Full issue of ER(R)GO No. 37 (2/2018) - mask/pseudonym/avatar

Title page and letter of contents of the issue.

Er(r)go…,

the time of masks we conceal up our sleeves. No, it is rather they who conceal us up their sleeves. And behind them loiter and hide identities: national identity, leprous identity, true identity, madmen’s identity, heroic nationalist-romantic identity, Jewish identity, web identity, multiplied identity, European identity, nomadic identity, own identity, identity from transitory stages, multiple identity, posthumanist identity, player’s identity, probabilistic identity as a result of biomedicalization, doors opening and closing between selves. Inner and outer self. What of death? Death is only a door, too.

Fortunately, there is also the body and common dress-ups—what to cover, what to conceal? The naked body cannot be easily tamed, as it is innately half-closed, capricious and irrational. The military arrives to assist us—perfectly synchronized corporals, experts in vodka, copulation and sudden death. Oh, the fragility of naked, ephemeral military bodies, those military buttocks; yet they are only living archives of learned gestures. Biopolitics and biopower: a private body turns into a public one, and in spite of this, five Cezarys wearing sport clothing face the commission in pursuit of the unreachable A category. All of this is between theater, ballet and military range.

In the meantime, an ongoing debate between the Id and the Superego, the reality ferments to become panmasquarade, and pan-irony emanates from monistic substance, the depth covers the surface, secular humanism scrutinizes and questions itself, making the effort at a non-binary being “in-between,” Tłuja masturbates on the rubbish dump, Pan defecates in the wild garden, and a mentally handicapped peripatetic philosopher wanders among the Drohobian youth, a priest does not believe in his religion and steals his lover’s money to buy vodka, outstanding artists offer empty shells, Schulz as a fluid authorial substance stands against a (broken) mirror, then he writes and covers, here and there rove pathetic carriers of barrel organs, antecedents have their “consequences which crowd thickly, step on one another’s toes, with no space and no gap,” patient no. 23 quietly spins his yarn, then screams something to the scoundrels, fluid substances laugh at the mask, Thoreau plays house, endowment fund of the spirit brings no interest, aesthetic values become polarized, postsecular confessions of faith remain uncertain, scarred and ambiguous, the play of inner beauty and external ugliness continues. And the limits of humanity keep on extending.

Various characters wander among these tales: masked avengers, bats and spiders, constructions of vapours and rags, Thoreau’s avatar, liminal heroes, a circulatory semiotic system, the boundlessness of potential semiosis, cancerous growths of chaotic potentiality and the dark, life-giving womb, Schulz-hereticrat, proud fryers of Jews, Henri Michaux as fuel for argument (ugh!), clones, avatars, self-aware artificial intelligence, genetically modified mutants, a face devoid of gender, individuals separated from their time-space continuum, pointillist mosaic, an insubordinate child of modernism-fascinated Taishō era, a dwarf as a beautiful and fascinating monstrosity, a dwarf within us, Japanese vodyanoys: kappas and uberkappas, a nameless nebula, an avatar of nothing which carries within a promise of everything, a nagging absence of studies on a dwarf (so nagging, indeed!), hybrid psyche, probabilistic subjectivity, souls like clouds, semi-anthropoid creatures, divine pulsations of influx and ebb, a performative mask, the humps of exile, a negative of the righteous man, religious fundamentalism and secular mind, the blackmail of the Enlightenment, a Jew dressed up as a Jew, calumnies, an aged back of a Jewish child, a neurasthenic back crowned with a hump, multimedia diet, downwards and upwards conflation, medicalization of childhood, mixed aphasia as a loss of a mask, a vulpine physiognomy of the father, fanatically dialectical thinking, voluntary eugenics, oppressiveness of history and progress, the archetypal meaning of a basement and uberpuppet.

Such times! Mechanistic time, linear time, human time, physics’ time, evolutionary time, digital time, compressed time, cybertime, the web’s time, digitime, now-time, empty time, messianic time, the mythical time of the Great Return—the return of difference and contingency, and finally, the eternal present. Meanwhile, the subject is naked.

Somebody shouts: “Without a costume I am nothing!” What about us?

Wojciech Kalaga

Alicja Muller
Faculty of Polish 
Jagiellonian University
Poland

(Un)spectacular Bodies (Do Not) Go to War
Uniforms and Discipline

Abstract: The aim of this article is to present uniforms (or costumes) as masks used by the disciplinary authority to control and change bodies. By the word “costume” I understand both the material object and a repertoire of abstract rules according to which bodies are formed and trained. Defined in this way, the mask is a medium which, on the one hand, covers the individual characteristics of whoever wears it, and, on the other, somehow directs his or hers actions. To describe this mechanism, I choose two seemingly different spaces: classic ballet and the military. I show that in both disciplinary power operates on similar – perhaps even identical – principles. In the first part of the article, I develop the concept of mask-costume, focusing on its theatrical character. In the second part, I study two texts of culture: Cezary Tomaszewski’s play Cezary goes to war (2017) and Artur Żmijewski’s short film KRWP (2000). They provide excellent material to exemplify my initial diagnoses.

Keywords: mask, body, power, ballet

Tomasz Żaglewski
Department of Culture Studies
Adam Mickiewicz Unversity in Poznań
Poland

Masks of Batman. The Costume as an Element of Superhero Narratives in Comics

The main goal of the article is to present the theme of mask and costume in the superhero comic’s narratives as a key element not only for visual aspects of superheroes but also theirs psychological background.  Using an example of Darwyn Cooke’s “Batman: Ego” comic book, the author presents  a mask and  a costume as “subjectified” creations in Cooke’s work.  They become a starting points for a comic book’s stories which concentrate on the multilayered dependence between the mask-ed and un-mask-ed personality of a hero.

Keywords: theory of comics, history of comics, text analysis

Paweł Tomczok
Institute of Polish Literature
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland

Panmasquerade. Masks and Masking in Bruno Schulz’s Fiction

Abstract: The author of this article analyses different meanings of mask in Bruno Schulz’s fiction and non-fiction. In his critical statements Schulz contrasts mask with substance, the latter capable of assuming various masks. Taking into account the context of Cinnamon Shops, this can be read as a commentary on Schulz’s writing practice and as a strategy thus to mask his own biography. Another theme discussed in this article is that of the relation between mask and face in Schulz’s short stories. This discussion focuses on the social context of the different representations of the face and on the elimination of dialogues from the narratives: the narrator treats the characters’ facial features as source of knowledge about the world, rather than conversations with them.

Keywords: Bruno Schulz, mask, autobiography

Izabela Tomczak and Paweł Stachura
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Poland

Shaping the Avatar Identity in Computer Games A Study in Game Adaptations of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden

Abstract: The article discusses possibilities of character building in computer games, which for many gamers is a way of expressing and modifying their own identity. Games differ in the degree of freedom given to a gamer in shaping the identity of the in-game character, or avatar, and in many games avatar-formation is an important part of game structure, providing a lot of game satisfaction, and requiring as much time and involvement as the game-play itself. The games under discussion are adaptations of H.D. Thoreau’s Walden. The choice of games stems from the observation that identity, freedom, and limitation are important themes of Thoreau’s work, which is reflected in the games under discussion. The three games discussed in the article are, thus, treated as modernist and postmodernist readings of a literary text, giving the reader/gamer more or less limited possibilities of shaping the character/avatar.

Keywords: cultural theory, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, videogames

Sonia Front
Institute of English Cultures and Literatures
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland

“Souls Cross Ages Like Clouds Cross Skies”
Network Identity in Cloud Atlas

Abstract: In 21st-century science fiction narratives, the figure of the cyborg has been replaced by a new group of liminal characters: avatars, clones, sentient AI, genetically modified humans and time- -displaced individuals. Through these characters, the narratives explore philosophical questions about the unity of personal identity. One of the films that investigate this question is Tom Tykwer’s and Lilly and Lana Wachowski’s film Cloud Atlas (2012), as it proposes the notion of network identity, divorced from time. Network identity – in the form of transmigration of souls – is enacted in the film by the concept of eternal recurrence which is the film’s overriding framework. This identity is what connects the six juggled stories, spanning through various historical eras from the nineteenth century to the distant future. The paper analyses the film’s concept of twenty-first century subjectivity, singular and manifold, separated and connected simultaneously, and how it taps into the theme of global interconnectedness and co-temporality brought about by the media and globalization.

