in: David Scott (ed.), Understanding Foucault, Understanding Modernism, New York: Bloomsberry, p.... more in: David Scott (ed.), Understanding Foucault, Understanding Modernism, New York: Bloomsberry, p. 252-254.
in: Marc De Kesel & Ben Schomakers (red.) (2015), De schoonheid van het nee: Essays over Antigone... more in: Marc De Kesel & Ben Schomakers (red.) (2015), De schoonheid van het nee: Essays over Antigone, Amsterdam, Sjibbolet, p. 151-181.
Published in: Jan De Vos & Ed Pluth, Neurosciende and Critique: Exploring the limits of the Neuro... more Published in: Jan De Vos & Ed Pluth, Neurosciende and Critique: Exploring the limits of the Neurological Turn, London/New York: Routledge, 2016
Summary : God, Gift, Animal & the Question of the Subject
Today’s attempts to give the animal a s... more Summary : God, Gift, Animal & the Question of the Subject Today’s attempts to give the animal a social and political place and to honor it with the status of ‘subject’ refers to the question of the human subject and more precisely the subject of modernity. It is because we are too sure (which is to say not sure at all) concerning what the ‘modern subject’ is, that we invented the question of the animal. In a way, with regard to the problem of the subject of modernity, the question of the animal fulfills a similar function as the question of God. This is why a reference to the Christian theological tradition is indispensable to understand what is at stake the contemporary fascination for the animal. Analyzed from the perspective of the paradigm of the gift (as developed by Marcel Mauss), the essay offers a short genealogy of the human relation with regard to the animal and shows how religion (in all its shapes) is profoundly involved in it.
In his sixth seminar, Desire and Its Interpretation (1956-57), Lacan patiently elaborates his the... more In his sixth seminar, Desire and Its Interpretation (1956-57), Lacan patiently elaborates his theory of the ‘phantasm’ ($◊a), in which the object of desire (object small a) is ascribed a constitutive role in the architecture of the libidinal subject. In that seminar, Lacan shows his fascination for an aphorism of the twentieth century Christian mystic Simone Weil, saying that ‘to ascertain exactly what the miser whose treasure was stolen lost: thus we would learn much’. This is why, in his theory, Lacan conceptualizes the object of desire as the unconsumed treasure – and, in that sense, the ‘nothing’ – the miser’s desire is focused on. But the more Lacan develops his new object theory, the more he realizes how close it is to Christian mysticism that locates the ultimate object of desire to God in a sevenfold ‘nothing’ (to quote the famous last step in the ascent of the Mount Carmel as described by John of the Cross). An analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet allows Lacan to escape the Christian logic and to rearticulate the object of desire in an ‘unchristian’ tragic grammar. When he replaces the miser by the lover as paradigm of the subject’s relation to its object of desire, it is a strictly Greek kind of love: eros, not agape. Even when, in the late Lacan, ‘love’ becomes a proper concept, its structure remains deeply ‘tragic’.
Sophocles, Oedipus heerst, vertaling en aantekeningen Ben Schomakers, met essays van Ben Schomakers, Marc De Kesel & Dirk De Schutter, Zoetermeer: Uitgeverij Klement, 2013, p. 231-269., 2013
Mark Kinet, Marc De Kesel & Sjef Houppermans (red.) (2013), For Your Pleasure. Psychoanalyse over esthetisch genot, Antwerpen: Garant, p. 101-120., 2013
Psychoanalytical theory's main axiom tells that drive does not function in a 'natural&#... more Psychoanalytical theory's main axiom tells that drive does not function in a 'natural', but in a distorted and 'perverted' way. Drive's most basic purpose is not the organism's self-preservation, but its 'pleasure' (Freud: Lustpnnzip). That is why life, being natural and biological, is not lived naturally and biologically: the organism takes a'polymorph perverse' distance towards its natural, biological functioning and, in that very distance, 'enjoins' it. On the most fundamental level, it lives from that very 'pleasure'. Lacan's theory of desire is an elaboration of that Freudian thesis on the polymorph perverse pleasure principle. The Lacanian 'ethics of desire', elaborated in his sixth and seventh seminar, is built upon that thesis as well. That is why, at the very end of his sixth seminar (1958/59), he defines sublimation as 'perverse' and therefore of ethical value: in a non-repressing way, sublimation opens up desire to its polymorph perverse ground. However, in the next seminar (on "the ethics of psychoanalysis", 1959/60), Lacan changes his theory on both sublimation and perversion. Now, sublimation is defined as the cultural gesture by which we put a desired object on the level of 'das Ding' (the Thing, a new concept introduced in that seminar to name an object, which is not a signifier). Here, perversion gets an ethically negative meaning: for, so Lacan argues, when we put ourselves as subject at the position of that Thing, we act like a pervert, and abuse the ethical rule for immoral purposes. The article follows in detail thisshift in Lacan's theory and discusses its important impact on his thesis on ethics.
in: David Scott (ed.), Understanding Foucault, Understanding Modernism, New York: Bloomsberry, p.... more in: David Scott (ed.), Understanding Foucault, Understanding Modernism, New York: Bloomsberry, p. 252-254.
in: Marc De Kesel & Ben Schomakers (red.) (2015), De schoonheid van het nee: Essays over Antigone... more in: Marc De Kesel & Ben Schomakers (red.) (2015), De schoonheid van het nee: Essays over Antigone, Amsterdam, Sjibbolet, p. 151-181.
Published in: Jan De Vos & Ed Pluth, Neurosciende and Critique: Exploring the limits of the Neuro... more Published in: Jan De Vos & Ed Pluth, Neurosciende and Critique: Exploring the limits of the Neurological Turn, London/New York: Routledge, 2016
Summary : God, Gift, Animal & the Question of the Subject
Today’s attempts to give the animal a s... more Summary : God, Gift, Animal & the Question of the Subject Today’s attempts to give the animal a social and political place and to honor it with the status of ‘subject’ refers to the question of the human subject and more precisely the subject of modernity. It is because we are too sure (which is to say not sure at all) concerning what the ‘modern subject’ is, that we invented the question of the animal. In a way, with regard to the problem of the subject of modernity, the question of the animal fulfills a similar function as the question of God. This is why a reference to the Christian theological tradition is indispensable to understand what is at stake the contemporary fascination for the animal. Analyzed from the perspective of the paradigm of the gift (as developed by Marcel Mauss), the essay offers a short genealogy of the human relation with regard to the animal and shows how religion (in all its shapes) is profoundly involved in it.
In his sixth seminar, Desire and Its Interpretation (1956-57), Lacan patiently elaborates his the... more In his sixth seminar, Desire and Its Interpretation (1956-57), Lacan patiently elaborates his theory of the ‘phantasm’ ($◊a), in which the object of desire (object small a) is ascribed a constitutive role in the architecture of the libidinal subject. In that seminar, Lacan shows his fascination for an aphorism of the twentieth century Christian mystic Simone Weil, saying that ‘to ascertain exactly what the miser whose treasure was stolen lost: thus we would learn much’. This is why, in his theory, Lacan conceptualizes the object of desire as the unconsumed treasure – and, in that sense, the ‘nothing’ – the miser’s desire is focused on. But the more Lacan develops his new object theory, the more he realizes how close it is to Christian mysticism that locates the ultimate object of desire to God in a sevenfold ‘nothing’ (to quote the famous last step in the ascent of the Mount Carmel as described by John of the Cross). An analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet allows Lacan to escape the Christian logic and to rearticulate the object of desire in an ‘unchristian’ tragic grammar. When he replaces the miser by the lover as paradigm of the subject’s relation to its object of desire, it is a strictly Greek kind of love: eros, not agape. Even when, in the late Lacan, ‘love’ becomes a proper concept, its structure remains deeply ‘tragic’.
Sophocles, Oedipus heerst, vertaling en aantekeningen Ben Schomakers, met essays van Ben Schomakers, Marc De Kesel & Dirk De Schutter, Zoetermeer: Uitgeverij Klement, 2013, p. 231-269., 2013
Mark Kinet, Marc De Kesel & Sjef Houppermans (red.) (2013), For Your Pleasure. Psychoanalyse over esthetisch genot, Antwerpen: Garant, p. 101-120., 2013
Psychoanalytical theory's main axiom tells that drive does not function in a 'natural&#... more Psychoanalytical theory's main axiom tells that drive does not function in a 'natural', but in a distorted and 'perverted' way. Drive's most basic purpose is not the organism's self-preservation, but its 'pleasure' (Freud: Lustpnnzip). That is why life, being natural and biological, is not lived naturally and biologically: the organism takes a'polymorph perverse' distance towards its natural, biological functioning and, in that very distance, 'enjoins' it. On the most fundamental level, it lives from that very 'pleasure'. Lacan's theory of desire is an elaboration of that Freudian thesis on the polymorph perverse pleasure principle. The Lacanian 'ethics of desire', elaborated in his sixth and seventh seminar, is built upon that thesis as well. That is why, at the very end of his sixth seminar (1958/59), he defines sublimation as 'perverse' and therefore of ethical value: in a non-repressing way, sublimation opens up desire to its polymorph perverse ground. However, in the next seminar (on "the ethics of psychoanalysis", 1959/60), Lacan changes his theory on both sublimation and perversion. Now, sublimation is defined as the cultural gesture by which we put a desired object on the level of 'das Ding' (the Thing, a new concept introduced in that seminar to name an object, which is not a signifier). Here, perversion gets an ethically negative meaning: for, so Lacan argues, when we put ourselves as subject at the position of that Thing, we act like a pervert, and abuse the ethical rule for immoral purposes. The article follows in detail thisshift in Lacan's theory and discusses its important impact on his thesis on ethics.
