Events, News and Announcements

Propozycje modułów tematycznych dla obecnego II roku (studiów I stopnia) specjalności kmt i kaoj planowanych w przyszłym roku akademickim (2018/19)
Moduły do wyboru 2018/2019

Studia stacjonarne I stopnia

PROSZĘ WYBRAĆ 1 MODUL Z OBSZARU LITERATURA/KULTURA ORAZ 1 MODUŁ Z OBSZARU MEDIA

1.) 3 rok specjalność kultura-media-translacja: „LITERATURA/KULTURA” 15 godzin wykłady, 30 godzin ćwiczenia

dr Marcin Mazurek
Utopia i dystopia w literaturze, filmie i teorii
Utopia and Dystopia in Literature, Film and Theory
The module’s purpose is to analyse selected examples of both literary and cinematic utopias and dystopias in view of their conceptual assumptions and – in case of utopias – their failures resulting in blurring the boundary between utopian ideals and dystopian, or anti-utopian outcomes. The texts and films under scrutiny include both classic literary representations and contemporary visions, which are all located within relevant theoretical contexts, including dystopian undertones in particular theoretical approaches.

dr hab.Eugenia Sojka
(DE)CONSTRUCTING CANADIANNESS. REVISITING MYTHOLOGIES OF CANADA
(DE)KONSTRUOWANIE KANADYJSKOŚCI. PONOWNE ODCZYTANIE MITOLOGII KANADY
This interdisciplinary course is designed to explore literary and cultural texts ( including film and visual arts) of several minority groups in Canada with reference to changing mythologies of Canadianness. It focuses on dominant Canadian narratives of nationhood and their distinctiveness within the North American model.
dr hab. Eugenia Sojka
CANADIAN INTERCULTURAL DRAMA, THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE
The course is designed to acquaint students with Canadian diasporic and Indigenous intercultural drama, theatre and performance and provide critical tools for the analysis of various types of interculturality. Texts selected for discussion will be grouped into the following categories: re-appropriation of canonical works, celebration of transculturality, dialogue of aesthetic traditions and performing intercultural memory.

2.) 3 rok specjalność kultura-media-translacja: „ MEDIA” 15 godzin wykłady, 30 godzin ćwiczenia
dr Karolina Lebek
THE REVIVAL OF THE WEIRD IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
The course is devoted to the exploration of the phenomenon of the aesthetic form of the weird in contemporary literature, film, and TV of the fantastic and speculative inclination. Defined by the presence of things strange, unknown, disturbing and suggestive of monstrosity, the weird is a flexible and liquid form, accommodating instances of cosmic horror, the supernatural, the grotesque and the absurd. Therefore, the course maps the weird in the context of such genres and modes as horror, fantasy, the gothic and science fiction, tracing its roots to the late 19th century/ early 20th century in the short stories of such writers as Algernon Blackwood, M.P. Shiel, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Chambers, Arthur Machen, William Hope Hodgeson and, most significantly, H.P. Lovecraft. Moving on to contemporary culture, the course discusses selected weird works and theories of the weird offered by, among others, Thomas Ligotti, Jeff VanderMeer, China Mieville Michael Cisco, Kathe Koja, Caitlin Kiernan, Kelly Link as well as films, art and TV series inspired by their work. The assigned texts for the course will consist mostly of short stories and visual materials.

dr hab. Eugenia Sojka
DECOLONIZING NORTH AMERICAN FILMMAKING: INDIGENOUS CINEMATIC SELF-REPRESENTATION IN CANADA
The course is devoted to the postcolonial / decolonial analysis of cinematic discourses by selected Canadian filmmakers of Indigenous background. The first part of the course focuses on the examination of various types of colonial mis/representation of Aboriginal people in the mainstream American photography and film, and then it proceeds to the exploration of self-representation by Indigenous artists in films which aim at decolonizing the traditional ethnographic, Hollywood and other problematic representations of American Aboriginal people.

mgr Ewa Wylężek
Course Title: THEORY OF GAMES, PLAY, AND CARNIVAL/ Teoria gier, zabawy i karnawału
Class Description: The module introduces the fundamental concepts of game and play theory as well as an examination of the concept of carnival and the relations between them. Students will learn about the differences and similarities between the phenomena as well as study the characteristics and tools games, play, and carnival include and use. The course will consider the social and cultural significance of ludicity and the emergence of homo ludens. Philosophical theories of play and games should be examined with special attention drawn to aspects such as, fate/chance, power, identity, carnivalesque, magic circle, alea, agon, mimicry, vertigo.