Keywords: film, network identity, Cloud Atlas

Tomasz Burzyński
Institute of English Cultures and Literatures
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland

Masks Off. Reflections on Subjectivity from the Perspective of the (Bio)medicalization Processes

Abstract: The paper deploys conceptualizations and theories typical of cultural studies in order to discuss mechanisms orchestrating the formation of human subjectivity from a perspective of (bio)medicalization processes (Peter Conrad, Adele E. Clarke); that is, modernization tendencies aiming to subordinate social practices to medical jurisdiction. In this methodological context, the article is also an interdisciplinary research project which gestures towards a conceptualization of human subjectivity in which considerations referring to the dichotomy 169 of agency and structure (Anthony Giddens, Piotr Sztompka) are supplemented by the factor of human corporality. The opportunity to subsume biological and biomedical issues within cultural studies without the risk of biological reductionism is the result of providing a theory of subjectivity that involves its probabilistic character. The notion of probabilistic subjectivity is a theoretical construct whose significance for cultural theories springs from the development of genetics and molecular biology and their contribution to processes of biomedicalization.

Keywords: medicalization, biomedicalization, subjectivity 

Marcin Michał Hanuszkiewicz
Institute of English Cultures and Literatures
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland

A Mask or an Incarnation? On the Ontic Dynamics of the Fictional Universe in the Works and Theories of Bruno Schulz

Abstract: The essay is an attempt to look at the literature of Bruno Schulz as an entity profoundly connected with his worldview and engaged in a complex interaction with reality. Determining the nature of this interaction constitutes another facet of this essay’s aim. Two interpretations of this twofold influence are considered – one sees it as an operation of masking, while the other perceives it as an act of manifestation or incarnation. The contemplation of the subject matter takes the form of a discussion with Schulz’s literary and theoretical texts, and is supported by analyses performed by schulzologists and by elements from semiotic and mythological theories. With the help of these tools, an interplay of the categories of “mask” and “incarnation” is defined as permeating Schulz’s works. It is only at the level of his understanding of mythology that the category of incarnation triumphs.

Keywords: mask, Bruno Schulz

Anna Maria Bielak
Faculty of Neophilology
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
WSD
Poland

A Beautiful Dwarf and a Jewish Paper Nose

Abstract: The purpose of the following article is to deconstruct multiple meanings of the presence of a jew female dwarf in Albert Cohen's Belledu Seigneur novel. The key moment of the narrative, where the female dwarf appears, does not allow us to ignore this character. Her presence is enigmatic enough, and the scene oneiric itself, to force us to find the intertextual connections, seeking a wider historical and literary context of the figure.

Keywords: Albert Cohen, Belledu Seigneur, dwarf, femininity

Alina Mitek-Dziemba
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland

Postsecularism as a Way of Reanimating Postcolonial Reading Practices. On the Limits and Paradoxes of Secular Criticism

Abstract: Even though it is difficult to imagine a phenomenon more closely intertwined with the processes of colonization and decolonization than secularism, there are scant references to it in the postcolonial writing and accompanying critical theory. The critics’ reticence seems hardly justifiable considering the fact that secularization processes have been in the centre of the hottest political and ideological debate for more than a decade now, while their critical 170 examination and evaluation appears inevitable due to the ongoing process of undermining the historical view of the religious vs secular divide by alternative ways of ordering the public space in non-Western societies, especially as the latter have also become, on the immigrants’ arrival and vocal presence, a powerful factor in the political game played out within Western countries. As the violent course of events after 9/11 has prompted most of the postcolonial critics to perceive Western democracy and secularism in the black-and-white mode by inscribing it in the Eurocentric and colonial framework, the secular-religious opposition has become one of the postcolonial studies’ fundamental dichotomies that it seeks to transgress and overcome, even though the attempt may well be in vain. Consequently, the term “postsecular,” despite all the subtlety with which it was introduced into the fields of philosophy, theology, sociology and literature, has come to indicate a posture of critical aversion to the secularist order as quintessential for the Western modernity and Enlightenment project and opting for the radical division between the public reason and the need for faith. The aim of the article is thus to examine the meanings ascribed to the terms such as “postsecularism” and “postsecular spirituality” in postcolonial theory, as well as to evaluate the attempts at their application to the field of literary studies.

