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Anna
Beata Bohdziewicz
, Photographs
from a Journey
The
author registered her journey to Afghanistan, India and Nepal, made
years ago, by means of "mundane" notes and n the most
detailed diary.
On Memory and the Threats Facing It.
An Interview with Ryszard Kapuściński
The
conversation with the outstanding Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuściński
broached several motifs and themes associated with memory. The
opening reflections concern memories of the birthplace and the first
remembered images, sounds and words. Kapuściński, who was born in
the provincial town of Pińsk (the Polesie region), recalled moments
spent in his home town and reconstructed the phenomenon of private
memory. He went on to consider biographic memory and, while
discussing the book Podróże z Herodotem (Travels with Herodotus),
indicated the important role played in his writings by Herodotus and
his writings. The third theme pertains to threats encroaching on
memory. Here, Kapuściński pointed out three basic sources existing
in the Western world: the appearance of mechanical carriers of
memory, the excess of information in contemporary reality, and the
acceleration of the historical process - each of those issues is
subjected to a thorough analysis.
Franklin R. Ankersmit,
The Sublime Dissociation of
the Past: or how to Be(come) what One Is no Longer
Forgetting
has rarely been investigated in historical theory. Insofar as it
attracted the attention of theorist at all, forgetting has
ordinarily been considered to be a defect in our relationship to the
past that should be overcome in one way or another. The only
exception is Nietzsche who so provocatively sung the praises of
forgetting in his On the Use and Abuse of History (1874). But
Nietzsche's conception is the easy victim of a consistent
historicism and therefore in need of correction, four types of
forgetting are identified in this essay, central in the essay's
argument is the fourth type. This is the kind of forgetting taking
place when a civilisation "commits suicide" by exchanging
a previous identity for a new one. Hegel's moving account of the
conflict between Socrates and Athenian state is presented as the
paradigmatic example of this kind of forgetting. Two conclusions
follow from the analysis of this type of forgetting. First, we can
now understand what should be recognized as a civilisation's
historical sublime and how the notions of the historical sublime and
of collective trauma are related, second, it follows that myth and (scientific)
history do not exclude each other; on the contrary, (scientific)
history creates myth. This should not be taken to be a defect of
history, for this is precisely how it should be.
Kerwin
Lee Klein On the Emergence of Memory in
Historical Discourse
This
article comes from: "Representations" winter 2000, No 69.
Katarzyna Kaniowska
Memory and Anthropology
Interest
in memory appeared in anthropology together with a special
auto-reflection whose outcome assumed the form of a change of the
paradigm. The emergence of such transformations, reinforced by the
powerful impact of
hermeneutic, became the reason why
reflections on knowledge and cognition, borrowed from the adherents
of hermeneutic, inclined
anthropology to resign from the effort of building successive
theories of culture for the sake of a more
in-depth self-knowledge,
well aware
of the specificity of anthropological
cognition. It now
became necessary to
discuss anew
the old problems of the objectivity of cognition, the object
and the subject, sources, interpretations and the perception of the
significance of such components of cognition which the old paradigm
did not recognise or outright neglected. The text, rhetoric and
narration, treated as important elements of the procedure of
cognition, generated interest in the determinants of the dialogue,
the discourse, and the specificity of anthropological knowledge.
Performed from the perspective of the new paradigm, the analysis of
the processes of cognition in anthropology disclosed that the
heretofore applied manners of explanation must be reconstructed and
expanded. If the purpose of the explanation is to consist of
comprehension then one should permit those elements which up to now
have been seen as extra-logical, to participate in the explanation.
In this instance, the author would be inclined to recognise the
inclusion into cognition of extra-logical elements of cognition, and
the granting of equal rank to subjectivism, envisaged as one of the
most important features of contemporary anthropology. The
recognition of subjectivism as an additional value and the process
of noticing that this value appears in a dialogue which builds
the knowledge
of both its
participants is prominent, since by doing so one
notices that anthropological knowledge stems from a
subjective experience, interpretation and understanding of the world
by the persons under examination, as well from the subjective
experience and interpretation (and sometimes understanding) of the
world by the researcher - both his own world and examined reality.
