Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
... It is in this particular context that I argue that Hara functions as a space of patriarchal violence and forced exclusion. Following what Jameson (1991) has described as the "spatial turn" (154), there has been a large interest in the last decades in examining spaces as "never neutral in social affairs" and as "more often than not the focus of intense social struggle (Harvey 1989, 239) -that is, as inherently having a social and political quality to it. Through this lens, it is possible to critically engage with the social cartographies of Hara, and to examine how queer people and those whose identities and desires are not aligned with Haran national ideals, are excluded and pushed to the margins of society. ...
In her 1995 novel, Shadow Man, Melissa Scott explores an alternative future where humanity's sexual diversity has drastically increased after being exposed to the radiation and chemical drugs that surround space travel. In the text, Scott presents both a seemly all-inclusive place where different gender identities, sexual orientations and sex differences are recognized and accepted, as well as a second national space where the gender binary and heteronormativity are not only heavily endorsed but also seen as a prerequisite to belong and be recognized as human. In this article, I draw from different academic fields such as science fiction studies, space studies and feminist and queer studies to explore how the speculative elements of the novel influence the construal of gender identity, and I question whether Scott's narrative can be interpreted as a hopeful space for queer liberation in the face of hostility. I analyse how the economic relations between both spaces, Hara and the Concord worlds, shape the understanding of gender and sexuality, and I focus on how the friction between the two systems highlights the power of the nation-state to mark certain bodies as foreign, undesirable and abjected. Finally, I conclude that Scott's depiction of 'the wry-abled' and 'the odd-bodied' offers nuanced opportunities to interact with the sex-gender system through speculation while emphasizing how these categories are artificial social constructions.
... Artificial intelligence holds the potential for exacerbating those dangers. In fact, Frederic Jameson (1992) argues that this new danger, "stands as something like an imperative to grow new organs, to expand our sensorium and our body to some new, yet unimaginable, perhaps ultimately impossible, dimensions." ...
During their evolutionary transition from apes, Homo sapiens developed the capacity to create mental worlds. While conferring a selective advantage and leading to wondrous intellectual achievements and transformative technologies, this capacity set humankind on a historical trajectory that is approaching the potential for its extinction. The genetic and anatomical basis of humankind’s unique mental capacities is unclear. However, the perinatal regression of Reissner’s fiber (RF) in humans, an enigmatic, strategically located filament originating from the center of the brain, is a likely factor.This study explores the hypothesis that the originators and transmitters of religious mystical traditions were rare individuals whose RFs persisted into adulthood. They perceived the fiber with its surrounding sensory neurons and experienced higher states of consciousness generated by it. Those perceptions have been transmitted in prescientific, mythological, symbolic language as the “subtle body,” the supposed intermediary connection between humans and the divine, bridging the gap between materiality and immateriality, and expanding consciousness beyond the limits of reason. Ultimately, this connection is the purported means of redemption. The secrets of mystical religious traditions are lost under the dust of fallen Babel. However, the identification of RF with the central axis of the “subtle body” presents a path toward their rediscovery. Emerging biotechnologies offer the potential to reverse RFs perinatal regression. Advanced technologies, such as real-time neurofeedback using quantum models, present exciting opportunities for the scientific study of consciousness and have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of spirituality and reality.
This study examines the portrayal of gender in Cyberpunk-style microfilm advertising (CMA), a genre that blends futuristic technology with dystopian elements. By employing qualitative content analysis grounded in theories of gender performativity and media representation, this research examines how these advertisements construct gender images and their impact on societal gender norms. The analysis reveals that while CMA presents innovative gender representation, it also perpetuates existing stereotypes, particularly with regard to professional roles and emotional dynamics. The findings underscore the dual role of media in both challenging and reinforcing gender stereotypes and highlight the need for a more balanced portrayal of gender. This study contributes to the discourse on gender representation in media, offers insights into the unique intersection of Cyberpunk aesthetics and advertising, and calls for further research to explore the long-term effects of these representations on societal norms.
This essay reveals that Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth is neither devoid of emotion nor simply filled with categorized emotions like loneliness, but permeated with elusive and de-subjectivized Deleuzian affect manifested through the adoption of Pop Art, the verbal interruption of the peritext and the conjunction, and the framing device that interacts with the character’s body. These techniques collectively embody a surfeit of affect, the zeitgeist of the postmodern era, and reflect Ware’s disorienting experience and his discontent living in a society dominated by consumer capitalism.
The concept and content of parody have been studied extensively in literature and to a large extent in the visual arts. A common practice of art theorists and historians, critics, cultural analysts, etc., is to identify intertextual and interpictorial correlations between works and to attempt to classify artistic intentions and methods into taxonomic categories based on older terminologies. The complex parodies of comics, however, in which texts and images are combined and iconic works of art become the subject of a new critique of the “old”, may require a new terminology to describe them. Taking the covers of horror comics series Crossed: Family Values and Raise the Dead as examples and tracing in them the interpictorial relationship they develop with well-known visual works of the past, the need to adopt a new terminology is highlighted and the term “transparody” is proposed as being able to encompass this new kind of textual and visual parody that comics achieve.
