Papers in Arts and Humanities

Beyond the Grey Zone: The Production of Space in Eastern European Neo-Avantgarde

Mădălina Brașoveanu — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The spatial metaphor that dominates the historical overviews dedicated to neo-avantgarde art of Eastern Europe from the last decades of state socialism is the “grey zone”—a metaphor deeply rooted in the dichotomies of Cold War discourses, which understood the “socialist space” as being roughly split between an “official” and an “unofficial”/underground/hidden space of dissent. However, the grey zone metaphor fails to account for the diverse, complex, and nuanced ways in which unconventional art practices from the region engaged with a wide range of spaces, from the institutional (and official) ones to spaces of everyday life, delocalized spaces of a likeminded artistic community, and to the space of the image understood outside of the confined territory of traditional practices. By engaging a theoretical perspective drawn from the so-called “spatial turn” in the post-colonial discourse, I will try to argue that the “species of spaces” (Kemp-Welch) defining the neo-avantgarde art practices in the region were not conquering but were producing cultural and socially relevant spaces while blurring/widening the conventional boundaries of art’s territory, and that this complexity cannot be understood by relying on the binary terminology of the geopolitical discourses of the Cold War.

Broken Spaces and Walled Off Realities

Zoltán Veres — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This paper proposes a closer view into how space is structured with one single purpose: to exercise power, both in physical and structural, or rather physical–structural form, bending and twisting human behavior around it. