The World in Our Home: Close Objects from a Distance

Abstract: The reflections presented in this paper begin with the question of how the terms such as globalization, globality and locality are to be understood. The answer to this question is sought in the home. I look at domestic objects and analyze domestic space; its roles, meanings, and values. I analyze their local character and the way they simultaneously transcend their locality entangling themselves with different distant places. I conclude that locality and globality should be conceived not as actually existing spaces or the ways we interpret phenomena, but as dimensions. Dimensions of objects and the domestic space whose part they are and also the dimensions of other phenomena, such as cities. Taking into account the different dimensions such as locality, relations between cities, nationality, international relations, transcontinentality, globality and interrelations between them allow one to better understand the character of an object, an apartment, a city or any other phenomenon under study.
 

(Re)production of hysteria. The meaning of theatrical production for the popularization of hysteria in the late 19th and early 20th century

Abstract: In the late 19th and early 20th century hysteria was one of the most common and widely discussed neuropsychiatric disorders. The phenomenon of “hysterization” can be also perceived from perspective of the social impact theory. The epidemic of hysteria was driven by physicians who described in detail its symptoms and the course of disorder, as well as by artists and writers who implemented “hysterical” threads in their work. This paper attempts to establish to what extent the theatre of the Young Poland period was influenced by this medical discourse. It is based on the first-ever detailed systematic review of 90 dramas randomly selected from the list of all plays staged between 1890 and 1913 in two major theaters from Krakow and Warsaw. The number of hysterical symptoms and characters described in the texts written during the epidemic of hysteria is significantly higher compared to earlier works. The degree of “hysterization” has clearly increased in the periods when those novel medical theories gained popularity. It may seems that the theatres as a medium have also contributed to better recognition of hysteria in general population. In the final paragraph the author speculates about potential causes of such large involvement of hysteria in staged dramas, referring to the concept of “embodied transparency”.
 

No longer confined to the analysis of the word on the page, contemporary narratology has expanded to define and critique a dizzying array of media theories and textual practices – from Marshall McLuhan’s media-messaging to Henry Jenkins’s media-convergence, from political campaigns to Star Wars, and from virtual gameworlds to multimedia storyworlds – and yet scant attention has been paid to the formative role played by collage as both a transmedial narrative structure and a dominant form of multimodal practice. This paper represents an attempt to better define the theory and practice of collage and collage narrative, and, in so doing, to make the case for a more holistic approach to the definition of collage and the rhetoric of the various reading strategies employed in comprehending the patterns and messages conveyed by the collage.
Beginning with an assessment of the narrativity of collage, this paper considers the communicative and structural poetics involved in modernist visual parody and postmodern textual art, and how these collage elements are also integral to the visual poetics of contemporary graphic storytelling. Citing examples from Marcel Duchamp, Donald Barthelme, and Chris Ware, this brief study represents an attempt to better define the theory and practice of collage and collage narrative, and, thereby, provide a means of more accurately understanding the rhetorical processes involved in the creation and comprehension of collage as a storytelling mechanism.

 

A Dialogue at Daggers Drawn and Familiarisingthe Unfamiliar. The Basque Country in Spanish Cinema (1991–2014)

Abstract: The problem of the Basque-Spanish conflict appears in passing already in silent films. However, only in the second half of the 20th century, in particular after the death of general Franco, does it emerge with an intensity unseen before. This is, on one hand, the time when regional cinematographies and cultures flourish in Spain, but on the other, the period when terrorism becomes more widespread there. This article focuses on the Spanish cinema in the last twenty five years and shows the new tendencies in portraying the Basque-Spanish conflicts. In films on terrorism there are stories about ex ETA members, which also highlight internal struggles in the Basque Country. There are also interesting examples of culture clashes, and the theme of travel as a starting point for meeting the unfamiliar. Recently we have seen an increase in the diversity of genre conventions by means of which the Basque themes are taken up – from thrillers to romantic comedies.
 

Camera and narrations: instruments of intervention or interpretation?  Movie images of war in former Yugoslavia

Abstract: This article is an attempt to analyze of images of war in former Yugoslavia. Author concentrates on meaning and status of camera (or movie camera) and narration in constructing these pictures. The object of author’s interest are feature films describing the next part of Balkan’s war conflict. Exceptional attention in this article is devoted to the issues of representation and heterogeneous origin of presented images. Author constructs two pairs of antagonistic concepts: intervention/influence and interpretation/understanding. Judith Butler’s main thesis contained in her book Frames of War. When Is Life Grievable? are recalled in this context. Thesis which are polemic with Susan Sontag’s opinions from her texts On Photography and Regarding the Pain of Others. Furthermore, author pays attention to documentary images, which are often used in feature films.
Author classifies the war images in former Yugoslavia according to two criteria. The first one, is divided into films directed by artists from post-Yugoslavian countries and films made by directors from outside (mainly West-European origins). The second criterion is related to the extent of the realism the movie contains. Author supposes that movies from foreign directors are often reflection of European society’s guilt to passivity and inadequate involvement in prevention of massacres and ethnic purges. In this article a dozen movies has been analyzed and author particularly focuses on few of them, such as Warriors by Peter Kosminsky, Welcome to Sarajevo by Michael Winterbottom and Before the Rain by Milcho Manchevski.

 

#oscarssowhite. Race in Contemporary Hollywood

Abstract: Hashtag #oscarssowhite appeared early on in 2015 as a response to whitewashing and lack of diversity apparent in Oscar nominations. History of discrimination of minorities – racial, ethnical, gender and sexual – in American mainstream cinema is a long one. Article begins with a short introduction to the history of representation of black Americans in old Hollywood and then focuses on contemporary tendencies and strategies of racial representation prevalent in movies and television.
 

Fragment: Cofnijmy się o pół wieku. Pewien amerykański ekonomista William Baumol słucha melancholijnego kwartetu smyczkowego Ludwiga van Beethovena. Piękna muzyka sprzyjała refleksjom. I oto nagle przyszła mu do głowy myśl zgoła nie muzyczna, choć z muzyką związana. Zdał sobie mianowicie sprawę z faktu, że kiedy w 1800 r., powstał ten utwór Beetohovena, do jego wykonania potrzeba było czterech muzyków: dwóch skrzypków, altowiolisty i wiolonczelisty. Jego zagranie zajmowało wykonawcom tyle samo czasu dwieście lat temu, co i teraz. Zatem – pomyślał Baumol – z ekonomicznego punktu widzenia, w ciągu dwóch wieków wydajność muzyków grających ten utwór w żaden sposób nie wzrosła