The literary genre of autobiography dates back to the 18th century, when philosophy became a type... more The literary genre of autobiography dates back to the 18th century, when philosophy became a type of anthropology, archives and case histories strengthened the hold of discourse over life, and modern authorship and hermeneutics led to new modes of reading and writing. Nietzsche and so-called French theory have put significant strain on this constellation in their critique of language, subjectivity and authorship – a critique that makes traditional autobiography all but impossible. Needless to say, this has stopped neither Nietzsche nor a number of postmodern theorists from writing their own autobiographical texts. Interestingly, blindness is a recurring figure in many of these texts; and in this article, I argue that this figure allows us to trace the generic upheaval generated by the problematization of the discursive constellation that fostered modern autobiographical writing. By means of a brief introduction into the history of optics and a close reading of Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo and Cixous’ ‘Savoir,’ I show that the malfunctioning eye is one of the figures employed to deinstitutionalize both the philosophical and the autobiographical tradition, allowing us to grasp what became of autobiography after philosophy pronounced the death of man, the subject, and the author.
While both tourism research and photography research have grown into substantial academic discipl... more While both tourism research and photography research have grown into substantial academic disciplines, little has been written about their point of intersection: tourist photography. In this paper, I argue that a number of philosophically oriented theories of photography may offer useful perspectives on tourist photography. In my readings of Benjamin, Flusser and Barthes, I highlight those aspects of their theoretical work that offer insight into tourist photographic behavior, while pointing out where their theories need to be revised before they can be extrapolated to this domain. In particular, drawing on Barthes, I highlight the photograph's function as a material testimony constituting an implicit autobiographical narrative; drawing on Flusser, I foreground the camera's productive capacities, opposing these to a widespread perception of the camera as a passive recording device; and, drawing on Benjamin, I analyze the photograph's capacity to endow sites with an elusive aura that cannot be reproduced in any actual pictures of the site. While these authors have provided the theoretical framework for my analysis of tourist photographic practices, all of them need to be assessed critically, as their theories require significant alterations before they allow us to grasp the specificity of the tourist situation.
Recently, Judith Butler refused to accept an award for civil courage at the Berlin Christopher St... more Recently, Judith Butler refused to accept an award for civil courage at the Berlin Christopher Street Day, because she felt the event had become too commercial, and the event's organization had failed to distance itself from certain discriminatory statements. This, as well as many of her works, suggests that more than any other contemporary feminist author, Butler is aware of the risk of implication in exclusionary politics; a risk she might therefore successfully avoid. However, in this essay I argue that to the extent her theory of performativity has become a hegemonic framework within the field of gender studies, it leads to the foreclosure of certain possible gendered identities. Using Nancy's notion of finite thinking, I argue that a different approach to universality may lead to a less exclusionary way of conceptualizing gender.
Since the advent of post-structuralism, various authors have problematized the modern conception ... more Since the advent of post-structuralism, various authors have problematized the modern conception of autobiography by questioning the status of authorship and interrogating the relation between language and reality. Yet even after making autobiography into a theoretical problem, many of these authors ended up writing about themselves. This paradox stands at the center of this wide-ranging study of the form and function of autobiography in the work of authors who have distanced themselves from its modern instantiation. Discussing Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Hélène Cixous and others, this book grapples with the question of what it means to write the self when the self is understood as an effect of writing. Combining close reading, intellectual history and literary theory, The Autobiography Effect traces how precisely its theoretically problematic nature made autobiography into a central scene for the negotiation of philosophical positions and anxieties after structuralism.
In Drugs - Rhetoric of Fantasy, Addiction to Truth, Schep argues that the majority of writings ab... more In Drugs - Rhetoric of Fantasy, Addiction to Truth, Schep argues that the majority of writings about drugs fall into two categories: scientific work that establishes objective knowledge but neglects the experiential dimension, and texts that foreground the experiential aspects of drug intoxication at the expense of rigor. In this wide-ranging analysis of drug discourse and its conceptual foundations, the author claims that there are historical and metaphysical reasons for our apparent inability to address drugs directly. Drugs have become the locus of a number of political, juridical and philosophical debates, but most of these debates fail to address the tensions between drugs, language and truth that lie at the root of the cultural history of narcotics. According to the author, if we want to transcend the simple dichotomy between condemnation and propagation that has characterized our attitudes toward drugs in recent decades, we must first come to terms with these tensions. about the author: Dennis Schep (1985) holds an MA degree from the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee. He is currently living in Berlin, where he pursues his PhD research into autobiographical incursions in post-structuralist theory.
