“IT SPEAKS BY ITSELF THROUGH ME:”THE SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN “AMERICA” AND AMERICAN STUDIES

Author(s): Irina Dubský / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

This paper proposes a reading of America as a postmodern text which cannot be subjected to homogenization and unifying representational practices. Therefore, its polyphonic, multivalent textuality can be addressed only within the bounds of a highly flexible and comprehensive critical framework structured around an inclusive both/and methodological nucleus. Such a mode of theoretical inquiry is provided by the American Studies as an academic discipline in a postmodern context. The central thrust of the study is to highlight the fluid nature and polymorphic expression of the American reality which displays the same resistance to being narrated as postmodernity itself, a fact that entails a corresponding adjustment of methodological paradigms which is in consonance with Professor Lipsitz’s contention that “American studies would be served best by a theory that refuses hypostatization into a method.”

LUMIÈRE’S CINÉMATOGRAPHE – THE STARTING POINT OF THE HISTORY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY?

Author(s): Silviu Şerban / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

Paradoxically, the question of the invention of the cinema is becoming ever more perplexing and hard to solve as the events which led to the emergence of the seventh art are getting ever more distant in time. If the original dilemma entailed the choice between the Cinématographe of the Lumiere brothers and Edison’s kinetoscope, nowadays, as the research concerning the scientific and technological innovations which enabled the construction of the filming device and the movies exhibition is extending, the achievements of the Lumiere brothers look more like an intervention in the history of cinematography rather than its starting point. In the absence of any innovation related to the preconditions of the emergence of the cinema, to the name of the device which brought them international recognition and even to the first public projection, there arises the question as to the role of the Lumiere brothers in the history of cinematography.

FROM STASIS/CONSENSUS TO PROCESS/DISSENSUS: POSTMODERNISM AS THE CATALYST OF CHANGE IN THE FIELD OF AMERICAN STUDIES

Author(s): Irina Dubský / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The present study explores key issues in the configuration of the domain of American Cultural Studies and their roles in the evolution of this academic discipline, seen as a site of struggle over paradigms, signifying practices, methods and resources. The central argument of the paper is that postmodernism as a cultural phenomenon acted as the transforming force/trigger of metamorphosis/ for this field of study reshaping it into a vital formula of cultural criticism apt to address a plurality of issues and integrate multifarious scholarly and artistic concerns alike.

Przemiany ery meiji (1868–1912). Modernizacja a formowanie się „nowej” tożsamości w japonii

Author(s): Jacek Splisgart / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2016

Japan in the Meiji era is a country full of contrasts. With a backward technological society, the Japanese people transformed themselves into power capable of competing with the colonial countries. The Japanese owe this unique ability to adapt to external standards. The modernization process was accompanied by numerous discourses. The major points of difference with Western countries were sought in religion, education, law and system of organization of society. All these areas of everyday life have been subjected to numerous changes to form modern model of Japanese society and culture. The Article discusses the most important stages of modernization and elements that were subject to change. The author tried to identify routes of Japanese search.

Prowincja polska – szczere spojrzenia

Author(s): Marek Szponik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 24/2014

Province of Poland - sincere looks

Johan Huizinga and Leo Spitzer: the notion of “Stimmung” revisited

Author(s): Willem Otterspeer / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

Huizinga was a readers’ writer, and as such part of a long tradition. As a writer, he was a member of a relatively small philological circle, consisting of the readers in the most important languages of Ancient Europe, and in this way the re-creators of the ancient unity of the Latinitas from which colloquial Latin had originated. These readers were forced to acknowledge that that which had once split into different languages was now disintegrating further as a result of specialization. One of the most important branches of this family was Romanic philologyin Germany, with Friedrich Christian Dietz and Leopold von Ranke as its founding fathers. It blossomed at the beginning of the 20th century with scholars such as Vossler, Curtius, Spitzerand Auerbach. In my contribution I will concentrate on Leo Spitzer. I will focus on four things he had in common with Huizinga: an assumption, an experience, an analysis and a tool. Their assumption was that culture was defined by harmony, by the unity and inseparability of the hearts and minds of its participants. This unity gave a culture its metaphysical aura; it was a musical harmony of the individual soul with the cosmos. They believed that this harmony once existed and it was their common experience that had been radically disturbed.

Die Lust an der in Schwebe gehaltenen Illusion

Johan Huizinga und Georg Lukács

Author(s): Léon Hanssen / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2017

Although their names have hardly ever been mentioned in the same breath and the two intellectuals never met face to face, Johan Huizinga (1872–1945), the grave and placid historian from the Netherlands, and Georg Lukács (1885–1971), the radical left-wing thinker from Hungary, have at least two striking features in common. First is their severe cultural critique,with its gloomy judgment of the crucial developments and phenomena in 19th and 20th century European culture and society. Second is their resumption of the Schillerian notion that man is complete only when he plays. Both issues, the cultural critique on the one hand, and the (often retrogressive) utopian vision of man-the-player who transcends modern alienation on the other, are closely interrelated. The paper zeroes in on the peculiar relationship between the concepts of play in Huizinga and in Lukács, following the strategy of playing off the growing uneasiness in culture against the emerging ideal of playfulness in interwar Europe,both in the West and in the East, both among communist and liberal intellectuals. Ultimately,the difference between the two options may not be as drastic as appeared at first sight.

Johan Huizinga in tschechischer Übersetzung

Author(s): Wilken Engelbrecht / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2017

The paper provides a survey of the reception of the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga in Czech translation. Between 1924 and 1938, Huizinga’s works were read and quoted mostly by historians in German translation. A translation of Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen was planned by thecircle of progressive historians Historická skupina but not realized due to the German occupation.In 1938, the chemist Antonín Šimek produced the first Czech translation of In de schaduwenvan morgen. It enjoyed a good reception in the right-wing press. The second translation,of Homo Ludens, was made in 1971 for the series Ypsilon of Mladá fronta by the sociologistJaroslav Vácha. According to the custom of that period, the translation was accompaniedby a Marxist epilogue. One year earlier, Melantrich re-edited Šimek’s translation Ve stínechzítřka, also with an epilogue. Both works were often quoted by historians and cinematographers.It took until ten years after the Velvet Revolution, in 1999, for the Germanist GabrielaVeselá to translate Huizinga’s internationally best-known work Herftsttij der Middeleeuwen.One year later, re-editions of Ve stínech zítřka and Homo Ludens were published, this time without any epilogue. Herfsttij was re-edited in 2010 by the literary publisher Paseka. The lastCzech edition was Huizinga’s Erasmus, translated by the Netherlandist Jiřina Holeňová for the philosophical publisher OIKOYMENH in 2014

„Działka” i kooperatywa. Dwie przestrzenie oporu

Author(s): Anna Szczeblewska / Language(s): Czech,Polish Issue: 16/2016

The paper focuses on two cases: the allotment gardens and the cooperative movement. “The allotment” and “the cooperative” are two areas examined by the author in her pursuit of the manifestations of cultural resistance. The text begins with a short history of the allotment gardening. However, the main purpose of this part of the article is to examine what kind of practices of the allotment gardeners seem to challenge the “liquid modernity” and whether those practices could be defined as a cultural resistance. That resistance, nested in the modern city, would evoke tensions and therefore make the city an “agonistic public space”. In the second part of the text the author explores the topic of the cooperative movement—starting from its history. Then she shares her visit to the one of Warsaw cooperatives. The story is an attempt at understanding the idea of the resistance on which this movement is built.

JOŠ OKO NAZIVA BOŠNJAK

Author(s): Husein Bašić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 39-40/2008

Da se ne bih ponavljao, prilažem moj objavljeni osvrt na tekst akademika Danila Radojevića „Oko naziva Bošnjak“, Pobjeda, 14. 09. 2002. god. S obzirom da je u toku polemika u okviru jednonacionalnog korpusa (što je, po meni, dobro) – prevashodno radi mojih drugova i prijatelja, crnogorskog nacionalnog određenja, s kojima sam dijelio ista mišljenja i pružao otpor velikosrpskom nacionalizmu i agresorskom ratu, u okviru novoformiranih nezavisnih crnogorskih institucija – želim da budem pravilno shvaćen, jer nam se sada, kada se raspravlja o našem nacionalnom imenu – podmeće bezočna staljinistička stupica, u vidu naprijed izrečene presude, po formuli: Bošnjaci jednako neprijatelji Crne Gore. Ovo je smišljeno i lansirano u duhu i po obrascu nekih ranijih vremena, da unaprijed žigoše i obilježi ljude, da umjesto argumenata ponudi etikete i unese nemir i strah među one koji imaju demokratsko pravo da se slobodno izjasne o svom nacionalnom imenu.

Sposoby rozumienia „kultury” przez prymatologów

Author(s): Mateusz Stępień / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2017

The aim of this article is to reconstruct and discuss the ways in which “culture” is defined in primatology. Surprisingly, this task has not yet been undertaken even within primatology, not to mention the social sciences, which should have a strong interest in new currents in studying the “cultures” of non-human primates. This paper fills an important gap in the literature on how primatologists understand “culture.” Primatologists’ approaches to “culture” are reduced to four separate typologies, each relating to a different aspect of the proposed definitions of “culture.” Discussing these typologies brings to light how primatologists understand “culture.” This also makes it possible to indicate the dominant view of “culture” in primatology and to point to directions of change. As will be shown, not only do certain primatologists distance themselves from the more far-reaching ideas of “cultural primatology” but even among representatives of this approach there is no one manner of defining “culture.”

Deconstructing Cultural Icons – Sherman Alexie and Junot Díaz

Author(s): Agnieszka Gondor-Wiercioch / Language(s): English Issue: 17/2016

This paper addresses the problem of the representation of Native American and Latino/a identity in Sherman Alexie’s collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), and Junot Díaz’s, This Is How You Lose Her (2012). Both authors try to the deconstruct popular ethnic stereotypes of the Indian Warrior and the Macho by creating characters such as Victor Joseph and or Yunior, who learn to reject the violence-based legacies of their respective cultures and try to substitute them with new hybrid identities, thus proving that it is possible to transform one’s ethnic heritage without getting completely acculturated. This paper also attempts to demonstrate that Alexie and Díaz play a very important role in the discussion of postethnic space by emphasizing the dangers of perceiving the Other through the prism of mass-fabricated images. They continue the long tradition established by authors such as Gerald Vizenor, Louis Owens, Arnold Krupat, Octavio Paz, Mario Vargas Llosa, and others. Additionally, Alexie and Díaz incorporate survival humor into their narratives, which makes their characters more credible and universal.

Instytucje kultury w Unii Europejskiej w dobie globalizacji na przykładzie Polski i Niemiec

Author(s): Maria Koniusz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1-2/2015

The subject is the analysis of cultural institutions activities in two European Union states: Poland and Germany. Cultural policy of these two countries has been demonstrated. Also the differences between these two countries have been analysed. Special emphasis has been put on the place the cultural activities of the European Union occupy in the form of projects, programmes and funds. The place of culture in Poland has changed after 1989. New procedures concerning the organization and financing of culture as well as areas connected with culture were announced in 1993. They state that each country should facilitate all actions the cultural institutions to find themselves in a free market and to protect their heritage. The head body responsible for the implementation of the procedures in Poland is the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In Germany a similar institution like Federal Ministry of Culture, has never existed. In 1998 a position of Federal Government Plenipotentiary for Culture and Media was created to be responsible for the cultural policy and financial support of the institutions of culture. This person also should represent the German culture worldwide. In Germany on both federal and community levels special bodies in charge of cultural matter operate. Comparison of cultural institutions in Poland and Germany, reflects their different character and specific method of functioning, to meet the specific requirements and directions of development.

Konstrukt tsuchigumo jako mitologizacja zagrożenia

Author(s): Renata Iwicka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

Tsuchigumo –that is, “ground spider” or “earth spider” – is a malevolent entity existing deep inside Japanese legends. Narratives about these bloodthirsty and violent spiders harassing Yamato soldiers appear as early as the 8th century, although their origins lie deeper. Tsuchigumo is not only a giant spider, vanquished by Emperors or warriors, but the name also signifies many ethnically heterogenous groups fighting the dominating Yamato group before the 8th century. Calling the unruly and defiant clans and ethnic groups tsuchigumo put the Yamato clans within the human sphere and their opponents outside of it. This process led to the demonisation of everything that lay beyond the familiar circle, labelling it as Other, Strange, and finally – Non-human, a Demon. Hence tsuchigumo became a demonic creature, existing on the fringe of civilisation, an unwanted and disruptive element that needed to be thrown into oblivion for the rest of the world to properly function. The article seeks to establish a connection between the roots of the concept of tsuchigumo and the process of demonising the Other as seen in Japanese culture.

„Dałeś” – „gubiłem”. O winie i melancholii w poezji Tadeusza Nowaka

Author(s): Magdalena Łopata / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

The article is an interpretative text focusing on the poem Jak się przed tobą wytłumaczę [How Will I Explain Myself to You] from the 1956 volume Prorocy już odchodzą [The Prophets are Leaving Already]. The deliberations come directly from the text of the poem and focus on questions such as the reversal of the topos of the Prodigal Son, melancholy, “the traitor’s complex” (Stanisław Balbus’s term) as a generational and “class” experience, and last but not least, the relation of the poem to the whole volume and to later poetry of Tadeusz Nowak. On the formal level, some difficulties connected with the poem’s intended reader, which cause some imbalance of the lyrical form, are discussed, as well as the peculiar rhyme structure which allows the reader to “decipher” hidden key words.

Pieśni Papuszy w perspektywie geo- i etnopoetyki

Author(s): Mirosława Szott / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

Papusza was a unique personality and her songs are unique as well. However, her gypsy literature is not very well known because of its immanent qualities. It is rather considered of secondary importance and is treated only contextually. Its most important aspect is the legend around Papusza. Tus, in this article, I will focus on the literature (embedded in the context of biography and cultural practices). My aim is to look at Papusza’s songs fromnew research perspectives. As a tool for the analysis I will use strategies of reading developed by geo-poetics and ethnopoetics, and, marginally, by feminist research. In the center of the discussion there will be the notion of the space of the forest. Te imaging of this site is, in fact, a common area of analysis for the above-mentioned methodologies.

The European Model of Cultural Heritage Policy

Author(s): Svetlana Hristova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

In order to understand the specificity of the European model of cultural heritage policy, we shall first take account of the main changes in the late modern world which pre-determined the repositioning of culture and cultural heritage in the world economy; then we shall trace the reasons leading to the current reappraisal of cultural heritage in European public policies, and finally we shall reveal the main trends in the European policies for cultural heritage, which form a distinguishable, coherent long-term approach that presumably can be qualified as ‘the European model’.

Cultural Societies and Local Community Museums: A case study of a participative museum in Greece

Author(s): Alexandra Bounia / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

This paper focuses on the role of cultural societies in the establishment of regional museums in Greece. It uses as a case study the Museum of Refugee Memory on the island of Lesvos, a small local institution, created and supported entirely by a local cultural society; the museum, despite its size and professional shortcomings, has become a vehicle of social cohesion and an expression of a distinct local identity. This paper argues that this museum forms an example of a grass-roots museum initiative that deserves to be studied and even copied, since its operation provides an alternative model of cultural heritage and museum management that reaches to the local communities and resources instead of national or top-down ones. First, it presents in brief the development of the local cultural institutions policy in Greece and then it turns its attention to the case study and presents the information gathered through in situ research, multiple visits and interviews, in order to argue, in the final part, about the importance and role of such institutions.

Breaking Definitional Boundaries – Museums in Iceland

Author(s): Weronika Pokojska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The article presents the results of a research on Icelandic museums and their specifics. The analysis is based on the traditional concept of ‘land, nation and language,’ which form the core of the Icelandic culture and national identity. The first section of the paper describes the definitional problems which occurred during the research. Then the methodology is explained, also taking into consideration the difficulties in examining Icelandic museums using standard tools and guidelines. The last section is devoted to the results of the research, presenting a few examples of different Icelandic museums and their approach to heritage through the prism of the abovementioned trinity.

JAN MUSZKOWSKI I JEGO SPOJRZENIE NA NAUKĘ O KSIĄŻCE

Author(s): Anna Nowak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 26-27/2008

Jan Muszkowski to wielka osobowość i wybitna jednostka, to uczony – bibliolog, historyk drukarstwa, bibliotekarz i bibliograf, księgarz i bibliofil, statystyk i pedagog, teoretyk i praktyk. Z pracą bibliotekarską zetknął się w 1915 roku, kiedy to zatrudniony został w Bibliotece Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, na stanowisku asystenta. Od tego momentu zaczyna się przygoda Muszkowskiego z ksiązką. Całe jego życie było służbą dla społeczeństwa, za pomocą książki. „Było to życie bogate w inicjatywę, bujne energią, pełne twórczego temperamentu, zdumiewające wielostronnością swego działania, niezmiernie pracowite. [...]