Studia Humanistyczne AGH
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ISSN 2084-3364
e-ISSN: 2300-7109
Issue Date
2016
Volume
T. 15
Number
Nr 2
Description
Journal Volume
Studia Humanistyczne AGH
T. 15 (2016)
Projects
Pages
Articles
Utopia, dystopia and the »heretic streak«: the Orwellian aesthetic in Ray Davies’ song writing and other creative projects
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2016) Curyłło-Klag, Izabela
The article explores the influence of Orwell’s fiction on the creative output of Ray Davies, one of Britain’s finest songwriters and the erstwhile frontman of The Kinks, a »British Invasion« group. The Davies oeuvre can be placed alongside Orwell’s work due to its entertainment value, sharpness of observation and complex, conflicted socio-political sympathies. By balancing utopian visions with dystopian premonitions and by offering regular critiques of the culture they hold dear, Orwell and Davies represent the same tradition of cautious patriotism. They also share a similar aesthetic, communicating their insights through humour, self-mockery and acerbic wit.
4’ 33’’: John Cage’s utopia of music
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2016) Palmowski, Michał
The present article examines the connection between Cage’s politics and aesthetics, demonstrating how his formal experiments are informed by his political and social views. In <i>4’33’’</i>, which is probably the best illustration of Cage’s radical aesthetics, Cage wanted his listeners to appreciate the beauty of accidental noises, which, as he claims elsewhere, »had been discriminated against« (Cage 1961d: 109). His egalitarian stance is also reflected in his views on the function of the listener. He wants to empower his listeners, thus blurring the distinction between the performer and the audience. In <i>4’33’’</i> the composer forbidding the performer to impose any sounds on the audience gives the audience the freedom to rediscover the natural music of the world. I am arguing that in his experiments Cage was motivated not by the desire for formal novelty but by the utopian desire to make the world a better place to live. He described his music as »an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord« (Cage 1961b: 12).;John Cage
Black money as the matter of neo-liberal utopia – reading »[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control«
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2016) Kłosiński, Michał
The paper: <i>Black money as the matter of neo-liberal utopia, reading [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control</i> is dedicated to the problem of the neoliberal utopia of debt. The author analyses the anime series directed by Kenji Nakamura for motifs and representations linked with economics: black money, debt, the Midas bank. The article focuses on analysis and interpretation of the relation between black money and production of utopian hyperreality and on the problem of debt, competition and corruption of the general equivalent as the main pillars of both a presentation and critique of the neoliberal utopia. In his interpretation the author relates to classical researchers of utopia (Fredric Jameson, Lyman Tower Sargen, Geoffrey Hodgson) and to the contemporary critics of neoliberalism (Franco »Bifo« Berardi, Maurizzio Lazzarato, Pierre Bourdieu, and Slavoy Žižek).;czarny pieniądz.
George A. Romero’s dystopias: the representation of dystopia in the universe of his zombie trilogy
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2016) Zgorzałek, Michał
The present paper discusses dystopia in the genre of horror on the basis of George A. Romero’s zombie films. Dystopia seems to be inextricably linked with the vision of the world in which the very structure of the society has been destroyed along with moral codes and the only remaining thing is the will to survive. In the <i>Living Dead Trilogy</i> Romero skilfully used the zombie apocalypse motif to portray both vices as virtues characteristic to American way of life. Moreover, in his motion pictures, he envisages what may be the implications of possible dystopias arising from the ashes of destroyed human civilisation and, thus, gives the audiences, and the critics, an incredible resource for interpretation and further analysis. The methodology involves the paradigmatic analysis of the plots in order to show how the motif of zombie apocalypse is used to explore the notion of dystopia. Moreover, the mentioned analysis will also cover explicit, implicit and symptomatic meaning created by the analyzed films.
Between the waste land and no place: Christopher Nolan’s futuristic dystopia »Interstellar« (2014)
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2016) Podgajna, Patrycja Magdalena
Since the 1990s the number of dystopian films projecting apocalyptic visions of global catastrophe and dramatizing an ecological agenda has radically increased. Much of this trend is inspired by anxieties about the future repercussions of today’s actions and the collective responsibility for the future of our planet. One film that aptly represents this category is Christopher Nolan’s futuristic dystopia <i>Interstellar</i> (2014). Blending generic conventions of space-travel, science-fiction and moral fable, the film, with its bleak vision of ecological disaster, social unrest, and economic decline, clearly evokes the dystopian paradigm in which the projected reality is perceived as significantly worse than the here and now (<i>sensu</i> Sargent 1994:5). However, contrary to many dystopias offering nihilistic or anti-utopian denouements, Christopher Nolan’s apocalyptic vision clearly posits a progressive and definite possibility of utopian impulse, which is encapsulated by the final resolution of the global catastrophe. The core of the argument is that the neutralization of the dystopian impulse and the resulting projection of the utopian vision are facilitated by the imposition of an interstitial space constructed in the vein of postmodern poetics: an ambiguous fifth dimensional library, in which books perform a two-fold function. While intratextually, they serve as a catalyst between the tangibly dystopian present and the possibly utopian future, extratextually, they function as a universal mode of communication transcending the constraints of time and space.