Bringing together researchers, theorists and visual artists, this special issue aims to provide a platform for discussions and research, which consider various as- pects of the visual and its implication to both ideological formations and cultur- al forms related albeit not limited to the notion of crisis. The special issue is, in a way, a continuation of previous, relative- ly recent projects which the guest edi- tor has curated or organised, and most invited contributors have been involved in: The group exhibitions “Capitalist Re- alism: Future Perfect” and “Capitalist Realism: Past Continuous” (2018-19, held at MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Pho- tography and MOMus-Center of Experi- mental Arts, respectively)8, as well as the conference “Representing Capitalist Re- alism: Crisis, Politics and the Visual” (23- 24/11/2018, MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography & Rosa Luxemburg Foun- dation). Starting from this point, the issue aims to offer a comparative charting of the crisis discourse by adopting an inclu- sive definition of the term derived from new scholarship and the concept of “cap- italist realism” as introduced by MarkFisher.
Bringing together researchers, theorists and visual artists, the fourth volume of DAC journal, "Narratives of Crisis: Representing Capitalist Realism", aims to provide a platform for discussions and research, which consider various aspects of the visual and its implication to both ideological formations and cultural forms related albeit not limited to the notion of crisis. The special issues (4:1, 4:2) are, in a way, a continuation of previous, relatively recent projects which the guest editor, Dr Penelope Petsini, has curated or organised, and all invited contributors have been involved in: The group exhibitions "Capitalist Realism: Future Perfect" and "Capitalist Realism: Past Continuous" (2018-19, held at MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography and MOMus-Center of Experimental Arts, respectively), the eponymous book (University of Macedonia Press, 2018), as well as the conference "Representing Capitalist Realism: Crisis, Politics and the Visual" (23-24/11/2018, MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography & Rosa Luxemburg Foundation). Starting from this point, the issues aim to offer a comparative charting of the crisis discourse by adopting an inclusive definition of the term derived from new scholarship and the concept of "Capitalist Realism" as introduced by British theorist Mark Fisher: an ideological framework for perceiving capitalism's impact on politics, economics, and collective consciousness – encompassing both the spheres of economy and culture. Crucially, Capitalist Realism encapsulates the prevalent notion that not only is capitalism the sole feasible political and economic structure, but it has also become nearly inconceivable to imagine a coherent alternative. Part Two ("The Greek Crisis") is a collection of essays and visual explorations which present the multifaceted dimensions of the Greek Crisis, weaving together threads of cinema, art, literature, architecture, politics, and urban life. It includes articles, visual essays, portfolios and a review by: Anna Poupou; Nikolas Ventourakis; Depression Era collective; Paraskevi Kertemelidou; Maria Paschalidou; Maria Moira; Io Chaviara; Ioanna Barkouta; Yannis Karpouzis - Yorgos Karailias - Yorgos Prinos - Pavlos Fysakis (Grossraum); Myrto Marini; Dimitris Kechris.
The paper discusses how the present became absolute and colonized the historical past in the mass culture of late capitalism, by examining the ideological premise of time travel films of the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on Fredric Jameson's and David Lowenthal's views of history and popular culture, the article suggests that the primacy of the present and the disappearance of historical consciousness becomes really striking in narratives that thematize the unnatural structures and causal logics of multiple, co-existing temporal planes. The course of history is presented as an evolution towards superior social structures, culminating in the liberal democracy of the United States, and any interference with this system is portrayed as a threat to social order. Its hegemonic aspirations are glorified in the narratives through the affirmative attitude of the fictionalized historical characters towards it.
This study aims to highlight the elements of Fredric Jameson’s analysis of postmodernism that remain relevant today. Although the term and periodization of postmodernism may seem to have lost popularity in contemporary theory, many theorists agree that capitalism has undergone a radical transformation since the 1970s. With this final stage of capitalism, the cultural and economic spheres have overlapped, and every aspect of daily life has become commodified more than ever before. In this article, after explaining Jameson’s concept of postmodernism as a historical condition and a mode of production-subjectivity, I argue that the theory remains valid in all three areas that constitute the triptych under the headings of a. the waning of affect, b. immediacy, c. new depthlessness, and d. pastiche and nostalgia. Ultimately, I contend that the decline of postmodernism should be interpreted as a sign of its complete realization.
In terms of speculative affect, the potential for thinking (and feeling) otherwise, counter to the status quo, is prismatic and expansive. Can this kind of phenomenological experience create, in turn, a form of revolt? This chapter considers the roll of the dice involved in surrealist thought, and surrealism’s quest for social and personal liberty, alongside the idea that thought is ontogenetic. Despite an emphasis on personal experience, the surrealist “marvellous” obliterates hierarchies between object and subject, bringing them into mutual correspondence, while often removing the contextual, habitual, coordinates of everyday routine. Observing the deliberately disobedient objects characteristic of Belgian surrealist René Magritte’s oeuvre, and their subsequent interpretation in French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet’s La Belle Captive (a picto-roman (1975) and film (1983)), the chapter is interested in the ways in which illogic, violence, shock, and incongruity disrupt narrative conclusion.
The strength of connective resilience lies in its shared narratives. In pursuit of a digital decolonialism, Southeast Asian societies must reconsider the dynamics of power and space, focusing on the socio-political implications of evolving digital ecosystems. This chapter analyses how digital spaces serve as platforms for governance, resistance, and participatory culture, while reflecting on the dualities and fragmentations inherent in these processes. By exploring symbolic disruptions and community-led initiatives, the chapter reveals both the challenges and potential of collaborative governance in contexts shaped by structural and historical complexities. This analysis is guided by a critical framework that interrogates the intersections of digital infrastructures, colonial legacies, and (creative) participatory practices and calls for approaches that resist digital orientalism. Drawing from a dataset of 2306 digital artefacts, including memes, videos, and user-generated content, it highlights the role of shared narratives and cultural resilience that are crucial to understanding identity formation that drives participatory culture in this region. This chapter recontextualises the notion of ‘becoming’, not as ‘us versus them’ but ‘us with them’, thus moving the interaction beyond reaction to engagement in a process. Finally, it explores a possible regenerative intervention of the Metaverse combined with a unique AI-model to shape inclusive and equitable digital futures.
Even a cursory exploration of the international semiotics scene today reveals that the work of Julia Kristeva is underrepresented. The radical- ism of her texts is an abiding reason for the fact that Semeiotike remains stubbornly "inconvertible" (Nikolchina 2011) into mainstream semiotics. This essay elaborates two opposed philosophical temperaments and a series of functional dualisms, including signification vs. communication and quasi-sign vs. fully fledged sign, in connection with Kristeva's own dualism, the symbolic vs. the semiotic. The quasi-sign doctrine is just one example of how Kristevan dualisms make possible non-reductive existential and social commitments and afford a written textual method applicable across the board in general semiotics. The Kristevan methods of polylogue, narrativization, and auto-critique are highest-order humanities tools for regulating ideology at the level of the text; they also contribute to the inconvertibility of Kristeva's books as hermetic and seemingly incomprehensible artifacts. The interest of these methods is intractable to quantitative methods and non-describable by natural science. This is one reason we provide such an effective interdisciplinary framework in humanities research - as semiotics aligns more and more with the strug- gle to revitalize the problematic humanities, Kristeva remains/returns as a core theoretic coordinate.
In this chapter, I consider how spatial audio and the radio mechanic in Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) functions as a metaphor for the social, cultural, and economic construction of the Los Angeles beat scene. Just as the marketing and development rhetoric surrounding 3D audio claims to allow enhanced presence, locality, and control over one’s sonic environment, artists in Los Angeles’ hip-hop underground foreground the importance of asserting spatial dominance over both the sprawling geography of the city, as well as sonic dominance over the width and depth of their musical mixes. The use of their music in GTA V’s radio allows it to serve as a core component of the game’s experiential soundtrack, a gameplay mechanic further emphasized by the incorporation of Sony’s Tempest 3D audio format in the next-gen console version of the game. By analysing the shared trajectories of the 3D audio format and the music and marketing materials of artists such as Flying Lotus and Anderson Paak, I outline a spatial shift that occurred in the late 2010s and 2020s in which the private music listening experience became not simply a way to escape or control one’s sonic environment but also a mechanism for engaging further with it.
Music videos are an audio-visual form that rose to prominence in the 1980s with the advent of the cable channel, MTV. They are unique representations of places and spaces spanning over four decades. Los Angeles has provided the location and background to music videos in every musical genre. Insights from Lefebvre’s spatial theory and social production of space are aligned with Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality. An examination of prominent hip-hop music videos is employed to trace the social and cultural tensions that configure lived experience in Los Angeles against notions of L.A. as a global entertainment capital. Music videos constitute vibrant urban renderings of Los Angeles at key inflexion points in its recent history.
This chapter focuses primarily upon three adaptations of Hamlet created and performed online during the COVID-19 pandemic: an episode of Elliot Barnes-Worrell’s Instagram series Thinking Out Loud: Quarantine Shakespeare, released in April 2020; an episode of the web series Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles) directed by Sally McLean, released in September 2020; and a production by The Show Must Go Online directed by Rob Myles, performed live via Zoom and streamed to YouTube in August 2020. All three adaptations are infused with the cultural moment of lockdown: performed at home by isolated individuals using domestically sourced props and costumes, and streamed or recorded using smartphones, laptops and video conferencing software. I propose that digital performances and adaptations of Shakespeare created during the pandemic regularly offer examples of metamodernism, which has been put forward as the dominant cultural logic of the opening decades of the twenty-first century, succeeding late twentieth-century postmodernism. Cultural theorist Timotheus Vermeulen argues that a key feature of the metamodern sensibility is a ‘new depthiness’, in contrast to the ‘new depthlessness’ which characterised postmodern works. Hamlet is a character who has regularly been depthlessly (de)constructed in modern popular culture through caricatured tropes and memetic afterlives. This chapter places the productions of Barnes-Worrell, McLean and Myles in conversation with the postmodern Hamlets of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century; performed during the pandemic, Hamlet and its title character gained a metamodern ‘depthiness’, as creatives explored the character’s affective potential anew.
