Critique. Division. An Archaeology of Separation and a Salvaging Etymology

Author(s): Katarzyna Trzeciak / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2019

The goal of this essay is twofold: firstly, it is a description a post-critical tendency within the contemporary, Anglo-American humanities; secondly, it presents propositions which broaden the boundaries current in the post-critical current, which lead to the replacement of critical scientificity with an affirmation of everyday readerly affects. The claims regarding the rejection of a criticism based on suspicion, formulated by, among others, Rita Felski, accentuate the elite character of reading, the goal of which is the unveiling of the economico-political entanglement of the text as a product of historical reality. The distrust towards the surface of the text and the illusion of aesthetic autonomy, central for cultural studies, raised the critical attitude to the rank of an activity that is revelatory and privileged. The opponents of an unmasking criticism underline its limitations—unmasking reveals the ultimate source of every cultural production, the logic of capitalism, the total character of which leaves no chance for change. In defense of change, and in the hope of restoring to literature a widespread interest, there appear tendencies which bring back the individual experience of reading, the basis of which is to be aesthetic pleasure, freed from the historical context and its determinants. In the article, examples of such tendencies will be pointed out, as also will be their consequences caused by the elevation and universalisation of non-professional reading. The rejection of the political task of criticism leads to the questioning of its anti-systemic potential; in turn, the apotheosis of suspicion paralyses the postulative dimension of criticism. For this reason, in the last part of the essay, I propose going beyond oppositional conceptualisations in the direction of a criticism that is situated and material, and whose model, in my rendering, is subordinated knowledge.

Феноменалност и материалност при Кант

Author(s): Paul de Man / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 27/2021

This text is a part of De Man’s later book Aesthetic Ideology that was assembled and published after his death. The text is a scholarly paper where the author examines Kant’s Analytic of the Sublime (Critique of the Power of Judgement), viewed in the context of transcendental philosophy and its relations to metaphysics and ideology. In De Man’s account Kant appears to hassitate between two trends. He is constantly divided between the strict transcendentalist writing that is characteristic of the mathematical sublime, and, on the other hand, the ideologized presentation of dynamic sublime that depicts intimidating objects that are nevertheless contemplated from a safe place. Kant uses different rhetorical techniques to get out of the above mentioned difficulties, thus providing abundant material for the rhetorical analysis of De Man. What De Man considers to be still valid today in Kant’s analytics, is the so called by the theorist himself „material vision“. It refers to the statement of Kant that sublime contemplation has to see objects as they are – without their conceptuaization. What we see here is the programme materialism of De Man, which he did not manage to develop due to his untimely death.

Vydūno lietuviškumo vaizdinių ištakos

Author(s): Roma Bončkutë / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 107/2021

The texts of Simonas Daukantas (1793–1864), which captivatingly depict the powerful origins of the nation, influenced Lithuanian authors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centurie., Their work in turn influenced the development of Lithuanian consciousness and the establishment of modern society. In Vydūnas’ (real name Vilhelmas Storostas, 1868–1953) first poetic and journalistic efforts, early dramatic works, and in the almanac Bendraitē (1902) we find many paraphrases of Daukantas’ historical narrative, Lithuanian imagery and indirect quotations, word combinations, etc. This article examines how Vydūnas, relying on Daukantas’ texts, learned the expressions needed for public discourse and adapted his ideas. He interpreted history as an archetype of the connection between the nation and man, and from those historical texts he adopted the images of the harmonious life of ancient Lithuanians, the topic of healthy living and laid the foundations for his philosophy. Many of the ideas later developed by Vydūnas can be found in the articles of the almanac Bendraitē. Here he first tried to discuss the past of Prussian Lithuanians in the context of the history of Lithuania Proper and to culturally unite the two parts of the nation separated for many years.The article‘s concept is based on the ideas in Martin Puchner’s book The Written World. The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization (2017).

Poetyka ewokacji (nie)uczciwości w opowiadaniu Człowiek, który zdemoralizował Hadleyburg Marka Twaina

Author(s): Beata Garlej / Language(s): Polish Issue: 35/2021

The article refers to the axiological paradigm of (dis)honesty (the notion taken from Tadeusz Kotarbiński’s analysis) capable of being one of the dedicated devices of the poetics of evocation. The point of reference for these theoretical reflections is Mark Twain’s short story entitled “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”. The writer’s presentation of the still up-to-date and relevant axiological paradigm of (dis)honesty is at the hub of the deliberations, which aim to ascertain what constitutes the origin of its uniqueness and the freshness of its display. Primarily with the help of the concept taken from Roman Ingarden’s “catalogue” of aesthetically valuable qualities (“the ‘novelty’ variant”), and also drawing on the philosopher’s reflections devoted to one of the two ontological dimensions of the construction of a literary work (phaseality), an attempt is made to identify the specificity of the epically visualised phenomenon of (dis)honesty, and determine the methodological character of the poetics of evocation, necessary for this purpose.

Lessing und die Architektur

Author(s): Erich Unglaub / Language(s): German Issue: 18/2021

Lessing's interest in the fine arts is well known, and the boundaries between poetry and painting have been discussed by him in detail. Lessing's comments on the architecture of his time have hardly come into focus. It seems as if the poet were hardly interested in buildings and did not take note of the aspirations of the 18th century. Lessing dealt with architecture on different occasions. The stage directions in his dramas show that Lessing was familiar with and referred to the building conventions of the time and the realities of the theatrical stage. In matters of aesthetics, he received inspiration from the writings of Moses Mendelssohn on architecture and its position in the system of the arts. His view of the buildings he perceived on his Italian journey is influenced by this. In contrast, his assessment of the rediscovered architecture of the Middle Ages is critical. A reflex of his preoccupation with architecture is Lessing's parable about the 'palace', which arrives at astonishing architectural claims.

Wolfgang Huemer and Ingrid Vendrell Ferran (eds.), Beauty: New Essays in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art

Author(s): Iris Vidmar Jovanović / Language(s): English Issue: 63/2021

Book-Review: Wolfgang Huemer and Ingrid Vendrell Ferran (eds.), Beauty: New Essays in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, München: Philosophia, 2019, 434 pp. (Iris Vidmar Jovanović)

Креатив рекламної естетики у генеруванні нових художніх текстів

Author(s): Alla Sazhyna / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 104/2021

The article under studies deals with the creative possibilities of an advertising text within modern arts. It is generally recognized that the main purpose of advertising is to turn a recipient into a consumer. The advertisers achieve this goal through implementing the four consecutive stages of affecting the receptive consciousness: drawing attention, arousing interest, stimulating desire and encouraging action, which requires a perfect form of presentation. For successful achievement of the above results, the advertisers use rational, emotional, logical, psychological and aesthetic means of persuasion all together. Consequently, advertisement, as a peculiar synthetic type of “aestheticized pragmatics”, does not reject the aesthetic constituent. In the course of perceiving an advertising text, there might occur certain teleological deviations: when the aesthetic component of advertising comes out in the receptive consciousness in the first place, the advertising text can acquire new semantic parameters and be transformed into a qualitatively different text. In this way, most advertising slogans are usually considered. Being separated from the original text, they turn into independent messages (such as proverbs, sayings, phraseologisms) and enter the flow of the contemporary communicative space of speech. Other phenomena, generated by the aesthetics of an advertising text, are numerous anecdotes and comedic sketches, which parody plot structures, themes, images and specifics of the speech of advertising texts, as well as act as autonomous genres. The article under discussion regards the generation of a new text as a free game within aesthetic communication, whereby the author (the advertiser) and the recipient (the consumer) become equally successful partners. In addition, the article contains the analysis of certain samples, in which the aesthetics of an advertising text annihilates its immanent utilitarian form and creates an independent fiction text. Thus, the aesthetic component of an advertising text turns into a particular creative motive, a driving force in generating new literary texts.