Appel de texte : Colloque international bilingue (anglais / français)
NOTE : une publication sci... more Appel de texte : Colloque international bilingue (anglais / français)
NOTE : une publication scientifique dans la revue ThéoRèmes est prévue aux suites dudit colloque.
Université Saint-Paul, Ottawa, Canada, 5-6 novembre 2015 – Colloque bilingue organisé par le Programme de recherche Religion critique et éthique publique (Faculté de Philosophie / École d’éthique publique, Université Saint-Paul)
Il y a quarante ans, le 2 novembre 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini était sauvagement assassiné sur la plage d’Ostia en Italie. Les circonstances entourant sa mort demeurent nébuleuses. L’œuvre prolifique qu’il nous a laissée, à la fois littéraire et cinématographique, a fait de lui l’un des plus grands monuments du XXème siècle. L’écriture et la scénarisation agissaient chez Pasolini comme les deux modalités avec lesquelles il appréhendait la société contemporaine, avec un regard toujours critique sur les diverses idéologies qui la composaient. Dans son œuvre, la religion apparaît comme centrale, non pas en ce qu’elle s’y trouve critiquée, mais parce qu’elle semble agir comme l’instrument lui permettant d’ériger une pensée critique singulière. La religion trouve ainsi, sous le regard du poète, tout un potentiel de critique radicale de la société contemporaine italienne. Inspiré par les écrits du communiste italien Antonio Gramsci, Pasolini a trouvé dans la religion populaire – voire même « vulgaire » au sens de Dante – une force émancipatrice. Quel est précisément le sens de cet usage ? Est-ce que cette force émancipatrice peut aussi résider dans la religion contemporaine ? Et comment penser ce rapport à l’aune d’une résurgence du fondamentalisme religieux ?
Ce colloque « Religion rebelle : réflexion éthico-politique sur l’œuvre de Pier Paolo Pasolini » se veut le lieu d’une réflexion académique sur le potentiel critique que confère Pasolini à la religion. Les conférenciers et conférencières seront invité.e.s à réfléchir autour notamment des films Il Vangelio secundo Matteo (L’Évangile selon Saint-Mathieu, 1964) ou encore Teorema (Théorème, 1968), ainsi que du recueil de poésie La religione del moi tiempo (La religion de mon temps, 1961). Une attention particulière sera aussi portée à la question de l’application de la critique pasolinienne à des situations contemporaines.
Les propositions (en français ou en anglais) doivent être soumises par courriel aux professeurs Marc De Kesel mdekesel@ustpaul.ca et Julie Paquette jupaquette@ustpaul.ca avant le 30 avril. Elles doivent contenir un résumé de 500 mots et une courte présentation biographique. Les réponses seront envoyées fin mai.
Conférenciers et conférencières doivent être en mesure d’assurer leur déplacement, leur logement ainsi que leur frais de repas.
REBELLIOUS RELIGION ETHICAL AND POLITICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE WORK OF PIER PAOLO PASOLINI
Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada, 5-6 November 2015 Bilingual Conference organized by the Research Program Critical Religion and Public Ethics (Faculty of Philosophy / School of Public Ethics, Saint Paul University)
Forty years ago, on November 2, 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini was brutally killed in a still not yet cleared up murder. Both the literary and cinematic oeuvre he left behind made him to one of the major artistic and intellectual monuments of the twentieth century. Writing and film making were his way to reflect upon society and its ruling ideologies. In these reflections, religion appears to be not only the object of criticism; it often was its ‘instrument’ or even its ‘agent’ as well. In the eyes of Pasolini, religion has the potential of a radical criticism with respect to the existing society. Inspired by the writings of the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, Pasolini acknowledges the emancipatory force of popular – and often even ‘vulgar’ – religion. What precisely is that emancipatory force? Is that force still present in contemporary religion? And is it present – or precisely absent – in today’s religious fundamentalist movements?