L’hypothèse de départ de ce texte est que la réflexion sur la question méthodologique en didactique des langues et des cultures ne prend son sens que si elle dépasse justement le périmètre méthodologique. Il s’agit de voir plus large : comprendre sur quel empan l’IA va s’imposer, comment elle va s’inscrire dans un paysage éducatif et, par là même, civilisationnel qu’elle aura, à sa mesure, transformé. Il faut commencer par s’attacher à son analyse, ce qu’on fera sous trois angles : l’idéologie, la temporalité, l’être-au-monde. Dans un deuxième temps, et à la lumière de ces observations, on envisagera de préciser dans quelles conditions l’innovation pourra pénétrer les dispositifs éducatifs, en s’attachant spécifiquement au cas des langues et des cultures. Quelques conclusions, à la suite, ne sauraient être que des ouvertures.
Sociology began as a scientific discipline in large part by defining itself by what it was NOT, namely, psychology. This means that within sociology there has always been an uncertainty over whether subjective phenomena, including selves, identities, emotions, consciousness, feelings, or experience, are topics worthy of scientific analysis and observation within the discipline. Some argue that psychology is vital to doing sociology (as an accepted or foundational “first principle”), while others reject it because it falls outside the scope of sociological concerns. In this paper I analyze antisubjectivism in sociology in the form of Donald Black’s “pure sociology,” as well as the antihumanist network theory of Stephan Fuchs. I conclude by suggesting that if sociologists are serious about achieving their long sought after but elusive “science of society,” then the sort of antisubjectivism, antihumanism, and antiessentialism being propounded by Black, Fuchs, and others should receive serious consideration in current and future sociological work.
This article considers the strategies of art conceptualization in theoretical explorations of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It is proposed to critically review the concepts of postmodernism and metamodernism as those that are devoid of heuristic potential and no longer correspond to current theoretical demands. One of the main shortcomings of postmodern theories of art is their lack of understanding of the antagonisms that determine the cultural and political-economic processes of the early 21st century. To break a deadlock of postmodern theories, it is suggested to consider art within theories of modernity and globalization transformations. Philosophical understanding of globalization is possible if to spatially and temporally clarify its meaning. World concepts are critically reviewed in the modern philosophy of A. Badiou, J.-L. Nancy, E. Glissant and in the art curatorial practices of J.-H.Martin, H.-U.Obrist It is important to distinguish between the understanding of the world as Mondus, which in the historical tradition is connected with finitude, and the geometric interpretation of the world as Globus, which denotes perfection and infinity. Mondialization is accordingly opposed to globalization, as the polyphony of unification. While another approach determines the dependence of globalization on postmodern theories and emphasizes the relevance of the very concept of globalization, which is considered in the temporal dimension. An alternative to postmodern and metamodern concepts of art can be formed on the basis of the philosophical explorations of P. Osborne and K. Bishop. They define contemporary as the temporality of globalization. Art becomes contemporary when it reproduces the antagonisms between the globality of totalization and the locality of subjective positions, between historical time and the multiplicity of temporalities. As an example of modern art of "double coding", the projects of the fictional art association Atlas Group are considered. Particular attention is paid to curatorial practices within the concept of dialectical contemporaneity by K. Bishop. The researcher opposes the coexistence of multiple temporalities and "presentism", fixation on the present time. It is substantiated that modern art not only represents antagonisms but also performs a prognostic function and constructs a political imaginary.
To frame the topic of conflicts, particularly through the historical lens of nation-states, it is essential to consider the historical context of key state formations in the West. From the nineteenth century onward, these formations maintained the power and sovereignty that underpinned Western dominance. Although the traditional Westphalian concept, derived from the Peace of Westphalia (1648), established the notion of nation-states as the primary actors in international law—each with supreme authority over its territory— sovereignty has often been separated from physical territory in practice. Power and authority frequently extend beyond, or fall short of, a state’s geographic boundaries, indicating that sovereignty has increasingly been decoupled from territoriality. In colonial contexts, multiple legal systems and authorities coexisted and often conflicted, creating a fluid and contested landscape of governance. This allowed colonial powers to maneuver between different legal frameworks to maintain control. In these colonies, the suspension of normal legal rules—what is often referred to as a “state of exception”—was more commonly the rule rather than the exception.1
This article examines the teaching of civic engagement in academic settings, focusing on its role in generating new knowledge and fostering social and personal action. The article proposes regulatory remedies to ensure a fair and balanced curriculum supporting diverse worldviews and productive discourse, promoting student civic participation. The legal principle of equal protection, enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment, serves as the foundation. The Fourteenth Amendment emphasizes equal treatment and opportunities for all, including access to a well-rounded education. By incorporating its principles into education, the article highlights the need to promote fair, civic education that empowers all students to participate actively in their communities. I recommend regulatory remedies to solidify education’s nature and foster a balanced curriculum. The proposed remedies ensure that various worldviews are embraced, promoting productive and amicable discourse among students. Creating an inclusive learning environment also allows students to engage in critical thinking and develop a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives, ultimately enhancing their civic participation. Furthermore, the article emphasizes the importance of regulatory safeguards against biased or exclusionary educational practices to ensure that all students have equal educational opportunities, regardless of their background or beliefs. By eliminating barriers and promoting a fair educational system, students can develop the necessary knowledge and skills to contribute to their communities actively. By incorporating the legal principle of equal protection with respect to perspectives represented on campus, the article advocates for legal and regulatory remedies to promote a fair and balanced curriculum that supports diverse worldviews.
