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Filozofski vestnik , 2021

In order to be able to raise the question of the “world” today in an effective way, we have to r... more In order to be able to raise the question of the “world” today in an effective way, we have to reactivate the Goethean categories of Weltliteratur and Weltschmerz for a critique of our own historical moment. We need to understand the phenomenon of Weltschmerz as a symptom of the impossibility of Weltliteratur. Going beyond the context of the original formulation of these categories, we could argue that something akin to the historical phenomenon of Weltschmerz emerges every time the ideological constitution of the world threatens to fail. Today, we live in an age of a generalised state of cultural disorientation that has produced its own Weltliteratur, which includes a wide range of discourses about the “world” – from officially endorsed theories of economic globalisation, to scientific treatises on the Anthropocene, environmental protest movements, philosophical pamphlets, all the way to world-historical conspiracy theories. Yet, an anxiety concerning the impossibility of world-formation in general is also recorded in these documents. In order to be able to capture our contemporary Weltschmerz, the article turns to the young Walter Benjamin’s suggestion that the task of this age is to produce an “objective” (rather than subjective) Weltschmerz. However, the most effective tools to conceptualise this objective Weltschmerz come from the traditions of philosophical acosmism. It is a notable philosophical development of our times that some elements of the acosmic tradition have recently resurfaced in speculative realism. Thus, speculative realism could be described as a possible site of our contemporary Weltschmerz: its acosmic metaphysics is repeatedly tamed by a mournful longing for the world.

Filosofski vestnik, 2020

The task this essay set for itself is a reconsideration of the status of the “object” in contempo... more The task this essay set for itself is a reconsideration of the status of the “object” in contemporary forms of philosophical realism that postulate “flat ontologies.” I argue that the theoretical construction of the “object” often comes about in these ontologies through a fetishistic disavowal that effectively makes these objects speak. As a result, the construction of the generalized field of objectivity (according to which everything that exists is an object) passes through a double articulation. On the one hand, since contemporary realism defines itself as a rejection of all forms of linguistic idealism, it also tries to shift the focus away from human language as the primary medium of the construction of objectivity. On the other hand, however, this demotion of language proceeds in these works simultaneously with the elevation of the concept of “translation” to an ontological principle: these non-linguistic objects exist through their perpetual translations of each other. The fetishistic disavowal at work in realism (we know very well that objects do not speak, yet we act as if objectivity had to be construed as a field of translation) introduces the modality of fiction into the very heart of objectivity. This fictional dimension constitutive of objectivity can be described through an engagement of the Kantian notion of “purposiveness.” I argue that these translations that supposedly constitute objectivity rest on the fundamental presupposition that guides the entire Kantian system: we must presuppose purposiveness even where we can detect no evidence of it at all. Hence, today, the theory of the “democracy of objects” must be supplemented by its necessary correlate, a theory of the “conspiracy of objects.”

Comparative American Studies, 2008

... 6 No. 4, December 2008, 374–387 The Importance of Being Ugly: Anti-Communist Anti-Imperialism... more ... 6 No. 4, December 2008, 374–387 The Importance of Being Ugly: Anti-Communist Anti-Imperialism ROLAND VÉGsO˝ University of Tennessee, USA ... Therefore, Page 3. Published by Maney Publishing (c) WS Maney & Son Limited 376 ROLAND VÉGSO˝ ...

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, 2016

The article examines the relationship of biopower and cinema through the analysis of a specific f... more The article examines the relationship of biopower and cinema through the analysis of a specific film, Hans Weingartner's The Edukators (2004). It argues that in the age of biopower, resistance to power cannot be conceived of in terms of a radical outside to power. Rather, biopolitical resistance must take place on the terrain of this power itself, that is, within the field of life. Therefore, what we call the "viral" politics of The Edukators must be interpreted precisely in this context. The film argues that the exhaustion of political paradigms inherited from the past century forces us to take the logic of biopower seriously. It presents a dual critique of the neoliberal exploitation of life and the politics of death that defines contemporary terrorism. In place of these two, it offers the audience the model of a certain "biopolitical education" that imagines resistance as fully immanent to the field of power.

