Subjectivities

Closely related to both film noir and the woman's film, 1940s female gothic pictures combine suspense and mystery with a focus on the subjective experience of the female protagonist. This article discusses the use of music and sound in the cinematic female gothic tradition, focusing upon two historically located films that form part of its “gaslight” subgenre: 'Experiment Perilous' (dir. Tourneur; comp. Webb, 1944) and 'The Spiral Staircase' (dir. Siodmak; comp. Webb, 1946). In both films, the positioning of the female lead is mediated by the presence of a medical discourse revolving around her professional and romantic relationship with a male doctor, whose knowledge and authority also allows him to function as an unofficial investigator into the woman's persecution at the hands of a serial murderer. The female gothic soundtrack is a crucial element in the creation and communication of this gendered discourse, articulating the shifting position of characters in relation to issues of crime, criminality, and romance. Musical and vocal control reinforce the doctor's dominance whilst allying his presentation with that of an emasculated killer, and create and contain agency within complex constructions of female victimhood.

Beginning with a recurrent discussion about the choice between two imagined Star Trek technologies, the holodeck and the transporter, this article explores how popular culture can be revealing of ways in which political possibilities are variously made and foreclosed by dint of deeply held but underinterrogated ideational commitments circulating in the mundane and carried forward by what might seem unlikely voices. Tracing a few such commitments as they pertain to the legitimation and delegitimation of political subjecthood, we examine the political stakes of questions of agency and delusion through what were initially reported to have been the June 2006 suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the crisis that emerged with respect to multiple hunger strikes at that same facility some seven years later. Through these we ask whether there might be resistance-enabling possibilities as yet unimagined in agential choices that can so deeply offend prevailing sensibilities that it is sometimes difficult to abide them as valid choices at all. As we struggle with these resurgent security politics, it might seem frivolous to turn to film and television, or pub games at conferences, for guidance. What this article demonstrates is that these popular renderings of the limits of acceptable subjectivity draw on deep currents in our very broadest culture. In a very real sense, we are all very well prepared for our present political rendition.

Surveillance is a part of our everyday lives, and it does not include just the cameras watching over individuals safety and collecting images of them. Surveillance includes all kinds of techniques of data gathering, for instance, the keeping of medical histories and the conduct of surveys. Directly related to the medical sphere is the notion of biopolitics. The aim of biopolitics is to control and normalize individuals lives by subjecting them to treatments, proposing to them possibilities of a better life (or death), etc. This paper deals with biopolitics and its relations to surveillance (it can be said that surveillance is a set of techniques used to implement biopolitics). To mediate between these two concepts I have chosen a disorder called Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, which is becoming ever more prevalent among children and lately also adults. I will investigate how this disorder – which is definitely not an irrefutable medical fact – is being constructed through surveys and biopolitical techniques and what kind of a subject ADHD treatment hopes to create.

In this paper I explore what Michel Foucault described as the problem of contemporary Western society in regards to our relations with ourselves. In the 1980 Dartmouth Lectures he dubbed this issue as “the politics of ourselves” (Foucault, 2007b, 190). My hypothesis states that we should interpret Foucault's use of politics, in this instance, as defined by Plutarch as “'a life' and a 'practice' (bios kai praxis)” (Foucault, 1986, 87). Through this interpretation, in order for modern human beings to actively constitute themselves as ethical subjects they must attempt to solve two additional aspects of the puzzle: their lives and their practices. However, I will also maintain that this definition does not necessarily negate the simultaneous interpretation of politics as it is commonly conceived. In fact, I believe the utilization of both definitions is required.

Esse artigo parte da inquietação acadêmica provocada no decorrer da coleta de dados para a minha pesquisa de doutoramento, na qual analisei as trajetórias de sujeitos anglo-americanos, casados com mulheres brasileiras e habitantes da cidade de João Pessoa, litoral da Paraíba. Em suas narrativas os sujeitos lançavam mão, simultaneamente, de termos e expressões diferentes da língua em que o diálogo ocorria, promovendo uma situação comunicativa híbrida ao utilizar o inglês e o português para discorrer sobre seus deslocamentos. Destarte, analiso a relação entre a construção de discursos linguisticamente híbridos, isto é, aqueles que usam o inglês e o português, e a (re)construção de identidades culturais de sujeitos anglo-americanos migrantes em território brasileiro. Para executar tal investigação selecionei excertos das entrevistas, realizadas entre o período de Maio de 2012 a Outubro de 2013 utilizando a metodologia da História Oral (ALBERTI, 2010, 2012), que continham exemplos dessa mescla linguística. A análise ocorre de forma teórico-prática, ao intercalar apontamentos teóricos
e excertos, e pelo viés interdisciplinar (MINAYO, 2010), pois julgo-o essencial para uma
investigação que busca compreender as nuances subjetivas contidas no sujeito migrante contemporâneo. Para tanto, valho-me da linha teórica contida na Análise Crítica do Discurso (ACD) com Norman Fairclough (2010a, 2010b) e suas reflexões sobre o contexto de situação e cultura; alio a ACD à teóricos como Stuart Hall (1989, 1997) e Tomaz Tadeu da Silva (2000) na discussão das relações entre cultura, língua materna e identidades culturais; Caroline Brettell (2003), Maria Casado-Diaz (2009), Michaela Benson e Karen O’Reilly (2009) na discussão sobre os movimentos migratórios; Gustavo
Lins Ribeiro (1998), Nestor Canclini (2006), Rosi Braidotti (2008) e Sergio Paulo  Rouanet (2009) na discussão sobre hibridismo. A união das reflexões aqui apresentadas possibilita a observação de como as subjetividades e as identidades culturais são (re)construídas pelo sujeito imigrante através de percepções e representações acerca da sociedade de origem e da sociedade-lar no cenário da adaptação, proporcionando uma desterritorialização semântica, em outras palavras, reduzindo fronteiras linguísticas na comunicação contemporâneas.
Palavras-chave: identidade cultural; discursos; anglo-americanos; hibridismo