This article reads Karl Marx’s Capital (volume 1, 1867) as the Bildungsroman of a congenital criminal: its eponymous character, Capital. Following Friedrich Engels’s The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), Marx detects and dissects capitalism’s crimes. Capital has been called Marx’s ‘Victorian novel’ and compared to English realism’s triple-deckers. Yet his indispensable informants include factory inspectors whose reports, according to Fredric Jameson, provide testimony beyond anything realism can represent. How, then, does Marx’s apparently realist aesthetic convey Capital’s criminal deeds and criminogenic drive? To address this matter, the article examines the Gothicism of Marx’s realism. It highlights his development of Engels’s Gothic realism, demonstrates how Capital begins in media res—its first sentence presenting an immense, monstrous collection of evidence of Capital’s cannibalism—and links this opening crime scene to Marx’s portrayal of the 1863 case of Mary Anne Walkley. Murdered in her workplace, Walkley inhabits an underworld overpopulated by fellow workers killed by wage-labour. The article argues that, because actuality under the rule of Capital is structurally and monstrously criminal, Marx’s Gothic constitutes a realistic medium to represent criminal monsters and structures.
BETWEEN VISIBILITY AND AUTHENTICITY IN DEMOCRACY: THE SPACE OF POLITICS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF HANNAH ARENDT AND ITS CONTEMPORARY RECONFIGURATIONS The aim of the article is to look at the pluralistic democratic space of politics as a game of appearances devoid of authenticity, and shaped by contemporary media technologies in which political opinions have become a derivative of social cognition, referring primarily to perception (visualisation of politics). In this role, it replaced public debate, diversified in form and content, referring to the principles of rationality, which reflected the competitive system of interests and ideas. The theoretical basis for presenting democratic practice as a theatre game – more precisely, a strictly enacted and inauthentic staging based on diverse visual communication – will be Hannah Arendt’s phenomenological perspective. According to the philosopher, the space of politics is mainly a public area of exchange and confrontation in the dimension of visibility and audibility, where we are dealing with revealing ourselves (political actors) in the space of appearance (the articulation process as a result of subjective activity). The starting point for presenting the tension between authenticity and visibility resulting from Arendt’s assumptions will be a discussion of the attributes of a contemporary pluralistic society from the point of view of her theory of the human condition.
This study aims to highlight the elements of Fredric Jameson’s analysis of postmodernism that remain relevant today. Although the term and periodization of postmodernism may seem to have lost popularity in contemporary theory, many theorists agree that capitalism has undergone a radical transformation since the 1970s. With this final stage of capitalism, the cultural and economic spheres have overlapped, and every aspect of daily life has become commodified more than ever before. In this article, after explaining Jameson’s concept of postmodernism as a historical condition and a mode of production-subjectivity, I argue that the theory remains valid in all three areas that constitute the triptych under the headings of a. the waning of affect, b. immediacy, c. new depthlessness, and d. pastiche and nostalgia. Ultimately, I contend that the decline of postmodernism should be interpreted as a sign of its complete realization.
The tendency to revise, reconstruct, or remythologize national history / historical memory is a global intellectual and political trend, especially relevant for modern Ukraine under martial law. The research highlights the theoretical issues of delineating the memorial canon of periods important for national mythology, primarily the Liberation Struggles of 1917–1921, which are widely reflected in modern Ukrainian novels. Having applied the thematic approach to determine the objects of the memorial canon, we distinguish three meta-thematic groups of artistic works containing the main constructs of the national-state idea — the people, the leader (government), the army: their corresponding to otamania (embodying the mythologem of a unified social movement, national resistance); statehood, which is personified by the figures of prominent politicians (mythologeme of the hero-statesman); history through the prism of the activities of outstanding commanders (warrior archetype) and military units (USS, Black Zaporozhets, etc). The structural and artistic features of the novels “Marusya” by Vasyl Shklyar and “Review” by Olga Mykhaylova are analysed, in which the specifics of the artistic modeling of specific objects of memorialization and which can be interpreted as canonical are fully demonstrated. The perspective of further research essentially related to the studies of historical memory recorded / created in modern novelistics is also outlined.