The primary objective of the essay is to draw the consequences of a truly consistent deployment o... more The primary objective of the essay is to draw the consequences of a truly consistent deployment of the utopian desire that animates Georg Lukács's The Theory of the Novel. On the one hand, it is quite evident that for Lukács the theory of the novel is a utopian means of the destruction of the novel form itself. On the other hand, however, I argue that Lukács also shows that this utopian desire for the destruction of the novel form is in reality an essential component of the novel form itself. As a result, the novel form is by definition an attempt to imagine what from the perspective of this form remains unimaginable: a world without the novel. The contemporary relevance of this argument, however, remains obscured until we free it from one of Lukács's basic metaphysical limitations: we must question the central status of the category of the "world" for the theory of the novel. The idea of the "novel" and the idea of the "world" seem to attract each other with an unusually strong force. 1 Regardless of whether we conceive of this relation as a natural consequence of our metaphysical realities or a never quite accomplished historical destiny, the two concepts seem to mirror each other in infinitely complex ways. In fact, Volume 2 | Issue 3: The Novel

The article examines the relationship of biopower and cinema through the analysis of a specific f... more The article examines the relationship of biopower and cinema through the analysis of a specific film, Hans Weingartner's The Edukators (2004). It argues that in the age of biopower, resistance to power cannot be conceived of in terms of a radical outside to power. Rather, biopolitical resistance must take place on the terrain of this power itself, that is, within the field of life. Therefore, what we call the "viral" politics of The Edukators must be interpreted precisely in this context. The film argues that the exhaustion of political paradigms inherited from the past century forces us to take the logic of biopower seriously. It presents a dual critique of the neoliberal exploitation of life and the politics of death that defines contemporary terrorism. In place of these two, it offers the audience the model of a certain "biopolitical education" that imagines resistance as fully immanent to the field of power.

The article examines the role of the Last Judgment in Giorgio Agamben's philosophy. It argues tha... more The article examines the role of the Last Judgment in Giorgio Agamben's philosophy. It argues that the central ontological structure of Agamben's early thought is that of the perpetually occurring origin. The figure of the perpetual final judgment captures precisely this ontological structure. In order to explicate this figure, the article examines Agamben's relation to the Heideggerian project of the "destruction of judgment" in two steps. First, it examines the way Agamben turns the methodology of "destruction" into the project of "decreation." Second, it examines the Agambenian critique of judgment in terms of the perpetually occurring Last Judgment. The essay concludes with a brief examination of the Homo Sacer project and argues that "bare life" should be understood as life lived under this perpetual final judgment.

Cultural Critique 83 (Winter 2013)

o doubt, history hurts. But the irreversibility of this proposition immediately relocates its sub... more o doubt, history hurts. But the irreversibility of this proposition immediately relocates its subject beyond what is conceivable within the horizon opened up by its predicate. For if not everything that hurts is actually history, then there is an insurmountable gap or an irreducible barrier of alterity between the subject and the predicate. This complication suggests that even if history manifested itself exclusively in the form of suffering, its identity would still remain irreducible to this universal afXiction. Thus, we must ask ourselveswithout the shadow of the slightest cynicism-whether it would be possible to Wnd some enjoyment in history that is not the sadistic pleasure of the one who inXicts wounds?

CR: The New Centennial Review

What happens to the theory of translation in an age when philosophy no longer considers language ... more What happens to the theory of translation in an age when philosophy no longer considers language to be the ultimate horizon of being, yet reality constantly confronts us with situations that prove on a daily basis the urgency of translation? Whereas the former tendency might disorient our thinking with relation to translation, the second relentlessly reminds us of its inescapable necessity. It is this state of aff airs that has led many of us to believe that translation has finally and irrevocably entered the domain of global politics. 1 But in its subtle yet decisive move away from a certain conception of language, philosophy did not simply abandon us. If we are willing to learn from current philosophical inquiries into the meaning of the political, eventually we might have to consider the hypothesis that translation is not merely the infinite production of meaning between languages but a practice oriented by truth. In fact, one of the most important provocations off ered by contemporary philosophy for the theory of translation is precisely its revaluation of the category of truth. 2 Th ese are the questions, then, that

A Leftist Ontology: Beyond Relativism and Identity Politics. Ed. Carsten Strathausen., 2009

Editor Foreword by William E. Connolly (JNlVt Rsl l\' ()l MINNI s()11 l,ltl \s tUI NNl,\l'()l l\ ... more Editor Foreword by William E. Connolly (JNlVt Rsl l\' ()l MINNI s()11 l,ltl \s tUI NNl,\l'()l l\ . |()Nl)()N

Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 11.3 (December 2006): 265-81, Dec 2006

Journal of Modern Literature, 2010

The relation of modernism to immigrant literatures should not be conceived in terms of an opposit... more The relation of modernism to immigrant literatures should not be conceived in terms of an opposition between universalistic and particularistic discourses. Rather, we should explore what can be called a modernist transnationalism based on a general universalist argument. Two examples of this transnationalism are explored side by side: Ezra Pound's and Anzia Yezierska's definitions of the aesthetic act in terms of translation. The readings show that the critical discourses of these two authors are structured by a belief in universalism while showing opposite possibilities, both generated by modernist transnationalism. The essay concludes that we now need to interpret the cultures of modernism in their variety as contesting political universalities.

Filozofski vestnik , 2021

In order to be able to raise the question of the “world” today in an effective way, we have to r... more In order to be able to raise the question of the “world” today in an effective way, we have to reactivate the Goethean categories of Weltliteratur and Weltschmerz for a critique of our own historical moment. We need to understand the phenomenon of Weltschmerz as a symptom of the impossibility of Weltliteratur. Going beyond the context of the original formulation of these categories, we could argue that something akin to the historical phenomenon of Weltschmerz emerges every time the ideological constitution of the world threatens to fail. Today, we live in an age of a generalised state of cultural disorientation that has produced its own Weltliteratur, which includes a wide range of discourses about the “world” – from officially endorsed theories of economic globalisation, to scientific treatises on the Anthropocene, environmental protest movements, philosophical pamphlets, all the way to world-historical conspiracy theories. Yet, an anxiety concerning the impossibility of world-formation in general is also recorded in these documents. In order to be able to capture our contemporary Weltschmerz, the article turns to the young Walter Benjamin’s suggestion that the task of this age is to produce an “objective” (rather than subjective) Weltschmerz. However, the most effective tools to conceptualise this objective Weltschmerz come from the traditions of philosophical acosmism. It is a notable philosophical development of our times that some elements of the acosmic tradition have recently resurfaced in speculative realism. Thus, speculative realism could be described as a possible site of our contemporary Weltschmerz: its acosmic metaphysics is repeatedly tamed by a mournful longing for the world.

Filosofski vestnik, 2020

The task this essay set for itself is a reconsideration of the status of the “object” in contempo... more The task this essay set for itself is a reconsideration of the status of the “object” in contemporary forms of philosophical realism that postulate “flat ontologies.” I argue that the theoretical construction of the “object” often comes about in these ontologies through a fetishistic disavowal that effectively makes these objects speak. As a result, the construction of the generalized field of objectivity (according to which everything that exists is an object) passes through a double articulation. On the one hand, since contemporary realism defines itself as a rejection of all forms of linguistic idealism, it also tries to shift the focus away from human language as the primary medium of the construction of objectivity. On the other hand, however, this demotion of language proceeds in these works simultaneously with the elevation of the concept of “translation” to an ontological principle: these non-linguistic objects exist through their perpetual translations of each other. The fetishistic disavowal at work in realism (we know very well that objects do not speak, yet we act as if objectivity had to be construed as a field of translation) introduces the modality of fiction into the very heart of objectivity. This fictional dimension constitutive of objectivity can be described through an engagement of the Kantian notion of “purposiveness.” I argue that these translations that supposedly constitute objectivity rest on the fundamental presupposition that guides the entire Kantian system: we must presuppose purposiveness even where we can detect no evidence of it at all. Hence, today, the theory of the “democracy of objects” must be supplemented by its necessary correlate, a theory of the “conspiracy of objects.”

Comparative American Studies, 2008

... 6 No. 4, December 2008, 374–387 The Importance of Being Ugly: Anti-Communist Anti-Imperialism... more ... 6 No. 4, December 2008, 374–387 The Importance of Being Ugly: Anti-Communist Anti-Imperialism ROLAND VÉGsO˝ University of Tennessee, USA ... Therefore, Page 3. Published by Maney Publishing (c) WS Maney & Son Limited 376 ROLAND VÉGSO˝ ...