It is the different manner of thinking about anthropological
cognition and knowledge which stirred the anthropologists’
interest in memory (primarily semantic). The discussions about
memory conducted in contemporary anthropology demonstrate
clearly its assorted interpretations. The author would like to draw
attention to three manners of comprehending memory, fundamental in
his opinion, which come to the fore in such discussions, and to
indicate the ensuing problems. Those three manners of analysing
memory and its role in cognition appear in present-day anthropology
in accordance with one of the following convictions: memory as the
source of anthropological knowledge; memory as the object of the
knowledge possessed by anthropologists; and memory as a tool of
cognition.
Czesław Robotycki
Remembrance of People's Poland
- an Anthropologist and the Experiences of the Past of Own Culture
Once
the epoch of the People's Republic of Poland receded into the
distant past there emerged differentiated stands vis à vis
this historical fact, together with attempted descriptions and a
documentation of the systemic reality of bygone days. The author
maintains that there exist two levels of description - one which
appears in official censored publications, wherein the criterion of
the selection of facts lay in the class aspect, and a second one,
suggesting the swiftest possible riddance of this legacy, which
either entails remembering it as part of history or the obliteration
and liquidation of all traces of the infamous past. C. Robotycki
dealt with the nature of such history and its authors, and analysed
the historical, ethnological and sociological perception of the
phenomenon of People's Poland, based on multiple publications,
scientific studies and reminiscences.
Dariusz
Czaja
, The
Black Box. On the Idea of Absolute Memory
Can
one remember everything? What does it mean to "remember
everything", and what is the sense of such an activity? Upon
the example of two literary texts, the author of the article tried
to resolve those questions - by resorting to All the Names by José
Saramago he delved into the concept of the Archive, and by alluding
to the Encyclopaedia of the Dead by Manilo Kis he tried to disclose
the idea of the omniscient Encyclopaedia. Both those institutions
harbour the ambition of recording the existence of every human
creature, and are overwhelmed by a desire not to ignore a single
one. By referring these literary creations to St. Augustine's
brilliant reflections about memory (Confessiones) the author
inquired about the conditions for a possible emergence of the idea
of absolute memory. He tried to answer a question about such a
manner of constructing of the human intellect which would make
possible the emergence of this essentially metaphysical idea.
Waldemar
Kuligowski
On
History, Literature, the Present and Other Forms of Forgetting
The
point of departure for the reasoning presented by the author is that
culture is, first and foremost, memory, the mechanism of storing and
recreating certain models and experiences as well as assorted types
of knowledge. Today, this situation is undergoing a profound change.
Research conducted by historians has shown that historical
consciousness expresses not so much familiarity with facts as their
interpretations; subjective visions of reality include contemporary
literature (at least from the time of Proust) and photography.
Moreover, the social sciences describe present-day society as "nowist",
"generation now" or "generation X", distinctly
indicating the severance of ties with history, continuum and
cultural memory. The author concludes that social life - the media,
production, politics and love - are governed by temporariness and
sometimes by outright disposability. Memory has become an
embarrassing, provincial and old fashioned feature, neither
fashionable nor trendy.
Sławomir Sikora, "Memory:
the Space in Which Events Recur". On Photography
Smoke
by Paul Auster and Wayne Wang (1995) apparently embarks upon a theme
similar to Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida (1980), and tackles it anew,
an approach that could be concurrent with Auster's opinion, which
has served as the title of the essay. The author tried to prove that
the photographic motif which does not appear in the foreground in
Smoke, is actually essential for this film. Moreover, it could be
treated as a sui generis creative expansion of certain experiences
described by Barthes in Camera Lucida (the existence of such a
relation is also indicated by several motifs in Barthes' biography).
The essay, however, is not concerned merely with following the
genealogical link between the two works, but with the ideological
bond. The "adventure" described by Barthes, i. e. seeing a
photograph of his deceased mother, could be treated as a not
entirely successful "experiment" of repeating the
experiment with involuntary memory, described by Proust. In this
respect, the "ritual" presented in Smoke, which consists
of an encounter with a photograph of the deceased wife, appears to
he much more complete and successful.
