![]() In a similar way, David Roberts 3 sees Auto-da-Fe as a fictional forerunner of Crowds and Power and executes a textually immanent sequence based on the hermeneutic tools of Canetti’s theoretical work. In this way he offers an interesting and productive reading of Auto-da-Fe without fully grasping the implications of Crowds and Power, but using only a part of them as a basis for his interpretation. Socially applied (aesthetic reception or political reception, as well as socio-historically oriented) Ĥ The immanently poetic approach has already been introduced by Canetti’s first scholar, Dieter Dissinger in his dissertation «Separation and Mass Psychology: Elias Canetti’s novel Auto-da Fe », where he uses Canetti’s theory as an interpretational medium for his analysis of the novel. The interpretations of Crowds and Power can be seen as falling into four groups:Īpplied or immanently poetic interpretations which use the conclusions and the tools of Crowds and Power to interpret the rest of Canetti’s works Yet, it is Canetti who offers such knowledge which is urgently needed in an age dominated by mass performances.Ģ The only attempt at a unified analysis of Crowds and Power is Petra Kahnau’s Crowds and Power in History: towards a Concept of the Anthropological Constants in Elias Canetti’s Works (1996). In addition, the public interest seems to be directed at mass media, without really knowing mass media. In a word, it is imperative that we not only talk about Crowds and Power, but examine it in its entirety and internal dynamics. Such are the dangers of excessive popularity of some images which tend to leave the sphere of their own imaginary and enter areas which are alien to their intrinsic value. This is due primarily to the fact that because of the theory’s attractiveness, the form of the narrative has been overlooked, although, like The Glass Bead Game, Kakania or The Men without Qualities, this title has made deep inroads in the political and journalistic world without adequate knowledge of the whole text. Hereinafter abbreviated as (.)ġ Elias Canetti’s theoretical work Crowds and Power 1 has been referenced by many authors, yet it is the least analyzed of the author’s works. Sebsequent citatons and references are to this edition. Around this proximity between the concept of crowds in the natural sciences and in the humanitarian understanding of the concept of the crowd and the attendant concept of power, the whole of Canetti’s anthropological, cognitive and aesthetic theory of transformation (Verwandlung) and the opposite process of unmasking (Entwandlung) has been constructed. In opposition to all crowd theories, positioning the crowd in opposition to the individual, Canetti sees the understanding of the crowd WITHIN the individual as of primary importance, that is to say, the understanding of his instinct for the crowd. He stands at the beginning of the cultural reversal which through the dimension of auto-reflexivity and the new definition of the ratio between subject and object in knowledge constructs the connection between analysis of society and of culture. Canetti views nationalisms and religions as a problem of crowd psychology. The remaining, equally important part of the knowledge is being attained «outside» and «on the side», and independent of either side in the comparative observation of Unmasking. ![]() Yet, we must not forget that, according to him, only a part of knowledge can be attained through the mask of transformation. Canetti expects and insists upon transformation to be used as a cognitive modus of the historical and political processes. In Crowds and Power Canetti abandons the comprehensive historicity of universal history in order to find the forces which govern history and to seek answers to universal human questions. His unique thinking process aims at a complete encompassing of the problems in the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach. Canetti distances himself from historicism and historicity. The connection between transformation, figure and mask is important for both Canetti’s ontological and theatrical theory. An important role in Canetti’s work is played by his transformation myth. The interpretations of Crowds and Power can be seen as falling into four groups: applied or immanently poetic interpretations socially applied political reception productive and aesthetic (genetic) and structural and functional analyses.
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