The seminar portion of this course will build upon the ideas explored in lecture, albeit with an eye towards case studies inspired by computer games and other texts of culture. The written assignment will have as its aim an analysis of a chosen cultural phenomenon.

mgr Ewa Wylężek
Course Title: A Survey of North American Cinema / Kino Pólnocnoamerykańskie
Class Description: This two-part course will address the development of North American cinema, specifically by positioning it as a unique site of expression, debate, inclusion/exclusion, consensus, and, of course, cultural negotiation.

The lecture portion of this course will investigate North America’s cinematic history, specifically by relating it to notions of power, technology, identity, and nationhood. We will subsequently ponder how one hundred and twenty years of North American cinema, in the sense of production, transmission, and consumption, has played a unique role in the continuous formation, reception, and negotiation of those notions. Specific cinematic examples that we will contextually investigate include The Kid, The Phantom of the Opera, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Double Indemnity, On The Waterfront, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Graduate, Jaws, Back to the Future, Boyz n the Hood, American Beauty, and WALL-E. By the conclusion of this course students ought to be able to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of North American culture via the lens of cinema. Students should equally be able to identify and expound upon the social movements, technological developments, governmental influence, and capitalist motivations that have played a role in establishing this cinematic history.

The seminar portion of this course will build upon the ideas explored in lecture, albeit with an eye towards cinematic adaptions of classic North American novels and plays. Our seminar time will be dedicated to theories of adaptation, the major differences between cinema and literary texts, strategies for altering literary texts for the cinematic medium, factors that influence the adaptation process, and why specific texts have been optioned for cinematic development.

dr hab. Leszek Drong
Irish Film and Literature (20th century)
This course offering interweaves films and readings in order to vary the range of cutural texts concerned with Irish history and social issues which have informed and inspired Irish artists. The key theme to be explored throughout the course is that of representation and art's capacity to convey a truth about our experience of reality.

WATCHING LIST:
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), dir. Ken Loach
Brooklyn (2015), dir. John Crowley
Breakfast on Pluto (2005), dir. Neil Jordan
Some Mother's Son (1996), dir. Terry George
'71 (2014), dir. Yann Demange
Five Minutes of Heaven (2009), dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel
Philomena (2013), dir. Stephen Frears

dr Tomasz Gnat
- Module title: Cyberculture – social, cultural and economic context of the Internet.
  Nazwa modułu: Cyberkultura – społeczny, kulturowy i ekonomiczny kontekst Internetu.
  The purpose of the module is to outline and investigate the fundamental change in the way we conceptualize and experience our world, the change directly related to the emergence of global communication networks. The basic premise of this module is that the global spread of information and communication technology (ICT), is both a sign of the postmodern era and the premiss for that era of intensive worldwide interactions of people and exchanges of goods, services, information, and capital. As such, the following topics will be covered during the module: crisis of the old, emergence of the new media, economy and business ethics of new media, the cultural effects of new media, transparency, privacy and information gathering in the context of new media, Fair Use, regulation of new media and the effects of social media.

IECL Conferences

Emotions: The Engines of History

The Institute of English Cultures and Literatures and H/Story Research Circle invite all to participate in the international conference

EMOTIONS: THE ENGINES OF HISTORY

https://enginesofhistory.wordpress.com

Sosnowiec, Poland, Nov. 23^rd-24^th 2018

Please note that the deadline for submissions has been extended to June 15.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The etymology of the word “emotion,” whose first use dates back to the sixteenth century, betrays the multiplicity of its meanings. Derived from the Middle French emouvoir (to stir up), it traces its origins back to the Latin emovēre (to remove or displace), which in turn comes from the Latin movēre (to move). The notion of movement, then, or a change of state, has always accompanied the way people conceptualise emotions. History is, similarly, a record of movement, fluidity, and volatility, and this approach is increasingly being extended to the study of humanity’s past, with emotion studies bringing increased sensitivity to historical, literary and cultural enquiries. Approaching emotions as “engines,” that is catalysts of past events and processes is, however, fraught with challenges. It is largely due to the fact that the roles of irrationality and emotionality as motivating elements in history and its narratives are not easy to determine and often elude scientific study due to their intimate and highly personal nature. Likewise the very thought that historical decisions affecting the lives of many might have been made under the capricious influence of somebody else’s emotional state fills us with dread. And yet, we suspect or perhaps even know that many events of both distant and not so distant past have been dictated by emotional disposition and moods of those who made them. If fear, hatred, desire, disgust, pity, envy, love and shame affect our individual choices, they might as well influence the decisions whose consequences go beyond one’s singular or communal experience. From the Ides of March, through the separation of the Church of England from Rome, to the role of the social media in the most recent presidential elections in the USA, emotions have shaped and influenced historic events giving rise to groundbreaking social and political changes.
Captive Minds: Norms, Normativities and the Forms of Tragic Protest in Literature and Cultural Practice

23rd International Conference of the Institute of English Cultures and Literatures, University of Silesia in Katowice

Captive Minds: Norms, Normativities and the Forms of Tragic Protest in Literature and Cultural Practice
Hotel Meta Resort Vine Spa, Szczyrk, Poland
September 20, 2018 – September 23, 2018
www.captiveminds.pl

Although generally resented and deemed unfavourable for individuals, societies and nations, Murti-Bing was a Mongolian philosopher who had succeeded in producing an organic means of transporting a “philosophy of life.” This Murti-Bing “philosophy of life,” which constituted the strength of the Sino-Mongolian army, was contained in pills in an extremely condensed form. A man who used these pills changed completely. He became serene and happy. The problems he had struggled with until then suddenly appeared to be superficial and unimportant. He smiled indulgently at those who continued to worry about them. Most affected were all questions pertaining to unsolvable ontological difficulties. A man who swallowed Murti-Bing pills became impervious to any metaphysical concerns. […] More and more people took the Murti-Bing cure, and their resultant calm contrasted sharply with the nervousness of their environment. […] [O]nce tormented by philosophical “insatiety,” now entered the service of the new society. Instead of writing the dissonant music of former days, they composed marches and odes. Instead of painting abstractions as before, they turned out socially useful pictures. But since they could not rid themselves completely of their former personalities, they became schizophrenics.(Czesław Miłosz, The Captive Mind)

In a world transforming faster than ever before, a Murti-Bing pill would do wonders to those who painfully discover that their heretofore professed philosophy of life has unexpectedly become a burden: an obstacle standing in the way to “serenity and happiness.” In fact, the miraculous power of the pill is simple: whatever norms gain on momentum at a given moment of time, they immediately become one’s own. With serenity and happiness at stake, the choice not to take the pill is a choice between one’s own “insatiable,” unique self and one’s peace of mind, the tranquility of life and liberty not to judge success in life by the gauge of satisfaction. In a world transforming faster than ever, in which the Murti-Bing pills are available without prescription and advertised in all official media, the refusal to blend into the woodwork for the sake of the comfort of being “impervious to any metaphysical concerns” is nothing short of a tragic choice. Therefore, the 2018 edition of the International Conference of the Institute of English Cultures and Literatures of the University of Silesia in Katowice aims at addressing one of the most elusive, albeit simultaneously most tangible aspects of our experience of being in the world. As a foundation and a product of grand narratives, norms apply to any and every aspect of individual, communal and social life. They regulate our behaviors, determine directions in the evolution of arts and philosophical ideas, condition intra- and cross-cultural understanding, organize hierarchies. Yet – when transformed into laws – norms become appropriated by dominant discourses becoming “truths.” Those in control of language always construe them as “universal” and, as such, “transparent”. Those once tormented by philosophical “insatiety,” sharply aware of this, face a choice: a pill-induced schizophrenia which must eventually come, or even more catastrophic consequences of the tragic protest, which are most likely to ensue. Oppressive normativity and protest have always gone hand in hand. The 2018 International Conference of the Institute of English Cultures and Literatures, in a sense, is a product of the refusal to take the Murti-Bing pill.

DETAILED CALL FOR PAPERS: http://www.ocs.us.edu.pl/index.php/captiveminds/captiveminds/schedConf/cfp

APPLICATION DEADLINE: April 10.

CONFERENCE FEE: The conference fee amounts to 600 PLN (Polish Zloty), which is ca. 160 EURO,

CONFERENCE WEBSITE: http://www.ocs.us.edu.pl/index.php/captiveminds/captiveminds