Thesis Supervisor: Ana Teixeira Pinto

Thesis: (On the Genealogy of) a Wrong Highway Sign: From a Mythologised History Towards Para-histories

Arnhem, July 2020

Abstract

How could there be something like a wrong highway sign? This thesis examines why and how history, and thus prevalent “knowledges” and opinions, are being mythologised by a particular function of time, specifically the blending of past, present and future times. It examines historic and contemporary theories of fascist ideologies and tropes, as well as their relationships to micro-fascism and white structures of affect. While this thesis is structured like a curious continuous and intuitive stroll, it veers towards a concept of “para-history.” Ideas around a potential political agency of the narrative through emotional investments lead to a temptation to appropriate the practice of a mythologising of history. New myths are necessarily being constructed and developed in a critical and conscious manner through the merging of memories (past) and hopes (future). This thesis attempts to function as introductory mental preparation for one of art’s possible anti-fascist counterstrikes. That is, through the use of affect.

Author: Olivia Abächerli