Interaktivna televizija

Author(s): Aleksandar Luj Todorović / Language(s): Serbian

Knjiga Interaktivna televizija pregled je razvoja interaktivnih usluga od serije američke mreže CBS Vinki Dink i mi iz pedesetih godina dvadesetog veka, preko teleteksta i Berove igre Pong, do današnjih sofisticiranih digitalnih interaktivnih usluga, virtuelnih zajednica, telemedicine, korišćenja dva ekrana, izazova koje nudi digitalno interaktivno oglašavanje. Ova studija ukazuje na programski značaj ovih usluga analizirajući tehnologiju na kojoj su one zasnovane. Knjiga Interaktivna televizija dolazi u pravom trenutku jer nudi odličan uvid u najnoviji razvoj u ovoj oblasti i olakšava razumevanje interaktivnosti koja već danas pretvara televiziju u novi i znatno bogatiji elektronski medij, čija se vrednost sve više određuje upravo popularnošću i pouzdanošću dodatnih usluga koje može da ponudi.

Az 1910-es évek orosz némafilm-kultúrája. A forradalom előtti Oroszország túlságosan is emberi tragikomédiája

Author(s): Anna Varga / Language(s): Hungarian

American melodrama targets eternity, while Russian melodrama targets nothing. In this respect it can be stated, that the Russian silent movie in the 1910s was remarkably modern. The concentration of the motives of unbearable existence, scandals, being betrayed, and collapse result in an aesthetic vacuum. By the end of the films we get to experience the exhaustion of time: "time stops". In this vacuum, for the rebellion of life the only possible way to return to time is found in the question "What shall we do?" The young motion picture demands time in motion. According to the author, the particular situation of the "sacred" and "demonic" Russia one hundred years anticipated the universal situation of humankind today. In the long disappeared artistic golden age we can find the alternatives of today and tomorrow. The analyses of the films, whose modernity will never die, are a variation on the theme by Walter Benjamin: future exists as long as the present finds its mission in regaining derailed futures embedded in the past. Our totally corrupt world needs to be redeemed. The Russian silent movie was already a far cry in the 1910s, but not the silent cry of fear, like in German expressionism, but the cry of rage.

Inny/Obcy. Transnarodowe i transgresyjne motywy w twórczości Petera Weira

Author(s): Magdalena Kempna-Pieniążek,Przemysław Pieniążek / Language(s): Polish

The book traces a change in the perception of the work of Peter Weir that has been under way in recent years, marked by a shift from interpretations focusing on spiritual themes to approaches emphasising the situation of the author immersed in the context of “Global Hollywood.” It also presents the most important aspects of wanderings undertaken by Weir’s protagonists, who search for a deeper dimension of existence that could help them define their identity and alliances in the world where “everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.” It expresses the conviction that the origins of both motives – transgressive and transnational – may be found in the dichotomy of the Other / Alien, conspicuously present in Weir’s films. For this reason, while focusing on the figure of the outsider, the book draws attention to the nature of transgressions that are taking place in Weir’s works. On the one hand, there is confrontation with whatever is mysterious. Exploration of different states of consciousness leads through the world of dreams and myths – a path that Weir’s protagonists travel to face their own weaknesses and limitations imposed by the oppressive system of culture. On the other hand, Weir’s films never stop mediating between the points of view of national and trans-national identity, between the genre cinema and the artistic cinema, and between creativity and convention, thereby consolidating the unique position of the film director as an Alien, both in Hollywood and in Australian cinema. The dynamics of these tensions have determined the character and the form of this book. Peter Weir’s works are not discussed here in a strictly chronological order, a more important criterion being the evolution of selected story threads and their related contexts which define the unique element in his work. Chapter One is concerned with the two most famous Australian films by Weir: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and The Last Wave (1977), which established the range of themes he often returned to in later works. Next chapter offers interpretations of Gallipoli (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). If the former is perceived as a realisation of the idea of Australian national cinema, the latter marks Weir’s accession to mainstream world cinema. Chapter Three is devoted to his Hollywood films. The analysis of Witness (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), and Fearless (1994) draws attention to the point of view of an Alien who observes America and American culture from a certain distance. This theme is then continued in Chapter Four, which focuses on the figure of the outsider – a character typical of Weir’s films, who can be seen in statu nascendi in Dead Poets Society (1989) and The Truman Show (1989). Finally, Chapter Five brings together analyses of Green Card (1990), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010), in which the transnational motives receive more prominence than in other films by Weir.The interpretations offered in this volume provide an argument for the claim that the work of Peter Weir is a fruit of the genre cinema and the artistic cinema coming together, as well as of the interaction between Australian cinema and Hollywood (and, in the background, European cinema). In the light of most recent research, it appears as a transnational phenomenon, a result of a combination of themes borrowed from various systems, not only cinematographic but also cultural.

