The article considers the highly critical handling of the British brand of messianism in Graham Swift’s novel Waterland (1983) in the light of Jacques Lacan’s concept of the phallus. The issue is approached through the figure of the narrator’s half-brother, spawned to be the saviour of the world and the narrator’s attitude towards promises of a grand future, an epitome of Graham Swift’s overall distrust of totalising narratives. The desire for a complete and final explanation is shown to be as inescapable as it is impossible to fulfil.
Slavoj Žižek, PAN(DEM)IC! – COVID-19 SHAKES THE WORLD (New York and London: O/R Books) is a publicity stunt and a logistic achievement at least as much as a proper book. One must admire the speed with which it was produced and the foresight of its author, who began following the topic closely before most commentators in the West. It is all the more disappointing that the book’s central argument is not better organised and supported. This review considers both the moments of brilliance and the flaws of Slavoj Žižek’s most recent publication.
The article considers the highly critical handling of the British brand of messianism in Graham Swift’s novel Waterland (1983) in the light of Jacques Lacan’s concept of the phallus. The issue is approached through the figure of the narrator’s half-brother, spawned to be the saviour of the world and the narrator’s attitude towards promises of a grand future, an epitome of Graham Swift’s overall distrust of totalising narratives. The desire for a complete and final explanation is shown to be as inescapable as it is impossible to fulfil.
To call Laurie Anderson a multimedia artist – as she herself has done on more than one occasion – is to state something so obvious as to be nearly meaningless. Indeed, it is as redundant as to say that her work has persistently concerned the future. Offering universalizing depictions of American postmodernity through the new technologies that were the theme of many of her projects, Anderson has, nevertheless, persistently stressed her attachment to a very traditional art form, that of storytelling. Paradoxically, however, this ancient form implies an interest in the future just as intense as and perhaps in fact even more fundamental than her cutting-edge interactive installations and multimedia performances. Voicing her concern about whether there is indeed any future before humanity, Anderson presented herself in a recent interview as an artist in danger of being radically deprived of her medium, which for a storyteller is, by definition, the future. My paper is a look at the various facets of futures conceptualized by Laurie Anderson over the forty years of her artistic activity, stretching from political fear and anger, through philosophical reflection, to personal considerations of our individual temporality.
The article is an introduction to the 35th (2/2020) issue of the “World and Word” semi-annual. The authors focus on the theme of the issue, the various incarnations of the idea of messianism viewed both historically and manifested in contempo- rary literature and culture, and introduce the main theses of articles devoted to the topic in the issue.
The article is an introduction to the 35th (2/2020) issue of the “World and Word” semi-annual. The authors focus on the theme of the issue, the various incarnations of the idea of messianism viewed both historically and manifested in contemporary literature and culture, and introduce the main theses of articles devoted to the topic in the issue.
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.