Dissertation

Romantic Anticapitalism, Aesthetic Realism, and Progressive Politics in the 60s’: Bloch, Pasolini, Bresson

Schaffner, Constanza María

2024

Overview

This dissertation argues that the 1960s witnessed the emergence of a form of aesthetic and political thought in Europe that took religiosity as the locus of anticapitalist resistance. It situates this emergence in the wider context of both a renewal of Marxism (with the New Left's attempt to rethink Marxism in non-economic terms, moving the revolutionary project from class struggle to the realm of culture) and a renewal of the Catholic Church (with the progressive papacy of John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council). The mode of thought examined herein may be deemed Romantic to the extent that its critique of capitalism is inspired by a nostalgia for the past—one which, in this particular case, takes sacred or religious form, understood not in transcendent or dogmatic terms but rather as a reservoir of humanist, trans-individual, and non-instrumental values. Three case studies anchor my arguments: the writing of the philosopher Ernst Bloch, the interdisciplinary oeuvre of Pier Paolo Pasolini, and the films of Robert Bresson. Examining these thinkers' development of comparably modernist, anti-naturalist conceptions of aesthetic realism, I analyze their respective radical critiques of bourgeois abstract rationality by way of a return to religiosity. In this sense, the dissertation explores the intersections between aesthetics, metaphysical and religious outlooks, and politics, arguing how each of these realms connects to and illuminates the others. To what extent may these authors’ politics be considered progressive, even in their ‘Romantic,’ potentially regressive tendencies? This dissertation tackles this question head on while exploring these individuals' concrete political consequences for 1960s culture, particularly the dialogue between Marxism and Christianity, the emergence of the New Left, the student movement, and the birth of liberation theologies in Latin America.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund (1903-1969) / Bloch, Ernst (1885-1977) / Brecht, Bertolt (1898-1956) / Bresson, Robert / Breton, Andre (1896-1966) / Comparative literature / Durkheim, Emile (1858-1917) / Film studies / Film, television, and media studies / Malraux, Andre (1901-1976) / Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975) / Philosophy / Simmel, Georg (1858-1918) / Weber, Max (1864-1920)
• ISBN: 9798342710893