Negativity
Alexi Kukuljevic
Art Sciences and Art Education, Art Theory
2020W, scientific seminar (SEW), 4.0 ECTS, 2.0 semester hours, course number S03465
Description
In a letter from 1937 to Axel Kaun written in German, Samuel Beckett suggests that the "the highest goal of today’s writer [ich kann mir für den heutigen Schriftsteller kein höhere Ziel vorstellen]" consists in a form of active decomposition, in working against grammar and style, in making holes in language. With characteristic humor, Beckett writes:
"Grammar and style! To me they have become as irrelevant as a Biedermeier bathing suit or the imperturbability of a gentleman. A mask. It is to be hoped the time will come, thank God, in some circles it already has when language is best used where it is more efficiently abused. Since we cannot dismiss it all at once, at least we do not want to leave anything undone that may contribute to it disrepute. To drill one hole after another into it until that which lurks behind, be it something or nothing, starts seeping through [Ein Loch nach dem andern in ihr zu bohren, bis das Dahinterkauernde, sei es etwas oder nichts, durchzusickern anfängt]."
Writing thus demands a certain scorn for the means at the writer’s disposal: language. A certain negativity. Language is to be brushed against the grain, “efficiently abused.” And yet writing cannot simply become a refusal to write. Quoting Goethe’s Elective Affinities [Die Wahlverwandschaften], Beckett quips that it is better to write NOTHING than nothing at all. [Lieber NICHTS zu schreiben, als nicht zu schreiben.] To write NOTHING is not a matter of a simple negation, i.e., of not writing. To write becomes rather an extreme effort to mark the place of a negativity irreducible to negation.
In The Unnameable (L’Innommable), the third in a trilogy of novels preceded by Molloy and Malone Dies, Beckett takes this effort to an extreme. “In this last book, L’Innomable,” as he tells Israel Schenker in 1956, “there’s complete disintegration. No ‘I’, no ‘have’, no ‘being’. No nominative, no accusative, no verb. There’s no way to go on.” This novel will provide the focal point of the seminar and our shared effort to think the relationship between negativity and art. In addition to reading this novel and other texts by Samuel Beckett, we will also have occasion consider the work of Adorno, Blanchot, Deleuze, and Badiou.
Examination Modalities
Anwesenheit, Mitarbeit, ev. kurzer Text!
Das Seminar wird zwischen 1. und 30. November wieder online via Zoom abgehalten!
Dates
14 October 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
21 October 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
28 October 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
04 November 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
11 November 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
18 November 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
25 November 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
02 December 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
09 December 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
16 December 2020, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
13 January 2021, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
20 January 2021, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
27 January 2021, 12:45–14:15 Seminar Room 21
Course Enrolment
Via online registration
Curriculum Allocation
co-registration: possible
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): FOR: aus Kunsttheorie
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis
Art Education: subject kkp (Master): Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis
Art Education: subject tex (Bachelor): FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis
Art Education: subject tex (Master): Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE
Art Education: subject tex (Enhancements study): FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften
Art Education: subject tex (Enhancements study): FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis
Art Education: subject dae (Bachelor): FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis
Art Education: subject dae (Master): Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE
Art Education: subject dae (Enhancements study): FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften
Art Education: subject dae (Enhancements study): FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis
Art Education: subject dex (Master): Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis
TransArts - Transdisciplinary Arts (Bachelor): Theoretical foundations
Stage Design (1. Section): Kunsttheorie
Stage Design (2. Section): Kunsttheorie
Media Arts: Specialisation in Transmedia Arts (2. Section): Kunsttheorie
Media Arts: Specialisation in Digital Arts (1. Section): Kulturwissenschaften
Media Arts: Specialisation in Digital Arts (2. Section): Kunsttheorie
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 1
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 2
Design: Specialisation in Graphic Design (2. Section): Humanities
Design: Specialisation in Graphics and Advertising (2. Section): Humanities
Conservation and Restoration (2. Section): Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte
subject Fine Arts / Art and Communication Practices (1. Section): Aus Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (2.5 ECTS)
subject Fine Arts / Art and Communication Practices (2. Section): Aus Kunst und Kulturwissenschaften, (davon min. 4 SSt SE) (2.5 ECTS)
subject Handicrafts / Design, Architecture and Environment (1. Section): Aus Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (2.0 ECTS)
subject Handicrafts / Design, Architecture and Environment (2. Section): Aus Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften, (min. 4 SSt SE) (2.5 ECTS)
subject Textile Design / Textiles - Art, Design, Styles (1. Section): Aus Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (2.0 ECTS)
subject Textile Design / Textiles - Art, Design, Styles (2. Section): Aus Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (mind. 4 SSt SE) (2.5 ECTS)
Fine Arts (2. Section): Art Theory, Cultural Studies, Art History, Philosophy
Fine Arts (2. Section): Free Electives out of Scientific and Research Practice
Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (2. Section): Humanities
Individual courses: possible