Weak Thought, Verwindung, Ueberwindung and Capitalism

the character Junior from A arte de produzir efeito sem causa and the neoliberal postmodernity

Abstract

A Arte de Produzir Efeito Sem Causa (2008), by Lourenço Mutarelli narrates Junior’s life, after leaving his wife and children and returning to his father’s home. The narrative is built in such a way that the character’s intimate experiences engage with socio-economic, sociocultural, psychological, and affective realities. This article aims to examine Junior as an allegory of our time, drawing on the notion of postmodernity by Vattimo (1992; 2002). The analysis primarily relies on Vattimo's concepts of weak thought, Verwindung and Ueberwindung, and the associated ideas of value. A connection is established between these concepts and Bauman's (2001) liquid capitalism to trace the influence of consumerism and work on the character's life, revealing the fragility of traditional structures in a fluid world. The theoretical approach is complemented by Han's (2015) reflections on neoliberalism, production value, and the transformations that this causes.