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, 2016

The article examines the relationship of biopower and cinema through the analysis of a specific f... more The article examines the relationship of biopower and cinema through the analysis of a specific film, Hans Weingartner's The Edukators (2004). It argues that in the age of biopower, resistance to power cannot be conceived of in terms of a radical outside to power. Rather, biopolitical resistance must take place on the terrain of this power itself, that is, within the field of life. Therefore, what we call the "viral" politics of The Edukators must be interpreted precisely in this context. The film argues that the exhaustion of political paradigms inherited from the past century forces us to take the logic of biopower seriously. It presents a dual critique of the neoliberal exploitation of life and the politics of death that defines contemporary terrorism. In place of these two, it offers the audience the model of a certain "biopolitical education" that imagines resistance as fully immanent to the field of power.

The primary objective of the essay is to draw the consequences of a truly consistent deployment o... more The primary objective of the essay is to draw the consequences of a truly consistent deployment of the utopian desire that animates Georg Lukács's The Theory of the Novel. On the one hand, it is quite evident that for Lukács the theory of the novel is a utopian means of the destruction of the novel form itself. On the other hand, however, I argue that Lukács also shows that this utopian desire for the destruction of the novel form is in reality an essential component of the novel form itself. As a result, the novel form is by definition an attempt to imagine what from the perspective of this form remains unimaginable: a world without the novel. The contemporary relevance of this argument, however, remains obscured until we free it from one of Lukács's basic metaphysical limitations: we must question the central status of the category of the "world" for the theory of the novel. The idea of the "novel" and the idea of the "world" seem to attract each other with an unusually strong force. 1 Regardless of whether we conceive of this relation as a natural consequence of our metaphysical realities or a never quite accomplished historical destiny, the two concepts seem to mirror each other in infinitely complex ways. In fact, Volume 2 | Issue 3: The Novel

The article examines the relationship of biopower and cinema through the analysis of a specific f... more The article examines the relationship of biopower and cinema through the analysis of a specific film, Hans Weingartner's The Edukators (2004). It argues that in the age of biopower, resistance to power cannot be conceived of in terms of a radical outside to power. Rather, biopolitical resistance must take place on the terrain of this power itself, that is, within the field of life. Therefore, what we call the "viral" politics of The Edukators must be interpreted precisely in this context. The film argues that the exhaustion of political paradigms inherited from the past century forces us to take the logic of biopower seriously. It presents a dual critique of the neoliberal exploitation of life and the politics of death that defines contemporary terrorism. In place of these two, it offers the audience the model of a certain "biopolitical education" that imagines resistance as fully immanent to the field of power.

The article examines the role of the Last Judgment in Giorgio Agamben's philosophy. It argues tha... more The article examines the role of the Last Judgment in Giorgio Agamben's philosophy. It argues that the central ontological structure of Agamben's early thought is that of the perpetually occurring origin. The figure of the perpetual final judgment captures precisely this ontological structure. In order to explicate this figure, the article examines Agamben's relation to the Heideggerian project of the "destruction of judgment" in two steps. First, it examines the way Agamben turns the methodology of "destruction" into the project of "decreation." Second, it examines the Agambenian critique of judgment in terms of the perpetually occurring Last Judgment. The essay concludes with a brief examination of the Homo Sacer project and argues that "bare life" should be understood as life lived under this perpetual final judgment.

Cultural Critique 83 (Winter 2013)

o doubt, history hurts. But the irreversibility of this proposition immediately relocates its sub... more o doubt, history hurts. But the irreversibility of this proposition immediately relocates its subject beyond what is conceivable within the horizon opened up by its predicate. For if not everything that hurts is actually history, then there is an insurmountable gap or an irreducible barrier of alterity between the subject and the predicate. This complication suggests that even if history manifested itself exclusively in the form of suffering, its identity would still remain irreducible to this universal afXiction. Thus, we must ask ourselveswithout the shadow of the slightest cynicism-whether it would be possible to Wnd some enjoyment in history that is not the sadistic pleasure of the one who inXicts wounds?

