Ksenologie
Xenologies
Contributor(s): Ksenia Olkusz (Editor), Krzysztof M. Maj (Editor)
Subject(s): Philosophy, Epistemology, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Existentialism, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Marxism, Hermeneutics, Theory of Literature, Ontology
Published by: Ośrodek Badawczy Facta Ficta
Keywords: otherness;strangeness;alienation;exclusion;other;xenology;allology;xenotopography;topograhy of the other;phenomenology;
Summary/Abstract: Nowy interdyscyplinarny, monograficzny tom jest w historii cyklu „Perspektywy Ponowoczesności” szczególny, bo znacząco metarefleksyjny. Ośrodek Badawczy Facta Ficta pokazuje w nim w sposób bezpośredni, że pomieszanie sfery społecznej i kulturowej w jego nazwie nie jest przypadkowe. Trawestując Foucaulta, można powiedzieć, że w ramach badań Ośrodka związki między kulturą i polityką są permanentne i fundamentalne. Nieprzypadkowo w motcie do jednej części książki redaktorzy tomu „obnażają chwyt” i wprost przytaczają źródło nazwy Ośrodka, cytat z „Jutrzenki”: „Facta. Tak, facta ficta. Wszyscy historycy mówią o rzeczach, które nie istniały poza ich wyobraźnią”. Nietzsche pisze w nim dość wąsko o dyskursach historii – ale czyż dzieje ludzkich konfliktów nie są zarazem wyimaginowaną historią i topografią tak swojskości, jak i obcości? A zatem proponowany monograficzny projekt badawczy zajmuje się właśnie „mapowaniem obcości”. W tak zatytułowanym błyskotliwym wstępie do rozważań zacytowana jest, pomiędzy wieloma innymi, intrygująca myśl Waldenfelsa (wyraźnego, intelektualnego patrona całej publikacji): Obce należy do tego, co nas nachodzi. Nie gdy jest sobie daleko – ale gdy nas „nachodzi”. Taka jest perspektywa tomu – obcości nie poznamy, nie doświadczając uzurpacji i złudzeń swojskości. Zbliżymy się do obcego tylko wtedy, gdy poprzez refleksyjną postawę u-JA-rzmimy niepokoje związane z tym „najściem”. Nasze porządki symboliczne w swej pozornej „samowitości” doświadczają nieustannie tak realnych, jak i wyimaginowanych inwazji zewnętrzności. Oznaczenie wielu z nich wartościującą kategorią obcości omawiane jest w kolejnych rozdziałach „Ksenologii” uporządkowanych w czytelnym koncepcie dyskursywnych doświadczeń Facta i mimetycznych narracji Ficta.
Series: Perspektywy Ponowoczesności
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-948889-0-9
- Page Count: 498
- Publication Year: 2018
- Language: Polish
Mapując to, co obce. O potrzebie ksenologii w XXI wieku
Mapując to, co obce. O potrzebie ksenologii w XXI wieku
(Mapping the Other. On the Need for Xenology in 21st Century)
- Author(s):Ksenia Olkusz, Krzysztof M. Maj
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Phenomenology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:15-44
- No. of Pages:30
- Keywords:xenology;allology;xenotopography;topography;alien;alienation;exclusion;phenomenological analysis;Bernhard Waldenfels;
- Summary/Abstract:Theoretical introduction to the book overviewing the most recent phenomenological approaches to the otherness with particular emphasis on Bernhard Waldenfels' projects of responsive phenomenology, phenomenology as xenology, and so-called 'xenotopography' (topography of the other).
Uchodźstwo jako immanentna pułapka. Perspektywa egzystencjalna
Uchodźstwo jako immanentna pułapka. Perspektywa egzystencjalna
(Refugeeism as an Immanent Trap. The Existential Perspective)
- Author(s):Michał Bomastyk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Existentialism
- Page Range:49-64
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:refugeeism;refugees;integration;immanence;transcendence;otherness;strangeness;enmity;exclusion
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of this chapter is to present a phenomenon of refugeeism in the existential perspective, i.e. with the use of the terms described by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. The thesis of the article is that the process of integration, considered as one-dimensional, leads to an institutional exclusion of refugees arriving to Western-European countries and deprives them of a freedom to form their own subjectivity due to the practices of isolating foreigners from the autochthons. The consequence of this is that refugees are defined as enemies who, thereby, suffer from a dehumanisation. Consequently, they cannot transcend—create themselves as being-for-itself. The social and institutional exclusion of foreigners is also claimed here to be stabilised by nationalist attitudes noticeable amongst inhabitants of host societies Therefore, the chapter presents solutions which can provide refugees with possibilities for constructing their own being-in-the-world in a free and responsible manner.
