, two theatrical modes of appearance: The theatrical-proper and the dramatic. Paradoxically, in both cases the jurisdictional "openness to the public" works not only through forms of visibility but also forms of invisibility. These two theatrical modes--and their dynamic play with visibility and invisibility--have been portrayed in works of art that have influenced the way general audiences imagine the law to work. These works also correlate with the different histories and public appearances and openness of the European and the Anglo-American systems of law. Historically speaking, the European system has been more theatrically inclined, in the context of a distinctly imperial trajectory that has been dominated by the desire to stage the law and to follow correct procedure. The Anglo- American one, by contrast, is more dramatically inclined, and has followed a distinctly anti-imperial trajectory--whether anti-royal or anti-state--influenced by the desire to stage trials in which peers determine the dramatic outcome. Although both systems are basically open to the public, they both work via a dynamic of protective invisibility. Yet due to current developments, the elements of invisibility in both systems tend to predominate over the elements of visibility. This suggests that both systems are moving toward a form of legal closure that is averse to the original theatrical and dramatic appearance and openness of law

Grondslagen, situaties en houdingen

Modern and Contemporary Studie

Lyrical and Theatrical Apostrophe, from Performing Actor to Textual Self

Medieval and Early Modern Studie