Медея от съседния вход

Author(s): Stefka Piskuliyska,Doroteya Tabakova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 54/2021

An Animal Counter-Textuality? Sounding the Dog in the Global South

Author(s): Anna Frieda Kuhn / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The visual bias in the West has decisively shaped literary and cultural criticism in the past decades. Perpetuated by the linguistic turn, this bias has seen the written word placed firmly at the heart of (post-)humanist critique. Surveying current trends in contemporary theory, it soon becomes evident that, coinciding with the decline of the linguistic turn, Animal and Sound Studies have been on a steady rise. Increasingly shaping the global literary imagination, canine poetics, in particular, are enmeshed in a complex ideological web. Basing my investigation on literary and dramatic works from the Global South, such as Mark Fleishman et al.’s Antigone (Not Quite/Quiet) (2019), Craig Higginson’s Dream of the Dog (2007), and Ari Gauthier’s Carnet secret de Lakshmi (2015), I argue that, analogous to the way sound has gained increased agency in the Global South, so too canine figurations point to the way acoustic symbols can be rearticulated.

A Review of Antoine Traisnel, "Capture: American Pursuits and the Making of the New Animal Condition." Minneapolis, MN and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2020, 358 pages, ISBN 978-1-5179-0964-2 (pb), hardcover 108 $, paperback 27 $

Author(s): Michael Fuchs / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Faustiška sutartis ir kultūros politika

Author(s): Gintautas Mažeikis / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 76/2021

The article deals with one of the topics of the cycle “Faustian Cultural Policy,” namely “The Faustian Bargain,” which briefly describes what is considered cultural policy: the social struggle for meanings and values. Other parts of the cycle are “Faustian Transgression” and “Faustian Politics.” The purpose of this article is to discuss the intentionality of pre-reflection, the conscious contract, and its continuation or attempts to avoid the consequences of the bargain. The concept “Faustian Cultural Policy” and the corresponding bargain are associated with both personal and social or even state decisions and their consequences. The Faustian Bargain is considered presumably equivalent to an agreement to the contract between the stronger and the much weaker parties for exclusive privileges for the weaker, deferring payment for an indefinite future and thus gaining access to the naivete of the weaker, thereby making him dependent. The Faustian typology is borrowed from the texts of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Oswald Spengler, although the literary works of Christopher Marlowe, Klaus Mann, Thomas Mann and Ernst Junger as well as the agreements of Albert Speer and Petras Cvirka with totalitarian authorities are also discussed. The article compares the Odysseyan and the Faustian types of Western culture; discusses the dialectics of suzerain and vassal; the proximity of the Faustian spirit to gambling and betting; and the personal drama that completes such transactions. As for the ways to overcome the consequences of the bargain, there is a distinction between moral self-determination and mastery of the game. However, only moral self-determination in the presence of other people is considered as a real way of liberation, while at the same time both Machiavellianism and the doctrine of Realpolitik or the conception of Nietzsche’s Ubermensch are worthy of criticism.

Язык поэзии и поэтический дискурс (к вопросу о взаимоотношении понятий)

Author(s): Siqi Wang / Language(s): Russian Issue: 4-5/2021

The article examines the essential and logical-hierarchical relationships of such concepts as poetic discourse, poetic language, and the language of poetry. The relevance of the research is determined by fact that the understanding and interpretation of poetic discourse within the framework of the scientific theory is in a state of development, the methodology of literary criticism and linguistics is evolving, and many concepts are still confused. Opinions expressed by the researchers who have studied the essence of poetic language and language of poetry, as well as support the concept of poetic discourse, are analyzed. The main results of the study include the definition of concepts of ethical discourse, poetic language, and the language of poetry in close logical and epistemological relationship with each other. Based on the obtained results, the following conclusions are made. Firstly, the phenomenal essence of poetic language is described. Secondly, the mechanism of poetic discourse development is viewed as a result of two refractions (author’s and reader’s) of the language of poetry. At the same time, the language of poetry is presented as a locus (modus) of a worldview or a linguistic worldview. Thirdly, poetic discourse is considered as part of artistic discourse, which is not only emotional and aesthetic, but also cognitive and aesthetic content. The above-given conclusions are important for the theory of linguistics and literary criticism, because they contain the rationale for the statement that poetic discourse is a level of understanding and interpretation of the language of poetry as a mode of the linguistic reality. At the same time, poetic language is a skillfully applied technological side of a special kind of creative, heuristic activity.

Media Platforms of Discussion about the Aesthetics of the 1920s Photography in Czechoslovakia within the Contexts of Europe

Author(s): Jozef Sedlák,Petra Cepková / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The objective of the article is to analyse the background of dramatic discussions about the aesthetics of academic naturalism and the programme of New Objectivity in photography and possibilities of their media reflection. This turbulent opinion period was primarily accompanied by attempts on separation from the academism of fin de siècle, mainly through reflection in professional journals of the interwar period of the 20th century that discussed the visual language of the photographic medium within amateur photography, the retreating influence of the impressionist and naturalistic photography, and the ever-growing dominant programme of New Objectivity that combined elements of expressionism, dadaism, and surrealism. The study compares disputes in Czechoslovak journals to disputes within Europe (England, Germany). However, to a certain extent, these aesthetic disputes also stemmed from personal preferences of a programme that individual authors professed. The main objective of the article is to clarify and examine the principles of the disputes, as well as the period in question, which was significantly affected by technological progress of the press and especially by the arrival of the cheap and new system cameras.

Advertisement Text as Semiotic Construal

Author(s): Nataliya Panasenko,Romana Mudrochová / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Advertising is one of the most well-known parts of marketing communication. Advertisement text has a specific structure and consists of a headline, sub-headline and body copy. These elements belong to different language levels: phonetic, grammatical (morphological and syntactical), and lexical. To make the advertisement effective different promotional strategies are employed, which imply the use of various linguistic and extralinguistic means. Linguistic means include paradigmatic and syntagmatic expressive means and stylistic devices. We may mention lexical, syntactic, phonetic, and semasiological expressive means (speech) and stylistic devices (language). Extralinguistic means include colours, different types of fonts, pictures and so on and can be considered as visual communication with the potential customer. Advertisement text often contains basic semiotic elements: icon, index, and sign. Some of them are used as a trademark or logo and accompany advertisement. The visual perception of the advertisement is very important; linguistic means enhance it. The combination of linguistic and visual means allows us to consider the advertisement text as a semiotic construal.

Experimental Image Creation Through Imagination

Author(s): Martin Engler,Andrej Trnka / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The paper focuses on visual ideation in the creative process of visual development, i.e. concept art. It describes the process of idea formation and its transposition into visual information. The text analyses ideation approaches in the process of creating game and movie content. Explains context through history and art. The authors also describe experimental methods dedicated to usage and control of imagination. The paper thus tends to describe a part of art creation which is notably absent in the education processes in art schools and which is equally important.

Film Look of a Digital Movie

Author(s): Ladislav Halama,Zora Hudíková / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The theoretical study aims to provide orientation in the field of knowledge about the impact of digital technologies on production and creative processes in film. The discoveries of recent years have completely changed the chain of audiovisual content production - from the beginning (its primary record) through the processing of the content to the presentation to the recipient. These changes have led creators to completely new creative practices and beneficiaries to change their habits in the perception of media content. We will also briefly outline the origins and benefits of technological milestones, such as the development of analog film, the emergence of electronic television media, the emergence of digital photography and digital film. We will also mention the changes that the film underwent as a material record from the form of a photographic image to the form of a digital record in the form of a numerical code. An important part of the discourse on film media in its digital form is a comparison of technical and perceptual specifics resulting from the change of media: i.e. the perception of a film image captured on film (celluloid) and an image captured by a digital camera recorded in digital format. In this context, the term "film look" was used - a set of technical-optical and aesthetic parameters that bring the quality of digital film as close as possible to the appearance of the film image. We will also try to characterize what alternatives exist in contemporary film production in the context of the expectations of creators of the possibilities of developing creativity in the creation and perception of film works.

BOOK ON THE INSCRIPTION FOR BURYING A CRANE AND THE ART OF CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

Author(s): Marek PISZCZEK / Language(s): English Issue: 9/2021

Review of: MAREK PISZCZEK - Lei Xue. Eulogy for Burying a Crane and the Art of Chinese Calligraphy. University of Washington Press, 2019, xii + 220 pp., hardcover. ISBN: 9780295746364

KÜLTÜREL DEĞİŞİME BAĞLI GÜNDELİK YAŞAM İZLERİNİN FİKRET MUALLA’NIN SANATINA ETKİSİ

Author(s): Mehmet Cihan Gezen / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 86/2021

Culture is the values that constitute the unity of life, thought and belief that a society creates in the historical and social development process. These values, which determine the lifestyle of a nation, people and society, have been passed down from generation to generation. The unique life models, art, morality, laws and order of the society determine the culture of that society and shape the daily lives of the people who make up the society. When the social structure and life of different nations are examined, it is noteworthy that the cultures differ significantly and diverge from each other. While human beings adapt to all kinds of changes with the instinct of survival, they consciously or unconsciously keep pace with their social life in order to continue their social life within the changing cultural structure. Fikret Mualla, a Turkish painter, was born in 1903, until his mid-thirties naturally lived and produced works by being influenced by Turkish culture and society. Although he went abroad for a short time many times during this period, he went to Paris in 1939 and lived there for twenty-six years. During this long period, his art, like himself, was influenced by the culture he lived in, and he reflected the daily life in Paris and artistic expression forms on his works. Cafes, circuses and streets in Paris have become the main subject of the artist's works. To analyze the effects of contemporary life in the context of cultural change through artists and works of art; It is aimed to contribute to the relevant literature by examining the changes brought by the French culture and life in Fikret Mualla's works. In addition, it is aimed to examine how the cultural difference affects the works of the artist in question in terms of subject and technique. Qualitative research methods and techniques were used in the study in which general scanning model was used.

Память из гипса. О хрупкости традиции и моделировании прошлого-будущего в позднем творчестве Виктора Пелевина

Author(s): Mateusz Jaworski / Language(s): Russian Issue: 171/2020

The paper aims at interpreting two recent novels by Viktor Pelevin — Mafusail’s Lamp and iPhuck 10 in the context of time-space, remembrance and oblivion. The analysis revealed the Russian writer’s vast interest in the physical and philosophical theories related to the true nature of the Universe. Therefore, time and space are inextricably connected in the relevant novels as they form a whole network of parallel realities. Moreover, the realities do not function in the linear way, as human beings would like to perceive them. In Mafusail’s Lamp time travel is possible, but the introduced modifications of the past make the future impossible (in fact, the amendment of the past leads to an utterly new time-space). On the other hand, time travel in iPhuck 10 takes an unorthodox form of world creation (in this case — a world struggling to revive traditional spiritual values), as remembrance in the novel calls for constructing a whole new world. Thus, time travel hardly makes any sense, as all possible worlds exist simultaneously.

Dramaturgia współtworzenia znaczeń wypowiedzi scenicznej. Na marginesie lektury Tekstów dla (Starego) Teatru Pawła Demirskiego

Author(s): Beata Popczyk-Szczęsna / Language(s): Polish Issue: 36/2021

The article deals with dramaturgy in the broad sense of the term – as a written creative work and the characteristic feature of human activities: artistic and social. The starting point for these discussions is the publication of an anthology of Paweł Demirski’s theatrical texts commissioned by the National Stary Theatre in Krakow. The book is an excellent testimony to stage creativity because it contains conversations with the author and actors about the stages of work in the performance. The article presents reflections on the dramaturgy of the process of creating a text and a theatrical performance, the characteristics of Paweł Demirski’s writing and the content arrangement in the anthology. Reading this book is a peculiar aesthetic experience and a challenge for the reader. The dramaturgy of the message leads to the dramaturgy of its reception: the reader updates and co-creates meanings of theatrical texts, according to individual knowledge and sensitivity. Aesthetic experience is shaped by combining different mental spaces: it is reading a text / seeing a performance.