Stefan Zenklusen

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Stefan Zenklusen (born April 4, 1966 in Basel ) is a Swiss philosopher and essayist .

Life

Stefan Zenklusen studied philosophy , linguistics and French literature in Zurich and Paris as well as sociology in Basel. He is the brother of the "ostracized artist" Adrian Zenklusen . He worked as a magazine editor, language teacher, journalist (irregularly between 1999 and 2004 for Die Wochenzeitung in Zurich) and as a lecturer at the University of St. Gallen .

In response to the renaissance of Heideggerianism in the context of poststructuralism , Zenklusen wrote a critical work (published 10 years later) in 1992 about the strategic intersection at Heidegger that was formed by the “history of being” and the concept of technology - here Heidegger's reflection converges on modern rationality , on technology and to National Socialism . In a reading that is partially based on Pierre Bourdieu's approach, Zenklusen denies the usual alternative in Heidegger literature of sociological reductionism and Heideggerian, immanent protection strategy (which, in the eyes of Zenklusen, also exists in Jacques Derrida ).

In Adornos Nonidentical and Derridas différance (2002), Zenklusen pleads for - as the subtitle reads - a resurrection of negative dialectics . Using the guideline of the nonidentical in Adorno and Derrida's “ Différance ”, Zenklusen reconstructs and compares the difference theories of both authors. The astonishing, but hardly shown by Derrida relationship of several motifs of the two (such as the concepts of play , writing , non-concept, etc.) is analyzed. Overall, however, Derrida's deconstruction, in Zenklusen’s view, represents a relapse behind the level of reflection developed by Adorno because of its fundamentally semiological - ahistorical list . The appendix to the text is made up of several contemporary diagnostic miscarries that prove Adorno's topicality also against the background of post-democratic and neoliberal globalization .

The bundle with the sarcastic title Im Archipel Coolag , published in 2006, is a selection of the most varied types of text , some of which were published in the Zurich “Wochenzeitung”. The multifaceted tracing of the period between 1985 and 2005 is characterized by post-Fordist financial market capitalism and the breakthrough of neoliberalism and right-wing populism (both of which form an "inseparable dyad " for Zenklusen ) and their upheavals.

The author, who had spent a long time in a provincial part of the canton of Aargau , experienced during this period Zurich's development into the undisputed, internationally respected Swiss city center. He experiences this era , both foreign and at home, from a position of participatory observation and makes the surprising observation that in this city, measured by the dominating media or scientific criteria, the majority of "provincial" tendencies prevail: mistrust of foreigners, Rejection of other idioms , projection of own weaknesses in other regions , formation of sect-like " scenes ", hostility to everyday communication , strong identification with the (Anglo-Saxon-dominated) entertainment industry , pronounced local chauvinism , " coolness " as post-modern honesty , etc. Zenklusen summarizes these characteristics under the term " Hyperprovincialismus ”and describes Zurich as a typical rising city in the context of the establishment of a service society and financial capitalism. Zenklusen, who observed something similar in Paris, sees a strengthening of the mentioned features with the tendency of globalization to weaken nation states: The resulting glocalism implies a spreading into (urban and regional) localism on the one hand and globalism on the other, so that mediating supra-regional and national as well international levels of experience and knowledge are lost. For this reason, Zenklusen is also skeptical of certain forms of anti-nationalism .

For Zenklusen, “hyperprovincialism” also includes the anglicisation of language that is not functional or does not produce any semantic added value. The originality of his analysis lies in the fact that it clearly differs from a culturally conservative approach. The Anglicization of German means the end of slang insofar as it requires a creative use of language: “Anglotumbdeutsch speaks the death sentence about the slang that lives from this area of ​​the linguistically unpredictable, and promotes the transfer of the 'popular', everyday language into a sclerotic, static state (...). "

In the essay Farewell to the thesis of the 'most plural' of all worlds (2007), Zenklusen makes corrections to the theories of individualization and pluralization that have dominated the theories of individualization and pluralization, which have been dominant since the 1990s, in terms of language and subject philosophy , politological and sociological . For example, Ulrich Beck's theses on individualization and the approaches of the postmodernist philosopher Zygmunt Bauman are examined. Zenklusen contradicts certain basic assumptions of certain representatives of cultural studies (such as Rainer Winters or Ien Angs ), according to which the world is composed in a deconstructive and irreducible pluralistic, whereby the products of the entertainment industry are seen as pluralistic and their consumers as resistant and creative.

