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Books and Monographs by Udith Dematagoda
Vladimir Nabokov and the Ideological Aesthetic , 2017
This book is dedicated to the proposition that ideology is a spectrum through which the work of V... more This book is dedicated to the proposition that ideology is a spectrum through which the work of Vladimir Nabokov has not previously been considered. It is thus the first unambiguous attempt at a study which foregrounds questions of ideology and politics within a field which has been historically resistant to such readings.
https://www.peterlang.com/view/product/79321
Papers by Udith Dematagoda
Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities
https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2023.2243158
Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities, 2023
In this paper we outline a theory that explicates the hypertrophy of the “political” in relation ... more In this paper we outline a theory that explicates the hypertrophy of the “political” in relation to contemporary art, literature, and culture. Beginning with a critique of Nicholas Bourriaud’s 2016 work The Exform, we interrogate Bourriaud’s engagement with contemporary art and Louis Althusser’s theory of ideology. We approach Bourriaud’s Althusserian source material through a consideration of its reappraisal by Warren Montag, Althusser’s own Lacanian influences, and through some surprising continuities with the thought of controversial German jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt. Finally, we attempt to synthesize these discussions into our speculative theory of the “Ideological Aesthetic,” which addresses a conceptual gap in past theoretical discourse on ideology.
Version of Record available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2023.2243158
Modernist Cultures, 2020
This article explores Wyndham Lewis's experience of the First World War, and its influence on his... more This article explores Wyndham Lewis's experience of the First World War, and its influence on his varied artistic output. It interrogates how Lewis's initial ambivalence towards an emergent technological society shifted through direct encounters with mechanized warfare, and speculates on the effect of these upon his post-war writing and criticism. By contrasting Lewis's thought against that of his Italian Futurist contemporaries, I will demonstrate the centrality of their divergent conceptions of masculinity in accounting for this opposition – and how Lewis's critique of technological society prefigures contemporary opposition towards the post-humanist philosophy of Accelerationism.
This is an uncorrected Author's original of this paper. The Version of Record (VoR) is available in Modernist Cultures Volume 15, Issue 4, November, 2020:
https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/mod.2020.0310
Print ISSN: 2041-1022
Online ISSN: 1753-8629
The Journal of Wyndham Lewis Studies, 2018
A re-appraisal of Wyndham Lewis' 'Tarr' which engages with Fredric Jameson's notion of national a... more A re-appraisal of Wyndham Lewis' 'Tarr' which engages with Fredric Jameson's notion of national allegory, Benedict Anderson's 'Imagained Communities' and Adorno's negative dialectic, against our current age of resurgent nationalisms.
This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work 'Kill All Normies On... more This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work 'Kill All Normies Online culture wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right'. It explores the work's relevance to 'Extreme Masculinties', and places it within the context of the contemporary political situation. The work's main thesis on the aesthetic and libidinal forms and characteristics of the 'Alt-Right' are heavily interrogated and placed within the historical context of previous 'crises' in masculinity. This analysis proceeds to further explore the existence of this contemporary crisis through the broader spectrum of identity politics, and its problematic ideological conflicts and consequences.
This article appears in the journal of Extreme Anthropology, published by the University of Oslo, and is reproduced here through Creative Commons: https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/JEA/article/view/5359
On the 'The Selected Letters of Joseph Conrad' edited by Laurence Davies (Cambridge: CUP, 2015)
Studies in the Novel, 2018
Scholars of Vladimir tend to be uncommonly deferential towards their subject, for whom they invar... more Scholars of Vladimir tend to be uncommonly deferential towards their subject, for whom they invariably feel a great deal of personal affection. Discovery of Nabokov's work often came for many at a critical impasse in their personal or professional lives, marking a milestone in their youthful development, a moment of crisis or awakening. In this particular
Journal of Extreme Anthropology, 2017
This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work Kill All Normie... more This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work Kill All Normies Online culture wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right. It explores the work's relevance to 'Extreme Masculinties', and places it within the context of the contemporary poltiical situation. The work's main thesis on the aesthetic and libidinal forms and characteristics of the 'Alt-Right' are heavily interrogated and placed within the historical context of previous 'crises' in masculinity. This analysis proceeds to further explore the existence of this contemporary crisis through the broader spectrum of identity politics, and its problematic ideological conflicts and consequences.
