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Claudia Franziska Brühwiler
Title
Prof. Dr.
Last Name
Brühwiler
First name
Claudia Franziska
Email
claudiafranziska.bruehwiler@unisg.ch
Phone
+41712242755
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1 - 10 of 12
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PublicationType: conference paper
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PublicationKantian Evil and Aristotelian Misunderstandings : Randian Readings of Great PhilosophersIn 1972, William F. O'Neill observed that: "Writing about Ayn Rand is a treacherous undertaking. In most intellectual circles, she is either totally ignored or simply dismissed out of hand, and those who take her seriously enough to examine her point of view frequently place themselves in grave danger of guilt by association." While this is still very much the case in the United States, and may have even worsened due to Rand's rising status in the wake of the Tea Party movement, one usually profits from a less biased continental European audience. Here, Rand is still very much unknown, which is why I would like to briefly introduce her to you and maybe cast some light on the question why she is so hated and despised in the United States: Ayn Rand was born as Alisa Rosenbaum in pre-revolutionary Russia, but emigrated at the age of 21 to the United States. There, she hoped to become a successful screen writer, and eventually saw her first novel published in 1936. Her third novel, The Fountainhead, published in 1943, brought her to national attention; not so much because critics praised it - in fact, they did not - but because readers responded so well to it. The novel celebrates stark individualism, resistance to the needs of society and it divides the world neatly into creators and second-handers. These themes are further developed in Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, the tale of, as Rand put it, the man who stopped the engine of the world because the latter did not appreciate what its most creative minds offered to it. Rand became a sought-after speaker and political commenter who would no longer write fiction, but focus on the dissemination of her philosophy, called "Objectivism." As you can tell from the introductory quote, though, Rand was never part of the intellectual and/or academic debate of her time. The New Republic ranked her as one of the most over-rated thinkers in 2011, and voiced frustration with Rand's lasting influence: "Despite the fact that Rand's worldview is a crackpot Manicheanism, in which the world is divided between virtuous, productive individuals and lazy parasites, Rand's hold on American conservatism continues to grow, as if real thinking ever is compatible with a cult." Apart from her exchanges with philosopher John Hospers and one appearance at a conference, she was merely a bystander who blamed the philosophers of her time for problems too numerous to be discussed here. This does not mean, however, that she developed her own ideas in a complete philosophical vacuum. In her essays, she frequently referred to a selection of philosophers, mainly Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, Aristotle, and Auguste Comte. This paper suggests that her references to these thinkers were not attempts at a systematic discussion, but rather part of what sociologist Dominik Bartmanski calls a "charisma process." Specifically, I argue that Rand's philosophic critiques are only serving acts of symbolic association or disassociation and of intellectual disambiguation.Type: conference paper
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PublicationServing His Tour as "Exasperated Liberal and Indignant Citizen" : Philip Roth as a Public IntellectualThis conference paper will be published in "A Political Companion to Philip Roth," edited by Claudia Franziska Brühwiler and Lee Trepanier, University Press of Kentucky. In his last appearance in Exit Ghost (2007), Philip Roth's writer-protagonist Nathan Zuckerman refuses to take any interest in presidential politics and take the public stage to share his opinion: "I've served my tour as exasperated liberal and indignant citizen […]. I don't wish to register an opinion, I don't want to express myself on ‘the issues'?I don't even want to know what they are. It no longer suits me to know, and what doesn't suit me, I expunge. That's why I live where I do" (36-37). He thereby mirrors his creator's view that, apart from writing books, a writer is just "an ordinary citizen" (Minkmar 2), who enjoys "no greater moral authority than a plumber" (ibid.). But while Zuckerman longs for his withdrawal from the public arena, Roth deplores the public status of writers in the United States and repeatedly contrasts it with the reverence writer-intellectuals still enjoy in some European countries. In spite of this nostalgia, Roth has often played hide-and-seek with those journalists who tried to address him as a public intellectual. Thus one wonders to what extent he did indeed try to assume the role of a public intellectual, as a - thus the direction of most definitions - "critical guardian of humane and universal values" (Kemp 199) who speaks "the truth to power" (Said 25). This paper explores Philip Roth's public engagement and his struggles with the role of more than "an ordinary citizen" who happens to write books. In particular, it sheds light on the ways he interprets his public role differently in the U.S. and abroad, using the geographic distance of his interlocutors to reflect on the political regime he witnesses the closest. Inevitably, this discussion is linked to the way Roth believes literature can shape the people's political thought and opinion.Type: conference paper