Ciało – muzyka – performans

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

In humanitites, the issues connected with playing, and therefore performing music have always been an integral part of theoretical reflections and they have always occupied a place in the classification of academic fields, however the aim of the present publication is the conceptualization of the situation of the performer, in which case the conventions of reception and genre classification neutralize the reflection upon the bodily dimension of performance. For this reason, it seems vital to indicate, reveal, and name these theoretical barriers, and look at performance from the perspective of the musicalness of the body and the bodiliness of music. Music can be treated as an abstract entity, as was argued in the past by Boethius and Leibniz, and presently by cognitivists, however when it is being performed, the music gains materiality, while the audial nature of an individual realization of an abstract piece of music constitutes a significant component of the musical work as such. The performance entails the presence of the performer’s body, which becomes the element of the whole aesthetic experience. The axis of reflections contained in the articles gathered in the present volume, quite arbitrarily grouped into two mirrored parts, evolves therefore around the issues of, on the one hand, the musicalness of the performer’s body, and on the other, the bodiliness of performance. Looking at performance from the perspective of music and the body allows to revive our attitude towards the existing and historically described viewpoints on the performer’s body and provide a new insight into this issue. Such a formulation of the problem gives rise to a multitude of methodological outlooks, which in turn demonstrate a dichotomy of research tracks. Some of them will still treat the body as an instrument, others, by contrast, will pay attention to the symbiosis of consciousness and bodiliness; some will emphasize the audiality, others will stress the fusion of the audial and the visual. It is symptomatic that in each case the art of performing, as well as the works themselves, initiates similarly inspiring academic discussions.

Ocalające zatracenie. Rozważania o doświadczeniu, pamięci i pragnieniu w twórczości Zygmunta Haupta, Stanisława Czycza i Krzysztofa Vargi

