Issue 3 (61)

2024

Publication date: 16.12.2024

Description

The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Faculty of Management and Social Communication & Polish Academy of Sciences.

Cover design: Małgorzata Flis

Licence: CC BY

Editorial team

Secretary Justyna Janik

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Ewelina Twardoch-Raś

Editor-in-Chief Anna Nacher

Editors of thematic issue Justyna Hanna Budzik, Agnieszka Powierska-Domalewska

Issue content

Z/ziemia w badaniach kultury. Wprowadzenie

Justyna Hanna Budzik, Agnieszka Powierska-Domalewska

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 399-403

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.025.20868

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W kręgu idei

“You Carry Mother Earth Within You” (Thich Nhat Hahn). Re-discovering Our Earthbound Roots as a Way of Living in the Anthropocene

Monika Sosnowska

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 404-423

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.026.20869

One of the assumptions in posthumanities and ecological humanities is that homo sapiens is a part of a larger whole of a living system – the Earth,1 around which, and around which future, a global cross- and trans-discpilnary discussion was initiated by scientists, thinkers and activists in the early 2000s. It was stimulated by the emergence of the notion of the Anthropocene in the Earth sciences proposing that modern homo sapiens became a geological force, collectively impacting particular Earth’s ecosystems and the environment, in general. The present article addresses the concept of “Earthbound,” “the terrestrial” as well as earthly, multifaceted, urgent issues and dillemas of the Anthropocene, both as a notion and our “unstable environmental now” (Mentz, Break Up the Anthropocene, 2019), put forth by Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, Francesca Ferrando and Bruno Latour. To discuss the root cause of the Anthropocene problem, I refer to teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn (a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, who died in 2022, a peace activist, author of more than 100 books) to offer non-Western ways of reconceptualizing human-nature relationship, rethinking and reshaping relations between humans (earthlings) and the Earth. His non-dualistic concepts of interbeing and “carrying Mother Earth within oneself” may be treated as an alternative to Western thought that operates on dualisms, promotes intellectual knowledge, mechanistic understanding of life processes and separateness between earthlings and the Earth. Nhat Hahn, who was familiar with scientific findings (e.g. quantum theory), advocated for care and respect for all living entities composing a complex web of relationships. I turn to his essential writings and interviews to discover everyday practices that can be used and understood as forms of activism triggered in response to the environmental change. I analyze how his teachings contribute to shaping environmental awareness on a planetary scale. In addition, I also focus on the linguistic, symbolic, and metaphoric dimensions of the gendered image of the Earth in his talks and writings. Thich Nhat Hahn’s writings and lectures offer a powerful posthumanist message for earthlings living in the Anthropocene as they invite us to redefine the place of ourselves on Earth and re-connect with the planet through our worldly entanglement(s).

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Porosty. Ziemskie alfabety wzajemności

Magdalena Ochwat, Małgorzata Wójcik- Dudek, Piotr Skubała

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 424-449

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.027.20870

Lichens do not belong to plants or animals; they are long-lived and stable, capable of surviving in the harsh conditions of concrete urbanization in modern cities. Their strength comes from the hybrid combination of a fungus, a green alga, or a cyanobacterium, along with the millions of supporting cells from other organisms. This alliance of fungi and algae, which we observe today in the form of lichens, once played a crucial role in shaping life on Earth. Lichens testify that during times of scarcity, mutual assistance becomes key to survival. Their symbiotic history, presented in this article, is a lesson we urgently need today about reciprocity and the formation of new, diverse communities. Lichens are an excellent example of how to create a culture of mutuality and community, while offering an alternative to a life of alienation, individual functioning, and the pursuit of maximizing profit. They provide us with an alternative model of life on Earth, in contrast to individualistic, selfish, and individual-centered ways. The properties of lichens and their practices of forming alliances can serve as guidelines for functioning during the climate and environmental crisis, when resources are shrinking, and global temperatures are reaching record highs. The methodology we apply can be called “symbiotic humanities”. Its task is to uncover various forms of life on Earth and convey a more-than-human perspective of the world, one that emphasizes interweaving, relationships, connections, kinships, and the fact that every species exists only through others. This text is enriched with images of lichens to visually demonstrate to the reader the different forms of embodiment of these fascinating organisms. The article serves as an invitation to observe them, to decipher the irregular calligraphy of their thalli. We present the Lichen Manifesto and literary texts that may inspire new, unconventional ways of perceiving the world, encouraging exploration of symbiosis, complexity, and the polyphony of lichen nature, as well as the study of geolinguistics.