Rewolucjoniści i pariasi
Rewolucjoniści i pariasi
(Revolutionaries and Pariahs)
- Author(s):Agnieszka Więckiewicz
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Psychology of Self, Psychoanalysis
- Page Range:65-84
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:psychoanalysis;Sándor Ferenczi;emigration;refugees;antisemitism;Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society
- Summary/Abstract:In the chapter, Agnieszka Więckiewicz presents the history of a development of the Hungarian psychoanalytical school in the first two decades of the twentieth century in Hungary. The fate of psychoanalytical school in Budapest is one of the most tragic examples of a destruction of the psychoanalytical movement established by Sigmund Freud. Difficult political situation in Hungary has inhibited the progress of the Freudian thought in the medical society. The author focuses on the history of Hungarian psychoanalysis in the light of emigration and displacement which made a huge impact on psychoanalytical thought and practice in Hungary. Besides the author presents the story of Sándor Ferenczi – one of the most crucial figures in the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis. The aim of the chapter is to introduce the history of the Hungarian psychoanalysis which is still very little known in Polish science. The author argues that the history of psychoanalysis in Hungary is a complex story of difficult, and sometimes contradictory, experiences of exclusion, antisemitism, war, forced emigration, displacement as well as of an utopian faith in political and civil revolution. In the first part of the chapter the author talks about the beginnings of psychoanalytical mouvement in Hungary. Between 1908-1918 the Freudian thought had inspired not only medicine and medical practice but also the new Hungarian literature. The author shows the complexity and multidirectionality of a path in which Freudian thought transferred to Hungarian science and culture. The second part applies to the waves of the forced emigration, mostly in two periods: first between 1919-1924 and second between 1938-1941. In regard to difficult political situation in Hungary the great majority of Hungarian Freudians developed their theories in other countries: mostly in Great Britain, France and United States of America. The author discusses also the most important ideas of the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis. The chapter ends with a reflexion about a contemporary situation of Hungarian psychoanalysis and a phenomenon of the rebirth of a Ferenczian theory.
Maria Kuncewiczowa — wieczna cudzoziemka
Maria Kuncewiczowa — wieczna cudzoziemka
(Maria Kuncewiczowa — Eternal Foreigner)
- Author(s):Barbara Szymczak-Maciejczyk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology
- Page Range:85-114
- No. of Pages:30
Andrzeja Bobkowskiego powrót do ojczyzny
Andrzeja Bobkowskiego powrót do ojczyzny
(Andrzej Bobkowski's Return to Motherland)
- Author(s):Ewa Zwolak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology
- Page Range:115-126
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Andrzej Bobkowski;epistolography;Sketches in Pen;emigration;autobiographical sites
- Summary/Abstract:The purpose of the chapter is to show that the case of Andrzej Bobkowski—which emerges from his extensive epistolography—eludes all renditions of the concept of emigration. The associated strategy of creating identity is the result of the confrontation of the author of Sketches in Pen with the otherness, which was the result of constant contacts with ideologically deformed Europe. Bobkowski’s correspondence (with, among many others, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, Jerzy Giedroyc, Jerzy Turowicz, Tymon Terlecki and Aniela Mieczysławska) witnesses the end of French universalism. According to the epistolographer, Europe of that time became the center of totalitarian ideology and he took on the role of “the third”—an observer, not enclosed within the symbolic register of reality. The fall of the ideals from youth inspired Bobkowski to ask a question about his own subjectivity. The place considered, until World War II, a quintessence of Western European civilization and at the same time the center of Bobkowski’s own symbolic universe, ceased to be a reference system for his identity. Therefore, paradoxically, the place which was foreign to him culturally and socially, allowed him to self-determine and reforge his cultural identity. He managed to find his spiritual home in Guatemala. Consequently, the strategy adopted by Bobkowski in building his own subjectivity prompts the question of whether the protection project of his “I” was a fight against strangeness or, on the contrary, its affirmation.
Przeciw powadze
Przeciw powadze
(Against Gravity)
- Author(s):Artur Hellich
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Pragmatism
- Page Range:127-147
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:autobiography;pastiche;parody;irony;absolutism;science;positivism;exclusion;relativism;pluralism
- Summary/Abstract:In the chapter Against gravity. Paul Karl Feyerabend's strategy and autobiography Artur Hellich presents a profile of the Austrian-American philosopher and describes his academic and writing strategy. The first part of the chapter is devoted to Feyerabend’s ‘anything goes’ principle. Hellich points out the provocative rather than the serious nature of this formula and tries to defend its author against the allegations of irresponsible relativism. Then he proves the imitation of the rationalistic way of argumentation in Against Method was a form of pastiche of a serious scientific discourse. Hellich links Feyerabend’s strategy with the tactic of a ‘jester’ described by Leszek Kołakowski and argue that unfortunately Kołakowski the anti-absolutist did not see Feyerabend as his potential ally. Pastiche and parodistic strategy was also used by Feyerabend in his posthumously published autobiography (Killing Time, 1994). The close analysis of this work leads Hellich to present the Feyerabend's critique of the absolutistic and elitist demands of empiricist philosophy. Hellich argues that the criticism of science based on the neopositivist foundations finds expression in Feyerabend's ironic attitude towards the genre of autobiography. Feyerabend opposes a typical subject of an academic autobiography—a serious and distant scientist—to a character of the picaresque novel. At the same time, the traditional autobiographical scheme is replaced by a narrative of such picaresque. The key thesis of the chapter is that the reverse of the (so-called) Feyerabend’s methodological anarchism, aimed at criticizing and deconstructing the hegemonic demands of science, is the pastiche and parodistic performances and literary tricks, used both in Against Method (a ‘scientific’ thesis) and in the narrative autobiography. At the end of the chapter Hellich points out the ethical and political aspect of Feyerabend’s academic strategy of writing. He proves that Feyerabend became one of the icon of the left-wing revolution at the American universities in the sixties not by a mistake. The provocative performances and ironic strategies of writing were intended to shake the foundations of the monoethnical, monocultural and patriarchal institution of the university. For this reason, Paul Feyerabend’s strategy, close to the early postulates of the New Left movement, should be seen as a way of opposition to exclusionary academic policy and at the same time as a one of the possible ways to counteract its absolutist and elitist demands.