In the 'Forbidden Origins' talk I discussed Derrda's relative silence about Algeria pre-'Circonfe... more In the 'Forbidden Origins' talk I discussed Derrda's relative silence about Algeria pre-'Circonfesson.' In this talk, I discuss the shared topo/typographical constellation of those few instances where he does mention Algeria before the 90s.
Although the death of the Author, the problematization of referentiality and several other tenets... more Although the death of the Author, the problematization of referentiality and several other tenets of post-structuralist theory have questioned the feasibility of ‘Rousseauist’ autobiographical writing, we find autobiographical fragments in a number of texts by those very authors that challenge its feasibility. Autobiography existed long before Rousseau and will exist long after the Author’s death; but post-structuralist theory has certainly provoked a series of mutations in the notions of subject and language that structure any attempt at writing the self. While autobiographical writing in the tradition of Rousseau tends to focus on the development of the author’s soul, the postmodern autobiographical texts of Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy and Hélène Cixous foreground the authorial body. By privileging this body, Derrida, Nancy and Cixous subvert the notion of a disembodied cogito to upset the conventions that sustain the philosophical discipline. Moreover, the bodies produced in these texts are often bodies in crisis: circumcised bodies (Derrida), blind or myopic bodies (Derrida and Cixous), cancerous bodies and bodies with transplants (Nancy). In my contribution, I will relate the corporeal crises of the authors in question to the ways in which their texts both thematize and perform an epistemological challenge to the modern Western subject. Whereas the body in phenomenology served to ground knowledge claims, these sick and incapacitated bodies come to undermine epistemological stability. Playfully dislocating the boundary between philosophy and literature, Derrida, Nancy and Cixous employ autobiography in an attempt to undermine philosophical claims to universality in a mode of writing that inextricably entangles fragments of self writing with theoretical concerns, making a separation between the rhetorical, biographical and conceptual dimensions of their work all but impossible.
The texts of Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida are inscribed in a body of work that questions man... more The texts of Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida are inscribed in a body of work that questions many of the presuppositions underlying traditional autobiographical writing. Nevertheless, both authors have repeatedly incorporated a discourse of self-presentation in their theoretical and literary works. In my contribution, I will focus on Cixous' short text 'Savoir' (in which she discusses her myopia) and Derrida's Mémoires d'aveugle (in which he describes his facial paralysis). Considering the central importance of sight in the dominant epistemology of the West, the introduction of a blind or myopic body is not without significance for the autobiographical subject emerging in these texts, nor for the encompassing theoretical projects. Where autobiography is traditionally understood as self-exposure (often framed in sight-related terms, as in Rousseau's “Je me suis montré tel que je fus”), Cixous and Derrida allow us to grasp the constitutive blindness that first makes it possible to see ourselves. While the limits to self-knowledge are addressed at length in their more theoretical writings, these narratives of blindness perform an epistemological critique that defies strict categorization as either literary or philosophical.
Although some central tenets of post-structuralism have challenged the viability of autobiography... more Although some central tenets of post-structuralism have challenged the viability of autobiography, this challenge has been accompanied by a proliferation of autobiographical writing. Moreover, in recent decades, forms of self writing have found their way into philosophical texts, problematizing Derrida’s observation that philosophy is constituted by the exclusion of the author’s signature. In my intervention, I would like to address the role of the author’s body in recent philosophical works that incorporate autobiographical passages. In many cases (Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo, Derrida’s Memoirs of the Blind, Nancy’s Intruder), the body produced in these texts is a body in crisis. I will argue that these texts mobilize bodies in order to break down the boundary that instituted philosophy as a discipline separated from literature, and that these sick and incapacitated bodies function within a specifi c epistemological program that attempts to ground an access to knowledge without relying on a disembodied cogito.