Author(s): Tomasz Gruszczyk / Language(s): Polish

The thesis consists of three parts. Each of them is divided into separate chapters devoted to particular authors. The composition of those chapters is determined by the level of representativeness of a particular issue in a particular prose text. Therefore, in the first part, dedicated to the strategy and fragment poetics, the author takes into consideration their updating firstly in the works of Krzysztof Varga, then of Zygmunt Haupt, and finally, of Stanisław Czycz.Reaching back to the past and the rise of importance of individual experience of loss constitute the axis around which the considerations are developed in the second part. It opens up with issues concerning brooding as a particular way of being in Haupt’s prose. Also, the fragments of Czycz’s short stories which are the trace of cherishing of a particular loss in the narrative are marked and discussed. In Varga’s prose, the author attempts to save the myth of the past, instead of the past itself.In the third part, the questions about the status and the way of being of the authorial subject are raised, as well as about conceptions of subjectivity in the works of Haupt, Czycz and Varga.The considerations proposed in the thesis, concerning the prose of the three different authors refer to thinking about literature in terms of both performance and representation. Each careful reading of a literary work understood in these terms should subsume not only what is represented, but also the act itself as well as the fact of representing. Then the text is understood, or imagined, as a scene from which a voice is heard. This is a phenomenon of the very communication, of the contact itself, whose symptom is all that is happening in the text and via the text itself on every formal and content level. In texts of those authors, the voice belongs to someone who can come into existence as the voice only. The identity of such a person, or rather his image, consists of life experience of the personal author, shreds of his biography, his consciousness, but also his unconsciousness, social and cultural norms, linguistic mechanisms and, finally, the literary tradition. The question about the “who” of this voice is in fact a question both about a particular, historical unit, but also about psychosocial, linguistic and literary norms and practices. Just such questions are posed from the scene of writing in this prose, while the specific answers are inscribed into the “I” field of this voice.Both the “who” of this voice and his “what” are to large extent powered by the experiences of the authors themselves. Characters who appear on the scene of writing have traits that are similar, or even identical with the traits that could be attributed to the people hidden under the names of the authors. Often enough, those characters point out to, or even declare, this similarity themselves. They narrate stories about themselves, about their past evoked by the power of their memory. By talking about it, they also talk about more or less conscious manners of shaping depictions of the past, about culturally determined mechanisms of not so much reproducing, but of producing it. They appear in texts as actors and narrators of the story. They will not refrain from speaking about that second activity. It gives them the semblance of authenticity, the semblance of being, but still this is just the semblance.The possibility of presence is undermined by the voice, which unceasingly performs the act of disillusion, being the act of disillusion itself. The way of its existence is paradoxical. It is not personal, or certainly, not only personal. It is a result of pure productivity of the act of writing, to be exact, of writing out, writing up and writing to show off. The voice says: I am here instead of; I mean something here because soand-so on the scene of writing is not able, or does not want to spring into existence as himself; By thus speaking and marking I am supplanting him here (that is the cynical voice of Czycz’s writing out). Some other time: I am not the voice of any individual, not even of a community, but a voice of collectiveness. I am not only the voice which presents, speaks about something, I am the voice of the dialogue itself (the dialogic voice of Haupt’s writing up). Finally: I am the voice of the scene itself, of writing, of representing” (the spectacular voice of Varga’s writing to show off).The voice attempts to head to its source, but the only thing it is left to do is to mark the source’s impossible presence. Literary marking and emulating in texts do not lead to any purpose (of retrieving what is lost, restoring the presence, establishing identity and expressing it in a complete work), as it is the purpose itself. That is why the author of the thesis states that in the prose of the authors mentioned above, the literary staging of the desire itself is effectuated. This desire renders any communication possible, which becomes here an act of summoning, corresponding with, and, as a result, saving only the remnants of what is not present or unavailable.The works of Haupt, Czycz and Varga are read as a project of the redeeming loss: occurring in the voice which comes from the scene of writing during the process of redeeming the remnants of a particular presence, by destroying and dispersing it in its literary articulation.

Grafitti i street art. Słowo, obraz, działanie

Author(s): Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek / Language(s): Polish

Street art is the most popular, dynamically evolving art form in the world today. It also has the largest audience. At the same time, it remains ephemeral, variable and limitless, and is subject to continuous processes of commercialization, institutionalization and mediatization. As a fruit of the remix culture, street art draws on everything that has already appeared in art: it mixes, transforms, copies and pastes. It cannot be easily defined, and the existing criteria for evaluating art seem inapplicable in its case. In no way should this imply, however, that street art cannot be analyzed. In the book, the author describes selected problems of street art and graffiti using both traditional and contemporary concepts, terminology and methods. She focuses on the relationship between word and image, on highlighting the invisible. The reader learns about street art in both its serious and comic manifestations. The author does not strive to exhaust the subject; on the contrary, she puts forward a preliminary reflection on this still unbridled and expansive form of artistic expression, thus initiating a discussion which the world of art will probably soon pick up.

Antropologia praktyk językowych

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Development and concretisation of the original perspective concerning the word anthropology, which was formed at the Institute of Polish Culture at Warsaw University and used in language practice research. The perspective is considered the best method to perceive the language as cultural phenomenon. An extensive theoretical introduction justifies this approach and puts the undertaken research into the context of contemporary changes in cultural studies. The volume contains twelve articles which present study cases of language practice seen as cultural practice in historical context: from antiquity to modern times, from the forms of word art to swearing and searching the web.

