Topoi/graphein
Author
Summary, in English
The aim of this thesis is to map the paradoxical limit of the in-between. In its most basic form the thesis is a paradox in itself, for how am I to comprehend and communicate the ever-changing world in a language which is characterised by fixed points and stable relations? The thesis consists of three main parts: a prologue, six chapters and an epilogue. Each of these parts can be read separatly, but togheter they form a set of conceptual maps whose focus is on the displacements, transpositions, juxtapositions, fluctuations and transformations that fill the gap between delimited categories.
In the prologue, Primo Levi's question from Auschwitz – "is this a human being?" – is transposed into the infamous images from Abu Ghraib. The prologue is followed by a section entitled Topoi/graphies, in total six chapters organized into two columns with three chapters in each. In the first pair of chapters we are in the taken-for-granted space of identity thinking, the world of the Euclidian fixed point. In the second pair the taken-for-granted universe of the fixed point has all but evaporated and we are instead witnessing how relations are being stabilized. In the third pair there is the horror of neither fixed points nor relations. Rephrased, the six chapters enact a journey that starts within a fixed spatiality in which human thought-and-action is anchored in the given of identity. It then moves through a social world in which the spatio-temporal transformations are neither fixed nor taken-for-granted. Finally it edges into a pure temporality that lies beyond the maps of fixed points and social relations.
It is in its own topic that the thesis cannot come to a definite conclusion. The epilogue nevertheless reaches out for a conceptual synthesis – nine minimalist figures with accompanying texts.
In the prologue, Primo Levi's question from Auschwitz – "is this a human being?" – is transposed into the infamous images from Abu Ghraib. The prologue is followed by a section entitled Topoi/graphies, in total six chapters organized into two columns with three chapters in each. In the first pair of chapters we are in the taken-for-granted space of identity thinking, the world of the Euclidian fixed point. In the second pair the taken-for-granted universe of the fixed point has all but evaporated and we are instead witnessing how relations are being stabilized. In the third pair there is the horror of neither fixed points nor relations. Rephrased, the six chapters enact a journey that starts within a fixed spatiality in which human thought-and-action is anchored in the given of identity. It then moves through a social world in which the spatio-temporal transformations are neither fixed nor taken-for-granted. Finally it edges into a pure temporality that lies beyond the maps of fixed points and social relations.
It is in its own topic that the thesis cannot come to a definite conclusion. The epilogue nevertheless reaches out for a conceptual synthesis – nine minimalist figures with accompanying texts.
Publishing year
2008
Language
Swedish
Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
Uppsala University
Topic
- Human Geography
Keywords
- In-between
- limit
- fixed point
- line
- plane
- preposition
- paradox
- relation
- Michel Serres
- Giorgio Agamben
- Gunnar Olsson
- Gilles Deleuze
- René Girard
- Walter Benjamin
Status
Published
Supervisor
- Gunnar Olsson
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-91-506-1999-7
Defence date
16 May 2008
Defence time
10:15
Defence place
Sal Minus, Gustavianum, Akademigatan 3, Uppsala
Opponent
- Alf Rehn (Professor)