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Geostoria i apollińskie spojrzenie w Pieśniach ziemi Margreth Olin

Justyna Hanna Budzik, Magdalena Kempna-Pieniążek

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 450-471

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.028.20871

The paper proposes a reading of Margreth Olin’s documentary Songs of the Earth (Fedrelandet, Norway 2023), a hybrid of observational documentary, nature film and experimental visual essay. Olin’s story is related to the land and the planet Earth, where anthropogenic climate change is evident. In a combination of diverse cinematographic techniques, voice-over, statements from the director’s parents and traditional folk songs about the region, the authors recognise the story of E/earth from a planetary perspective as told by Dipesh Chakrabarty. The main issues addressed in the paper are the complementary near-ground and aerial views and the connection between Songs of the Earth and the category of the sublime, frequently discussed in posthumanism.

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Pejzaże kultury

Materialność Ziemi w radiografii Moniki Niwelińskiej

Marianna Michałowska

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 472-486

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.029.20872

The starting point for the considerations presented in the article are Monika Niwelińska’s radiographs from the “Trinity Site” series. The artist left photographic plates in the area where a ground-based test of atomic weapons was carried out in 1945. The irradiated earth affects the photosensitive material, changing its color and texture. In this way, the materiality of the soil and the radioactive activity induced by human experiments literally leave their mark on the artistic work. The artist’s works allow for a new interpretation of the groundbreaking text by Rosalind E. Krauss Notes on the Index, which changed thinking about the artistic representation of twentieth-century art. Read in the context of contemporary theories of materiality (including Karen Barad), it indicates the connections between image, trace and energy.

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Will the Symbiocene Be Our Future? Glenn Albrecht in an interview with Magdalena Ochwat and Piotr Skubała

Glenn Albrecht, Magdalena Ochwat, Piotr Skubała

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 487-496

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.030.20873

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Status grobowca i status Mogiły. Próba nekrohumanistycznej lektury fragmentów Nad Niemnem Elizy Orzeszkowej

Karolina Starnawska

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 497-517

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.031.20874

In this article, I attempt a necro-humanistic reading of specific passages from Nad Niemnem by Eliza Orzeszkowa. These passages describe two burial sites: the tomb of Jan and Cecylia, the founders of the Bohatyrowicz family, and the grave of forty January Uprising insurgents. Numerous scholars of Nad Niemnem have attributed symbolic and formative significance to both the tomb of Jan and Cecylia and the grave of the insurgents for the novel’s characters and its readers. Some of these interpretations will be referenced in this article. I do not intend to challenge them but rather to complement them with a necro-humanistic perspective on the sections dedicated to the graves, drawing upon Ewa Domańska’s insights from her book Nekros. Wprowadzenie do ontologii martwego ciała. I begin by examining the importance of land as a resource for cultivation or animal husbandry for the inhabitants of Bohatyrowicze and Korczyn. This approach will highlight how Orzeszkowa differentiates between the narrative of the land that serves the living and the narrative of the land that houses the remains of the dead.

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Preserving Electronic Literature: Between (Re)construction and Emulation. Space for Documentation and Preservation of Kate Pullinger’s Digital Fiction

Agnieszka Przybyszewska, Mariusz Pisarski

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 518-535

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.032.20875

The article is focused on the problems of preserving electronic literature. Authors discuss challenges they faced while documenting and preserving Kate Pullinger’s digital fiction works for The NEXT: Museum, Library, and Preservation Space for electronic literature (the leading space for archiving, documenting, and presenting electronic literature of the past) and for the artist’s online repository. They characterize the existing methodologies of preserving digital literary works and their pros and cons and report how they were used while working with Pullinger’s digital literary heritage. The argument is illustrated with an analysis of examples of reconstructions undertaken within the research project that made the creation of both Pullinger’s repositories possible, as well as detailed case studies and visualizations of the newly-created repository.

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Reviews and Resources

Prawda (o) fotografii. Recenzja książki Piotra Zawojskiego Pisanie i czytanie (o) fotografii. Odkrywcy, klasycy, obrazoburcy, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Katowice 2023, ss. 367.

Barbara Kita

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (61) , 2024, pp. 536-543

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.24.033.20876

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Files to download

Title Pages PDF Editorial Page PDF Contents PDF

Słowa kluczowe: the Anthropocene, the Earth/earth, Thich Nhat Hahn, posthumanism, Earthbound, the terrestrial, fungus, alga, cooperation, holobiont, community, symbiotic humanities, geolinguistics, Apollo’s gaze, aerial shots, geostory, wildlife films, planetary perspective, radiation, trace, earth, index, photography, Monika Niwelińska, Eliza Orzeszkowa, grave, human remains, necro-humanities, eco-humanities, Kate Pullinger, electronic literature preservation, The NEXT

Funding information