Este artigo teórico aborda os impactos da desregulamentação neoliberal e da generalização da precariedade nas relações laborais e na vida dos trabalhadores em sociedades capitalistas avançadas. Analisando a transição do fordismo para o modelo flexível e a consolidação do neoliberalismo, identificamos um intenso período de mercantilização e desvalorização do trabalho, com novas estratégias de acumulação de capital, que organizam a vida social por meio da racionalidade neoliberal, expansão dos mercados, desregulamentações e a culturalização da precariedade. Verificamos que este cenário promove o aumento do desempenho, cansaço, incerteza e insegurança, cristalizando a precariedade no trabalho e nos modos de vida das classes trabalhadoras.
Cultural sociology rarely takes the long view, often being content with the comforts of presentist empirical cases. Thorpe’s wide-ranging scan of British representations of Italy from the 15th Century is a noble exception. In this review, I engage with some of Thorpe’s arguments and explain why they are important for cultural sociology. I identity three key contributions, in particular. First, the search for historical patterns and patterning; second, the conceptual gains made by bringing together Bourdieu and the strong programme of cultural sociology; and third, the critique of what Thorpe calls the “Saidian paradigm” of cultural representation. In each case, Thorpe opens up new cultural sociological vistas in imaginative ways, bringing into sharp focus the necessity of an historical cultural sociology. In the second half of the review, I offer some more critical notes, including the relative lack of attention to representational futures, and what this tells us about a Britain whose gaze is perpetually averted backwards.
“Nosedive” and “Smithereens”, two different episodes from the British science fiction television series called Black Mirror, focus on contemporary world’s obsession with social media which takes advantage of humans’ insatiable greed for getting attention from others. In these episodes the borderline between the real and the virtual seems so blurred that people do not seem to differentiate one from another. Nosedive and Smithereens vividly explore and analyze the worst nightmares of contemporary world social media can ultimately bring into being. They examine the consequences of extreme dependence on new media technologies by illustrating with characters immersed into the depths of artificial world these new technologies ensure. Drawing a parallel to what French sociologist Jean Baudrillard asserts in his criticism of postmodern era, “boundaries between science fiction and science fact are fast collapsing” , this study aims to explore and deconstruct the crucial threat posed by social media culture aggravated by latest media technologies that play a fundamental role in shaping and constructing contemporary society, which has been remarkably proved by Black Mirror episodes.
This article aims to examine Julian Barnes' England, England through Jean Baudrillard's influential concepts of hyperreality and simulation, illuminating profound resonances with the postmodern condition of contemporary Western societies. The novel portrays a world increasingly governed by models, signs and simulacra, challenging traditional notions of authenticity and reality. The theme park's replication of English culture, history and identity exemplifies how simulations and hyperreal constructions have saturated domains like tourism, nationhood, historical narratives and media representations. The novel encapsulates Baudrillardian themes such as the blurring of reality/illusion, the eclipse of the original by replicas, and the commodification of culture into marketable experiences. This mirrors contemporary experiences where the virtual and artificial hold sway over the authentic, fuelled by forces like consumer capitalism and the media. The actors' embodiment of historical roles reflects how mediated depictions shape public memory more than facts. Ultimately, the novel's vision of a hyperreal England supplanting traditional conceptions of nationhood resonates with contemporary anxieties about meaning and truth in a world dominated by simulations. By vividly fictionalizing Baudrillard's philosophical perspectives, the novel offers insightful views on modern complications distinguishing reality amid our self-constructed simulations.
This paper focuses on Peter Ackroyd's English Music as a landmark in contemporary manifestations of the baroque tradition in British literature. It is based on contemporary approaches to the baroque as an aesthetic constant or strain -more than on a periodization-theory of the baroque. The demonstration is tripartite in structure. I first concentrate on the ingredients of what may be called a ''baroque diction" (flux, hyperbole, overflowing of the frame, etc.). I then move on to the representation of artifice and the artifice of representa_tio~, by concentrating on the baroque topos of the world as a stage, the exammauon of metaleptic ploys and their implications in terms of ontological or transcendent potentialities. The last part addresses the question of the baroque as a way to probe at the boundaries of traditional, phenomenal reahsm, as a force meant to extend the province of traditional mimesis by replacing representation with presentation. I conclude with some reflections on the expressionist functions of the baroque as an avatar of romanticism.
Our study explores the complex relationship between myth, memory, and modernity in shaping contemporary spiritual narratives. By probing the reinterpretation of ancient myths in modern literature, the role of collective memory in cultural heritage, and the impact of modernity on traditional spiritual expressions, the paper highpoints how these elements collectively influence the evolving landscape of spirituality. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the article underlines the ongoing dialogue between past and present, tradition and innovation, in the formation of spiritual identities within a rapidly changing cultural context.
