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Departmental Seminar

Date: 16 November 2009 Time: 4.30-6.00 pm

Venue: Bowland North Seminar Room 24

Dr Fabrizio M. Ferrari, University of Chester

The Yoga of Mr Berlusconi. Power, deception and self-mimetic desire in the construction of myth.

Abstract

The article examines Silvio Berlusconi's leadership in contemporary Italy as a personality cult built on deceptive religious imagery. Moving from a comparative analysis of the Śiva-sūtras and Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle, this article argues against traditional notions of subalternity and suggests religious studies should offer a more engaged theoretical and methodological approach when issues of cultural impoverishment and exploitation are at stake. The politics of Mr Berlusconi is discussed as yoga but eventually it is explained as a deceitful system that fools both subjects and objects. I discuss the social implications of self-mimetic desire as a destructive force originating from ignorance and implementing Power and its own regeneration. In my conclusion I contextualise my case study at the convergence of religious studies and critical theory and discuss how Yoga can inform revolutionary practice in its way to break those ritual parameters inextricably linked to totalitarianism.

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Who can attend: Anyone