Paper presented at the Art as Exhibition conference in Vienna, June 2014. The content taken from my PhD research into curating and commons. New forms of social subjectivities formation and consequences this has for curating, explored here :)

In light of the recent ban on the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” in Russia, my thesis explores the queer activist movements in the city of St-Petersburg. In the wake of the ban, emerging and new modes of activism in St-Petersburg have developed and the individuals participating in these campaigns present different ways of being active/activists in means both public and private, street and academic, local and global. Firstly, after a brief historical overview of queer desires and identities in Russia, this thesis examines two prominent spheres of activism, academic and street-based, and their shifting practices in light of the ban. Secondly, I examine the effects of the ban on queer subject and identity making through a discussion of the various discourses (nationalist, moral, medical, global) that are present in their everyday lives. This focus demonstrates that despite the official bodies (state and church) attempting to delegitimize queer desires and subjects, queer activists are able to carve out spaces for themselves and continue in their attempts to fashion a queer world of their own.

Im Anschluss an die Studien von Michel Foucault und Judith Butler wurde in den letzten Jahren nicht nur die Wirkmächtigkeit von Diskursen und Strukturen unter-sucht, sondern auch verstärkt versucht, die Handlungsfähigkeit von Individuen als Widerständigkeit von Subjekten zu beschreiben. In diesem Beitrag werde ich dar-stellen, ob und wie junge Erwachsene mit Erfahrungen schulischer Ausgrenzung Subjektivität im Sinne eines Handlungs- und Bildungsvermögens erlangen. Aus-gangspunkt dafür ist meine Beschäftigung mit den Diskursen der Sonderpädagogik und ihren institutionellen Praktiken (Pfahl 2008) sowie mit den Berufsbiografien von AbsolventInnen der Sonderschule für Lernbehinderte (Pfahl 2006). Ich werde mich der Frage ‚Wie ist Kapitalismuskritik möglich?’ über das ‚Subjekt’ nähern.
Ziel dieses Beitrags ist, das Verhältnis von Bildung, Behinderung, Wissenschaft und Arbeitsmarkt zu beschreiben, welches die soziale Ungleichheit von Sonder-schulabsolventInnen hervorbringt und in einem eingeschränkten Handlungsver-mögen und einer ‚behindernden’ Subjektivität der Beteiligten resultiert. Das deut-sche Sonderschulwesen, so meine Rekonstruktion, etablierte sich am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts mit der Absicht, den Ärmsten zu helfen und hat dabei seine Auf-gabenbereiche u. a. zum Erhalt der Profession im Verlauf des Jahrhunderts verän-dert und ausgeweitet. Die politische Ökonomie der Sonderschule, so meine These, zeigt sich daran, dass sie bestimmte Bevölkerungsgruppen weitgehend aus dem Arbeitsmarkt ausschließt und diesen Ausschluss zugleich legitimiert (Tomlin-son/Colquhoun 1995)...

Based on the theories of Judith BUTLER, Michel FOUCAULT, and Karl MARX, Hanna MEIßNER analyzes the historical, legal and social conditions of the emergence of subjectivity. She establishes a critical understanding of human autonomy and the potential of practices of resistance in the context of existing conditions. Both MEIßNER's analytical structure and her precise argumentation are convincing. By highlighting the relationship of individual self-determination and collective welfare, this study provides helpful links to different theoretical approaches, particularly to the emerging disciplines of disability studies and diversity studies in Germany.
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In ihrem Buch untersucht Hanna MEIßNER unter Rückgriff auf die Theorien von Judith BUTLER, Michel FOUCAULT und Karl MARX die historischen, rechtlichen und sozialen Bedingungen für das Entstehen moderner Subjekte. Sie etabliert ein kritisches Verständnis von Autonomie bzw. Handlungsfähigkeit und fragt nach dem damit verbundenen Potenzial an widerständige Praktiken innerhalb der bestehenden Verhältnisse. MEIßNERs Analyse überzeugt durch ihren Aufbau und ihre präzisen Argumentationslinien. Sie bietet Anschlussstellen insbesondere für die sich auch im deutschsprachigen Raum etablierenden Disability Studies sowie Diversity Studies und stellt einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Kritik am Ableism sowie zur Bedeutung von individueller Selbstbestimmung und kollektiver Fürsorge dar.