The literary genre of autobiography dates back to the 18th century, when philosophy became a type... more The literary genre of autobiography dates back to the 18th century, when philosophy became a type of anthropology, archives and case histories strengthened the hold of discourse over life, and modern authorship and hermeneutics led to new modes of reading and writing. Nietzsche and so-called French theory have put significant strain on this constellation in their critique of language, subjectivity and authorship – a critique that makes traditional autobiography all but impossible. Needless to say, this has stopped neither Nietzsche nor a number of postmodern theorists from writing their own autobiographical texts. Interestingly, blindness is a recurring figure in many of these texts; and in this article, I argue that this figure allows us to trace the generic upheaval generated by the problematization of the discursive constellation that fostered modern autobiographical writing. By means of a brief introduction into the history of optics and a close reading of Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo and Cixous’ ‘Savoir,’ I show that the malfunctioning eye is one of the figures employed to deinstitutionalize both the philosophical and the autobiographical tradition, allowing us to grasp what became of autobiography after philosophy pronounced the death of man, the subject, and the author.
While both tourism research and photography research have grown into substantial academic discipl... more While both tourism research and photography research have grown into substantial academic disciplines, little has been written about their point of intersection: tourist photography. In this paper, I argue that a number of philosophically oriented theories of photography may offer useful perspectives on tourist photography. In my readings of Benjamin, Flusser and Barthes, I highlight those aspects of their theoretical work that offer insight into tourist photographic behavior, while pointing out where their theories need to be revised before they can be extrapolated to this domain. In particular, drawing on Barthes, I highlight the photograph's function as a material testimony constituting an implicit autobiographical narrative; drawing on Flusser, I foreground the camera's productive capacities, opposing these to a widespread perception of the camera as a passive recording device; and, drawing on Benjamin, I analyze the photograph's capacity to endow sites with an elusive aura that cannot be reproduced in any actual pictures of the site. While these authors have provided the theoretical framework for my analysis of tourist photographic practices, all of them need to be assessed critically, as their theories require significant alterations before they allow us to grasp the specificity of the tourist situation.
Recently, Judith Butler refused to accept an award for civil courage at the Berlin Christopher St... more Recently, Judith Butler refused to accept an award for civil courage at the Berlin Christopher Street Day, because she felt the event had become too commercial, and the event's organization had failed to distance itself from certain discriminatory statements. This, as well as many of her works, suggests that more than any other contemporary feminist author, Butler is aware of the risk of implication in exclusionary politics; a risk she might therefore successfully avoid. However, in this essay I argue that to the extent her theory of performativity has become a hegemonic framework within the field of gender studies, it leads to the foreclosure of certain possible gendered identities. Using Nancy's notion of finite thinking, I argue that a different approach to universality may lead to a less exclusionary way of conceptualizing gender.
Since the advent of post-structuralism, various authors have problematized the modern conception ... more Since the advent of post-structuralism, various authors have problematized the modern conception of autobiography by questioning the status of authorship and interrogating the relation between language and reality. Yet even after making autobiography into a theoretical problem, many of these authors ended up writing about themselves. This paradox stands at the center of this wide-ranging study of the form and function of autobiography in the work of authors who have distanced themselves from its modern instantiation. Discussing Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Hélène Cixous and others, this book grapples with the question of what it means to write the self when the self is understood as an effect of writing. Combining close reading, intellectual history and literary theory, The Autobiography Effect traces how precisely its theoretically problematic nature made autobiography into a central scene for the negotiation of philosophical positions and anxieties after structuralism.
In Drugs - Rhetoric of Fantasy, Addiction to Truth, Schep argues that the majority of writings ab... more In Drugs - Rhetoric of Fantasy, Addiction to Truth, Schep argues that the majority of writings about drugs fall into two categories: scientific work that establishes objective knowledge but neglects the experiential dimension, and texts that foreground the experiential aspects of drug intoxication at the expense of rigor. In this wide-ranging analysis of drug discourse and its conceptual foundations, the author claims that there are historical and metaphysical reasons for our apparent inability to address drugs directly. Drugs have become the locus of a number of political, juridical and philosophical debates, but most of these debates fail to address the tensions between drugs, language and truth that lie at the root of the cultural history of narcotics. According to the author, if we want to transcend the simple dichotomy between condemnation and propagation that has characterized our attitudes toward drugs in recent decades, we must first come to terms with these tensions. about the author: Dennis Schep (1985) holds an MA degree from the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee. He is currently living in Berlin, where he pursues his PhD research into autobiographical incursions in post-structuralist theory.