Marcin Brocki
The Semiosis of Memory in
Ethnography
In
recent years, auto-narration (various "remembered texts")
in ethnography has been transferred from its former role of evidence
to that of ethnographic material. In this fashion, memory has been
treated as a tool for a semiosis of the past which, in addition,
operates on both sides of research-interpretation, i. e. the
researched and the researcher. In thus conceived memory,
authenticity, envisaged as the expression of truth, becomes a
challenge. Accepting the initial thesis maintaining that ethnography
consists of the creation of texts about texts, one may observe the
mechanisms of an autobiographical reconstruction of the past, those
"remembered texts", perceived as the manners of its
textualisation (and thus operationalisation), in order to disclose
the creation of the world depicted in the research praxis of
ethnography. In contemporary anthropology the memory of researchers
and, hence, proof of that which "is really taking place on the
spot", became the same sort of data as all others. At the same
time, the investigators had lost the power to proclaim that in those
instances where personal experience and memory participate in a
slight degree in the construction of data we obtain superior data,
as well as to make a contrary statement, namely, that we achieve
such data in those cases when we permit personal experience and
memory (also native) to speak independently (which is not a only
naive, but also an erroneous belief).
Magdalena
Sztandara
On
the "Ethnographic Quality" of Photography
The
"ethnographic quality" of photography consists not only of
the effort of documenting details of everyday life, but also of the
fact that, on the one had, photography appears to recreate the
relations between man and the word and, on the other hand, it
records emotions. The author of the article is interested in
photography which documents the outline of the departing world and
registers the assorted manners of viewing it and its
conceptualisation. The ethnographic aspect is also a task for the
spectator, a game which he could conduct with an unknown world. Our
memory stores photographic stills which we use to construct an image
of the past. Photography urges that it may survive, so that it could
perpetually revive a bygone world.
Marcin
A. Kafar
On
the Essence of the A leg to Stand on by Oliver Sacks and To jest
wasze życie (This is Your Life) by Małgorzata Baranowska
An
analysis of two examples of the so-called literature of malady,
namely, by the American neurologist Oliver Sacks and To jest wasze
życie by the Polish poetess Małgorzata Baranowska. Both books are interpreted as autobiographical
testimony of the lives of the authors, who translated their own
experiences of a lengthy illness (Małgorzata Baranowska) and
suffering caused by a grave accident (Oliver Sacks) into literary
imagery. Martin
A. Kafar
focused his attention primarily on indicating and defining the role
played by literature and the Word as such, which in the face of an
illness proved to be a significant heuristic measure (and
contributed, i. a. to constructing knowledge about the illness) as
well as a therapeutic and cathartic medium.
In
a wider context it is possible to connect them with art motifs
encountered in situations of individual and social crises, which -
in the opinion of the author of the article -could indicate the
existence of a sui generis pattern of symbolic activity, revealed at
the moment of man's opening to a different reality, whose distinct
examples include illness
Dipesh
Chakrabarty
Who
Speaks for "Indian” Pasts?
The
problem of rewriting the history of the once colonial countries is
one of the main concerns of the Subaltern Studies Group.
Dipesh Chakrabarty
, Professor of South Asian Studies and History at the University of
Chicago and member of this group recalls at the beginning of his
article an opinion that owing to the project of Subaltern Studies,
"perhaps for the first time since colonization Indians are
showing sustained signs of reappropriating the capacity to represent
themselves [within the discipline of history]” . However, being a
historian himself, he adds that although he finds the congratulation
gratifying, it is premature. The main problem, according to
Chakrabarty, is the perception of the academic discourse of history,
which almost always treats "Europe" as "the sovereign,
theoretical subject of all histories, including the ones we call
'Indian,' 'Chinese,' 'Kenyan,' and so on."The "other"
histories somehow seem to belong to the "history of Europe"
and thus are always in the position of subalternity. However, it is
interesting to notice that Chakrabarty treats "Europe" (in
his article "Europe" is always put in inverted commas) as
some sort of abstract, "hyperreal" figure, "whose
geographical referent remain[s] somewhat indeterminate." But it
is this "Europe" that is often perceived as the cradle of
ideas such as the nation state, citizenship or capital.
