College:
Trinity Hall
Email:
am2370@cam.ac.uk
Supervisor:
鈥婼肠丑辞濒补谤蝉丑颈辫蝉/笔谤颈锄别蝉:
澳门六合彩开奖记录 Trust Award
Research:
Sensing-through Architectural Scenographies: Tactility, Language and Natural History in the Work of Walter Benjamin 听 In its consideration of the work of the senses, notions of truth and language and political aesthetics in Walter Benjamin鈥檚 epistemology of images, this thesis takes as its touch-stone Benjamin鈥檚 somewhat overlooked meditations on the sensorial faculty of tactility (鈥渄as Taktische鈥�). According to the first version of the 鈥淲ork of Art鈥� essay, along with the distinctive structures of perception of the new modes of reproduction, film and photography, architecture is the artistic domain which tactility most intimately inhabits, in which it is at home, 鈥渕ore originally鈥�. The nexus between tactility, through figures of touch, and affect as the absence of intentionality informs the Benjaminian settings of 鈥渘atural history鈥�. These are scenographic sites permeated with 鈥渃reaturely life鈥� and perceived by way of melancholy and lament, as explicated in the early work on 鈥淭he Origin the German Baroque Trauerspiel鈥�. In this constellation, the sensual realm, mediated through the allegorical mode and the more non-intentional dimensions of signification, bears deepest affinity to the linguistic grounds of philosophical representation in Benjamin鈥檚 terms. The thesis develops this argument in a set of interlinked moves and theoretical directions. Firstly, Benjamin鈥檚 conceptualisation of architecture 鈥渁s more than origin鈥� is subjected to encounter with Hegel鈥檚 account of architecture as symbolic art. In as much as tactility is more originally 鈥渋n der Architektur zuhause鈥�, this formulation also provides an intimation of the 鈥淯nzuhause鈥�, leading to Freud鈥檚 interrelated theories of the uncanny and the articulation of the death drive, beyond the pleasure principle. Secondly, a reconstruction of Theodor W. Adorno鈥檚 reflections on 鈥渢he idea of natural history鈥� exposes the juncture between Benjamin鈥檚 and Martin Heidegger鈥檚 approaches to the 鈥渟ecularisation of history鈥� and the politico-theological dimension of historicity. The spectral character of spatiality in works by Kafka and Rilke, as mediated through the philosophical writings of these thinkers, proves significant for the scenographic thinking of this polemic on the essence of historical time.听 The third move conceptualises the architectonics of origin and translation in Benjamin鈥檚 theory of translation. The Fall of language and the task of translating that gives itself away to translatability, is the disclosure of what this thesis takes as a persistent figure reverberating through Benjamin鈥檚 work: the towering logic of Babel.
Publications:
鈥楽patiality and Temporality in Benjamin and Adorno鈥� in Alberto G. (ed.), Sensationalism and the Genealogy of Modernity, (Palgrave Macmillan ,2017), pp. 257-276.听
鈥淚m Taktischen鈥�: Figures of Touch in the Work of Walter Benjamin,听The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 93:3 (2018), 298-316. 听
(Non-)Moving Images: Nikolaus Geyrhalter鈥檚听Homo Sapiens as a Cinema of Natural History,听Transformations听issue 32 (2018).
听
Spatiality and Temporality in Benjamin and Adorno, in Alberto G. (ed.), Sensationalism and the Genealogy of Modernity, (Palgrave Macmillan ,2017), pp. 257-276.
Conference Papers:
- 鈥楾he Thought-Image and its Medium: On Walter Benjamin鈥檚 鈥淒er Mond鈥濃�� in 鈥淲alter Benjamin and Method: Re-thinking the Legacy of the Frankfurt School鈥�, International Walter Benjamin Conference, University of Oxford, September 2017.听 听
- 鈥樷�淎n Ear for Lament鈥�: Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem on Language and Ruination鈥� in 鈥淩e-Thinking the Book of Job: Das Buch Hiob im biblischen Kontext und in Interpretationen des 20. Jhds.鈥�, FU Berlin, July 2017.
- 听鈥楾he Cinema of Natural History: On Nikolaus Geyrhalter鈥檚 鈥楬omo Sapiens鈥欌��, in 鈥楢esthetics and Politic鈥� Department of German and Dutch, 澳门六合彩开奖记录, May 2017.
- 鈥楾he Image as a Scene of Deformation between Speaking and Seeing: on Walter Benjamin鈥檚 Fragment 鈥楶hantasie鈥欌�� in 鈥楨piphanic Realities Languages of Things in Literature and the Arts鈥�, the Trilateral Colloquium Berlin-澳门六合彩开奖记录-Chicago, Berlin, February 2017.
- 鈥楻uination of Time, Sites of Ruins: Temporality and spatiality in Adorno鈥檚 鈥淭he Idea of Natural History鈥濃�� in 澳门六合彩开奖记录 AHRC DTP Conference on 鈥楾ime and Temporality鈥�, September 2016.听
- 听鈥�"Durchsp眉ren von Strukturen鈥�: Architecture as 鈥淢edium of Untimeliness'听in the Work of Benjamin鈥� in 鈥楾he Untimeliness of Media鈥�, Graduate conference organised by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA, February 2016.听
- 鈥楨conomic Subjects, Economic Bodies: On Walter Benjamin鈥檚 Sketch 鈥淐apitalism as Religion鈥濃��, in 鈥楨conomic Subjects, Trilateral Doctoral Colloquium Berlin鈥摪拿帕喜士奔锹尖�揅hicago, July 2018, 澳门六合彩开奖记录.
- 鈥楾he Cinema of Natural History: On Nikolaus Geyrhalter鈥檚 鈥楬omo Sapiens鈥欌��, in 鈥楢esthetics and Politic鈥� Department of German and Dutch, 澳门六合彩开奖记录, May 2017.听
- 听鈥楾he Image as a Scene of Deformation between Speaking and Seeing: on Walter Benjamin鈥檚 Fragment 鈥楶hantasie鈥欌�� in 鈥楨piphanic Realities Languages of Things in Literature and the Arts鈥�, the Trilateral Colloquium Berlin-澳门六合彩开奖记录-Chicago, Berlin, February 2017.
- 鈥楻uination of Time, Sites of Ruins: Temporality and spatiality in Adorno鈥檚 鈥淭he Idea of Natural History鈥濃�� in 澳门六合彩开奖记录 AHRC DTP Conference on 鈥楾ime and Temporality鈥�, September 2016.听
- 鈥樷�淒urchsp眉ren von Strukturen鈥�: Architecture as 鈥淢edium of Untimeliness鈥� in the Work of Benjamin鈥� in 鈥楾he Untimeliness of Media鈥�, Graduate conference organised by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA, February 2016.