Niepełnosprawność jako inność
Niepełnosprawność jako inność
(Disability as the Otherness)
- Author(s):Klaudia Muca
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Social Sciences, Social Philosophy, Sociology
- Page Range:149-167
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:disability;otherness;norm;popular discourse on disability;disability studies
- Summary/Abstract:Criticism towards a popular discourse on disability is rarely analyzed due to the fact that this discourse—created and performed by non-disabled people who examine disability from different points of view—can be biased. This powerful discourse creates some divisions in the public sphere founded on the concept of a norm. Consequently, a person who do not adhere to the norms may become excluded or perceived as the Other. The article critically examines the popular discourse on disability, emphasizing the fact that critical work on disability is still underdeveloped within the new branch of cultural studies gradually evolving in Poland. The main objective of the chapter is, therefore, to reconstruct the ideas, beliefs and images that establish the discourse in accordance to the autobiographical projects of the criticism of the popular discourse on disability that is based on the concepts of norm, deprivation, and otherness. The analysis takes into consideration Joanna Pawlik’s multimedial projects and a novel Dłoń (A Hand) by Michał Dąbrowski.
Od ksenofobii do dyskryminacji
Od ksenofobii do dyskryminacji
(From Xenophoby to Discrimination)
- Author(s):Kamil Exner
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:169-191
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:migrations;ethnicity;nationalism;xenophobia;discrimination;Ukraine;Poland
- Summary/Abstract:Kamil Exner in the chapter From xenophobia to discrimination presents the current situation of middle-class young Ukrainian migrants living in Krakow. The author points out and problematises the tensions on the boundary of both ethnical groups—Poles and Ukrainians—looking for the sources of potential conflicts and their repercussions. The international relations between Poland and Ukraine, particularly in the last five years, have not been created any obstacles for intense and decades lasting migration from the East to the West. They were (and still are) caused by a number of reasons—political, economic, or personal. The text presents the results of Exner’s several months’ research. The fieldwork, engaging young Ukrainian speaking people arrived into Krakow not earlier than in 2012, has denuded all the difficulties, complexity of their relations with Poles, and stereotypes basing on historical background and stigmas (sensu Ervin Goffman). The author tries to re-define the concept ‘discrimination’ for the needs of social sciences, which leads to the risky conclusion that all the acts of micro-aggression, hate-speech, or symbolic power against one’s interlocutors are not fulfilling all criteria of a the said phenomenon. Exner therefore proposes to introduce the term of ‘discriminational behaviours’ to differentiate miscellaneous situations and tensions occurring within the multifaceted and ambivalent relations between Ukrainians and Poles as well as in the context of the Revolution of Dignity and revival of the Volhynia debate.
Życie starych ludzi w Polsce na podstawie analizy bloga "Pokolenie 1600" Rafała Betlejewskiego
Życie starych ludzi w Polsce na podstawie analizy bloga "Pokolenie 1600" Rafała Betlejewskiego
(The Lives of the Elderly People in Rafał Betlejewski's Blog "Generation 1600")
- Author(s):Maria Rudnicka
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Sociology, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:193-206
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:ageism;elderly people;pensions;financial situation of elderly people
Sposoby mówienia o Obcym w polityce – na przykładzie użycia hasła „Dobra zmiana” w komunikatach zamieszczanych na portalu Twitter
Sposoby mówienia o Obcym w polityce – na przykładzie użycia hasła „Dobra zmiana” w komunikatach zamieszczanych na portalu Twitter
(Ways of Speaking of The Other in Politics)
- Author(s):Kinga Ludwik
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Sociology, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:207-220
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:The Good Change;discourse;politics;otherness;elections;Polish politics
Stereotyp uchodźcy w polskich portalach internetowych. Analiza zawartości komunikatów medialnych
Stereotyp uchodźcy w polskich portalach internetowych. Analiza zawartości komunikatów medialnych
(The Refugee Stereotype Across Polish Internet Portals. Content Analysis of the Media Coverage)
- Author(s):Dorota Kudyba
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences
- Page Range:221-239
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:refugees;refugee crisis;migrations;migration crisis;media
- Summary/Abstract:Dorota Kudyba in the chapter “The Refugee Stereotype Across Polish Internet Portals” notes that since 2015 in Polish media the topic of refugees has gained significant popularity. The purpose of research was to analyze the discursive imagery of the emigration crisis on the example of publications in two popular internet portals: Onet.pl and Niezalezna.pl (24 items in total). The selected material dates back to 2016 since it was this very year when the phenomenon of migration clearly intensified and the media began to react to it rapidly and in a diverse way. Both aforementioned portals published news on refugees almost daily, contributing to their popularity. Most websites used messages provided by international news agencies or posted translations of articles that have already appeared abroad. Onet.pl coverage is shown to have been more inclined towards building a positive image of immigrants and reducing a critical tone, whereas Niezależna.pl, conversely, towards depicting the immigrants in a more negative way.