In the 'Forbidden Origins' talk I discussed Derrda's relative silence about Algeria pre-'Circonfe... more In the 'Forbidden Origins' talk I discussed Derrda's relative silence about Algeria pre-'Circonfesson.' In this talk, I discuss the shared topo/typographical constellation of those few instances where he does mention Algeria before the 90s.
Although the death of the Author, the problematization of referentiality and several other tenets... more Although the death of the Author, the problematization of referentiality and several other tenets of post-structuralist theory have questioned the feasibility of ‘Rousseauist’ autobiographical writing, we find autobiographical fragments in a number of texts by those very authors that challenge its feasibility. Autobiography existed long before Rousseau and will exist long after the Author’s death; but post-structuralist theory has certainly provoked a series of mutations in the notions of subject and language that structure any attempt at writing the self. While autobiographical writing in the tradition of Rousseau tends to focus on the development of the author’s soul, the postmodern autobiographical texts of Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy and Hélène Cixous foreground the authorial body. By privileging this body, Derrida, Nancy and Cixous subvert the notion of a disembodied cogito to upset the conventions that sustain the philosophical discipline. Moreover, the bodies produced in these texts are often bodies in crisis: circumcised bodies (Derrida), blind or myopic bodies (Derrida and Cixous), cancerous bodies and bodies with transplants (Nancy). In my contribution, I will relate the corporeal crises of the authors in question to the ways in which their texts both thematize and perform an epistemological challenge to the modern Western subject. Whereas the body in phenomenology served to ground knowledge claims, these sick and incapacitated bodies come to undermine epistemological stability. Playfully dislocating the boundary between philosophy and literature, Derrida, Nancy and Cixous employ autobiography in an attempt to undermine philosophical claims to universality in a mode of writing that inextricably entangles fragments of self writing with theoretical concerns, making a separation between the rhetorical, biographical and conceptual dimensions of their work all but impossible.
The texts of Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida are inscribed in a body of work that questions man... more The texts of Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida are inscribed in a body of work that questions many of the presuppositions underlying traditional autobiographical writing. Nevertheless, both authors have repeatedly incorporated a discourse of self-presentation in their theoretical and literary works. In my contribution, I will focus on Cixous' short text 'Savoir' (in which she discusses her myopia) and Derrida's Mémoires d'aveugle (in which he describes his facial paralysis). Considering the central importance of sight in the dominant epistemology of the West, the introduction of a blind or myopic body is not without significance for the autobiographical subject emerging in these texts, nor for the encompassing theoretical projects. Where autobiography is traditionally understood as self-exposure (often framed in sight-related terms, as in Rousseau's “Je me suis montré tel que je fus”), Cixous and Derrida allow us to grasp the constitutive blindness that first makes it possible to see ourselves. While the limits to self-knowledge are addressed at length in their more theoretical writings, these narratives of blindness perform an epistemological critique that defies strict categorization as either literary or philosophical.
Although some central tenets of post-structuralism have challenged the viability of autobiography... more Although some central tenets of post-structuralism have challenged the viability of autobiography, this challenge has been accompanied by a proliferation of autobiographical writing. Moreover, in recent decades, forms of self writing have found their way into philosophical texts, problematizing Derrida’s observation that philosophy is constituted by the exclusion of the author’s signature. In my intervention, I would like to address the role of the author’s body in recent philosophical works that incorporate autobiographical passages. In many cases (Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo, Derrida’s Memoirs of the Blind, Nancy’s Intruder), the body produced in these texts is a body in crisis. I will argue that these texts mobilize bodies in order to break down the boundary that instituted philosophy as a discipline separated from literature, and that these sick and incapacitated bodies function within a specifi c epistemological program that attempts to ground an access to knowledge without relying on a disembodied cogito.
In this non-academic article, I argue that despite Weber's Entzauberung der Welt, the supernatura... more In this non-academic article, I argue that despite Weber's Entzauberung der Welt, the supernatural and technology are not opposed - ghosts happily dwell in modern communication media.
In 1990, Robert Young wrote White Mythologies; a book that, in his own words, can be seen as a ma... more In 1990, Robert Young wrote White Mythologies; a book that, in his own words, can be seen as a mapping of the emerging new field of postcolonial studies, an approach that lacked institutional anchors at the time. The book begins with the following sentence:
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