The conference Rebellious Religion: ethical and political reflections on the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini offers a platform to scholarly reflections on the critical potential Pasolini ascribes to religion. Speakers are invited to discuss in that sense movies like Il Vangelio secundo Matteo (The Gospel according to St-Matthew, 1964) or Teorema (1968), or books of poems as La religione del mio tiempo (The religion of my time, 1961). Or they are asked how a typically ‘pasolinian’ criticsm is applicable contemporary situations.
Proposals (in English or in French) must be submitted by email to prof. Marc De Kesel (mdekesel@ustpaul.ca) and prof. Julie Paquette (jupaquette@ustpaul.ca) before April 30th 2015. The length of the proposals is 500 words, and a short biographic presentation must be added. Replies to the submissions will be send at the end of May.
The conference will take place at the Saint Paul University in Ottawa on November 5th et 6th, 2015. No fee is required from the speakers, and no travelling and hotel will be reimbursed.
Over: Annie Le Brun, Attaquer le soleil, catalogus bij de tentoonstelling ‘Sade. Attaquer le sole... more Over: Annie Le Brun, Attaquer le soleil, catalogus bij de tentoonstelling ‘Sade. Attaquer le soleil’, Paris, Musée d’Orsay, 14.10-2014 – 25.01.2015, Paris: Musée d’Orsay / Gallimard, 2015.
Un des premiers textes chrétiens, la Didachè, définit l'enseignement chré-tien comme « le chemin ... more Un des premiers textes chrétiens, la Didachè, définit l'enseignement chré-tien comme « le chemin de la vie ». Mais que signifie le mot « vie » dans ce vieux texte ? Ce n'est pas la vie telle que nous le comprenons spontané-ment : la vie biologique, naturelle, terrestre. La vie dont parle la Didachè est la vie infinie, céleste, divine ; c'est la vie en tant que donnée par Dieu. La présente contribution interroge ce concept de vie et l'analyse à par-tir du paradigme du don. Ayant une vie donnée (la vie terrestre donnée par Dieu), le chrétien a part en même temps à la vie divine que n'est que donnante. Dans la vie donnée de tous les jours, celui-ci témoigne – jusque dans son martyre – de la vie donnante qu'est Dieu. On montrera que l'histoire occidentale est marquée par une naturalisation de cette vie. Cela vaut certainement pour les sciences dites naturelles, qui surgissent avec la modernité à partir du XIX e siècle. Mais cela ne vaut pas pour la sociologie, qui émerge au début du XX e siècle ; à ce moment-là, le para-digme du don a été pour ainsi dire réhabilité à partir de l'oeuvre de Marcel Mauss. Cette théorie moderne du don semble pourtant loin d'être compatible avec le don tel que le christianisme l'a interprété. La perspective maussienne montre que le don chrétien (ou même monothéiste) est un don assez étrange : Dieu ne fait que donner sans lui-même recevoir des dons. Dieu lui-même ne vit pas des dons. Cette contribution permet fina-lement de tirer des conclusions sur ce que cette compréhension du don implique pour l'approche chrétienne contemporaine de la vie.
Uploads
Papers by Marc De Kesel
Today’s attempts to give the animal a social and political place and to honor it with the status
of ‘subject’ refers to the question of the human subject and more precisely the subject of
modernity. It is because we are too sure (which is to say not sure at all) concerning what the
‘modern subject’ is, that we invented the question of the animal. In a way, with regard to the
problem of the subject of modernity, the question of the animal fulfills a similar function as
the question of God. This is why a reference to the Christian theological tradition is
indispensable to understand what is at stake the contemporary fascination for the animal.
Analyzed from the perspective of the paradigm of the gift (as developed by Marcel Mauss),
the essay offers a short genealogy of the human relation with regard to the animal and shows
how religion (in all its shapes) is profoundly involved in it.
Today’s attempts to give the animal a social and political place and to honor it with the status
of ‘subject’ refers to the question of the human subject and more precisely the subject of
modernity. It is because we are too sure (which is to say not sure at all) concerning what the
‘modern subject’ is, that we invented the question of the animal. In a way, with regard to the
problem of the subject of modernity, the question of the animal fulfills a similar function as
the question of God. This is why a reference to the Christian theological tradition is
indispensable to understand what is at stake the contemporary fascination for the animal.
Analyzed from the perspective of the paradigm of the gift (as developed by Marcel Mauss),
the essay offers a short genealogy of the human relation with regard to the animal and shows
how religion (in all its shapes) is profoundly involved in it.
NOTE : une publication scientifique dans la revue ThéoRèmes est prévue aux suites dudit colloque.
