Bloch Lecture Lecture

8/13/2019 Bloch Lecture Lecture

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BA (Hons) Social Science/Joint Hons Pathways.

Utopian Visions & Everyay !"lt"re#.

Bloch is a brilliantly diverse writer, his influences range from (and

span incredibly across) Marxism, the Kabala, Christianity,

Psychology, Philosophy of rt ! Music, "udaism (and many more)#

$e was associated with many %ey early sociological thin%ers such asMax &eber and 'eorg immel $e became close friends with 'eorg

*u%acs, &alter Ben+amin and other members of the ran%furt

chool# Many aspects of Bloch-s wor% share similarities with the

ideas of the ran%furt chool theorists#

$owever, Bloch-s wor% has never achieved the .popularity- associated

with his contemporaries# /his is probably due to the difficulty of

Bloch-s style of writing 0 you cannot simply .read- Bloch, you have to.feel- the places where he ta%es you#

$ the ne%lect o Bloch is "e to the act that his syste' a

octrine o hope an ontolo%ical anticipation is itsel an

anticipation an stans as a sol"tion to the prole's o a

"niversal c"lt"re an a "niversal her'ene"tic which have

not yet co'e into ein%. *t th"s lies eore "s eni%'atic an

enor'o"s li+e an aerolite allen ro' space covere with

'ysterio"s hiero%lyphs that raiate a pec"liar inner war'than power spells an the +ey to spells the'selves patiently

waitin% or their own "lti'ate 'o'ent o ecipher'ent.

(Ja'eson ,-, ,012-).

1n order to at least start to develop an understanding and

appreciation of the ideas of 2rnst Bloch, we must hint towards what

is meant by .2utopia34topia-

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What is your understanding of utopia?

Bloch is 5uite a .mystical- writer, and his theories are presented and

expressed via allusions, allegory and metaphor# $is style is

inspirationally poetic, and communicates with us on various levels 0

he appears to .tap- into the very depth of our being#

Bloch (and his writing) expresses an affinity with the profoundly

beautiful 0 how dreams, visions, fairy6tales and wor%s of art embody

a uni5ue utopian function#

$is ideas and writings can ta%e us on theoretical, psychic andspiritual .+ourneys-, that seem to .fleetingly- traverse the un65uashed

hope and freedom of youth7 the strange beauty within moments of

loneliness, and helpless releases of profound love#

Ernst Bloch A Philosophy of the Future

Dreams of topia

or Bloch, it is important to note that dreams come to us during the

day, as well as at night, and whilst both %inds of dreaming are

motivated by wishes that they see% to fulfil, day6dreams differ

from night6dreams#

8ay dreaming, importantly 6 is a conscious exploration of the

circumstances and images of a desired and better life#

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9/he content of the day6dream is not, li%e that of a night6

dream, a +ourney bac% into repressed experiences and

their associations# 1t is concerned with an as far as

possible unrestricted +ourney forward, so that instead of

reconstituting that which is no longer conscious, the images

of that which is not yet can be phantasied into life and into

the world#:

Castles that we build in the air during wal%s or 5uiet moments are

often empty and sha%y, because the utopian fixtures and

foundations have received little attention during .construction-, we

have to learn how to (re)connect to them#

/hese idealistic visions can be extravagant, daring and beautiful 6

because the mundane aspects (such as building costs) are never

really 6 nor should they be 6 a consideration#

/he s%y6blue day6dreams that we occasionally wander into,

represent the un5uenchable utopian .landscape- 0 we loo% into the

blue, and into .the landscape within- and ga;e into the untoldexpanse of the utopian mind from the

products of the creative spirit and the countries that it

has, =they> appear above the hori;on for the first time 0

lands that were never thus seen before, have never thus

been before from all of these there arises a utopian

territory


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/he term .not yet- embodies such hopeful connotations 0 as it infers

that the utopian can still be pursued#

1f it is not yet, it still .can be-# 1t is for us to become disciples

ourselves, in order to develop the creative mental and spiritual

capacities to bring the sublime tendencies into .reality-#

ome of the %ey Blochian concepts that we will be referring to, in

order to apply Blochian ideas to film ! literature, are

@och6nicht6bewusst (not6yet6conscious)

@och6nicht6geworden (not6yet6become)

Aor6chein (pre6appearance, or anticipatory illumination)

$eimat ($omeland)

$ohlraum (2mpty6space)

taunen (startlement, stonished)

puren (/races 6 of utopian longing)

Art and archetypes of utopia

What is an archetype?

92veryone meets them in wor%s of art and in the situations

and forms of conflict and resolution they feature7 in the

inexhaustible power of une5uivocal symbols7 and even in

multi6ambiguous allegories# /he enemy, the mother, the

saviour7 the tyrant-s castle and its ta%ing by storm7 the

labyrinth < the dragon %iller7 and the saviour in the form

of a servant


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/he permanence and greatness of ma+or wor%s of art in 2urope

decode (albeit fleetingly) the realms of utopia

4topia resides 9< in the windows of such wor%s7 and always in

windows which open in the direction of ultimate anticipation driving

forward, soaring, or achieving towards a goal 0 which is never a mere

land in the clouds above#:

1n great wor%s of art, the .light- of utopia glows on the hori;on# 1n a

wor% of art, sorrow and anguish never permanently remain 0 +oy and

redemption always dawn as a fore6glow#

9< the modern age of art < has after all supplied art as an

agreeable but unspiritual accompaniment to life, not as the

allaying of the soul-s need < /here is thus a powerful

difference between tastefully appointed functionality and

high6art#: (p )

But how does utopia come about 0 in the concreteD $ow can the

utopistic extend out from the .self6vision-, in order for us to beginto collectively create utopia in the .concrete-D

/his problem centres around our connection to the .?ther- 0 how do

we overcome our ego, in order to inspire the ?ther, to start out on

a +ourney of (inner) hopeful dreams, with the aim of .externally-

bringing about trans6formationD

1n order to respond to this 5uestion, and illustrate how the Blochianstrategy attempts to overcome the distance between ourselves and

the .?ther-, we will move onto another of Bloch-s boo%s

Ernst Bloch' (he )pirit of topia

?ne of the main themes of this boo% is the travesty of the

increasingly mundane .modern- world, with its cold scientific

rationality#

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/he effect of this has rendered us blind to activities that are

external to us

9/o what lies above us we became blind already long ago7

the light of Christian illumination is also gone#: EF

But this does not mean that the cause is lost, it is simply .not yet-

the self-s light burns brightly within where utopian powers can

awa%en, because ?ur souls weep inside us and ache to move beyond

the limits of the .1- 0 it is the soul that creates the bridge between

.1 and Gou-#

/he soul 0 the core of our being, this universal indefinable mirage, is

the thing that unites us# (he soul is the dream%$ater into $hich

$e di#e! $hen $e e*perience the utopistic self%encounter#

nd it is also the substance of the soul that floods forth into the

concrete, as we learn how to transform the utopistic into the

utopian#

/his is how Bloch-s framewor% bridges the gap between the 1, and

the ?ther# n internal3externalising creative spirit, that carries

forward (enmeshing with ?thers) the emanating light of the soul#

/he utopian spirit 0 can connect to all of our souls

/here is a limit to how far the internal path can at first go, initially

we must move towards a stronger connection with (or rediscoveryof) the utopistic a self6encounter, in order to bring about the

preparation of the inner world#

&ithout this, every ga;e outward remains empty, and we cannot

brea% through the falseness of this world#

fter this internal .movement-, a new expanse will begin to form and

appear, the world of the soul 6 which is connected to the external

cosmic function of utopia#

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9?nly in us does this light still burn, and we are

beginning a fantastic +ourney toward it, a +ourney

toward the interpretation of our wa%ing dream, toward

the implementation of the central concept of utopia#:

(Bloch H)#

or Bloch, music (authentic, spiritually creative music) is one form

of manifestation of the utopian function some music can incite such

intense emotional responses#

What effect does music ha#e on you +$hat styles,?

9< it is this, which is not yet7 what is lost, pre6sensed7 our

self6encounter concealed in the latency of every lived,

moment7 our &e6encounter, our utopia calling out to itself

through goodness, music, metaphysics, but unrealisable in

mundane terms#: (Bloch EI)

-arl .ar*! death and the Apocalypse (?r, the &ays in /his

&orld by &hich the 1nward Can Become ?utward and the ?utward

*i%e the 1nward)#

/entatively, li%e a flame over every separate living creature, there

develops an impulse to move toward the brightness#

,7inal chapter o Bloch#s the Spirit o Utopia#

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rom the place of the initial self6encounter, there will also develop

the arena of political6social leadership based upon authentic

personal and spiritual freedom#

9$ere < the .soul-, the .intuition of the &e- < streams

responsibly into the world# /o be practical in this way, to

help in this way on everyday life-s structural hori;on and

put things into place, precisely to be political6social in this

way, is powerfully near to conscience, and is a revolutionary

mission absolutely inscribed in utopia:# (Bloch JH)

/he utopian function serves to shape a path from the lonely wa%ing

dream of the inner self6encounter to the dream that goes out toshape the external world, and becomes the instrumentation for this

goal#

Politics in its contemporary guise is spiritually empty, and as it is

.soulless-, has no true idea of socialism# or Bloch, society is

consumed with .belly worshipers- or .state worshipers-, and

everything else has sun% to the level of a +o%e, or entertainment#

8evoid of philosophical breadth, without sight of a spiritual hori;on,

no inner threshold, no %ernel, and at the centre .no gathering

conscience of the bsolute-#

/hat is why we need to return to thin%ing about, and striving for

the .@ot Get-

9/o find it, to find the right thing for whose sa%e it isworthy to live, to be organised, to have time that is why

we go, why we cut new, metaphysically constitutive paths

summon what is not there, build into the blue all around the

edge of the world, and build ourselves into the blue, and

there see% the true, the real, where the merely factual

disappears


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Bloch Lecture Lecture

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