Stijn De Cauwer | Leiden University (original) (raw)

Articles by Stijn De Cauwer

Culture, Theory & Critique, 2024

Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 2021

In Survivance des lucioles, Georges Didi-Huberman cites sections from a letter in which Pier Paol... more In Survivance des lucioles, Georges Didi-Huberman cites sections from a letter in which Pier Paolo Pasolini describes an encounter with a swarm of fireflies. The sight of the fireflies triggers reflections on various topics on the part of Pasolini. However, at the end of his life, Pasolini lamented the fact that fireflies had disappeared in modern society, serving as a metaphor for the fact that he had lost all hope in the consumerist society in which he was living. Pasolini’s reflections on fireflies illustrate Georges Didi-Huberman’s theories on the current state and politics of images in contemporary society. In this article, several key features of the politics of images, according to Didi-Huberman, are clarified, in particular, the role of pathos and imagination. It is on the role of pathos and imagination that Didi-Huberman’s views will diverge from the theories of other prominent theorists of images, such as Jacques Rancière, Roland Barthes, W.J.T. Mitchell and Bruno Latour. By clarifying these diverging views, the theories of Didi-Huberman can be formulated more precisely.

De Uil Van Minerva , 2017

De voorbije maanden hebben we beelden gezien van vluchtelingen die een weg proberen te vinden doo... more De voorbije maanden hebben we beelden gezien van vluchtelingen die een weg proberen te vinden doorheen Europa, waarbij ze steeds opnieuw voor grenzen en andere obstakels staan.

Johannes Türk has argued that literature can function as an immunity mechanism, using the writing... more Johannes Türk has argued that literature can function as an immunity mechanism, using the writings of Kafka as an example. Türk, however, theorizes immunity as a personal, individual coping strategy against one’s own mortal sickness and death. In this view, strongly influenced by Luhmann’s systems theory, literature has the capacity of providing us with an emotional skill set. The view that immunity mechanisms are a personal skill set leads to inevitable difficulties and limits our understanding of the functioning of a literary immunity. Kafka’s texts were written in a context in which problematic and destructive discourses about immunity were prevailing. By focusing on Kafka’s story Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer as an exploration of the problems with immunity discourse, I show that the different stylistic features of Kafka’s writing function as tactics to render destructive immunity discourses inoperative.

Nietzsche was one of the first to point out the importance of immunological processes that are at... more Nietzsche was one of the first to point out the importance of immunological processes that are at work in any society to maintain its coherence against threats. At the same time, Nietzsche was aware that these immunological processes can become too rigid, ultimately even dangerous and self-destructive. Roberto Esposito has shown that Nietzsche's work contains at the same time the seeds of such a problematic form of immunology and another way of thinking immunology that could avoid the dangerous consequences. Nietzsche knew that a society which rigidly bans out all threats will rob itself of the capacity for revitalizing itself. I will show that the Nietzschean writings on immunology are a crucial influence on Robert Musil. Due to the complexities with this aspect of Nietzsche's work, this influence is not immediately obvious. Exploring this influence will help to clarify certain aspects of Musil's work, such as the prevalence of pathological behavior in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften. Moreover, it will make clear why Musil was very critical of Nietzsche's legacy, while at the same time claiming that his work is full of possibilities which nobody takes up. To find a way to foreclose the dangerous forms of immunological thinking, for which people found inspiration in Nietzsche's work, Musil takes up another way of thinking immunology that also comes out of Nietzsche's thought.

Culture, Theory & Critique, 2024

Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 2021

De Uil Van Minerva , 2017

We are living in an age of crisis—or an age in which everything is labeled a crisis. Financial, d... more We are living in an age of crisis—or an age in which everything is labeled a crisis. Financial, debt, and refugee “crises” have erupted. The word has also been applied to the Arab Spring and its aftermath, Brexit, the 2016 U.S. election, and many other international events. Yet the term has contradictory political and strategic meanings for those challenging power structures and those seeking to preserve them. For critics of the status quo, can the rhetoric of crisis be used to foment urgency around issues like climate change and financialization, or does framing a situation as a “crisis” play into the hands of the existing political order, which then seeks to tighten the leash by creating a state of emergency?

Critical Theory at a Crossroads presents conversations with prominent theorists about the crises that have marked the past years, the protest movements that have risen up in response, and the use of the term in political discourse. Tariq Ali, Rosi Braidotti, Wendy Brown, Maurizio Lazzarato, Angela McRobbie, Jean-Luc Nancy, Antonio Negri, Jacques Rancière, Saskia Sassen, and Joseph Vogl offer their views on contemporary challenges and how we might address them, candidly discussing the alternatives that new social movements have offered, alongside an exchange between Zygmunt Bauman and Roberto Esposito on theories of community. Sparring over crucial developments in these past years of catastrophe and the calamity of everyday life under capitalism, they shed light on how crises and the discourse of crisis can both obscure and reveal fundamental aspects of modern societies.