CR: The New Centennial Review

What happens to the theory of translation in an age when philosophy no longer considers language ... more What happens to the theory of translation in an age when philosophy no longer considers language to be the ultimate horizon of being, yet reality constantly confronts us with situations that prove on a daily basis the urgency of translation? Whereas the former tendency might disorient our thinking with relation to translation, the second relentlessly reminds us of its inescapable necessity. It is this state of aff airs that has led many of us to believe that translation has finally and irrevocably entered the domain of global politics. 1 But in its subtle yet decisive move away from a certain conception of language, philosophy did not simply abandon us. If we are willing to learn from current philosophical inquiries into the meaning of the political, eventually we might have to consider the hypothesis that translation is not merely the infinite production of meaning between languages but a practice oriented by truth. In fact, one of the most important provocations off ered by contemporary philosophy for the theory of translation is precisely its revaluation of the category of truth. 2 Th ese are the questions, then, that

A Leftist Ontology: Beyond Relativism and Identity Politics. Ed. Carsten Strathausen., 2009

Editor Foreword by William E. Connolly (JNlVt Rsl l\' ()l MINNI s()11 l,ltl \s tUI NNl,\l'()l l\ ... more Editor Foreword by William E. Connolly (JNlVt Rsl l\' ()l MINNI s()11 l,ltl \s tUI NNl,\l'()l l\ . |()Nl)()N

Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 11.3 (December 2006): 265-81, Dec 2006

Journal of Modern Literature, 2010

The relation of modernism to immigrant literatures should not be conceived in terms of an opposit... more The relation of modernism to immigrant literatures should not be conceived in terms of an opposition between universalistic and particularistic discourses. Rather, we should explore what can be called a modernist transnationalism based on a general universalist argument. Two examples of this transnationalism are explored side by side: Ezra Pound's and Anzia Yezierska's definitions of the aesthetic act in terms of translation. The readings show that the critical discourses of these two authors are structured by a belief in universalism while showing opposite possibilities, both generated by modernist transnationalism. The essay concludes that we now need to interpret the cultures of modernism in their variety as contesting political universalities.

Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, …, 2007

Hungarian Studies, 2008

My reading of Ádám Bodor's novel Sinistra körzet (Sinistra District, 1992) shows that the politic... more My reading of Ádám Bodor's novel Sinistra körzet (Sinistra District, 1992) shows that the political dimension of literary production cannot be reduced to the problem of referentiality (the correct representation of an empirical reality in a realist or an allegorical narrative). In fact, Bodor's fiction suggests that it is precisely the breakdown of the referential paradigm that is the privileged political moment in literature. As I argue, Bodor's text suggests that beyond the political realism of historical referentiality we find a new kind of geopolitics based on a regionalist aesthetics of "mood." In this regard, it becomes clear that the "Sinistra District" is not an allegorical representation of a historical reality (the world of totalitarian regimes) but a rhetorical figure which stages the ideological fantasy that structures that given historical realty.

CR: The New Centennial Review, Jan 1, 2008

☐ What relation?

This book offers innovative investigations of the concept of life in art and in theory. It featur... more This book offers innovative investigations of the concept of life in art and in theory. It features essays that explore biopoetics and look at how insights from the natural sciences shape research within the humanities. Since literature, works of art, and other cultural products decisively shape our ideas of what it means to be human, the contributors to this volume examine the question of what literature, literary and cultural criticism, and philosophy contribute to the distinctions (or non-distinctions) between human, animal, and vegetal existence.
Coverage combines different methodological aspects and addresses a wide field of comparative literary studies. The essays consider the question of language (as a distinctive feature of human existence) in a number of different contexts, which range from Aristotle’s works, through several historical layers of the philosophical discourse on the origins of speech, to modern anthropology, and 20th century continental philosophy. In addition, the volume includes concrete case studies to the current post-humanism debate and provides literary, art historian, and philosophical perspectives on animal studies.
The historical multiplicity of the various cultural representations of biological existence (be that human, animal, vegetal, or mixed) might serve as a productive foundation for discussing the nature and forms of literature’s critical contributions to our understanding of these fundamental categories. This volume opens up this subject to students and scholars of literature, art, philosophy, ethics, and cultural studies, and to anyone with a theoretical interest in the questions of life.
List of Contributors:
Petar Bojanić, Vittoria Borsò, Hajnalka Halász, Ernő Kulcsár Szabó, Zoltán Kulcsár-Szabó, Tamás Lénárt, Csongor Lőrincz, Gábor Tamás Molnár, Márió Z. Nemes, Csaba Olay, Attila Simon, Susanne Strätling, Ábel Tamás, Jessica Ullrich, Roland Végső, Georg Witte