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Walter Benjamin and Kitsch Politics in the Phantasmagorical Age by Ayşegül Ergül a Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Gradua

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Walter Benjamin and Kitsch Politics in the Phantasmagorical Age by Ayşegül Ergül a Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Gradua Walter Benjamin and Kitsch Politics in the Phantasmagorical Age by Ayşegül Ergül A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2016, Ayşegül Ergül Abstract In this dissertation I explore the relationship between politics, aesthetics, culture and technology by (re)thinking and (re)conceptualizing the concept of kitsch as a theoretical construct in order to investigate the dream-worlds of Europe which sprang at the intersection of liberalism, social democracy and capitalism. I argue that the unexplored potentialities of kitsch, as a concept, reside in the analysis of the dream-worlds, which have been occupying the social and political imaginaries of Western individuals, communities and institutions since the disenchantment of the world. My methodological approach is built on Benjamin’s notion of historical materialism. Thus, I engage with the historical object(s) (e.g., arcades, fashion, technological reproductions etc.) not as “object(s) of experience” but as a “participant(s) in historical experience” (Caygill 2004, 90). Challenging the progressive notion of history, I argue that within the objective impenetrability of commodity fetishism a “sur-real” world of fetishized images – that is, kitsch – emerges, alienated from the individual and the collective, yet constituting and shaping them. By mapping out the implications of this “sur-real” world on “the political,” the collective (un)conscious and action, I conclude that alternative politics could arise from the unsettling interpretations of the reified and symbolic expressions of this same “sur-real” world, paving a path for new political imaginaries. ii Dedicated to my dearest friend Hilal Özçetin iii Acknowledgments Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Tom Darby. His agreement to take me on after the unexpected retirement of my previous supervisor was one of the greatest things that happened to me. His guidance made me find my way out of the dark and deep hole I had fallen into for a very long time. His unwavering support and belief in my intellectual abilities helped me to rediscover myself. I could not have imagined the completion of this dissertation without his supervision and mentorship. I also would like to thank Professor Peter Swan for his unending support and confidence in me, and Dr. Hans-Martin Jaeger for his insightful comments and questions on my chapters and sincere interest in my thesis. I would like to thank my family for never losing their faith in me, and supporting me unconditionally. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my husband who never stopped believing in me even when I lost all belief in myself, who held me for hours when I was in distress, whose unwavering support and love guided me to the completion of my dissertation. I cannot thank you enough my dearest husband. I love you… iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... ix 1 Chapter I: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 6 1.1.1 Dialectical Image ..................................................................................... 10 1.2 Road Map ........................................................................................................... 14 1.2.1 Chapter II: The Concept of Kitsch ........................................................... 14 1.2.2 Chapter III: Capitalism, Culture and Technology ................................... 16 1.2.3 Chapter IV: The Crisis of Experience ...................................................... 17 1.2.4 Chapter V: Politics of Phantasmagoria: Kitsch Politics ......................... 19 2 Chapter II: The Concept of Kitsch .......................................................................... 24 2.1 Introduction: ...................................................................................................... 24 2.2 The Etymology of The Concept ........................................................................ 25 2.3 A Review of the Literature on Kitsch ................................................................ 27 2.3.1 Kitsch as an ersatz culture ....................................................................... 27 2.3.2 Kitsch as a philosophical and existential phenomenon ........................... 31 2.3.3 Kitsch as “travestied aesthetic consciousness” ....................................... 35 2.3.4 Kitsch as a technique of political manipulation ....................................... 41 2.3.5 Kitsch as an aesthetic category ................................................................ 43 2.4 Critique of the Literature on Kitsch ................................................................... 48 v 2.5 Concluding Remarks: ........................................................................................ 54 3 Chapter III: Capitalism, Culture and Technology ................................................ 57 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 57 3.2 Commodity Form, Commodity Fetishism ......................................................... 59 3.2.1 Commodity: Use-Value and Exchange Value .......................................... 61 3.2.2 Commodity Fetishism ............................................................................... 63 3.3 Reification and the Commodity Analysis of Art ............................................... 65 3.3.1 Reification ................................................................................................ 65 3.3.2 The Commodity Analysis of Art ................................................................ 69 3.3.3 Walter Benjamin: Critique of Ideology-Critique ..................................... 74 3.3.4 The Aura and the Demise of Auratic Art .................................................. 77 3.4 Phantasmagoria .................................................................................................. 82 3.4.1 Marx’s Notion of Phantasmagoria ........................................................... 84 3.4.2 Benjamin’s Notion of Phantasmagoria .................................................... 86 3.4.3 First and Second Order Phantasmagoria ................................................ 91 3.4.4 Kitsch ........................................................................................................ 92 3.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 98 4 Chapter IV: The Crisis of Experience ................................................................... 102 4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 102 4.2 The Transformation of the Forms of Communication ..................................... 107 4.2.1 From Storytelling to the Novel ............................................................... 107 4.2.2 From Storytelling to Information ........................................................... 111 4.3 The Advent of Shock: Memory and Experience ............................................. 116 vi 4.3.1 Voluntary and Involuntary Memory ....................................................... 118 4.3.2 Memory as Gedächtnis and Memory as Erinnerung ............................. 122 4.3.3 The Transformation of the Mimetic Faculty .......................................... 127 4.4 Auratic Perception versus Kitsch Perception .................................................. 134 4.4.1 Spatial-Temporal Categories ................................................................. 138 4.4.2 The Object’s Mode of Being in Relation to Others ................................ 140 4.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 142 5 Chapter V: Politics of Phantasmagoria: Kitsch Politics ...................................... 145 5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 145 5.2 The Transformation of the Relationship between the Public and Private Spheres ............................................................................................................. 149 5.2.1 The Public and Private Spheres ............................................................. 149 5.2.2 The Rise of the Social ............................................................................ 151 5.2.3 The Rise of the Interior as the Private Realm ........................................ 154 5.2.4 The Liquidation of the Domestic Interior ............................................... 162 5.2.5 The Exterior as the Interior .................................................................... 164
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