論文

This article deals with the concept of "development" in Norbert Elias' sociological thought. Elias claims that his sociological approach is both "figurational" and "developmental", but most critiques of his approach focus mainly on the former and do not give much attention on the latter. It seems no wonder that the concept of "development" is pushed to the back ground, when we know that the concept has associations with nineteenth-century evolutionism and belief in progress. However, we realize we cannot dismiss the importance of the concept when we notice the fact that Elias attempted many times to refine the concept of "development" so that it could be regarded as scientific. What makes us curious then is that although he tried so hard to refine the concept, he could never give a satisfactory definition to it. Then why did he try so hard to keep the concept? And why couldn't he finally give a satisfactory definition to it? To answer these questions, I examine both Elias' explanation of the concept in his theoretical discussions and his description of historical processes in his "theoretical-empirical" works such as The Civilizing Process, and conclude that there are two different epistemological positions on which he stands when he talks of "development". Elias always took an empirical point of view and could never get out of this epistemological horizon when he tried to explain the concept. But on the other hand, he already got out of the empiricism and reached a new epistemological horizon when he practiced the description of historical processes. The new epistemological horizon is found to be the same as the one to which Michel Foucault's genealogy belongs, a totally new approach on history compared with the usual approach called empiricism = historicism.

ベンヤミンの「遊歩者(flâneur)」は、近年の都市研究に欠かせない人物形象となっているが、当初より、男性的「まなざし」の具現化ではないかとのフェミニズム的批判が寄せられていた。遊歩者の特別な対象として「娼婦」が呈示される点に、その批判はとくに集中する。だがベンヤミンは娼婦に出会う遊歩者を、特権的視線をもつ観察者ではなく、むしろ主体性が解体する一種の陶酔者と描いており、娼婦のほうも、経験的実存というよりアレゴリー的現象と考えている。それゆえ問われるべきは、娼婦の形象が喚起する主体の壊乱的作用に、いかなる理論的意義が見いだせるかという点である。こうした問題意識から本稿は、以下の三つの側面を含む論証により、ベンヤミンの娼婦論および遊歩者論のあらたな読解をめざす。第一に、娼婦のモティーフと「人形」の形象との重なりという、従来の解釈では見逃されてきた論点を中心に、「死を意味する生」というアレゴリーの謎をめぐるベンヤミンの潜在的な思考ラインを再構成する。第二に、性倒錯としてのフェティシズムやサディズムをめぐるベンヤミンの思考に焦点をあて、マルクス主義的な疎外論や物象化論による読解とは異なる、商品的存在の「死」の位相を照らしだす。第三に、従来では観察者としての面が強調されていた遊歩者について、娼婦の形象が露呈する「死」との関連より、主体の権能が失われた陶酔者としての側面を浮かびあがらせる。