Apart
from being in the position of subalternity, the history and
self-representation of the postcolonial countries had to face
another problem. Imperialist and expansive Europe constructed
certain metanarratives, in which the world was divided into the
centre (Europe) and its peripheries. The centre celebrated the idea
of the nation state, and as its influence on colonies lasted for
centuries, the peripheral countries had to accept the view that the
nation state is the most desirable form of political community. So
if we consider the "Indian nation," for example, we will
notice that it was divided into peasantry and "modern"
elite. The desire to be "modern" resulted in, as Homi
Bhabha justly called it, "mimicry" of European lifestyle,
behaviour, fashion, but also of trends in literature and the subject
of history. Thus "Indian" history, as
Dipesh Chakrabarty
put it, "even in the most dedicated socialist or nationalist
hands, remains a mimicry of certain 'modern' subject of 'European'
history and is bound to represent a sad figure of lack and failure."
The
author of the article, in his attempt to undermine the candour of
the "universal" history, asks questions which for most
Europeans may seem to be absurd: "Why is history a compulsory
part of education of the modern person in all countries today
including those that did quite comfortably without it until as late
as the eighteen century? Why should children all over the world
today have to come to terms with a subject called 'history' when we
know that this compulsion is neither natural nor ancient?" The
reason for such an attitude lies in the very nature of history,
which became an excellent tool in the hands of European imperialism.
Making an impression of objective and unbiased science based on the
analysis of historical facts, the "European" history
created certain metanarrative in which Europe was always presented
in an idealised way. This narrative, however, was nothing but
"a piece fiction told to the colonized by the colonizer in the
very process of fabricating colonial domination."
Dipesh Chakrabarty
does not confine himself to the
criticism of using history for colonial practices. In his project of
"provincializing Europe" Chakrabarty claims that the
"universal" history should be devoid of elements
celebrating the idea nation state or citizenship and instead include
chapters describing all the ambivalences, contradictions, the use of
force, the tragedies and the ironies that have always attended it.
The author realises that such a history will attempt an impossible,
as it requires the academic discourse of history turn against itself.
Nevertheless, he is convinced that the dream about history that is
free from all the themes of citizenship and the nation state will
last until these motives stop dominating the narratives of
historical transition.
Peter Martyn
Return to India
This
text amounts to a recollective account of the opening stages of one
man's journey to the Indian Subcontinent some six months before the
international terrorist attack on selected commercial and
governmental establishments in the United States. Determination to
follow the path of a traveller and avoid the most stereotypical
behaviour and practices of western or westernized holiday-makers,
fun seekers, ersatz spiritualists and hedonists entailed a heated
baptism of being more solidly down and out than superficially 'hip'
and 'with-it' in Delhi. While resorting to the fundamental abilities
to observe, experience and describe, and thus discarding in the face
of India's utter vastness the conventional methods of academic
research, the visitor drew on the world-weary commentary to Louis
Malle's documentary film of 1969 and the demonic writings of a
non-resident Bombayite as principal sources of inspiration and
insight. After four days of encountering the still overwhelmingly
traditional Moslem, as opposed to modernizing Hindu, way of life in
the Indian state capital, the traveller took advantage of the fabled
British legacy of the impressively updated railway network to
journey to the Punjab, which, alongside Kashmir and
Bengal-Bangladesh, lies at the very core of the post-independence
Hindu-Muslim Partition. Having made use of the mercifully
uncommercialised Punjabi Hindu-Sikh and inevitably subdued Moslem
ethno-cultural melange surviving in Amritsar as a watering hole
before crossing the only open border check-point into Pakistan, the
itinerant experienced something of a revelation in the Muslim
Republic's second, but historically, culturally and intellectually
its primary, urban centre: Lahore. The delayed adoption of 'new-age'
capitalism and comparative underdevelopment of tourism as an
industry left the wayfarer somewhat suspended in time between a
world strongly reminiscent of so many of his forefathers and the new
epoch of high-tech, internationalised 'economics' and globalite
smash-and-grab trend setters. In view of the commitment made to
journey around the main part of the subcontinetal delta during the
month available to him, the traveller could remain no longer than
five days in the city - a perfect time, nevertheless, to keep
malaise, disenchantment or disillusionment well at bay - before
recrossing the post-1947 Divide into Hindustan.
