Page 45 - Potocco, Marcello, ed. 2018. Literatura v preseku družbe, družba v preseku literature. The Crossroads of Literature and Social Praxis. Zbornik povzetkov. Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem
P. 45
až Toporišič the crossroads of literature and social praxis, ljubljana, 2018 43
University of Ljubljana
Can Art Negotiate the Discursive Circulation
of (Mis)information in the Face of Global Insecurities?
We are living in the decade of intense uncertainty surrounding the
means, ends and limits of the “glocal” societies dealing with issues
of humanitarian catastrophes, terrorism and post-colonialism. For
purposes of our examination of how literature and art take part in
the circulation of significations and representations in the construc
tion of social reality we will use two examples. The first one are the
novels by Winfred Georg Sebald, his wanderings between ‘signs’,
punctuated by black and white photographs, which Nicholas Bourr
iaud defines as emblematic of a mutation in our perception of space
and time, in which history and geography operate a cross-fertiliza
tion, tracing out paths and weaving networks. Our second exam
ple is Oliver Frljić, Bosnian-Croatian theatre director, with his dis
turbing, shocking performances in which he uses his own personal,
wartime and political traumas to ask universal questions about the
boundaries of artistic and social freedom, individual and collective
responsibility, tolerance and stereotypes. We will try to chart the
terrain of contemporary subjectivities both ‘at home’ and ‘on the
front line’. Beyond examining the contestation of subject positions
in domestic and (sub)urban settings we will follow border-cross
ing figures to the shifting battlefields of today’s Europe and beyond.
We will try to grasp not a dichotomy but a dialectics of ‘art’ and
‘society’, where fluid, uncontainable subjects are constantly push
ing the contours. Revising the critical consensus that contemporary
art primarily engages with the real, we will try to describe how to
day’s theatre and fiction navigate the complexities of the discourse
as well as social realities of neo-liberalism in the age of terrorism. In
what way does art negotiate, inflect, and participate in the discur
sive circulation of stories, idioms, controversies, testimonies, and
pieces of (mis)information in the face of global insecurities.
University of Ljubljana
Can Art Negotiate the Discursive Circulation
of (Mis)information in the Face of Global Insecurities?
We are living in the decade of intense uncertainty surrounding the
means, ends and limits of the “glocal” societies dealing with issues
of humanitarian catastrophes, terrorism and post-colonialism. For
purposes of our examination of how literature and art take part in
the circulation of significations and representations in the construc
tion of social reality we will use two examples. The first one are the
novels by Winfred Georg Sebald, his wanderings between ‘signs’,
punctuated by black and white photographs, which Nicholas Bourr
iaud defines as emblematic of a mutation in our perception of space
and time, in which history and geography operate a cross-fertiliza
tion, tracing out paths and weaving networks. Our second exam
ple is Oliver Frljić, Bosnian-Croatian theatre director, with his dis
turbing, shocking performances in which he uses his own personal,
wartime and political traumas to ask universal questions about the
boundaries of artistic and social freedom, individual and collective
responsibility, tolerance and stereotypes. We will try to chart the
terrain of contemporary subjectivities both ‘at home’ and ‘on the
front line’. Beyond examining the contestation of subject positions
in domestic and (sub)urban settings we will follow border-cross
ing figures to the shifting battlefields of today’s Europe and beyond.
We will try to grasp not a dichotomy but a dialectics of ‘art’ and
‘society’, where fluid, uncontainable subjects are constantly push
ing the contours. Revising the critical consensus that contemporary
art primarily engages with the real, we will try to describe how to
day’s theatre and fiction navigate the complexities of the discourse
as well as social realities of neo-liberalism in the age of terrorism. In
what way does art negotiate, inflect, and participate in the discur
sive circulation of stories, idioms, controversies, testimonies, and
pieces of (mis)information in the face of global insecurities.