(Re)interpretacje. Między praktyką twórczą a dyskursem

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Jeszcze o artyście (i sztuce): w literaturze, kulturze i nieopodal

Author(s): Nina Nowara-Matusik / Language(s): Polish,German

Udział cenzury w procesie twórczym na przykładzie Szopki 1956 Ryszarda Wierzbowskiego i Marka Grońskiego

Author(s): Katarzyna Smyczek / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

This study focuses on the role played by the Polish People’s Republic censorship officials in the writing process of satirical texts. What constitutes research material here is documetation of censoring interventions (redactions) carried out by the Łódź Voivodeship Control Office relating to Szopka 1956 (lit. ‛Crib 1956’); political satire written by Ryszard Wierzbowski and Marek Groński. The article aims at describing the subterfuges used by both the satirists to compel readers; but also; to an extent; to recreate the primary version of the censored text; by working out a peculiar palimpsest – “scratching away” the censor’s pencil. An important aspect of this study is also a comprehensive editorial commentary allowing to reconstruct meanings that otherwise could not been grasped by today’s readers; which stems from the text’s embeddedness in the realities of socialist state.

Artysta wobec władzy w systemie autorytarnym – studium przypadku NRD

Author(s): Magdalena Latkowska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article analyses the factors impacting literary circles in DDR (German Democratic Republic) from the side of communist authorities and, resultantly, the self‑control mechanisms of the said environment, which are classified by the author. Counted among the “positive” aspects of the mentioned impact are the political framework of creative process and generational structure. The former is claimed to be a kind of ideological “universe”, moulding literary content and writers’ political activity, whereas the latter along with its psychological ramifications are assumed to be an example of self‑control mechanism (self‑censorship) utilised primary by writers themselves, especially those of the second generation. Among “negative” means are enumerated: coercion in a form of soft (rewards/awards), semi‑hard (punishments), and outright hard (repressions) measures, which are substantiated by particular examples. All the described factors are given in a contents of artists’ personal views, their position in society and artistic environment, and decision made by them which resulted from the said factors (emigration). The analysis is accompanied by accounts of fate of DDR’s literary society form the World War II until the breakthrough year of 1989.

Wartifacts. Long-term Conflict and its Transformation into Fine Arts and Arts and Crafts. A Case Study on Two (more than) Thirty Years’ Wars in Central Europe (1618 - 1648) and Afghanistan (1979 – today)

Author(s): Till Ansgar Baumhauer / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Wars have always deeply influenced self estimation and cultural identities of societies involved in them. Long-term conflicts play a crucial role in this context, because after 30 years of war or longer, at least one generation of people without any experience of peace has grown up and provides the people ruling the country´s future perspectives. Fine arts, mirroring the situation of societies, give a lot of (somewhat indirect) information on the way how war is experienced and reflected. My research perspective mainly focuses on artefacts not used for governmental power or political propaganda and self representation. According to recent theories from the field of war studies, conflict structures in early modern societies in the Thirty Years´ War are astonishingly similar to those that can be found in today´s Afghanistan. So, there is a stunning possibility to openly discuss these both fields of long-term conflict (from two very different cultural and religious backgrounds). On this foil, also the visual (artistic) output of these two conflicts can be seen and discussed together. Aspects like textiles with war motives, paintings on afghan rickshaws and contemporary afghan art are confronted with European votive objects, print series on war topics and “Kunstkammer” objects. The “WARTIFACTS” (derived from “war/ artefacts”) project is a Ph. D thesis in fine arts consisting as well of artistic work as of research in the fields of ethnology, art history and everyday´s culture. It is based on reflections in the field of artistic research and follows in the meantime classical scientific discourse strategies. The artwork itself consists on one side of cooperative works with Afghan artists and carpet makers and on the other side of installative artwork dealing with war rhetoric and the translatability of historical (European) cultural heritage into Afghan-Persian cultural contexts and the other way round.