The
moral to this part of the adventure might be that some of the last
remaining anthropologically and socially less tainted parts of the
world are those which have managed to preserve something of their
cultural identity by maintaining maximum distance and some form of
constant resistance to what was once termed westernisation and is
currently most typically defined as globalisation. The delayed
sequel to this part of the story would have to end in the summer of
2003 in
London, where, as a result of the virtual collapse of organised
professional travel in Pakistan, the visitor's individual guide to
Lahore is currently seeking work in any commercial enterprise that
will employ him.
Jo Harper
Which Blair Project?
This
paper is a shorthand summary of various ways in which the language
politicians choose to use alters the symbolic terrain key political
actors choose and are able to inhabitat. It looks at how by
reworking language, politicians alter perceptions and even
recollections of the past. It deals, if only in outline, with how (re)constructed
political identity can reshape political action and possibly also
political outcomes. The paper looks at the ways in which the British
Labour Party under Tony Blair has since the mid-1990s sought, and
largely succeeded, in reinventing the party's collective symbolic
recollections, those parts of the collective political memory that
defined what is was/is to be 'of Labour' and by so doing shifted the
ideological debate, in so far as it stood, thus laying the ground
for a fundamental realignment of British politics.
Tomasz
Sikora
The
Bwiti Initiation Rite
The
author attempts to bring the reader closer to the impact which may
be made upon cultural memory and inter-generational transmission by
traditional initiation rites applying hallucinogenic substances and
mirrors. The presented analysis refers to the rites of admittance to
the secret Bwiti society among the Fang people in Gabon: myths
concerning the origin of the hallucinogen (taberbathe iboga) and its
psychopharmacological properties, as well the techniques of
employing mirrors in ritual practices.
Ewelina Pawlus,
Adjugated Elements. Earth and
Fire in the Oeuvre of Władyslaw Hasior
Author
discusses a heretofore insufficiently examined the range of Hasior's
works associated with the use of unconventional artistic substance,
such as energy, earth and fire. The example of St. Sebastian, In
Memoriam of Hostages Shot in Nowy Sqcz (Golgotha), Fiery Pieta and
Sun Chariot forms a basis for a presentation of the artist's
pioneering approach: earth in Hasior's endeavours assumed the
character of a casting mold and substance. In its structure, the
artist carved an outline of the shape of the planned sculpture,
reinforced the emergent form with iron rods, and poured cement,
another substance with earth connotations. The obtained cast
produced the effect of the "excavation-like and rough texture
of the natural foundation from which it had been extracted".
Into the indentations of the set cement mass the artist poured an
inflammable substance thanks to which, after ignition, the
sculptures attained their ultimate shape. Hasior discovered the
inspiration for the
technique of
casting cementsculptures
in the soil while visiting an abandoned cemetery in Aix-en-Provance
which contains stone, man-shaped sepulchres dating from the Roman
period. By resorting to such a drastic defiguration of the human
figure, negating the canons of the beauty of man conceived as a
perfect creature, Hasior referred to the events of the second world
war and in particular to the execution of hostages in Nowy Sącz. In
this fashion, his "land sculptures" became, in the opinion
of the author of the article, tantamount to the raw art of Dubuffet
and Wols, and especially the Hostages cycle by Fautrier (this thesis
opposes the opinions voiced by certain critics who accentuated
Hasior's precursory role in land art). The sculptures are a
three-dimensional consequence of confrontations with the structure
of the paintings by the aforementioned artists; they are also a
statement about the human condition in the face of wartime
atrocities, the voice of a generation which reached down to the
"eschatological stratum connected with existential moods
originating from the war - Tadeusz Brzozowski, Jan Lebenstein and
Tadeusz Kantor, whose artistic declarations are reflected in the
poetry of Tadeusz Różewicz, another representative of this
generation. The analysis of the symbolic of the earth and fire
elements embarks upon an attempt at interpreting the sculptures. It
must be noted that only the Sun Chariot group remains distant from
wartime events, and becomes, in the light of the suggested
interpretation, a joyful work celebrating revitalisation, fertility
and the life-giving forces of earth and fire.
