W. G. Sebald: reino dos mortos e espetáculo midiático | W. G. Sebald: realm of the dead and mediatic spectacle

O objetivo do artigo é investigar as possíveis relações entre a reflexão teórica de Friedrich Kittler (especialmente em seu livro Grammophon Film Typewriter) e a produção literária de W. G. Sebald (especialmente seu último romance, Austerlitz). Minha hipótese é que Sebald mescla dois registros diagnosticados por Kittler: acessa o “reino dos mortos” (codificado com base nos resíduos materiais das fotografias) a partir tanto do paradigma técnico-midiático inaugurado com o gramofone, o filme e a máquina de escrever quanto do paradigma anterior, literário e alucinatório, apreendido por Kittler nas obras de Poe e Balzac, entre outros.Palavras-chave: W. G. Sebald. Friedrich Kittler. Mídia. Fotografia. Romance. AbstractThe aim of the article is to investigate possible contacts between Friedrich Kittler's theoretical reflection (especially in his book Grammophon Film Typewriter) and the literary production of W. G. Sebald (especially his latest novel, Austerlitz). My hypothesis is that Sebald merges two fields diagnosed by Kittler: he accesses the “realm of the dead” (coded from the material residues of photographs) from both the technical-media paradigm inaugurated with the “gramophone, film and typewriter” and from the previous paradigm, literary and hallucinatory, apprehended by Kittler in the works of Poe and Balzac, among others.Keywords: W. G. Sebald. Friedrich Kittler. Media. Photography. Novel.ORCIDhttp://orcid.org/0000-0002-8997-1174

Being and technics : humans, hybrids and the ontology of machines

This paper discusses the possibilities of mechanical life. A non-dual methodology borrowed from Martin Heidegger combines the materialist media theory of Friedrich Kittler with Bernard Steigler's teleological philosophy of technics. This perspective is employed to analyze the literature and film of science fiction, and in particular, the recent television series, Battlestar Galactica. This analysis permits the elaboration of a communications ontology that at once highlights the individual (human) and systemic (material) aspects of the life world, and ultimately delivers an articulation of Being that is systemic and individual. It attempts to transcend traditional subject object distinctions and to naturalize the theoretical progression from biological to technical life by suggesting that human being is always already hybrid technical being, and that technological being is not only a logical, but also perhaps necessary product of Western cultural progression.

Being and technics : humans, hybrids and the ontology of machines

This paper discusses the possibilities of mechanical life. A non-dual methodology borrowed from Martin Heidegger combines the materialist media theory of Friedrich Kittler with Bernard Steigler's teleological philosophy of technics. This perspective is employed to analyze the literature and film of science fiction, and in particular, the recent television series, Battlestar Galactica. This analysis permits the elaboration of a communications ontology that at once highlights the individual (human) and systemic (material) aspects of the life world, and ultimately delivers an articulation of Being that is systemic and individual. It attempts to transcend traditional subject object distinctions and to naturalize the theoretical progression from biological to technical life by suggesting that human being is always already hybrid technical being, and that technological being is not only a logical, but also perhaps necessary product of Western cultural progression.

‘There Was Modernism. Then There Was Digital:’ Kenneth Goldsmith and the Updating of Literature

The notion of literature as an obsolete form, out of sync with its own time, has been a familiar one ever since modern media displaced the literary from its previous centrality in culture. Expounding on poet Kenneth Goldsmith’s express ambitions of bringing literature up to date with contemporary media culture, this article engages the larger stakes of his work with a view to an ‘updated literature’ – a literature, as it is here considered, 'beyond textuality.' Informed by the theoretical perspectives of Friedrich Kittler and the broader field of media archeology, the article posits literature’s turn toward the generalized ‘informational milieu’ of contemporary network culture and its concomitant break with modernist notions of medium specificity. Although the provocations of both Goldsmith and Kittler have received much previous attention; in seeking here to bring them together in a committed way, this article also moves beyond the limits of their approaches to rethink the problem of literature’s dubious distinctness in our age of networks.

KITTLER, Friedrich. Mídias Ópticas: Curso em Berlim, 1999. Tradução de: Markus Hediger. Rio de Janeiro: Contraponto, 2016, 344 p.

Resenha do livro Mídias Ópticas: Curso em Berlim, 1999, de Friedrich Kittler.

¿Un nuevo a priori histórico? Análisis de propuestas de renovación de las Humanidades centradas en la noción de información

Este artículo analiza dos proyectos de renovación programática de las Humanidades, los cuales se centran en la noción de información. Consideraremos, por una parte, la propuesta de Friedrich Kittler acerca de un materialismo teórico-informacional, y por otra, la axiomática de las ciencias humanas de Gilbert Simondon. La pregunta que guía nuestro examen crítico es la siguiente: ¿de qué manera, en cada uno de esos proyectos, la noción de información funge como centro para una propuesta renovadora de las Humanidades? Nuestra hipótesis sostiene que hay un común denominador en ambas propuestas, el cual puede formularse en términos foucaultianos del siguiente modo: la información es entendida allí como el a priori histórico actual.