2009/0 ‒ Angst
Recent Submissions
- ArticleSchreckensgespenster. Überlegungen zur politischen Theologie der Angst nach Kierkegaard, Heidegger und HobbesKlass, Tobias Nikolaus (2009) , S. 103-118This essay deals with the question which kind of fear it is that terror plays with, or which kind of fear terror tries to generate. First of all, the classically philosophical distinction of "Angst" and "Furcht" in Heidegger and Kierkegaard is surveyed in order to, then, in distinction from these forms of fear and following Hobbes, identify the specifically political form of fear, namely that of terror. In the foreground of this identification stand the residues of political theology which nourish political terror.
- ArticlePosthuman Conditions. Kultur- und Medienwissenschaften als dritte WissenskulturWeigel, Sigrid (2009) , S. 11-17As empirical research in neuro- and life sciences is aimed at the core of humanities, they adopt those formulas of pathos like "intention", "mind", "identity" or "consciousness" which, after all, have long been analysed with regard to their symbol-theoretical and media-anthropological principles. Meanwhile, cultural as well as media sciences have established themselves – beyond the contrasting 'two cultures' – as a kind of third culture of knowledge and thus connect to traditions of thought like, for instance, Freud's theory of subjects or Benjamin's theory of media.
- ArticleAbgioia. Tanz der Angst und des Konfl iktsDidi-Huberman, Georges (2009) , S. 119-131Starting from the hypothesis that we are faced with pictures as dynamic entities and as actions, this article investigates scenes of (political) confliict and of fight in Pasolini's films. Priority is given to the rhythmic quality of Pasolini's vital realism, which also characterises his application of montage as a procedure of contamination. Abigioia – that abysmal joy, which is based on the fear of and the longing for the lost life – here determines the poetics of anachronistic and impure sacredness.
- ArticleAngsthasen. Schwärme als Transformationsungestalten zwischen Tierpsychologie und BewegungsphysikVehlken, Sebastian (2009) , S. 133-149Swarms are capable of informing the conceptual field of 'fear' in two ways: Firstly, as space-dissolving diversities that create specific forms of fear and dread; secondly, as spacegenerating collectives whose dynamics become possible only through a fear-induced 'density'. The modes of determination in this field transform themselves from psychological to kineto-physical. And thus, an epistemic alignment is constituted, along which the relations of swarms to spaces facilitate new approaches of media to the conceptual field of 'fear'.
- ArticleDer unmögliche Blick. Medientechnik und inszenierte Weiblichkeit in Michael Powells PEEPING TOMRiepe, Manfred (2009) , S. 151-165In retrospect of the scandal caused by the first performance of PEEPING TOM in 1960, the "project" of Michael Powell's prototypal serial killer is analysed from a media theoretical viewpoint. Mark Lewis kills women, because he wants to see their horriffied expression in the moment of death and capture it on celluloid, employing an apparatus made of camera, stiletto and concave mirror. What exactly does Lewis want to spot in his victims' eyes? And how would that involve the issue of voyeurism at the cinema?
- ArticleTerror nicht Horror. Die Technologie der Angst und ihre Mediengeschichte in RINGBickenbach, Matthias (2009) , S. 167-183Hideo Nakata's film version of THE RING sets up a remarkable constellation of technical and spiritualist media that has re-established the genre of psycho-horror films. The film is not just about a ghost story but, unlike the novels by Kôji Suzuki, about a primeval scene of the fear of media that initiates the eventuation of a "video curse", thereby raising the issue of the technology of fear as a history of media.
- ArticleDer Mensch als Beute. Narrationen anthropologischer Angst im Science-Fiction-FilmAhrens, Jörn (2009) , S. 185-199Present-day Science-Fiction films repeatedly describe an obliteration of boundaries between human and other beings, and technical artefacts, which includes a threat to the human species. This motif relates to an anthropological fear of transformation of the human species due to advances in technology. This fear does not primarily refer to an invasion by extraterrestrial enemies, but to the anthropotechnization of man.
- ArticleMit lachendem Gesicht: en face le pire jusqu’à ce qu’il fasse rireMacho, Thomas (2009) , S. 19-36The varied reception history of Victor Hugo's novel L'Homme qui rit (1869) is outlined in the context of exemplary historicisations of the "laughing face"-character. This reconstruction deals with the interplay of aesthetics and passion, on the one hand, and with the effects of intermedia encounters of literature, photography and film, on the other. Not only the traditional naturalisation of medieval penalty practices (by defacing) is investigated, but also the modern media history of celebrities.
- ArticleGespenster als Vorboten des Elektrischen. Wie ein Gelehrtenstreit im 18. Jahrhundert einen Anfangsgrund von Kulturwissenschaft stiftetSchaub, Mirjam (2009) , S. 37-52This essay considers the theoretical attention that recent social theories show for wayward object relations and inquires as to how this adjusts to the philosophical occupation with the status of "things". For while we find, at least since the 18th century and most notably with regard to epistemology, the dismissal of "the thing" as an ontological entity, this new attention, with its interest in material matters, seems, at first glance, to contradict that tradition.
- ArticleEditorialEngell, Lorenz; Siegert, Bernhard (2009) , S. 5-9
- ArticleHegels symbolisches Papier. Zum medialen Status des DingsScholz, Leander (2009) , S. 53-60This essay considers the theoretical attention that recent social theories show for wayward object relations and inquires as to how this adjusts to the philosophical occupation with the status of "things". For while we find, at least since the 18th century and most notably with regard to epistemology, the dismissal of "the thing" as an ontological entity, this new attention, with its interest in material matters, seems, at first glance, to contradict that tradition.
- ArticleDas Seminar. Buch X. Die Angst (Auszug)Lacan, Jacques (2009) , S. 61-65
- ArticleKommentarSiegert, Bernhard (2009) , S. 67-72
- ArticleAnxiety – Borderlines in/of PsychoanalysisWeber, Samuel (2009) , S. 73-85From his earliest writings until into his old age, Freud was constantly occupied with the problem of fear. First, he tried to integrate fear as the recurrence of repressed memories into his framework. Subsequently to Beyond the Pleasure Principle, he revised his approach to fear which, then, he defined as a reaction of the self to a danger. However, if fear is no longer understood as a consequence, but rather as a cause of repression, then fear appears as an uncanny "boundary creature" ("Grenzwesen", Freud) of psychoanalytic theory: intimate, though still alien in its intimacy.
- ArticleAngst und BegehrenWidmer, Peter (2009) , S. 87-101Fear occurs in various forms: existential, pathological, physical and mental. This article gives a general survey of Freud's and Lacan's conceptions. While the founder of psychoanalysis conceives of fear mainly as a corporeal fear of castration, Lacan emphasises the more extended dimension of symbolic castration which is, through the concept of scarcity, directly connected with desire and fear. The pathological side of fear becomes apparent in the defence against existential fear, in phobias, that replace the unfathomable object of fear by a manageable one.
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