Jerzy S. Wasilewski
The Travelling Ethnologist (4)
- Who Says Bonjour to Whom on Mont Blanc? An Attempted Anthropology
of Conventional Behaviour
An
attempt at an anthropological reflection on the customary greetings
exchanged by tourists hiking in the high mountains. How are we to
interpret the tradition of saying bonjour, Grüss Gott or hello, so
common along Alpine trails? Is it the symptom of an authentic
feeling of a certain community in the conditions of a perilous
wilderness, which must have been experienced by the first explorers?
Or are we dealing with some sort of a cultural compulsion of
creating if only a semblance of a perfect and friendly human
community in an ideal paradise, as in the case of national parks? Or
is this a case of hyper-civilised behaviour enforced by the
all-prevailing elegance, as in the Swiss Alps? The most magnificent
Alpine peaks become a backdrop for a new iconosphere (“shrines”
- the works of modern sacral or metaphysical art, advertisements,
omnipresent icons of consumerism, etc.), which outright endowed even
the most exquisite mountains with additional sophistication, forcing
us to retain conventional forms.
Piotr Szacki,
To Remember
The
presented text deals with "memory" and remembrance within
the formula of a museum exhibition. Originally it was intended as a
diptych, whose only realised fragment was "to have",
devoted to testimonies of possession within the collections of an
ethnographic museum. The autonomous topic of "memory"
involves the category of time, and is associated with the phenomenon
of “possession”. The meaning of commemoration may be discovered
within the interpretation of objects and beyond the sphere of the
commonplace interests of collectors. The article cites examples of
carriers of information which constitute the message of the devised
exhibition. They include photographs, especially family and of
ceremonial groups, personal belongings, likenesses described as
"portraits", inscriptions and signs displayed on everyday
objects, monuments and terminological registers. Such a survey of
material testimony reflects the intentions which brought them to
life: the construction of a myth, the creation of evidence, the
experiencing of an awareness of a "generalised" past, and
the process of rendering precise the identity of an individual by
placing it in time.
Iwona Święch
Chest
A
spotted chest in the collection of the Museum of the Region of
Kujawy and Dobrzyń - the only piece of furniture of its sort
originating from this terrain - inspired the author to
pursue new
tracks and
meanings in
an attempt
at discovering something long forgotten. The history of
objects, which demonstrates the extent to which memory is an act of
the imagination, can be enthralling.
Stephanie
West
,
Aristeas According to Herodotus
Aristeas
was an Early Greek epic poet and an extremely mysterious figure,
until recently regarded as a traveller and a "shaman". He
was the author of the lost Arimaspea, used by Herodotus in his
description of Scythia and neighbouring regions (book IV). Herodotus
also told the story about the strange circumstances of Aristeas
disappearance, his return six years later, yet another disappearance
and rematerialisation after 240 years. S. West conducted a detailed
analysis of the pertinent fragment from Herodotus, and upon its
example demonstrated his methodology, which consists of a
rationalisation and demythologisation of legends and tales. The
ensuing conclusion made it possible to suggest theses relating to
the character of Aristeas work conceived as a prototype of the
Utopian voyage genre.
Jean-Pierre Vernant,
The Mythical Aspects of Memory
This
article, already a classic, by one of the most acclaimed French
Hellenists comes from the oft reissued Mythe et Pensée chez les
Grecs.
David R. Lachterman,
Noos and Nostos : The Odyssey and Sources of Greek Philosophy
Linguistic
research has demonstrated a semantic link in archaic Greek between
the words noos (intellect) and nostos (return). The author explores
the presence of this connection in Homer's Odyssey and, at the same
time, reveals its significance for the philosophical and literary
notion of "the beginning".
Wojciech
Michera
,
Lathestai. On the Temptation of Oblivion
The
poetic word - whose persuasive impact brings to mind erotic
temptation or narcotics - buries in "oblivion" the anxiety
and anguish of painful contemporaneity: this is one of the prominent
themes of archaic and classical Greek culture. The author presented
it upon the example of the prologue to Theogony by Hesiod and
selected motifs from Homer's Odyssey , concentrating predominantly
on the complex and ambiguous relations between the categories of
"oblivion" and "memory" as well as "truth"
and "lies" in the domain of poetical praxis.