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Publication"A Human Being Lives Here" : Philip Roth on Scandals and the PresidencyWhether it is the glorified Administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt or the object of spite, satire and scorn Richard Nixon, the actual downfall of Bill Clinton or the imagined cruelty of a President Lindbergh, Philip Roth has constantly commented on American Presidents, past and present. He set either out "to destroy the protective armor of ‘dignity' that shields anyone in an office as high and powerful as the Presidency" (Reading Myself and Others, 40) or let Nathan Zuckerman revile those who did not realize that even at the White House we will find only a human being. This paper explores the many Presidencies that inspired Roth's fiction and discusses how Roth's approach can also shape a political scientist's understanding of a Presidency's cultural and societal significance. In particular, it analyses how Roth captures a Presidency's impact on individual lives. Moreover, it discusses Roth's statements on presidential politics in interviews and essays, and how these have been received in the media.Type: conference paper
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PublicationThe Allure of Anna Granite or Mirroring Ayn Rand's Persuasive PowerTo the respondents of a survey by the Library of Congress in 1991, she is the author of the most influential book, second only to the Bible; to many conservatives, libertarians and Tea Party adherents, she was what historian Jennifer Burns dubbed "a gateway drug to life on the right"; to many scholars, she was simply the author of bad novels who paraded as a philosopher but did not get involved in the academic discourse; and to "The New Republic," she is just one of the most overrated intellectuals: Ayn Rand (1914-1982), repeatedly believed to be no longer relevant, polarized during her lifetime and still does so today. Many wonder, not least in the Western European press, how she could achieve such iconic status in spite of the literary qualities of her work and her difficult personality. This paper tries to grasp what made Ayn Rand such a compelling figure and her ideas so pertinent to many. To this end, it approaches Rand and her philosophy through novels and other works of fiction that are either inspired by Ayn Rand or feature her as a character. It will thus show how this libertarian intellectual is re-imagined in novels like Tobias Wolff's "Old School" (2003) or Mary Gaitskill's "Two Girls, Fat and Thin" (1991), and how these novelists try to put their finger on what made Rand so convincing. In a similar fashion, the paper will discuss how recasting Rand's political ideas in science fiction, for instance in Nancy Kress's "Beggars in Spain" (1991), reveals both the allure and the danger of Rand's world of ideas.Type: conference paper
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PublicationDestroying the Armor of "Dignity": Philip Roth on Scandals, Political and Personal( 2012-06-21)The American writer Philip Roth (*1933) has experienced the feeling of causing scandals, but he has likewise been inspired by scandals - his own and those of former Presidents. At the beginning of his career, Roth was criticized for his breakthrough novel "Portnoy's Complaint" (1969), wherein he portrayed the (sexual) woes of a young Jewish man. Roth drew inspiration from the outrage his novel caused in the Jewish community, and he satirized future reproaches of misogyny and anti-Semitism at several instances, but particularly forcefully in "Zuckerman Unbound" (1981). In a similar vein, Roth used political scandals as, on the one hand, stories setting the atmosphere and defining central questions of his novels, for instance in "The Human Stain" (2000). On the other hand, Roth likewise satirized politicians and their scandals, notably Richard Nixon, who is the model for the pre-Watergate closet drama "Our Gang" (1971). Finally, Roth also likes to provoke his readers by inventing scandalous political developments, as he did in "The Plot Against America" (2004) and "Nemesis" (2010). This paper explores how Philip Roth's writing is inspired by personal and political scandals, and how he develops imaginary scandals in his counterfactual writings. An analysis of the narrative devices and modes of fictionalization provide insight into the many readings and re-narrations of scandals, as well as into the interplay of fact and fiction. Roth's oeuvre thus allows us to see the impact of scandals from different angles and helps us imagine possible cultural impacts and consequences for society.Type: conference paper