With Philosophical References in Pierre Bourdieu (2010 - also his dissertation ), Zenklusen presents a study on Bourdieu's diverse relations to philosophy and presents pre-forms of the habitus concept , including the Anglophone and Francophone discussions.

For some years now, Zenklusen has also dealt with questions of the Islamization of Western and Central Europe and has since been sharply attacked by some left-wing circles for his attitude toward Islam. Zenklusen also acquits the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut of the accusations of " Islamophobia " and racism that have become numerous in France .

In 2017 the essay volume Islamism and Collaboration - The Contribution of French and European Left and Liberals to the Establishment of Islamism and Anti-Semitism will be published . The author denies that the political successes of Lepenism correspond to a real fascization of French society. The actual fascization of society finds its origin in the deconstructivist and postmodernist - cultural relativist turn of the left and left liberals. This “conversion” created a hegemonic historical block of generalized Islamophilia in the sciences, the media, politics and culture, which made any adversarial debate about Islam impossible. The result of this (in some cases even pro-Islamic) development and the actively promoted Islamization is a steady erosion of basic and human rights . Basic freedoms, especially for women and homosexuals, are increasingly at risk. Muslim aggression against Jews has become commonplace - a consequence of this process is the mass exodus of Jews from France. The collaborationism in France of the left, left-wing liberals and neoliberals with Islam and Islamism weighs, according to Zenklusen, more heavily than the collaboration with the Nazis, since the latter came about under the pressure of an occupying power.

Works

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by Daniel Huber in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie 3/2003, Vienna
  2. ↑ Stefan Zenklusen: In the Coolag archipelago - sociognostic thought sheets from the new-old civilization . wvb Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86573-164-3 .
  3. ^ Review by Johannes Gruber in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie 1/2009, Vienna
  4. ↑ Cf. Stefan Zenklusen: On the way to capitalist totalitarianism - tendencies towards equalization and logos in the post-Fordist present . In: In the archipelago Coolag - sociognostic thought sheets from the new-old civilization . wvb Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86573-164-3 , p. 24 f .
  5. ↑ Zenklusen, key language Anglotumbdeutsch , in: Im Archipel Coolag , wvb Berlin 2006, p. 168: “Anglotumbdeutsch is no longer a language in which something worth mentioning can still grow or occur, because it breaks the mechanical, unilateral adoption and imitation Preformed patterns and phrases train, at the expense of what has been created from 'own' resources ”(ibid.). Article also abridged in: Journal for Critical Theory 26/27, Zu Klampen, Springe 2008.
  6. ↑ Cf. in particular Ien Ang: In the realm of uncertainty. The global village and capitalist postmodernism , in: Andreas Hepp, Carsten Winter (eds.): The Cultural Studies Controversy , Zu Klampen, Lüneburg 2003, pp. 84ff .; Rainer Winter, Filmsoziologie , Herbert von Halem Verlag, Cologne, 1992. Zenklusen: Looking back on a quarter of a century of globalization - to verify the thesis of Anglo-Americanization , in: Sociologia Internationalis I / 2018, Bonn
  7. ↑ Cf. Zenklusen: Has anti-racism become fascistoid? on the online page of the “Society for Scientific Enlightenment and Human Rights” (GAM); "Analog" also published in the magazine Background , IV 2012 / I 2013, Osnabrück. In addition: A Philosopher Under Wraps (2007) (about the Islam-critical philosopher Robert Redeker , who lives underground); available on Zenklusen's website .
  8. ↑ Cf. Zenklusen: Alain Finkielkraut? Not Islamophile, ergo a racist! , Website of the “Society for Scientific Enlightenment and Human Rights” (GAM); also focused on Criticism Network - Journal for the Critical Theory of Society . At the same time "analog" published in the magazine Background , IV 2013, Osnabrück.
  9. ↑ See the two-part interview by Reinhard Jellen on " Telepolis " "Violence has become routine in the banlieues" (Part 1, Sept. 3, 2018) and "Intellectuals often lose their minds when dealing with Islam" (Part 2, Sept. 5, 2018); see also Paul Nellen : France: Where the hatred of Jews becomes normal , review, juedischerundschau.de, June 8, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Zenklusen, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss philosopher and essayist
DATE OF BIRTH April 4th 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel