Aesthetic dimensions of the works of esther Mujawayo and Robert Antelme

Abstract

This project aims to research the aesthetic dimensions of the two works that make up the main corpus of my doctoral research, to which it is linked. The aesthetic locus of testimonial arise as a problem to be investigated from the elaborate presentation of the reality experienced by the authors, ie, the transformation of living in artistic work. The Twentieth century produced a complex and brutal social reality of varying intensity both temporally and geographically presenting as tonishing events as the Shoah occurred in Europe during World War II and the Rwandan Genocide, occurred in Africa in 1994. If we look from a global point of view, we can see that such events are situated in a violent reality that crosses time and spreads across continents, collaborating with Benjamin's thesis of state of exception as the rule. The aesthetic is presented as a form of knowledge of reality at least since Kant (Critique of Judgment), which makes this aspect essencial for a more complete analysis of my object. As I was researching this topic, I found in the conceptions of the aesthetic reflection of Gyorgy Lukacs the most appropriate tools for this stage of the research because it includes the relationship between the work and the materiality from which it arises, as well as the mediations between reality portraied in the work. Hence the choice of Michael Löwy as advisor for this work. (AU)