Keywords: postcolonialism, postsecularism

For an abstract in English, scroll down

Przemysław Górecki
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Poland

An Aesthetic Reflection on Kappa by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Abstract: The article is an attempt of reading the modernistic short story of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, a Japanese “father of short story”, in terms of aesthetics. The subject of this analysis is the Polish translation of the work Kappa, also known in Poland under the title In the land of Aquarius, made by Mikołaj Melanowicz. The story shows a phantasmagoric visit to the strange country (peopled by anthropomorphic creatures) and some sober observations of this disturbingly atypical land made by the main character. Due to the multitude of culturally recognizable themes referring to the history of Gulliver, the work bears remarkable signs of anti-utopia. My analysis takes on the themes of the story that are important from the point of view of this branch of philosophy and on its symbolic dimension with its immersion in the tradition of Japanese aesthetics. Basing my interpretation on the critical revision of the basic assumptions of the Japanese aesthetics school and on the close reading of the two surfaces of the work (literal and symbolic), I consider how the text functions in a philosophical way. The article focuses both on the literally aesthetic level of expression (descriptions of the presented world) as well as on the aesthetics of narration and the way of constructing the text.

Keywords: literary studies, comparative studies, Japan, modernism, aesthetics, anti-utopia

For an abstract in English, scroll down

Sylwia Papier
Department of Anthropology of Literature
and Cultural Studies
Faculty of Polish
Jagiellonian University
Poland

Game in History by Paweł Jarodzki. An Analysis of Kompletna historia wszechświata ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Polski in the Context of the “Visual Narrative” about Poland 

Abstract: The article discusses chosen themes in Paweł Jarodzki’s comic book Kompletna historia wszechświata ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Polski [A Complete History of the World, with Special Attention Paid to Poland]. Of special concern is the context of contemporary visual narrative. 171 This goal is to define Jarodzki’s book as a representative of hybrid genre and to discuss his strategies of representing history. 

Keywords: Paweł Jarodzki, artbook, history, narratology

Michał Kisiel
Institute of English Cultures and Literatures
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland

A Critical Note on Ontopower: War, Powers and the State of Perception by Brian Massumi

Abstract: The note is dedicated to Brian Massumi's book Ontopower: War, Powers and the State of Perception. Massumi, representing the new-materialist trend in contemporary theory, attempts an analysis of the eponymous ontopower: a paradoxical order, which strives to predate the existence of the object of its own actions. Ontopower thus reveals itself as a figure of becoming, its own cause and the means of its own propulsion. According to Massumi, a typical example of a phenomenon shaping the model of the ontopower as he describes is George W. Bush's declaration of war on terrorism.

Keywords: Onto-epistemology, war on terrorism, Gilles Deleuze, precedence

Anna Kisiel
Institute of English Cultures and Literatures
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland

A Critical Note on Vulnerability in Resistance by Judith Butler, Zeynep Gambetti and Leticia Sabsay (eds.)

Abstract: The present note is dedicated to the book Vulnerability in Resistance edited by Judith Butler, Zeynep Gambetti, and Leticia Sabsay. The volume consists of 13 chapters, of which each tells an altogether different story, yet what connects all of them are the ever-returning keywords: resistance and vulnerability. In the English language, the latter term covers a broader gamut of meanings than its Polish equivalent (bezbronność), comprising in itself such concepts as helplessness, exposure, proneness to harm, but also fragility. The editors of the volume and the authors of the contributions alike attempt to revisit the relation between these two central terms.

Keywords: resistance, vulnerability, femininity, protest, Turkey

English-language abstracts of the feature texts of the present issue.

Information for prospective contributors to Er(r)go and stylesheet.

The colophon of the present issue.