Media a szaleństwo. Przypadek Massima Tartaglii
Media a szaleństwo. Przypadek Massima Tartaglii
(Media vs. Madness. The Case of Massimo Tartaglia)
- Author(s):Paulina Orłowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Media studies, Communication studies
- Page Range:241-252
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:madness;myth;non-existence;Italy;Tartaglia;Berlusconi;mental illness
- Summary/Abstract:In the chapter entitled "Media vs. Madness. The Case of Massimo Tartaglia", Paulina Orłowska analyses the press coverage of Tartaglia’s aggression towards Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister of Italy at the time the attack took place (the 13th of December 2009). In order to get a closer look at themes the journalists overlooked and to explain their broader cultural context, the author employs semiotic instruments developed by Roland Barthes in his famous Mythologies. As a result, the mythical aspect of madness, to which the media had reduced the event, is disclosed. Correspondingly, the examined articles are shown as referring to the aggressor’s madness in terms of naturalization of history resulting in the extirpation of individual identity and the abrogation of the context. Instead of just reporting the criminal act, Italian newspapers extrapolated the mental illness from Tartaglia’s biography and delimited his identity to one common denominator—madness. This allows Orłowska to explore two paradigmatic forms of media madness narrative: the criminal one and the paternalistic one, both conveying the idea that madness is accounted for in emotional rather than rational terms.
Starość i wykluczenie w spektaklu Saszka Bramy "Jesień na Plutonie"
Starość i wykluczenie w spektaklu Saszka Bramy "Jesień na Plutonie"
(Senility and Exclusion in Sashko Brama’s Play "Autumn on Pluto")
- Author(s):Anna Korzeniowska-Bihun
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Social Sciences, Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts
- Page Range:257-271
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Ukraine;verbatim theater;Sashko Brama;senility;exlusion
- Summary/Abstract:Anna Korzeniowska-Bihun in the chapter Senility and Exclusion in Sashko Brama’s Play "Autumn on Pluto" analyzes the unique way in which Ukrainian artists developed the eponymous documentary theatrical project based on the interviews conducted in a Lviv nursing home. Sashko Brama translates the project’s title as follows: Autumn stands for the final stage of life and Pluto is the outermost planet of the Solar System. The text depicts the way project’s creators talk about senility and exclusion. Their work consists of three stages. The first focused on gathering and artistic transformation of the source material, which involved an in-depth examination of both performers’ and viewers’ reflection on the passing of time, infirmity, fear of death, and social rejection. The second covered the creation of two versions of the show with the use of hyperrealistic puppet-portraits of selected nursing home residents. The hyperrealism of the stage characters was enhanced by the implementation of authentic voice recordings which made huge puppets mirror their real equivalents. The performance in both versions developed a story about senility understood as the inner, private, and relative experience of the passing time, as well as the physical condition of a human being trapped in their own body. The third element of the artists’ work discussed in the chapter was pivoted around social activities addressing regular and systematic art-therapy sessions with the residents of the nursing home, in a part entitled Spring on Pluto. This art-therapy is analyzed as an attempt to solve a number of social and psychological problems identified by the performers throughout the documentation of the source material.
W obcym świecie czyli o obrazie dziecka-uchodźcy w najnowszej prozie niemieckojęzycznej
W obcym świecie czyli o obrazie dziecka-uchodźcy w najnowszej prozie niemieckojęzycznej
(In the Otherworld, or On the Image of Children Refugees in Contemporary German Fiction)
- Author(s):Aneta Jurzysta
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, German Literature
- Page Range:273-293
- No. of Pages:21
- Summary/Abstract:The global community is currently in the midst of a refugee crisis unlike anything seen since WWII. Only the Syrian Civil War has displaced millions, forcing nearly five million civilians to flee the war-torn country and leaving millions more adrift within its borders. The plight of refugees is back at the top of news bulletins but it has been a constant theme in modern literature. The current trauma of displaced people on the move in Europe is nothing new, and accounts of forced migration have been told since the earliest times. The refugee experience is a well-documented one: there are quite a number of great works of literature either written by refugees, or dealing with the refugee experience. Aneta Jurzysta in her analysis focuses on the latest novel by Michael Köhlmeier that looks at the refugee crisis from a child’s perspective. Köhlmeier’s dark fairy tale, first published in Germany in 2016 as “Das Mädchen mit dem Fingerhut” (“The Girl With the Thimble”), takes its English title from its protagonist, Yiza, a six-year-old girl who escapes with two older boys from a home for migrant children. Trekking through snowy forests and housing settlements, they evade police custody, subsisting on the margins of society. Narrated in simple language that reflects the slow-burn, linear thought processes of children, Das Mädchen mit dem Fingerhut is a pertinent and timely tale of displacement, foreignness and suffering. In an unnamed country, a trio of homeless children of unspecified nationalities like feral animals on the loose are trying by their will and their wits to survive another day. Köhlmeier’s novella, written in clipped prose, captures the narrow, frightened world-view of the war-scarred children in a cultural, climatic, and linguistic wasteland.