"The Reality of the Gods". A
Conversation about Pani na żurawiach (Lady of the Cranes), a Book
by Wiesław Juszczak (Warsaw)
The
discussion about the latest publication by Professor Wiesław
Juszczak, the author of numerous books and dissertations on the
history and philosophy of art, was attended by Włodzimierz Lengauer,
a Hellenist,
Henryk Paprocki
, an Orthodox theologian, Bohdan Kos, a historian of cabalistic
thought, and the anthropologists
Zbigniew Benedyktowicz
,
Wojciech Michera
and Dariusz Czaja. The speakers stressed the importance and
originality of Juszczak's book not only within the context of
Hellenistic studies but also for fundamental reflections concerning
the relations between religion, culture and art. The participants of
the discussion also indicated the fact that the author tackled a
problem basic for Greek culture as a whole, namely, the conception
of the deity and his relation towards the world. First and foremost,
they noted that the examined dissertation introduced a new paradigm
into studies dealing with Greek religion and religiosity, and that
by avoiding positivistic simplification the author transferred
deliberations on the reality of gods onto a metaphysical basis.
Polemical opinions pertained not so much to the fundamental thesis
of the book as to the possibility of a contemporary reconstruction
of the spiritual world of Greek antiquity.
"Not All Is Lost..."
Fragments of a Discussion Accompanying the Promotion of Pani na żurawiach
(Lady of the Cranes) a Book by Wiesław Juszczak in The Galery
"Bunkier Sztuki" (Krakow), 29 May 2003
The
discussion about the book by Professor Juszczak, held in Cracow,
attracted Ireneusz Kania, an outstanding essayist and translator,
Father Jan Andrzej Kłoczowski, a Catholic theologian,
Lech Trzcionkowski
, a classical philologist, Mieczysław Porębski, an historian of
art, and Cezary Wodziński, a philosopher. The speakers underlined
the unique boldness and originality of the proposed interpretation
of Greek theology. They also indicated the excellent philological
and philosophical expertise of the author, accentuating the
extensive perspective (linguistic, theological and cultural) and
creative reference to Walter Friedrich Otto's slightly forgotten
study work about Greek gods, relegated to the margin. The
participants of the discussion declared in unison that the
publication by Professor Juszczak initiates a totally novel approach
to Greek religiosity and compels the reader to revise well-enrooted
views. A reexamination of the relations between Greek theology and
the Christian world appears to be particularly intriguing.
Wiesław Juszczak, The
Myth. An Introduction
A
methodological introduction to yet another book by Wiesław
Juszczak, published in the wake of his Realność bogów (The
Reality of the Gods) which dealt with Greek antiquity. The author
proposed more precise characterisations of the definition of the
myth and mythical qualities in writings and statements by J. R. R.
Tolkien, and examined the relations between myth and such categories
as poetry, tale, legend and fable, whose meaning remains close to
the former. W. Juszczak concluded that the element most essential
from the vantage point of the language of the myth eludes our
cognitive instruments. The myth cannot be defined: "Seemingly,
we have beset only this particular thing; our snares are
insufficiently effective and our nets are not thick enough to
capture that which is most important".
Andrzej Pieńkos
"The Seat of Art" of
Johann Michael Bossard - a Total Place of Creation
Kunstaette
Bossard near Jesteburg-Lüllau is not an artist's home in the
universally accepted meaning of the term. From 1912, J. M. Bossard,
in 1907-
1944 a
professor of sculpture in Hamburg, was engaged in the realisation of
the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk in nearby Jesteburg. He erected a
house whose form, designed by him, evoked North German brick
architecture. Together with his wife, Jutta Krul, Bossard devised
the outfitting and the transformation of the house and the studio
located within. In 1926, he began erecting a Kunsttempel (temple of
art). Lüllau was a site and object of creativity; it time, it
absorbed Bossard's entire oeuvre. The artist referred to Old
Germanic sagas and myths as well as motifs from Greek and Indian
culture, contemporary theosophy and the philosophy of Nietzsche. His
residence changed into a monument of art, a painted and sculpted
treatise (or an "immense sketch", as Bossard himself
described it) about the great truths of life and death, destruction
and creation. The uneven artistic level of the entity is a feature
characteristic probably for all attempts at Gesamtkunstwerk
realisations. Not having found a suitable place in the history of
twentieth-century art, Bossard's Kunstaette still awaits a more
insightful anthropological interpretation.