Zarządzanie wartością dla klienta a marketing doświadczeń w instytucjach kultury. Działania współczesnego teatru i filharmonii

Author(s): Wioletta Krawiec / Language(s): Polish

The modern market (including culture) is an arena of dynamic changes related to the development of modern technologies and communication. Customers are more demanding and change their attitudes from passive to active. They become co-creators of the values and experiences offered to them. This phenomenon introduces cultural institutions active on the market into a process of continuous development. Their market success, on the other hand, is possible thanks to the combination of many management skills. Undoubtedly, these include the ability to manage value for the customer, or to manage their experience. The area defined above has been subject to empirical research among cultural participants (theatres and philharmonics) and managers responsible for marketing activities of cultural institutions. The main subject of this monograph is the concept of customer value management, which was analyzed through the prism of experiences marketing in the activities of cultural institutions in Poland (mainly theatres and philharmonics). The content presented in the book generally includes: - diagnosis of the stages of the theoretical model of value management and customer experience based on the analysis of the functioning of theatres and philharmonics in Poland;- comparative analysis of the consistency of the proposed values by theatres and philharmonics with the expectations of cultural participants; - to determine the impact of the marketing of experiences on the activities of theatres and philharmonic institutions and their reception by cultural participants. The book is addressed primarily to cultural managers, people employed in cultural institutions, cultural animators. Issues discussed in the monograph will also be useful for students or other people who are studying the knowledge of customer value management and marketing experiences in cultural institutions. This publication can also be used as a supplement to the material in the field of service marketing, marketing of non-profit organizations or marketing management in cultural institutions.

Pamięć, wyobraźnia, praktyki oporu

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Świat to skomplikowane miejsce, a my jesteśmy w gruncie rzeczy dość prości. Jak proste istoty radzą sobie z narastającą złożonością świata? Oto pytanie, które stawiamy sobie, prowadząc badania nad kulturą wernakularną. Obszarem zawartych w tym tomie analiz jest właśnie przestrzeń rozciągająca się pomiędzy złożonością współczesnej kultury (rela­cji społecznych, ekonomii, polityki itd.) a prostotą narzędzi, którymi dysponujemy, by urządzić się w niej i działać sprawnie. Intereso­wały nas procesy upraszczania rzeczywistości, w ramach których jednostki ją postrzegają i opisują, planują i podejmują działania, a także budują swoją tożsamość i synchronizują wysiłki w więk­szych grupach. Kultura wernakularna, jaką opisujemy w tej książce, stanowi próbę radzenia sobie prostymi środkami w skomplikowa­nym świecie. Ze Wstępu Jest to praca o solidnej podbudowie teoretycznej i metodologicz­nej, równocześnie odwołująca się do najnowszych ustaleń fak­tograficznych. Zawodowi naukowcy, przyzwyczajeni do suchych jak kurz, opasłych tomów, znajdą w tej lekturze miłą odmianę. Ze względu na swój język książka może zyskać odbiorców poza wąskim gronem profesjonalnych humanistów. Powinna trafić do studentów i doktorantów, którzy odniosą z niej duże pożytki, ale także do szerszej czytającej publiczności. dr Piotr Majewski, Uniwersytet SWPS

Sztuka jako interpretacja. Z problemów dyskursu artystycznego

Author(s): Ryszard Solik / Language(s): Polish

A standpoint presented in the book questioning an objectivist-essentialist understandingof a work of art typical of a formalist and modernist aesthetics. At thesame time, it criticizes autonomy, closeness and stable definition of an artistic production,and, independence from the context and receivers. “A myth of a work ofart for its own sake”, allegedly able to self-define its specificity and identity thanksto substantiality, was replaced with a perspective of contextual entanglements, inthe structure of which “artisticness” is being negotiated and construed, and notdefinitely defined and fixed. As a result, interpretative practices and discursiveprocedures constitute the centre of proposed considerations. This is a consequenceof the assumption that they constitute not only the context co-deciding about theexperience of art, but the substantial way of concretization of a work of art in thecultural reality. A constituting dimension of interpretation is thus connected withnot only the newest projects and enterprises, often of a “hesitant identity” requiringa comment and absorbing context resources, but an art as such, independently ofthe shape and type of its historical manifestations. Thus, art cannot exist for itsown sake, but only through its interpretations.