Université Saint-Paul, Ottawa, Canada,
5-6 novembre 2015
– Colloque bilingue organisé par le
Programme de recherche
Religion critique et éthique publique
(Faculté de Philosophie / École
d’éthique publique, Université Saint-Paul)
Il y a quarante ans, le 2 novembre 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini était sauvagement assassiné sur la plage d’Ostia en Italie. Les circonstances entourant sa mort demeurent nébuleuses. L’œuvre prolifique qu’il nous a laissée, à la fois littéraire et cinématographique, a fait de lui l’un des plus grands monuments du XXème siècle. L’écriture et la scénarisation agissaient chez Pasolini comme les deux modalités avec lesquelles il appréhendait la société contemporaine, avec un regard toujours critique sur les diverses idéologies qui la composaient. Dans son œuvre, la religion apparaît comme centrale, non pas en ce qu’elle s’y trouve critiquée, mais parce qu’elle semble agir comme l’instrument lui permettant d’ériger une pensée critique singulière. La religion trouve ainsi, sous le regard du poète, tout un potentiel de critique radicale de la société contemporaine italienne. Inspiré par les écrits du communiste italien Antonio Gramsci, Pasolini a trouvé dans la religion populaire – voire même « vulgaire » au sens de Dante – une force émancipatrice. Quel est précisément le sens de cet usage ? Est-ce que cette force émancipatrice peut aussi résider dans la religion contemporaine ? Et comment penser ce rapport à l’aune d’une résurgence du fondamentalisme religieux ?
Ce colloque « Religion rebelle : réflexion éthico-politique sur l’œuvre de Pier Paolo Pasolini » se veut le lieu d’une réflexion académique sur le potentiel critique que confère Pasolini à la religion. Les conférenciers et conférencières seront invité.e.s à réfléchir autour notamment des films Il Vangelio secundo Matteo (L’Évangile selon Saint-Mathieu, 1964) ou encore Teorema (Théorème, 1968), ainsi que du recueil de poésie La religione del moi tiempo (La religion de mon temps, 1961). Une attention particulière sera aussi portée à la question de l’application de la critique pasolinienne à des situations contemporaines.
Les propositions (en français ou en anglais) doivent être soumises par courriel aux professeurs Marc De Kesel mdekesel@ustpaul.ca et Julie Paquette jupaquette@ustpaul.ca avant le 30 avril. Elles doivent contenir un résumé de 500 mots et une courte présentation biographique. Les réponses seront envoyées fin mai.
Conférenciers et conférencières doivent être en mesure d’assurer leur déplacement, leur logement ainsi que leur frais de repas.
REBELLIOUS RELIGION
ETHICAL AND POLITICAL REFLECTIONS
ON THE WORK OF PIER PAOLO PASOLINI
Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada,
5-6 November 2015
Bilingual Conference organized by the
Research Program Critical Religion
and Public Ethics (Faculty of Philosophy /
School of Public Ethics, Saint Paul University)
Forty years ago, on November 2, 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini was brutally killed in a still not yet cleared up murder. Both the literary and cinematic oeuvre he left behind made him to one of the major artistic and intellectual monuments of the twentieth century. Writing and film making were his way to reflect upon society and its ruling ideologies. In these reflections, religion appears to be not only the object of criticism; it often was its ‘instrument’ or even its ‘agent’ as well. In the eyes of Pasolini, religion has the potential of a radical criticism with respect to the existing society. Inspired by the writings of the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, Pasolini acknowledges the emancipatory force of popular – and often even ‘vulgar’ – religion. What precisely is that emancipatory force? Is that force still present in contemporary religion? And is it present – or precisely absent – in today’s religious fundamentalist movements?
The conference Rebellious Religion: ethical and political reflections on the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini offers a platform to scholarly reflections on the critical potential Pasolini ascribes to religion. Speakers are invited to discuss in that sense movies like Il Vangelio secundo Matteo (The Gospel according to St-Matthew, 1964) or Teorema (1968), or books of poems as La religione del mio tiempo (The religion of my time, 1961). Or they are asked how a typically ‘pasolinian’ criticsm is applicable contemporary situations.
Proposals (in English or in French) must be submitted by email to prof. Marc De Kesel (mdekesel@ustpaul.ca) and prof. Julie Paquette (jupaquette@ustpaul.ca) before April 30th 2015. The length of the proposals is 500 words, and a short biographic presentation must be added. Replies to the submissions will be send at the end of May.
The conference will take place at the Saint Paul University in Ottawa on November 5th et 6th, 2015. No fee is required from the speakers, and no travelling and hotel will be reimbursed.