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PublicationFrom Mrs. Logic to Patron Saint of the Tea Party : The Changing Images of Ayn RandTo the respondents of a survey by the Library of Congress in 1991, she is the author of the most influential book, second only to the Bible; to many conservatives, libertarians and Tea Party adherents, she was what historian Jennifer Burns dubbed "a gateway drug to life on the right"; to many scholars, she was simply the author of bad novels who paraded as a philosopher without a PhD and who did not get involved in the academic discourse; and to The New Republic, she is just one of the most overrated intellectuals: Ayn Rand (1914-1982), repeatedly believed to be no longer relevant, polarized during her lifetime and still does so today. Thanks to the Tea Party movement, her ideas have experienced a renaissance, letting some even refer to her as an icon of the movement. This paper suggests, however, that self-professed admirers of Ayn Rand unwittingly perceive the atheistic writer, who had railed against traditionalists, conservatives, libertarians, allegedly leftist academics and intellectuals alike, as little more than a convenient libertarian pop icon. Their idea of Rand tends to be as overly simplistic as the vilifying portrayals by her former opponents and in popular culture. The paper will retrace how the image of Ayn Rand evolved over time, and how it contradicts Rand's actual positions and her own vision of what a public intellectual should be. It will first summarize Rand's rise to fame and her perception of the intellectuals of her time. It will then analyze how Rand has become part of popular culture and how this has transformed her public image, turning her into a political icon appropriated by groups that contradict many of her ideas and values.Type: conference paper
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PublicationOut of a Grey Fog : The Reception of Ayn Rand's Work in EuropeAyn Rand (1905-1982) is a household name in the United States, but even at the height of her career in the 1960s her work was hardly available or read in Continental Europe. Translations of even her most successful novels would only be printed after her death, since, previously, potential publishers and Rand's agents could not get her work translated for reasons both economic, legal and personal, that is, due to Ayn Rand's personal principles that precluded certain arrangements. Since then, however, her work has become more widely disseminated, with the long awaited French translation of Atlas Shrugged (orig. 1957) finally available and the publication of completely revised German language editions of all of her four novels. Although it would be exaggerated to speak of a surge of European interest in Ayn Rand's work, it has indeed received more media attention, not least due to her influence on the Tea Party movement and its activists as well as on American high-profile politicians and businessmen. This paper analyzes the reception of Ayn Rand's work in Western Europe, specifically in francophone and German-speaking Europe and in Spain, retracing the more recent discussion of her work and influence.Type: conference paper
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PublicationWho IS John Galt? – The Reception of Ayn Rand’s Work in EuropeThe novels and political ideas of Ayn Rand (1905-1982) have recently experienced a renaissance, also thanks to the Tea Party movement. While Rand is widely read across the United States, she is practically unknown in Europe, where she was born. The letters she received from European readers often lamented the fact that she did not receive any attention in their respective home countries. It is commonly thought that this difference in popularity is due to ideological reasons, the less individualistic culture of many European countries, for instance. This paper, however, will argue that other factors have also contributed to the lack of success of Rand's American bestsellers in Europe. To this end, the paper first provides a brief European publication history of Rand's oeuvre. It will then analyze the reasons practical and personal, as well as political and economic for the lack of success of Rand's novels in the European book markets.Type: conference paper
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Publication"Keep It in a Gray Fog" : Ayn Rand's Contentious Relationship with EuropeThe novels and political ideas of Ayn Rand (1905-1982) have recently experienced a renaissance, also thanks to the Tea Party movement. While Rand is widely read across the United States, she is practically unknown in Europe, where she was born. In spite of her Russian roots, childhood travels around Europe and her delight in European art and literature, Rand distanced herself from Europe and instead celebrated the United States as the only free country, superior to the ossified old continent. In her most influential novel, Atlas Shrugged, Europe is kept, as she explained it in her journal, “in a gray fog.” This paper will show that this disdain for Europe developed gradually and mirrored Rand’s own dream of what has been termed the least European experience, the frontier. In a first step, the paper retraces how and explains why, in Ayn Rand’s writings, Europe turned from a land of hope to a place of no consequence. This is followed by an analysis of Rand’s paradoxical appraisal of American and European art, which runs counter to her overall esteem for the two cultures. Although she sees in America the only country with a system conducive to innovation, she favored innovative art from Europe, a fact particularly noteworthy in light of Objectivist theory that taste was based on reason. The paper finally discusses how Rand replicates the frontier experience in her novels: the initial dream of flight across national borders developed into pioneer aspirations of settling far from the constraints of civilization.Type: conference paper