Identity formation at the beginning of the twenty-first century: Intersubjectivity, art, and medicine in Siri Hustvedt’s works

„Ich bin, weil du bist“ – so lautet eines der Schlüsselzitate in What I Loved, dem 2003 erschienenen dritten Roman der zeitgenössischen amerikanischen Autorin Siri Hustvedt. Die Bedeutung von Beziehung und Interaktion für die Identitätsbildung spielt eine zentrale Rolle nicht nur in diesem Roman, sondern auch in ihrem Gesamtwerk, das vier Romane, ein memoir, drei Essay-Sammlungen und einen Lyrikband umfasst. Hustvedt erforscht die Identität als ein vielschichtiges Produkt bewusster und unbewusster Verknüpfungen innerhalb der sozialen und biologischen Umwelt. Das Bewusstsein wird als eine dialogisch geprägte Entität gezeigt, dessen Identität erst durch die Beziehung auf ein Anderes geformt werden kann. Um dem Mysterium der menschlichen Identitätsfindung nachzuspüren, bedient sich Hustvedt sowohl philosophischer, psychoanalytischer, biologischer als auch kunsttheoretischer Diskurse. In ihren Romanen stellt sich die Frage nach der Erklärung von Identität als komplexe Problematik dar: Ist die Beziehung zu anderen Menschen vor allem durch unsere Entwicklung als Kind und die Nähe zu Bezugspersonen geprägt? In welchem Ausmaß ist das Empfinden von Subjektivität beeinflusst von körperlichen und unbewussten Mechanismen? Inwiefern ist die Wahrnehmung visueller Kunst eine Kooperation zwischen Betrachter und Künstler? rnDiesen und anderen Fragen geht diese Dissertation nach, indem sie Hustvedts Werk als Anlass für eine Analyse intersubjektiver Strukturen der Identität nimmt. Die Intersubjektivitätsphiloso¬phien von Hegel, Buber, Bakhtin, Husserl, und Merleau-Ponty dienen hierbei als Ausgangspunkt für die Interpretation von relationaler Identität in Hustvedts Werken. Die Dissertation konzentriert sich auf Hustvedts Darstellung der Beziehung zwischen Selbst und Anderem in der Photographie und in der Malerei, der Überschreitung von Körpergrenzen in Hysterie und Anorexie sowie der Auswirkung des Verlustes von Bezugspersonen auf die persönliche Identität. Entscheidend für den Hustvedtschen Kunstbegriff ist das Zusammenspiel von Kunstobjekt, Künstler und Betrachter. Die Grenzen zwischen Innerem und Äußeren werden aufgelöst: mal wird der Rezipient Teil des Kunstwerks, mal verschmilzt der Künstler förmlich mit seinem Objekt. Auch hier wird wiederum deutlich, dass Identität nur in Wechselbeziehung und als zwischenmenschliche Kooperation entsteht. Hustvedt betritt durch ihre einzigartige Auseinandersetzung mit den Wechselbeziehungen und fragilen Grenzen zwischen Ich und Umwelt Neuland auf dem Gebiet der literarischen Identitätsforschung, da sie ihr Prinzip des „mixing,“ des unausweichlichen Eindringens fremder Substanz in die eigene Identität, aus dem Blickwinkel dieser verschiedenen Erklärungsansätze beleuchtet. rn

Can Developing Women Create Primitive Art? and Other Questions of Value, Meaning and Identity in the Circulation of Janakpur Art

In this article, I examine the values and meanings that adhere to objects made by Maithil women at a development project in Janakpur, Nepal – objects collectors have called ‘Janakpur Art’. I seek to explain how and why changes in pictorial content in Janakpur Art – shifts that took place over a period of five or six years in the 1990s – occurred, and what such a change might indicate about the link between Maithil women’s lives, development, and tourism. As I will demonstrate, part of the appeal for consumers of Janakpur Art has been that it is produced at a ‘women’s development project’ seeking to empower its participants. And yet, the project’s very successes threaten to displace the producers (and what they produce) from their perceived qualities/identities as ‘traditional’ and ‘primitive,’ thereby bringing into question the authenticity of the ‘art’ they produce. The conundrum begs this question: can developing women produce primitive art?

Deprivation, Violence, and Conflict: An Analysis of “Naxalite” Activity in the Districts of India

This paper asks: is it a fact that there is more violence in districts affected by Naxalite (Maoist) activity compared to those which are free of Naxalite activity? And can the existence of Naxalite activity in some districts of India, but not in others, be explained by differences in economic and social conditions? This study identifies districts in India in which there was significant Naxalite activity and correlating the findings with district-level economic, social, and crime indicators. The econometric results show that, after controlling for other variables, Naxalite activity in a district had, if anything, a dampening effect on its level of violent crime and crimes against women. Furthermore, even after controlling for other variables, the probability of a district being Naxalite-affected rose with an increase in its poverty rate and fell with a rise in its literacy rate. So, one prong in an anti-Naxalite strategy would be to address the twin issues of poverty and illiteracy in India.

Gene Therapy for Pediatric Cancer: State of the Art and Future Perspectives.

While modern treatments have led to a dramatic improvement in survival for pediatric malignancy, toxicities are high and a significant proportion of patients remain resistant. Gene transfer offers the prospect of highly specific therapies for childhood cancer. "Corrective" genes may be transferred to overcome the genetic abnormalities present in the precancerous cell. Alternatively, genes can be introduced to render the malignant cell sensitive to therapeutic drugs. The tumor can also be attacked by decreasing its blood supply with genes that inhibit vascular growth. Another possible approach is to modify normal tissues with genes that make them more resistant to conventional drugs and/or radiation, thereby increasing the therapeutic index. Finally, it may be possible to attack the tumor indirectly by using genes that modify the behavior of the immune system, either by making the tumor more immunogenic, or by rendering host effector cells more efficient. Several gene therapy applications have already been reported for pediatric cancer patients in preliminary Phase 1 studies. Although no major clinical success has yet been achieved, improvements in gene delivery technologies and a better understanding of mechanisms of tumor progression and immune escape have opened new perspectives for the cure of pediatric cancer by combining gene therapy with standard therapeutic available treatments.

What's Happening? Allan Kaprow and Claes Oldenburg Argue About Art And Life

In 1961 Allan Kaprow (1927–2006) and Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) exchanged a number of letters in which they argued about the definition of their avant-garde practices as Happenings. Kaprow, who first introduced this "root-metaphor," as he would later call it, describes with it the necessity of the respective activity to be as far removed as possible from all motives, materials, and formats conventionally connected to art. Oldenburg, who at the time of this exchange was just as active in the New York performance scene as Kaprow, disagrees with his colleague's removal of their practice from the artistic sphere. Oldenburg is also dissatisfied with the fact that Kaprow, through his writings, launches a critical discourse that follows his own definition of the Happening. The two artists thus argue just as much about the positioning of their practices with respect to art as over the authority to establish such a position. This essay traces their argument through their written conversation and in doing so exposes the immense influence Kaprow's rhetoric had on the subsequent art-historical canonization of their respective practices: Oldenburg's more ambivalent position is today amalgamated with Kaprow's theoretical stance.