Modernist Cultures, 2020
This article explores Wyndham Lewis's experience of the First World War, and its influence on... more This article explores Wyndham Lewis's experience of the First World War, and its influence on his varied artistic output. It interrogates how Lewis's initial ambivalence towards an emergent technological society shifted through direct encounters with mechanized warfare, and speculates on the effect of these upon his post-war writing and criticism. By contrasting Lewis's thought against that of his Italian Futurist contemporaries, I will demonstrate the centrality of their divergent conceptions of masculinity in accounting for this opposition – and how Lewis's critique of technological society prefigures contemporary opposition towards the post-humanist philosophy of Accelerationism.
This thesis is dedicated to the proposition that ideology is a spectrum through which the work of... more This thesis is dedicated to the proposition that ideology is a spectrum through which the work of Vladimir Nabokov has not previously been considered. It is the first unambiguous attempt at a reading which foregrounds questions of politics and ideology, and one which does not conform to the intentional narrative of the author’s self-designated political provenance. In this sense, it represents an original contribution to the field. The work of Louis Althusser, in addition to other critics under the aegis of Marxist criticism such as Pierre Macherey and Fredric Jameson, are used to interrogate issues of ideology in Nabokov’s early career; a period between 1926-1939 which coincides with the publication of his first Russian novel to the completion of his first in English.
Conference Presentations by Udith Dematagoda
My paper seeks to account for the ways in which Wyndham Lewis’s first novel Tarr (1918) poses a n... more My paper seeks to account for the ways in which Wyndham Lewis’s first novel Tarr (1918) poses a number of prescient questions, concerned with the conflicting notions of an emergent European consciousness against chauvinistic national identities, for which we have yet to find adequate solutions. As a young artist, Lewis travelled extensively around Europe developing his aesthetic style, and observing the uneasy relations between different European peoples in the years leading up to the First World War – an atmosphere he captures brilliantly in his incisive first novel. The world which Tarr depicts is in some ways thoroughly modern and recognisable, yet still possesses a very distinct power to unsettle. Prompted by recent political developments, my paper will attempt to analyse the ways in which the inherent tensions among the different cultures which Lewis depicted in Tarr evidenced an awareness of the coming conflicts of the twentieth century, and beyond. My paper will make reference to, among other things, Benedict Anderson’s seminal work on nationalism and the peculiar genealogy of Lewis’s intellectual development, in order to give account of how emergent concepts national identity became embroiled with certain aesthetic, libidinal, and ideological currents which have become ossified, and to some extent continue to inform contemporary political discourse.
Vladimir Nabokov and the Ideological Aesthetic , 2017
This book is dedicated to the proposition that ideology is a spectrum through which the work of V... more This book is dedicated to the proposition that ideology is a spectrum through which the work of Vladimir Nabokov has not previously been considered. It is thus the first unambiguous attempt at a study which foregrounds questions of ideology and politics within a field which has been historically resistant to such readings.
https://www.peterlang.com/view/product/79321
Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities
https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2023.2243158
Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities, 2023
In this paper we outline a theory that explicates the hypertrophy of the “political” in relation ... more In this paper we outline a theory that explicates the hypertrophy of the “political” in relation to contemporary art, literature, and culture. Beginning with a critique of Nicholas Bourriaud’s 2016 work The Exform, we interrogate Bourriaud’s engagement with contemporary art and Louis Althusser’s theory of ideology. We approach Bourriaud’s Althusserian source material through a consideration of its reappraisal by Warren Montag, Althusser’s own Lacanian influences, and through some surprising continuities with the thought of controversial German jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt. Finally, we attempt to synthesize these discussions into our speculative theory of the “Ideological Aesthetic,” which addresses a conceptual gap in past theoretical discourse on ideology.
Version of Record available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2023.2243158
Modernist Cultures, 2020
This article explores Wyndham Lewis's experience of the First World War, and its influence on his... more This article explores Wyndham Lewis's experience of the First World War, and its influence on his varied artistic output. It interrogates how Lewis's initial ambivalence towards an emergent technological society shifted through direct encounters with mechanized warfare, and speculates on the effect of these upon his post-war writing and criticism. By contrasting Lewis's thought against that of his Italian Futurist contemporaries, I will demonstrate the centrality of their divergent conceptions of masculinity in accounting for this opposition – and how Lewis's critique of technological society prefigures contemporary opposition towards the post-humanist philosophy of Accelerationism.