Wyobraźnia. Sztuka i design

Author(s): Alicja Głutkowska-Polniak / Language(s): Polish

The book is an analysis of the conceptions of imagination (in aesthetic theories) that havestill been inspiring and become important for the history of the philosophy of art, and are beinginterpreted anew. It determined the choice of (representative) philosophers and their works,staring from Kant who gave art autonomy (and an important role of imagination). These are alsotheories that could inspire an interpretation of artistic practices (especially the modern ones),and designer ones, as well as show their specificity. The author shows how imagination in variousconceptions (chosen because of different assumptions in which it is still imagination that isimportant) supports art, and even conditions it. Thus, she goes through various characteristicphilosophical-aesthetic conceptions of imagination, chosen also in order to present imaginationin its multidimensionality and multifacetedness. Such a horizon allows for considering thiscategory in a broad way, and showing its co-actions with many mental dispositions, as well as itsinfluence on mental processes and reality, especially in terms of art and design.The theories of imagination within the scope of the philosophy of art and aesthetics inquestion show the unchangeability of the functioning of this category, naming imagination, onthe one hand, and, its evolution on the other. Imagination evolved out of capturing and matchingsensual forms, to notional and abstract forms. In this sense it broadened the scope of its activity.From supporting contemplation it changed into co-creating involvement. Thus, imagination hasa big potential, and can co-work with senses and mind.The aspects concerning imagination have been divided into two parts mainly to showa dissonance of power as well as function that imagination is in reference to the category ofsubjectivity. It means its source and application that can influence consciousness and co-workwith it or be dependent on unconscious aims. In both cases the role of imagination is to createeither an image alone without a real reference or a given real subject.A motif combining the two parts is yet another function or imagination disposition, i.e. acreating function. The very disposition, in an aesthetic dimension, is reflected and manifestedin arts (from fine to modern ones). It is imagination co-creating „cultural objects”, subjects(phenomena and situations) of an artistic and often aesthetic value. This capability in reference tomodern times is referred to in the last „stop” of this book concerning new perspectives in creatingart and design in the twentieth century, i.e. the so called modern arts.

Sprawcza moc przechadzki, czyli polski literat we włoskim mieście

Author(s): Aleksandra Achtelik / Language(s): Polish

The work entitled: Causative Power of a Stroll, or a Polish Writer in anItalian City, consists of two parts: first – The Neapolitan Texture – is devotedto the depiction of Naples in Polish literature, second – Cities and Signs –is an attempt to reconstruct the literary pictures of certain selected Italianareas. Hence, the particular parts of the study describe respectively: theimage of Rome considered in the context of “a ruin-city”, Venice emergingfrom the texts collected in a monographic issue of “Literary Notebooks”[„Zeszyty Literackie”], and Sicily as a space regarded through the prismof an insular area, to a certain extent independent territorially. The largestpart of the book has been devoted to the Neapolitan space, since in Polishaccounts from journeys not many works present the motif of Naples in themost comprehensive way.Two factors determined the selection of material to the present publication:the actual stay of the author within the described space and the intenton creating a text the primary function of which would be performing therole of a specific type of baedeker. Moreover, the author has designatedcertain time frames in which the literary texts subjected to interpretation hadbeen written. It allowed her to reconstruct diachronically the cultural spacesof the selected Italian cities, consolidated in the Polish literary tradition. Theuse of literary texts as the source material, in turn, enabled her to combineinterpretative tools from the fields of anthropology and literature, witha special consideration of the achievements of literary anthropology.The author of the work refers to the selected texts of Polish writers whodecided to depart for a journey to Italy, though their presence in the describedspaces was always transient, usually resulting in the hasty penetrationof the Italian urban areas. Hence, the arbitrary selection of places that thewriters visited, the ciliary character of their description, and the selectivenessof spaces considered significant enough to be inscribed into the culturalreservoir of memories is presented in their writings. All the accounts areinterrelated not only in terms of the common observed and traversed area,but also with regard to the specific individual character of these observations.The examinations performed from the position of a pilgrim-traveller anda passer-by respectively, are a subject to the present analysis. The categories ofa stroll and a passer-by are especially important for the interpretative functionthe work is expected to perform. The author distinguishes between differentconditions of a tourist, a pilgrim, a traveller, a stroller and a passer-by. She alsoadvances a thesis that Polish writers depart for Italy as travellers, however,within the visited urban area, they repeatedly adopt the role of a passer-by,exposing themselves to the cognitive strategy characteristic of this figure. Theysuccumb to the power of a slow, spontaneous movement from one point toanother, which does not proceed according to any particular plan. Duringthe time of a stroll one becomes exposed to the stimuli which cannot beoverestimated, as they make this particular relation individual, introduce newelements to the texture of the city description and, simultaneously, allow theauthor to reconstruct the cultural patterns operating in the described space.A passer-by learns the particular fragments of the city, this way creatinga certain mosaic. A reader, in turn, gets to know the urban space following therhythm of steps, and the successive depictions of the city. This picture is discontinuous– it includes only these places which the visitor from Poland hasdiscerned and discriminated. Hence, regarding the records of many writerstravellers-passers-by as one text of a particular city, seems legitimized. Owingto this process, the reconstruction of “a full picture” of the interpreted area becomespossible. It also makes recreation of the urban structure in Polish travelnarratives easier: for Naples, this would be a category of anxiety, for Rome– ruins, for Venice and for Sicilian cities – the spectrum of death. Moreover,penetrating the city, passers-by physically “face” the unknown area, they getculturally closer to The Other, describing their individual experiences, whichfor the researcher become an interpretative framework. Of course, one needsto bear in mind that their view is always culturally conditioned. Passers-by inevitablymake a selection of important aspects and cannot liberate themselvesfrom the scheme of observation imposed on them by the cultural tradition.It is interesting that through their work, they introduce new elements into thetexture of Italian travel discourse, which is significant for the reconstruction ofcultural space, and allows the author to describe the specific cultural profileswhich have been distinguished in the particular parts of the present study.A stroll enables one to enter the relation of walking-looking-writing, makingit possible to reconstruct this cognitive sequence.The author emphasizes that Polish writers designate their trail to Italyusing the experience of their precursors, to some extent trying to copy theitineraries they know from other visitors’ descriptions and thus, becominga part of the cultural community. However, once already in Italy, they oftenturn into passers-by, simultaneously creating new maps of walking tours,swerving from the beaten track, losing their way, and thus becoming theauthors of a new interpretative value. Their look is directed primarily towardscultural otherness. With their stroll they map the penetrated spacesof Italian agglomerations. The stroll has a causative power of cognition andpotency of an interpretative perspective.

Transgresywne monstrum

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Tom Transgresywne monstrum ma na celu podjęcie dyskusji związanych z monstrualnością, potwornością i deformacją we współczesnej kulturze. Autorami tekstów są młodzi naukowcy, w przeważającej części kulturoznawcy specjalizujący się w różnych dyscyplinach, a także historycy sztuki. Interdyscyplinarne podejście do tematyki powoduje, że kategorię monstrum można odczytać na wielu poziomach. Antologię podzielono na cztery części: CZŁOWIEK i CIAŁO, PRZEDSTAWIENIE, GRANICE, ŚMIERĆ, które zbierają najmocniej uwypuklone problemy, którymi zajęli się autorzy. Wszystko to zostało ukazane także w kontekście zagadnienia transgresywności, rozumianej nie tylko jako przekraczanie granic. Adresatem książki są wszyscy zainteresowani problematyką monstrualności, potworności w obszarze kultury, w takich dziedzinach jak teoria, historia kultury, literatura, sztuki wizualne, film, socjologia kultury, filozofia, teatr.