The article deals with the formation means of the idea of the world’s iridescence or illusiveness, its stylistic and translation aspects within the textual framework of Ph.K. Dick’s novel “Ubik” and its translat- ed version in Ukrainian. The relevance of the study is defined by general scarcity of current enquiries highlighting stylistic means of moulding the idea of the world’s iridescence in science fiction as well as translation methods of delivering it from English to Ukrainian. The purpose of this scientific inquiry is to identify the stylistic devices that play a role in the delinea- tion of ways in which reality may be reduced to tatters in comparison with a coherent state of things and to pinpoint the translation techniques of rendering the related contexts from English into Ukrainian. The top- icality of the study is determined by the paucity of relevant research focusing on the kernel of the prevail- ing theme in Dick’s “Ubik”, namely illusiveness of reality, and translation techniques and transformations that help adequately deliver the significant sequences from English into Ukrainian. It is argued that the idea in question being the core of the prevailing theme in Dick’s “Ubik” is at- tained by means of incorporating several ontological planes represented by mental constructs, or reali- ties, focalised through the perceptions and personalities of different characters of the novel. Contextu- al and text interpretation analyses enabled the authors to determine and interpret those semantic domi- nants that underpin the formation of the world’s iridescence effect in the novel, namely: “alternate reali- ties”, “dream as a variant of reality”, “changes in time and space”, “changes of forms of consciousness and existence”. It has been proven these dominants’ diegetic interrelation. The idea of the world’s iridescence in the novel is brought about by the literary work’s fluctuating plot convolutions stemming from seemingly incoherent planes of different sections of the novel: a mosaic of the primary diegesis together with several hypo-diegeses comes across as a kind of an ontic hazy maze building up to an overall effect of the world’s fluidity and oscillation. The method of stylistic analysis was applied to interpret stylistic phenomena inherent in the novel in relation to their contribution to the studied idea as those were found functioning in the relevant textu- al microcontexts and enhancing the aforementioned semantic dominants. It was esti mated that expres- estimated that expres- sive means and devices of stylistic syntax constitute four fifths of the whole researched corpus of units, thus playing a major role in the formation of the idea of the world’s illusiveness (those include aposiopesis, rhetoric questions, asyndeton, and nominative sentences) while expressive means and stylistic devices of stylistic semasiology prove much less numerous, accounting for a fifth of the units analysed (presented by metaphors, epithets, similes, antitheses). Among the typical translation methods, instrumental in the rel- evant textual sequences in “Ubik”, a share of lexical and semantic transformations equals 60.2% of the re- searched sets of translation counterparts, with modulation and specification being the dominant ones and logical synonymy, calquing and lexical compensation trailing behind. Grammatical transformations com- pose nearly two fifths (39.8 %) of the researched body of units, the most efficient ones being substitution and word order change. The results of the study enabled understanding the interaction mechanism of semantics of the leit- motif of a literary work, its stylistic representation and translation solutions of its delivery from English into Ukrainian. We envisage the prospects for further research in studying linguistic aspects of cross-cultural conveying symbolic significance of recurring narrative elements.
The purpose of the study is to determine the peculiarities of the poetics of the literature of new sincerity as polemically sharpened against postmodern irony, scepticism and cynicism and to identify the poetics of new sincerity in K. Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go”. To achieve this goal, the author uses cultural-historical, cultural-philosophical, hermeneutical research methods. The paper traces the formation of the concept of ‘sincerity’, which has been transformed over many centuries, acquiring new meanings against the background of different eras. The concept of ‘sincerity’ is considered in the context of cultural philosophy and literary criticism. Much attention is paid to the opposition between the new sincerity and postmodern irony, which is analysed not only as an artistic manifestation but also as a way of thinking. The phenomenon of new sincerity is considered in the work as a reaction to the socio-cultural shifts that led to the end of the postmodern era. The research attempts to identify the differentiating features of the poetics of the works that make up the layer of the literature of new sincerity. Among them are the peculiarity of the issues, which consists in the aggravation of problems of a more intimate, personal nature, the originality of the hero, who is a reflective personality who pays great attention to his inner world, is concerned with the issue of self- identification; characteristic narrative style, which is characterised by the presence of a diegetic narrator and a confessional character; deep psychologism and empathy; appeal to universal values; self-irony as an indicator of the writer’s individual style or the complete absence of irony. Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian novel is studied from the perspective of aesthetics and poetics of new sincerity. The study has made it possible to draw conclusions about the characteristic features of the work inherent in the literature of new sincerity. Thus, the narrative in the work is conducted on behalf of a diegetic narrator who is preoccupied with issues of self-identification and cognition of his inner world. The narrative style invites the reader to an active dialogue and promotes empathy, including for working through their own psychological problems. The fragmentary affective narrative style is supported by the minimal plot intensity, which allows for a deep psychological impact. The images of the novel’s characters are fully consistent with the paradigm characteristic of the literature of new sincerity. The author traces the presence of motifs of home, road, understatement, loss, death, and conscious sacrifice, which are used to implement the humanistic idea of the work, and their into the opposite. The author draws conclusions about the opposition to the new sincerity of postmodernism at all levels of a work of art. Thus, the novel lacks the dominant function of play; on the contrary, the text of the novel is extremely simple, artistic means are minimised, and the narrative style is as close as possible to a conversational diary confession. One of the aims is to find ethical absolutes that could be relied upon in a globalised world where all borders have been erased. The novel’s eclectic and fragmentary images of postmodernism give way to complex, multifaceted, and carefully drawn ones. The behaviour and various reactions of the characters are psychologically motivated. The novel shows a refusal to depersonalise the action due to the dominant function of the diegetic narrator and a complete rejection of postmodern irony.
