Ashley Woodward
Biographic Data
| ID | 3634984 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ashley Woodward |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ashley |
| FAMILY NAME | Woodward |
| SIGNATURE | WOODWARD A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Dundee |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1447-4114 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Blanchot at the Limits of Nihilism
This paper seeks to explain Blanchot’s original and compelling, but frequently overlooked, interpretation of nihilism. It focuses on the philosophical, rather than the literary which has had primary focus in previous commentaries. It focuses on two dimensions – the personal, examined through Blanchot’s writings on finitude and death, and the general, examined through his confrontation with Nietzsche’s notions of the overman and the eternal return…
Postinformational Education
This paper explores the theme of education and the posthuman from the perspective of French philosophy. It addresses a crisis in eduction today identified by Michel Serres: now that knowledge is widely and freely accessible through information technologies, what is the purpose of education? A response is developed through three conceptual terms prefixed with ‘post’: the postmodern, the posthuman, and through the proposed idea of ‘postinformation.…
White Skin”
In 1975 Jean-François Lyotard published a short text entitled Pacific Wall. A mash-up of philosophy, fiction, biography, and art criticism, it is highly gnomic if read in isolation. Studied alongside other works from this period, however, it may be understood as sketching a postcolonial libidinal economy. The book’s central concept, “white (or blank) skin” avoids any simple identification and instead expresses a series of permutations of desire i…
Lesson of Darkness
This paper examines the relationship of Jean-François Lyotard’s aesthetics to phenomenology, especially the works of Mikel Dufrenne and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It argues that this comparison allows a greater understanding of Lyotard’s late aesthetic writings, which can appear gnomic and which have received relatively little critical attention. Lyotard credits Merleau-Ponty with opening the theme of difference in the aesthetic field, yet believes t…
Becoming-animal in Shaffer's Equus
This paper mounts a philosophical defence of Peter Shaffer's 1973 play Equus by interpreting it from three perspectives: that of Freud, Jung, and Deleuze and Guattari. The latter's concept of becoming-animal is offered as a leading perspective which reveals the deep philosophical significance of the drama, belying the claims of those critics who have dismissed it as bogus or banal. This interpretation also allows Equus to be seen as an exemplary …
A Sacrificial Economy of the Image
The theme of sacrifice appears in Jean-François Lyotard's writings on cinema not in terms of any representational content but in terms of the economy of the images from which a film is formally constructed. Sacrifice is here understood in a sense derived from Bataille, and related to his notions of general (as opposed to restricted) economy, and of sovereignty. Lyotard's writings on cinema have received some attention in English-language scholars…
Deleuze, Nietzsche, and the overcoming of nihilism
Nihilism and the Sublime in Lyotard
This paper seeks to demonstrate that in Lyotard’s later works the sublime is posited as a response to nihilism. This demonstration is significantly complicated by the fact that while Lyotard frequently gave the sublime a positive valuation, he also identified it with nihilism. The paper charts Lyotard’s confrontation with nihilism throughout his career, showing how the themes with which he characterizes nihilism in his earlier works are repeated …
No prominent works on this page.
Nihilism and the Sublime in Lyotard
This paper seeks to demonstrate that in Lyotard’s later works the sublime is posited as a response to nihilism. This demonstration is significantly complicated by the fact that while Lyotard frequently gave the sublime a positive valuation, he also identified it with nihilism. The paper charts Lyotard’s confrontation with nihilism throughout his career, showing how the themes with which he characterizes nihilism in his earlier works are repeated …
Deleuze, Nietzsche, and the overcoming of nihilism
A Sacrificial Economy of the Image
The theme of sacrifice appears in Jean-François Lyotard's writings on cinema not in terms of any representational content but in terms of the economy of the images from which a film is formally constructed. Sacrifice is here understood in a sense derived from Bataille, and related to his notions of general (as opposed to restricted) economy, and of sovereignty. Lyotard's writings on cinema have received some attention in English-language scholars…
Becoming-animal in Shaffer's Equus
This paper mounts a philosophical defence of Peter Shaffer's 1973 play Equus by interpreting it from three perspectives: that of Freud, Jung, and Deleuze and Guattari. The latter's concept of becoming-animal is offered as a leading perspective which reveals the deep philosophical significance of the drama, belying the claims of those critics who have dismissed it as bogus or banal. This interpretation also allows Equus to be seen as an exemplary …
Lesson of Darkness
This paper examines the relationship of Jean-François Lyotard’s aesthetics to phenomenology, especially the works of Mikel Dufrenne and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It argues that this comparison allows a greater understanding of Lyotard’s late aesthetic writings, which can appear gnomic and which have received relatively little critical attention. Lyotard credits Merleau-Ponty with opening the theme of difference in the aesthetic field, yet believes t…
White Skin”
In 1975 Jean-François Lyotard published a short text entitled Pacific Wall. A mash-up of philosophy, fiction, biography, and art criticism, it is highly gnomic if read in isolation. Studied alongside other works from this period, however, it may be understood as sketching a postcolonial libidinal economy. The book’s central concept, “white (or blank) skin” avoids any simple identification and instead expresses a series of permutations of desire i…
Postinformational Education
This paper explores the theme of education and the posthuman from the perspective of French philosophy. It addresses a crisis in eduction today identified by Michel Serres: now that knowledge is widely and freely accessible through information technologies, what is the purpose of education? A response is developed through three conceptual terms prefixed with ‘post’: the postmodern, the posthuman, and through the proposed idea of ‘postinformation.…
Blanchot at the Limits of Nihilism
This paper seeks to explain Blanchot’s original and compelling, but frequently overlooked, interpretation of nihilism. It focuses on the philosophical, rather than the literary which has had primary focus in previous commentaries. It focuses on two dimensions – the personal, examined through Blanchot’s writings on finitude and death, and the general, examined through his confrontation with Nietzsche’s notions of the overman and the eternal return…
Epistemology (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Contemporary Literature and Criticism (4 works) · Postmodernism in Literature and Education (4 works) · Psychoanalysis (3 works) · Psychology (3 works) · Art (2 works) · Computer Science (2 works)