Excommunicatio: an essay for a negative theory of communication

Author(s)

Maurício Augusto Pimentel Liesen Nascimento

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA/SBD)
• Defense date: 2014-03-19

Examining board members

Ciro Juvenal Rodrigues Marcondes Filho; Mayra Rodrigues Gomes; Luís Mauro Sá Martino; José Benjamim Picado Sousa e Silva; Mauro Wilton de Sousa

• Advisor: Ciro Juvenal Rodrigues Marcondes Filho

Abstract

Ex-communication is an «un-word» that emphasizes what eludes in the communicational phenomenon: be it the mediality of the medium, the incomprehensibility of a relation or the community of those who have no community. The «ex» means not only a negation, but also a fundamental drift: it is the irrevocable and the irreconcilable that the communication presupposes and constitutes, although it defies conceptualization. The «ex» guarantees the impossibility of re-presentation. A communication that is not structured by signs, but rather shows itself: it is an existential, intransitive or mystical communication. This PhD thesis aims to establish the general outline for a negative theory of communication. By using the negative and posthermeneutic media philosophy developed by the philosopher Dieter Mersch, this dissertation intends a negative reelaboration of the three main concepts of a communicational theory: media, community and communication. In general, communication is taken as a radical alterity experience, medium as the modes of perception of this experience, and community as the possibility and condition of the communicacional event. In other words: in the negative theory of communication, the medium is transparent, the community is what ex-poses, and communication is transcendent. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/07423-6 - Between the word and the silence: an essay for a non communication
• Grantee: Maurício Augusto Pimentel Liesen Nascimento
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate