Cinema Transcendence of Time

Experience of time in cinema is a paradox. Cinema as a time art makes temporal transcendence. Film as a kind of Nietzsche’s eternal return determines subjective experience of time. According to A. Pawełczyńska it is possible to indicate three essential ways of understanding of time in cinema: substantialist, attributive and subjective. Deleuze’s theory of time in cinema represents subjective approach. According to Bergson time is creation therefore cinema must be based on a transcendence of time.
 

“Heavy Books” vs. “Light and Inexpensive Information”. Conditions of Book Production in Poland after 1989

This report is part of a larger research project entitled Polish literature after 1989 in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory led by a team of sociologists, experts in culture studies and literary scholars. The authors use Bourdieu’s theoretical tools to describe a segment of the Polish literary field, focusing on different aspects of the production, distribution and sales of books. Based on collected materials (353 interviews with individuals from the analyzed field – publishers, distributors, booksellers, government workers – published by Biblioteka Analiz in the series Rozmowy o rynku książki [pl. Conversations about the Book Market] in the years 2001–2012), the authors aim to describe the process of the emergence of a professional publishing industry from the ephemeral and chaotic publishing movement of the 1990s. The authors analyze a number of aspects of the transition from publishing movement to book market – from book design and the editorial level through print run planning, marketing the book, displaying and selling it, to issues such as printing the price on the cover and the introduction of VAT on books. Using the definition of the term “book market” proposed by Marek Tobera and Bogdan Klukowski, the authors argue that in the first years after the political transformation in Poland a professional book market did not exist, due to the lack of a professionalized system of information exchange between the sectors of production, distribution and sales. It was only with the advent of computerization that the evolution of a professional book market gained momentum.
 

Game of Literature. Conditions of Literary Production in Poland

The aim of the article is to reflect on the ‘double life’ of writers in Poland. Bernard Lahire’s concept is employed to clarify writers’ position in the field of literature and in the system of work and employment. The article is based on qualitative data gathered during the project Pierre Bourdieu and Polish literature after 1989. Interviews with 74 Polish writers present the consequences of writers’ unstable condition for literary production in Poland, main agents influencing their situation, as well as some, however scarce, ideas for systemic strategies of improvement.
 

The Literary Agent’s as a New Actor in Polish Literary Field after 1989

This article aims for determining the role and operating methods of literary agents who appeared as new actors within the structure of Polish literature after 1989. It presents relations between literature and business within the context of cooperation between agents and writers, the latter using the former’s services as a means for their functioning in the Polish publishing market that strives for professionalization. The theme of the article is a literary agent as a writer’s alter ego: on the one hand, overshadowed by the writer, but on the other – still considerably influencing their client’s economic, marketing and legal situation.
This dissertation uses terminology and analytical tools developed by Pierre Bourdieu presented in his paper Rules of Art. The paper shall be based on an analysis of six in-depth interviews with literary agents as well as on results of a research report developed within the framework of the project entitled Literatura polska po 1989 roku w świetle teorii Pierre’a Bourdieu (Polish literature after 1989 in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory).
 

Occupation: Writer. Notes on the Polish Literary Field after 1989

The article is based on the analysis of the recent study Literatura polska po 1989 roku w świetle teorii Pierre’a Bourdieu. Raport z badań which deals with the diagnosis of 25 years of Polish literature by using Bourdieu’s theory. The article comments the results of the study as well as proposes wider perspective for the sociology of literature. The main question in the text relates to the condition of the literary field and its main actors which are writers. The autonomy of literary field postulated by Bourdieu has a problematic status in Polish literature after 1989. Similar problems affects the writer’s habitus which depends on market regulations and other non-literary aspects. In the conclusion the article concerns different possibilities of using such problematic condition of the literary field for future activities of certain actors of the field.
 

Between Formation and Formatting. Literary Canon in the Educational Practice

This essay deals with the process of literary canon formation as an ongoing contest between two forces in the field of cultural production: the power of the habitus and the actions of actors of that field (experts, officials, publishers, teachers). The high degree of codification of the canon (that is understood as school’s required reading list) and a strong educational monopoly are symptoms of social field condition as a whole. First, the social transformation process that follows the political change is not yet finished. Second, the canon is a self-reproductive structure and jeopardizes the possible processes of transformation. Third, the autonomy of artistic and literary fields is incessantly decreasing.
 

Recenzja: Radosław Bomba, Gry komputerowe w perspektywie antropologii codzienności, Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2014, ss. 425.

Recenzja: Rafał Syska, Filmowy neomodernizm, Wydawnictwo Avalon, Kraków 2014, ss. 594