An Interview Held by Katarzyna Górska
with Małgorzata Baranowska. I Went to Town
The
fundamental function of the illustrated postcard is to provide
testimony of a certain locality. My collection contains also
personal postcards made especially for me. I have a postcard by the
painter Kajetan Sosnowski and letters from Wisława Szymborska,
which are always written on postcards executed by her. Postcards,
however, achieve importance simply by the fact that they are part of
a collection. Each collector has his own perception of the world and
selects a suitable context. The existing multitude of postcards
means that, as a rule, the collectors concentrate on a given theme.
At the outset each envisages a certain ideal collection, but is
never capable of amassing it. It is simply impossible to have a
complete set of postcards, not only because there are so many of
them but due to the fact that they are a living thing which takes
place between assorted people. Similarly to a sense of humour,
postcards testify about the specificity of a certain country
although today they are becoming increasingly uniformised. The
postcard is a child of a developed industry, to a considerable
degree ousted by the cinema; today, it wages a losing battle with
the internet and the mobile phone.
Zbigniew Osiński,
Osterwa and the Reduta Theatre in Notes by Limanowski
During
the 1990s researchers gained access to numerous new material about
the Reduta Theatre, one of the most important being the heretofore
unpublished Notatniki (Notes) and other sources by Mieczysław
Limanowski, entrusted by his heiress to the Earth Museum at the
Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Notatniki are actually a
quasi-diary tale, whose characteristic features include an effort to
overcome circumstances disintegrating the author's personality and
decomposing his tattered biography. The notes are composed primarily
of texts-biographical events, composed of incidents, plots,
anecdotes, ideas, and portraits, presented in fragments, fractions
of situations and silva particles. Cited today, they could comprise
a historical example of writing focused not on "rhetorics",
"calligraphy" or polished texts, but "writing a life",
something which several decades later students of literature
described as "contemporary silva rerum". The author did
not attach prime importance to problems or eventual theoretical
order. Limanowski envisaged his memos as a rough copy and notes of a
more or less intimate character, which predominantly supplied
material for planned reminiscences, and which as an on-the-spot
record were to exercise the memory. Their existing form was not
intended for publication.
Tadeusz
Byrski described the Reduta Theatre as the "antechamber of the
theatre", writing that: "[...] I discerned in this a
confirmation that actually everything is a theatre, and that we
always should keep in mind this impaired form". Sometimes, this
"impaired form", recognised by its contemporaries as
marginal, becomes a centre and the most prominent space. This fact
is also demonstrated by Limanowski's Notatniki, and the Reduta
self-reflection contained therein, which can be noticed much more
distinctly from our perspective. An examination of the material
provides important data for reflections on the way in which, by
conducting a lively dialogue with our ancestors, we do not have to
succumb to the temptations of Zeitgeist, such as cynicism and
pragmatism, together with all of their consequences.
Krzysztof Lenartowicz,
The Architecture of Fear
Can
contemporary architecture be a medium for representing the Holocaust
? The Jewish Museum in Berlin, designed by Daniel Liebeskind, brings
the viewer closer to the perspective of a Holocaust victim. Abstract
forms: corrections of the perspective, operating with lights,
changes in the heights of interiors, deviations from the vertical
and horizontal, and altered qualities of acoustic space influence
emotions, evoke visions, and render "unspeakable absence"
tangible.
Bogusław Jędruszczak,
A Father's Memory
After
his discharge from a Soviet camp, Mieczysław Jędruszczak, a Home
Army soldier arrested by the NKVD in 1944, reconstructed and
documented wartime reality. He became renowned primarily as the
"guard of the wall" - once he realised that a fragment of
the Warsaw Ghetto wall survived in the courtyard of the house in
which he lived since 1950, he devoted part of his life to
commemorating this particular trace of the Holocaust. |