Anthropocene, posthumanism, biopolitics … These terms are often used first in an academic context... more Anthropocene, posthumanism, biopolitics … These terms are often used first in an academic context before being used outside the academic world, once their usefulness has become known to the wider public. Whether in official policy documents, in catalogues of expositions or in applications for subsidies, these terms tend to show up regularly.

In this book, 50 terms that are important in contemporary cultural theory are explained by experts in the field. They clarify what the term means, how it is used in different contexts and which discussions the term has triggered. Some of these terms refer to political issues (surveillance, political theology, multitude), gender and queer studies (postfeminism, heteronormativity, intersectionality), media theory (convergence, algorithm) or the art world (curating, participation, performance).

This book functions as a compendium of key terms in contemporary cultural theory. It is of use for students in the humanities, but also for professionals in the cultural field.

Special issue about the work of Georges Didi-Huberman

The Didi-Huberman Dictionary, 2023

Literary Representations of Precarious Work, 1840 to the Present, 2021

In this coda, the impact of the current global COVID-19 pandemic is assessed on the existing form... more In this coda, the impact of the current global COVID-19 pandemic is assessed on the existing forms of precarity, as well as the new forms of precarity it caused. More specifically, as the world is still coming to terms with the massive and diverse consequences of the pandemic, this coda aims to provide a brief overview of the ways in which theorists and writers have attempted to describe the experience and impact of the pandemic, whether in opinion pieces, short blog posts or in novels. Following the views of Lauren Berlant, these attempts at rendering the impact of the pandemic in a narrative form can be regarded as a way to affectively cope with the pandemic.

Rethinking Marxism, 2020

The past months during the COVID-19 pandemic, many authors have pointed out the relevance of Mi... more The past months during the COVID-19 pandemic, many authors have pointed out the relevance of Michel Foucault’s theories of biopolitics for the present situation. Foucault’s theories of biopolitics were further developed by Italian neo-Marxist thinkers to analyze post-Fordist labour conditions. The current pandemic has emphasized the observation made by Foucault that biopolitics is always a differential exposure to risk, as we have seen that some are allowed to stay in lockdown while others have to keep on working. The pandemic has also revealed how post-Fordist labour has always been dependent on deskilled and often outsourced forms of labour, as exemplified by the current rise in platform companies. The exploitative labour practices of the latter, however, will make resistance more difficult than the Italian neo-Marxists imagine.

In: de Bloois J., De Cauwer S., Masschelein A. (Eds.), 50 Key Terms in Contemporary Cultural Theo... more In: de Bloois J., De Cauwer S., Masschelein A. (Eds.), 50 Key Terms in Contemporary Cultural Theory, Kalmthout: Pelckmans Pro, 2017.

In: de Bloois J., De Cauwer S., Masschelein J. (Eds.), 50 Key Terms in Contemporary Cultural Theo... more In: de Bloois J., De Cauwer S., Masschelein J. (Eds.), 50 Key Terms in Contemporary Cultural Theory, Kalmthout: Pelckmans Pro, 2017.

In: Martens D., Van Den Bossche B., MDRN (Eds.), bookseries: Réflexions faites, 1947 almanach lit... more In: Martens D., Van Den Bossche B., MDRN (Eds.), bookseries: Réflexions faites, 1947 almanach littéraire, (pp. 240-246). Bruxelles: Les Impressions Nouvelles.

In: De Cauwer S. (Ed.), Critical Theory at a Crossroads: Conversations on Resistance in Times of ... more In: De Cauwer S. (Ed.), Critical Theory at a Crossroads: Conversations on Resistance in Times of Crisis. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018, 134-145.

In: De Cauwer S. (Ed.), Critical Theory at a Crossroads: Conversations on Resistance in Times of ... more In: De Cauwer S. (Ed.), Critical Theory at a Crossroads: Conversations on Resistance in Times of Crisis, New York: Columbia University Press, 2018, 99-112.

Reverseau A., Cohen N. (Eds.), Petit musée d'histoire littéraire, Bruxelles: Les impressions nouvelles

Clash(es) and New Beginnings in Literature and Culture, 2014

At: Jornadas Interescuelas de Historia. Mar del Plata, Argentina, 9-11 August 2017.

At: New Italian Thought: Challenges and Responses. London, Ontario, 24-26 March 2017.

At: Conference of the American Comparative Literature Association. Harvard University, Boston.

At: Control. Conference of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts. Stockholm.