Fotografia i malarstwo jako przestrzenie budowania obcości na przykładzie Hanemanna Stefana Chwina
Fotografia i malarstwo jako przestrzenie budowania obcości na przykładzie Hanemanna Stefana Chwina
(Photography and Painting as a Space of Alienation in Stefan Chwin’s “Hanemann”)
- Author(s):Olga Osińska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
- Page Range:295-306
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:photography;painting;reference;exclusion;alienation
- Summary/Abstract:In the chapter Photography and Painting as a Space of Alienation in Stefan Chwin’s “Hanemann”, Olga Osińska addresses the relations between the reception of a photography and a painting in reference to the eponymous Polish novel. At first, according to Francois Brunet, Osińska distinguishes between traditional and modern way of reading photographs, favouring the latter, constructivist theory that describes photographs as affecting its viewer with an impulse to create a fictional narrative. In the core part of the chapter, Osińska depicts how the novel’s protagonist, Hanemann, fantasizes about the idea of a suicide or his own sense of alienation, concluding, that the interpretation of a photography as a kind of confabulation can be seen therein not only as a way of a therapeutic self-identification, but also as a self-aware artistic strategy.
Dyskursywne mechanizmy wytwarzania obcości w prozie Magdaleny Tulli
Dyskursywne mechanizmy wytwarzania obcości w prozie Magdaleny Tulli
(Discursive Means of Producing Otherness in Magdalena Tulli's Fiction)
- Author(s):Agnieszka Wójtowicz-Zając
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
- Page Range:307-321
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Magdalena Tulli;Polish literature after 1989;discours;otherness;hatespeech
- Summary/Abstract:The chapter concerns Magdalena Tulli’s novels, such as "Sny i kamienie" (1995), "W czerwieni" (1998), "Tryby" (2003), Skaza (2006), with the exception of her autobiographical prose "Włoskie szpilki" and "Szum". Wójtowicz-Zając focuses here on the discursive means of producing otherness in "Zamiast procesu. Raport o mowie nienawiści" (2003), compiled by Magdalena Tulli and Sergiusz Kowalski, used as a predominant reference for presented interpretation. The report offers an overview of otherness and foreignness presented throughout the analyses of storylines, vocabulary, idioms, style, or other language tools used for constructing the other in radical right-wing newspapers. Almost every Tulli’s novel, from "Sny i kamienie" to "Szum", reiterates the aforementioned issues, either as the main topic ("Skaza", 2006), or part of author’s personal experience ("Włoskie szpilki", "Szum"), or embedded as a secondary plot, initiated in some point of narration ("W czerwieni", 1998, "Tryby", 2003). "Sny i kamienie", Tulli’s literary debut, on the other hand, is shown as a tractate on creational powers of language which completes analyses from "Zamiast procesu". An emphasis on this creational powers of language in Tulli’s novels leads to comparing the report’s conclusions, that envision the world presented in selected newspapers, with linguistic rules composing the narrative in Tulli’s novels. The work of the metaphor, realized through its literalization, backgrounds her writing style allowing to emphasize the discursive power of creating divisions between the self and the other as well as between individual as a victim. The article tracks down how the observations from the report interweave with individual plots which span from literary tractates on the creational power of language (Sny i kamienie) to meticulous observations of the nature of separating, excluding, and naming of the other. Magdalena Tulli’s novels are therefore, argued to serve as a perfect ‘laboratory’ for studying discursive means of producing the otherness and exclusion alike.
Simmelowski model Obcego w dystopijnym świecie na przykładzie trylogii "MaddAddam" Margaret Atwood
Simmelowski model Obcego w dystopijnym świecie na przykładzie trylogii "MaddAddam" Margaret Atwood
(Simmel's Model of the Other in a Dystopian World of Margaret Attwood's "Maddaddam" Trilogy)
- Author(s):Maria Banaś
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
- Page Range:329-344
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:sociology of literature;stranger;dystopia;social microstructure;interaction
- Summary/Abstract:The paper investigates various aspects of the stranger category as they are presented in one of the best-known modern utopias, “MaddAddam” by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The “MaddAddam” trilogy envisions a dark, dystopian world and, as such, it might be regarded as a drastic, exaggerated attempt to draw attention towards a negative side of the Western civilization. It is, therefore, both a literary and an intellectual attempt to diagnose the state of the modern world. This diagnosis dates back not only to the classical dystopian novels such as George Orwell’s “1984” or Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”, but also to recently published novels, such as “Homo Novus” by Aldona Likus-Canon. This elaborated futuristic world-building urges the reader to ponder upon why even the most sophisticated visions of well-planned perfect societies—if only put into practice—can lead to inevitable catastrophes, the results of which are hard to imagine. The main analytical category of this research is the concept of the stranger coined by the German sociologist, Georg Simmel, for whom the alienation became an inseparable synthesis of the nearness and remoteness. The essential components of Simmel’s model of the stranger and, in particular, the specific interdependence between its components form the analytical background of this chapter. Banaś investigates here the aforementioned model and describes the mechanisms of the stranger’s functioning in the analysed dystopian world of MaddAddam.