This is an uncorrected Author's original of this paper. The Version of Record (VoR) is available in Modernist Cultures Volume 15, Issue 4, November, 2020:
https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/mod.2020.0310
Print ISSN: 2041-1022
Online ISSN: 1753-8629
The Journal of Wyndham Lewis Studies, 2018
A re-appraisal of Wyndham Lewis' 'Tarr' which engages with Fredric Jameson's notion of national a... more A re-appraisal of Wyndham Lewis' 'Tarr' which engages with Fredric Jameson's notion of national allegory, Benedict Anderson's 'Imagained Communities' and Adorno's negative dialectic, against our current age of resurgent nationalisms.
This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work 'Kill All Normies On... more This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work 'Kill All Normies Online culture wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right'. It explores the work's relevance to 'Extreme Masculinties', and places it within the context of the contemporary political situation. The work's main thesis on the aesthetic and libidinal forms and characteristics of the 'Alt-Right' are heavily interrogated and placed within the historical context of previous 'crises' in masculinity. This analysis proceeds to further explore the existence of this contemporary crisis through the broader spectrum of identity politics, and its problematic ideological conflicts and consequences.
This article appears in the journal of Extreme Anthropology, published by the University of Oslo, and is reproduced here through Creative Commons: https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/JEA/article/view/5359
On the 'The Selected Letters of Joseph Conrad' edited by Laurence Davies (Cambridge: CUP, 2015)
Studies in the Novel, 2018
Scholars of Vladimir tend to be uncommonly deferential towards their subject, for whom they invar... more Scholars of Vladimir tend to be uncommonly deferential towards their subject, for whom they invariably feel a great deal of personal affection. Discovery of Nabokov's work often came for many at a critical impasse in their personal or professional lives, marking a milestone in their youthful development, a moment of crisis or awakening. In this particular
Journal of Extreme Anthropology, 2017
This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work Kill All Normie... more This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work Kill All Normies Online culture wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right. It explores the work's relevance to 'Extreme Masculinties', and places it within the context of the contemporary poltiical situation. The work's main thesis on the aesthetic and libidinal forms and characteristics of the 'Alt-Right' are heavily interrogated and placed within the historical context of previous 'crises' in masculinity. This analysis proceeds to further explore the existence of this contemporary crisis through the broader spectrum of identity politics, and its problematic ideological conflicts and consequences.
Modernist Cultures, 2020
This article explores Wyndham Lewis's experience of the First World War, and its influence on... more This article explores Wyndham Lewis's experience of the First World War, and its influence on his varied artistic output. It interrogates how Lewis's initial ambivalence towards an emergent technological society shifted through direct encounters with mechanized warfare, and speculates on the effect of these upon his post-war writing and criticism. By contrasting Lewis's thought against that of his Italian Futurist contemporaries, I will demonstrate the centrality of their divergent conceptions of masculinity in accounting for this opposition – and how Lewis's critique of technological society prefigures contemporary opposition towards the post-humanist philosophy of Accelerationism.
This thesis is dedicated to the proposition that ideology is a spectrum through which the work of... more This thesis is dedicated to the proposition that ideology is a spectrum through which the work of Vladimir Nabokov has not previously been considered. It is the first unambiguous attempt at a reading which foregrounds questions of politics and ideology, and one which does not conform to the intentional narrative of the author’s self-designated political provenance. In this sense, it represents an original contribution to the field. The work of Louis Althusser, in addition to other critics under the aegis of Marxist criticism such as Pierre Macherey and Fredric Jameson, are used to interrogate issues of ideology in Nabokov’s early career; a period between 1926-1939 which coincides with the publication of his first Russian novel to the completion of his first in English.
My paper seeks to account for the ways in which Wyndham Lewis’s first novel Tarr (1918) poses a n... more My paper seeks to account for the ways in which Wyndham Lewis’s first novel Tarr (1918) poses a number of prescient questions, concerned with the conflicting notions of an emergent European consciousness against chauvinistic national identities, for which we have yet to find adequate solutions. As a young artist, Lewis travelled extensively around Europe developing his aesthetic style, and observing the uneasy relations between different European peoples in the years leading up to the First World War – an atmosphere he captures brilliantly in his incisive first novel. The world which Tarr depicts is in some ways thoroughly modern and recognisable, yet still possesses a very distinct power to unsettle. Prompted by recent political developments, my paper will attempt to analyse the ways in which the inherent tensions among the different cultures which Lewis depicted in Tarr evidenced an awareness of the coming conflicts of the twentieth century, and beyond. My paper will make reference to, among other things, Benedict Anderson’s seminal work on nationalism and the peculiar genealogy of Lewis’s intellectual development, in order to give account of how emergent concepts national identity became embroiled with certain aesthetic, libidinal, and ideological currents which have become ossified, and to some extent continue to inform contemporary political discourse.