This study is an intervention in postcolonial theorising through a critique of technologies of representation. It examines the effects of technologically-mediated representation in a postcolonial condition that the Philippines has exemplified. New media technologies are mechanisms of representations that embody the logic of spectrality presented in Jacques Derrida’s later work. Spectrality, which brings doubts, ephemerality, and instability to dominant discourses and modes of representation, provides a chance for change.Spectres are effects of technologically-mediated representation that articulate the infinite demand for justice (...) under conditions of enduring inequality. As quasi-transcendental elements of deconstruction, spectres are not reducible to either human or technical intervention; they express the relation of humans to technologies, in which representation is central to the mediation of political authority. This technological representation is the condition of what Derrida calls “iteration,” or the transformation of hegemonic authority through the very repetition of its fundamental terms of identification. The examination of emancipatory new media technologies in a postcolonial condition is inspired by the work of Jacques Derrida, in his deconstructive reading of Marx’s spectres. However, the writings of Habermas and Adorno have offered an implicit appraisal of the ontology of spectres. Habermas’s theory of the public sphere and Adorno’s negative dialectics are discourses that unwittingly solicit spectres. The account of the postcolonial condition in the Philippines works through the questions of universality, subalternity, and the right to theory that are raised by the project of Western critical theory. (shrink)

The thesis explores political and aesthetic concerns in Grillparzer’s historical dramas König Ottokars Glück und Ende, Ein treuer Diener seines Herrn and Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg. The thesis argues that Grillparzer’s political, philosophical and aesthetic views are linked. Grillparzer was no reactionary, but rather a perceptive and critical observer of his age. He was far from an unconditional supporter of the repressive Habsburg government, but rather an advocate of the universal values of the multinational state. Grillparzer’s central themes in these (...) plays include leadership and power, the interplay of public and private spheres and ethical concerns of justice and morality. Grillparzer aimed through drama to observe, reflect on and appraise the social and political changes underway in the transitional and turbulent nineteenth century. Grillparzer’s investigation into the psychological complexities of human nature is linked to broader philosophical and historical debates. In the form and content of the historical dramas, Grillparzer illustrates the unwieldiness and unpredictability of history as well as revealing his pessimistic view of human progress. Grillparzer presents irrational, disruptive elements as inherent in human nature and shows how they continually obstruct and inhibit human potential. Nevertheless, Grillparzer continues to propound humanitarian values. (shrink)