Post-chrześcijańska dystopia albo proto-chrześcijańska utopia. O potrzebie mitologii w "MaddAddam" Margaret Atwood
Post-chrześcijańska dystopia albo proto-chrześcijańska utopia. O potrzebie mitologii w "MaddAddam" Margaret Atwood
(Post-Christian Dystopia or Proto-Christian Utopia: On Human Necessity of Mythologies in Margaret Atwood’s "MaddAddam")
- Author(s):Sławomir Kuźnicki
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
- Page Range:345-360
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:utopia;dystopia;mythology;religion;civilization;Bible;Margaret Atwood
- Summary/Abstract:The chapter investigates Margaret Atwood’s “MaddAddam” (2013) in the context of religious mythologies as the crucial background in the process of civilization foundation. Religion—mainly in the form of Christian dogmas and beliefs—constitutes here a means rather than an end itself: it becomes a source of mythologies that enable the characters to understand the surrounding post-catastrophe reality. It also makes it possible to build a new civilisation on the ruins of the past one. Since “MaddAddam” focuses on the scientifically generated humanoids, the Crakers—and their endeavours to build their own culture—this urge for mythologies reflects the Crakers’ growing cultural awareness. What we can see in MaddAddam is the post-apocalyptic society with the reinterpreted Christianity in its centre, as these are the religion-based mythologies that constitute the momentum of the new civilisation and force us to reconsider religion’s impact on our culture in broader terms. It also seems interesting to approach the notion of post-Christian mythologies in “MaddAddam” in the context of their intersection with the utopia–dystopia dichotomy. On the one hand, there is a utopian realisation of the concept of a paradise on earth as one group of survivors, namely the Crakers, are at the beginning of the process of creating their own civilisation. On the other, the post-apocalyptic world constitutes a nightmarish dystopia for the few remaining representatives of old humanity because, as they correctly realize, it is the actual end of their civilization. What both cements and influences these two approaches is religion and the basic cultural processes it triggers.
Gaja, Eden i Medea. Przetworzenia ekotopii w dystopii młodzieżowej
Gaja, Eden i Medea. Przetworzenia ekotopii w dystopii młodzieżowej
(Gaia, Eden, and Medea. Transformations of Ecotopia in Young Adult Dystopias)
- Author(s):Anna Bugajska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:361-376
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:ecotopia;dystopia;Nature;young adult dystopia;metaphor;posthuman
- Summary/Abstract:The chapter contains an analysis of the ecotopian motifs in the narratives of N. Farmer (the Matteo Alacrán novels, 2002; 2013), S. Collins (“The Hunger Games” cycle, 2008-2010) and M. Lu (the “Legend” cycle, 2011-2013), which belong to the contemporary dystopian literature for young adults. The basic device looked into is personification, working along the traditional, intuitive connection between pristine Nature and a small child. The authors depart from the typical anthropocentric picture of children’s literature, and tend to orient themselves towards the posthuman and the extended self, endorsing the inclusive worldview. The classification used in the study—Nature-endorsing and Nature-skeptical narratives—reposes on the landmark publications of Noga Applebaum (2009) and Zoe Jaques (2015), and is supplemented with references to broadly understood ecocriticism. The first part of the chapter discusses the relation between Farmer’s novels—as the closest to Callenbach’s “Ecotopia”—to the Gaia hypothesis. The second part concentrates on the transformation of the Eden motif in Lu’s cycle, and the third part investigates the interplay between the Medean Katniss and the “ecotopian” Prim in Collins’s books. The analysis confirms the destabilization of anthropocentrism in the juvenile fiction and its posthumanist slant, as well as the gradual decline of the romanticized vision of Nature and technophobic narratives. The myth of healing, regenerative Nature is shown as outdated and even harmful. Although most of the personifications discussed in the chapter fall into the Nature-endorsing attitude, which subjects Nature to human beings, the authors lay bare the manipulative aspect of such devices as an element of social engineering, which burdens citizens with the fight for what is already lost. Instead of the classic Eden, the writers construct technological paradise, which sustains ecotopian dreams only in the form of simulations or hybrid forms, connecting human, Nature and machine.