This chapter presents the argument for the use of semiotic principles in the task of reimagining pedagogies for the age of AI. The challenges identified in the public debate around emerging AI technologies touch upon the matters of Otherness, conflicting constructions of truth, and the matter of fixed versus constructed meaning, which are also prominent questions for Transnational Education endeavours, marking the entanglement of those two areas of enquiry. Part 1, presents an overview of the semiotic critique of AI; part 2, discusses how some core postulates from Semiotics, such as the semantic description and the idea of semiotic modelling, are relevant in pedagogical contexts both in the construction of prompting skills and as an important pillar to navigating the challenges of translation and cultural differences at the core of Transnational Education projects.
The article discusses two linguistic poetry projects—that of the American poet Charles Bernstein and that of the Polish poet Andrzej Sosnowski. The main focus is on those poems by both poets which draw inspiration from the early modernist tradition of avant-garde and experimental literature. At the same time, the keystone of both works reveals itself to be—in reference to Ezra Pound’s poetic project—the belief that a poem is not so much a record of the poet’s experiences and emotions, but rather a distinct field capable of effectively assimilating and absorbing various elements (such as vocabularies, language styles, discourses). In this light, when closely examined, Bernstein’s and Sosnowski’s poems emerge as a late-modern attempt to contain the oversimplified, ideologized images of contemporary reality within an effectively polyphonic poetic text. This is because the author attempts to demonstrate that a difficult poem, employing avant-garde techniques, does not have to be merely a sterile formalist exercise. Instead, innovative poetic practices continue to have an important role, particularly if we shift our focus from political and journalistic declarations to the politicization of form. Poetry that still seeks stylistic and formal innovations can suggest alternative approaches to readers regarding the oversimplified methods of shaping social formations.
This article posits that postmodernism and its focus on disenchantment, subjective experience(s), and the argument for the incoherency between modernist conceptions of truth, reason, universality, progress, logic, and knowledge are exhausted and have been transcended by a flexible successor. Named ?metamodernism,? this new modality addresses the polemics left in the wake of postmodernism like alienation, hyperindividualism, and the breakdown of collectivity and unity. As such, metamodernism represents a more awakened sense of the modernist search for meaning and progress, albeit supplemented with self-conscious awareness of the goal?s seemingly unattainability. However, this renewed interest in reestablishing truth, certainty, assurances of identity, self-realization progress, and reinstatement of usable modes of I/We integrality is hardly new at all. Instead, this burgeoning ?metamodern? development represents the rekindling of the ?negative dialectic? as previously outlined by G. F. Hegel, but now with a heightened focus on its ?positive? development, that is speculative philosophy and the pursuit of sublated individuality-in-unity. In this article, I will explore this argument in four sections. I will outline Hegel?s process of alienation to reunification as elaborated in ?The Phenomenology of Spirit,? the ?Science of Logic,? and the ?Encyclopedia of Logic.? Next, I will explore how postmodernism buckled under its contradictions, introduce the philosophy of ?metamodernism,? and argue for a Hegelian reading by focusing on three elements: Ironic Sincerity, Becoming, and Self-Renewal. While only looking at three aspects of a much broader fabric, metamodernism as a cultural shift is not estranged from postmodernism but is instead given life through it.
This article tries to offer a contribution with regard to the understanding of the periods of modernism and postmodernism in the arts through a Hegelian point of view. Based on Hegel?s thesis about the end of art, the article tries to show how modernism can be seen, at the same time, as both the realization and the negation of this end, for modernist art embodies the reflective character demanded by the modern spirit and at the same time it tries to resist the loss of relevance of art in the modern world. This type of art, thus, tries to be more than just an aesthetic experience by seeking to influence life and society and to reclaim for itself the primary role of expressing the truth. Postmodernism, in turn, as the negation of modernism, fully carries out Hegel?s reading on the art of his own time, accepting this loss of relevance and turning to representations that no longer have the goal of being spirit?s highest mode of self-apprehension. Postmodernism has, however, two possible readings: it can either be seen negatively, as an art that has become sterile and that demands to be accepted by institutions and the market, or positively, as an extension of the freedom achieved by modernist experimentations to every artistic production without being limited by a programmatic view. Both these readings show the intrinsic contradictions of artistic postmodernism and the role of philosophy in apprehending it.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.