Zanikanie i istnienie niepełne. W labiryntach romantycznej i współczesnej podmiotowości

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Zanikanie i istnienie niepełne. W labiryntach romantycznej i współczesnej podmiotowości jest próbą spojrzenia na podmiotowość nowoczesną jako na wydarzenie nieustannej zmiany, niepełne i niedokończone. Autorzy artykułów, które zbiera ten niewielki tom, podejmują się refleksji nad tymi przejawami obecności „ja”, które naznaczone są swego rodzaju niezbornością, a tym samym, które charakteryzuje specyficzna nieuchwytność, czy też, jak w tytule, zanikanie. Większość tekstów można włączyć do radykalnej linii refleksji dotyczącej problemu podmiotowości odkrywającej wewnątrz siebie stratę, eksponującej własną niepełność i brak. Rozpiętość chronologiczna analizowanych dzieł w artykułach, co wynika już z samego tytułu tomu, ma swoje uzasadnienie w przyjęciu możliwości pomyślenia kwestii podmiotowości pojętej inaczej niż wytwór konkretnej epoki. W książce można wyróżnić trzy główne linie rozważań – ekspozycje podmiotowości późnego romantyzmu, wysokiego modernizmu i ponowoczesności. Romantyzm, szczególnie okres kryzysu romantycznego „ja”, stanowi niejako „arche” nowoczesnego podmiotu. Niemożliwość ustalenia ścisłej formy obecności podmiotu w reprezentacji, a zarazem stałe do tego dążenie, jest jednym z głównych problemów modernizmu, ale odkrycia tego należy doszukiwać się w późnym romantyzmie. Natomiast późna nowoczesność wraz ze swym pluralizmem przynosi przesunięcie wartości celu względem wartości środków. Nie ma celu, do którego się dąży, są tylko środki dążenia, zatem ustalenia podmiotowości stale zanikają na rzecz przygodnych tożsamości. Zanikanie, brak kompletnych realizacji, migotanie podmiotowości stanowią wyłaniającą się z książki tezę dotyczącą granicznych przejawów obecności „ja” w perspektywie „trzech czasów”: romantyzmu, modernizmu i ponowoczesności. Poprzez owe skupienie uwagi na zrębach, przestrzeniach pogranicznych, kształtach niestandardowych książka wskazuje na nieustanną otwartość pytania o podmiot, a także na wymóg stałej rewizji dotychczasowych uwzględnień i potrzebę nowych, adekwatnych opisów. Tom zbiera artykuły badaczy z Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, Uniwersytetu Kardynała Stanisława Wyszyńskiego, Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego i Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.

Barbara Hoff. Królowa kreatywności

Author(s): Joanna Dobkowska-Kubacka,Aneta Pawłowska / Language(s): Polish

The publication presents the life and work of Barbara Hoff, a Polish fashion designer and creator of the Hoffland brand. The protagonist is descended from the pre-war working intelligentsia, a graduate in art history from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her relationship with fashion dates back to 1954, when she began a permanent collaboration with the weekly magazine "Przekrój". From the 1960s, her original "Hoff Collection" appeared in the magazine. In 1967, the models created by Hoff, sewn by the Warsaw-based clothing manufacturer Cora, went on sale at the Central Department Store in Warsaw. This was the beginning of Hoff's creation of fashion collections intended for the mass public of the communist era. In 1969, the stall was located in the CDT "Junior", and from 1977 onwards it bore the official name "Hoffland". In the 1970s and 1980s, the modern and functional yet relatively inexpensive clothing designed by Hoff was perceived by Polish society as a welcome breath of the West. The collections were extremely successful. It is worth noting that the success of the brand was helped by the "Przekrój" magazine promoting it and the excellent models and photographers associated with the venture. The Hoffland brand is still associated today with many popular designs such as colourful plastic sandals or multicoloured T-shirts or simple cotton bags with a large company logo. Although the stand survived the turbulent years of the political transformation, the pressure of Western fashion concerns led to the closure of Hoffland in 2007. The book is based on numerous, press interviews given by Barbara Hoff, her own texts as well as the archives of the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź and the files of the Institute of National Remembrance.