Postać Buki jako figura Obcego w wybranych powieściach o Muminkach autorstwa Tove Jansson
Postać Buki jako figura Obcego w wybranych powieściach o Muminkach autorstwa Tove Jansson
(The Figure of Groke as the Other in Tove Jansson's Selected Moomin Novels)
- Author(s):Aleksandra Korczak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature
- Page Range:377-390
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:xenology;tolerance;literature for children and young adults;otherness;ethics
- Summary/Abstract:The moomin cycle is an unnusual prose. It is supposed to be read by children as well as the adults, however both groups will address it differently. Anna Kamienska, the first Polish moominologist, encouraged to read the Moomin books as a magnificent philosophical tractate. Many researchers define Moomin Valley as the utopia of freaks. Positive characters are tolerant, warm or at least understanding when they meet somebody different than themselves. Groke is the only exception, everybody are scared of her, and, for a long time, nobody wants to meet her—until the moment of confrontation in „Moominpappa and the Sea” that will be presented in this chapter. This special meeting with Groke displays all the signs of confronting the difference and foreignness that has been fuelled only by negative emotions of the experiencing subject. The foreigness is growing from the epistemological conditioning by fear and doubt, but it results in full understanding of the diversity that affects the image of the self as well. It appears to be the ritual which involves the process of ethical maturation and leads to create the adult identity of one of the characters, finally extracted from his family.
Queerowanie Frankensteina. Motywy inności i nienormatywności w serialu Dom grozy
Queerowanie Frankensteina. Motywy inności i nienormatywności w serialu Dom grozy
(Queering Frankenstein: The Motifs of Otherness and Non-normativity in "Penny Dreadful")
- Author(s):Barbara Braid
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy, Social Sciences, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Comparative Study of Literature, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:391-412
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:Frankenstein;Penny Dreadful;The Bride of Frankenstein;queer;gothic;otherness
- Summary/Abstract:In the chapter “Queering Frankenstein: the motifs of otherness and non-normativity in »Penny Dreadful«”, Barbara Braid offers an interpretation of Frankenstein’s creatures presented in the series from the perspective of queer theory. The queer is understood here as a wide range of non-normativity and difference, including subjectivities and actions which subvert stabilities and norms. The author identifies the links between queer theory and the gothic, which allow to see the characters which are monstrous, undead, abject—or simply Other—as representations of difference. In this light, the presented analysis shows the three creatures made by Frankenstein and Victor Frankenstein himself as characters related to each other in non-normative ways, creating a queer quasi-family. This discussion is also contextualized by references to Mary Shelley’s original novel and some of its classic film adaptations and their comparison with Penny Dreadful. Frankenstein’s creature is, due to its nature as the undead made of fragments of corpses, an abject thing, an embodiment of Otherness. In the series, Victor creates three beings, which are in a constant tension with each other. The firstborn John Clare murders the second creature, Proteus, out of hatred for their “father” Victor; the third being is Lily, another embodiment of the Bride of Frankenstein, destined to be with the creature, but desired by Victor. She becomes a dangerous fiend, femme castratrice, who desires a new world order and subordination of human beings. These two surviving Others—John and Lily—represent two different attitudes to their otherness. John Clare yearns normality and tries to achieve it by establishing a family with a human woman; Lily, a demonic man-eater, terrifies him. On the other hand, Lily strikes a relationship with Dorian Gray, equally non-normative, in order to achieve a queer monstrous supremacy over the world. However, both Frankenstein’s creatures fail and become alone. Therefore, the chapter is concluded with suppositions that question whether the motifs of otherness play an unequivocally subversive role in Penny Dreadful.
Teraźniejszość jako barbaricum. Strategia wyobcowania poznawczego i rola czasu historycznego w Star Treku
Teraźniejszość jako barbaricum. Strategia wyobcowania poznawczego i rola czasu historycznego w Star Treku
(The Present As Barbaricum. Cognitive Estrangement and Historical Time in "Star Trek")
- Author(s):Agnieszka Urbańczyk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:413-429
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:Star Trek;cognitive estrangement;future;time;history;politics;Critical Theory;science fiction
- Summary/Abstract:In “The Present As Barbaricum. Cognitive Estrangement and Historical Time in »Star Trek«” Agnieszka Urbańczyk examines the critical potential of conceptualization of time in “Star Trek: The Original Series”. The aforementioned production is treated here as a symptom of the 1960’s social change or as a one of its catalysts. The franchise’s creators use a strategy which a decade later Darko Suvin would call ‘cognitive estrangement’. As Suvin points out, the science fiction genre makes it possible for known elements of recipient’s empirical reality to stand out and, thus, become a subject of critical reflection. One of the key factors in establishing cognitive estrangement is conceptualization of the created fictional world as subjected to history and time-flow so that specific norms may be perceived as contextual and not absolute. “Star Trek” is shown as balancing two strategies of establishing the future: an apocalyptic extrapolation—which is supposed to be a warning—and cognitive estrangement. In many ways the series was extremely subversive for its time, advocating tolerance and a world without racism or xenophobia. Its political message is conveyed mostly through its perception of time. The twenty-third century is not a foreseeable future (extrapolation), but, rather, an exotic place where the world is radically different from the actual one (at the time of the series’ creation). The characters look back at the Earth’s history to find it unsatisfactory and with aid of their displaced perspective so may do the audience.
Na rubieżach społeczeństwa. Wizerunki paryskich imigrantów we współczesnym kinie francuskim
Na rubieżach społeczeństwa. Wizerunki paryskich imigrantów we współczesnym kinie francuskim
(On the Boundary of Society. Images of Parisian Immigrants in Contemporary French Cinema)
- Author(s):Marta Kasprzak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:431-448
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:socio-cultural landscape of Paris;French cinema;contemporary French cinema; immigrants in film;film portraits of immigrants;beur cinema;suburban cinema
- Summary/Abstract:The urban landscape of Paris has been an important element of the diegetic space constructed by filmmakers for almost a century. Already in the 1920s, René Clair and Alberto Cavalcanti placed locale of their films—representing the genre of urban symphonies—in the capital of France, making the urban space not only the background of screen episodes, but their full-fledged protagonist. Over the following decades, Paris has marked the boundaries of the world populated by the variety of characters, among which the category of immigrants deserves particular attention. Complex relations between foreigners and natives or state authorities have become the subject of numerous films belonging to beur cinema and cinéma de banlieue. The issue of assimilation, characteristic for foreign visitors, is shown on the example of the following films: La haine by Mathieu Kassovitz, Dheepan by Jacques Audiard, and Peur de rien by Danielle Arbid. In the chapter On the boundary of society. Images of Parisian immigrants in contemporary French cinema Marta Kasprzak proposes to treat the motif of the city's presence in films as a focal point for socio-cultural reflection that encapsulates the phenomenon of atrophy of social bonds, apparent cultural assimilation, and acts of violation of the applicable law or social orderThe urban landscape of Paris has been an important element of the diegetic space constructed by filmmakers for almost a century. Already in the 1920s, René Clair and Alberto Cavalcanti placed locale of their films—representing the genre of urban symphonies—in the capital of France, making the urban space not only the background of screen episodes, but their full-fledged protagonist. Over the following decades, Paris has marked the boundaries of the world populated by the variety of characters, among which the category of immigrants deserves particular attention. Complex relations between foreigners and natives or state authorities have become the subject of numerous films belonging to beur cinema and cinéma de banlieue. The issue of assimilation, characteristic for foreign visitors, is shown on the example of the following films: “La haine” by Mathieu Kassovitz, “Dheepan” by Jacques Audiard, and “Peur de rien” by Danielle Arbid. In the chapter “On the Boundary of Society. Images of Parisian Immigrants in Contemporary French Cinema” Marta Kasprzak proposes to treat the motif of the city's presence in films as a focal point for socio-cultural reflection that encapsulates the phenomenon of atrophy of social bonds, apparent cultural assimilation, and acts of violation of the applicable law or social order
Postkolonialne fikcyjne światy w twórczości Andrzeja Ziemiańskiego
Postkolonialne fikcyjne światy w twórczości Andrzeja Ziemiańskiego
(Postcolonial Imaginary Worlds in the Works of Andrzej Ziemiański)
- Author(s):Mariola Lekszycka
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:449-471
- No. of Pages:23
- Keywords:fictional world;fantasy;Achaja;Andrzej Ziemiański;postcolonialism
- Summary/Abstract:The chapter “Postcolonial Imaginary Worlds in the Works of Andrzej Ziemiański” delivers a postcolonial interpretation of the work of Polish fantasy writer, Andrzej Ziemiański. The theoretical part summarizes the critical standpoints towards postcolonialism delivered by Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Robert J. C. Young and Bill Ashcroft. The research is based on five volumes composing the series “Pomniki Cesarzowej Achai” by Andrzej Ziemiański. First featured in Achaja—the previous Ziemiańki’s series—the fictitious world is significantly expanded to include new characters and locales. Among the latter are significant differences which point at postcolonial relationship in the analysis of the “first encounters”—which, according to Mariola Lekszycka, complements the interpretation of Ziemiański’s oeuvre that was heretofore looked upon from feminist perspective.
"Méwilo" i "Freedom" Muriel Tramis jako pierwsze gry postkolonialne
"Méwilo" i "Freedom" Muriel Tramis jako pierwsze gry postkolonialne
(Muriel Tramis’ "Méwilo" and "Freedom" as the First Postcolonial Games)
- Author(s):Filip Jankowski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Social Philosophy
- Page Range:473-485
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:postcolonialism;slavery;Muriel Tramis;Patrick Chamoiseau;digital games; video games;Martinique;French Antilles
- Summary/Abstract:In the chapter entitled “Muriel Tramis’ »Méwilo« and »Freedom« as the First Postcolonial Games, Filip Jankowski examines two digital games accomplished by Muriel Tramis, a game designer from Martinique. The games picture the situation of African-Caribbean slaves and their descendants in a pioneering manner in terms of the medium used. “Méwilo” (1987) and “Fredom” (1988) were created under the influence of the philosophical thought in Martinique, shaped by the pioneers of postcolonialism such as Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon, as well as their critics impersonated by Édouard Glissant and Patrick Chamoiseau. Both games differ in terms of applied convention. “Méwilo”, which is a thorough documentary game, focuses on questioning the following inhabitants of the city of Saint-Pierre, the day before the devastating eruption of the Montagne Pelée volcano in 1902. The opposition between the black inhabitants of Martinique and their metropolitan torturers, although strongly outlined, is subject to problematization in both games. Among the main characters of the Tramis' works are black anti-heroes who imitate the French in their ambivalent attitude to the African-Caribbean community. Hence, they reflect the phenomenon of mimicry described by Homi Bhabha. All things considered, Jankowski argues both games to feature apparent postcolonial themes.
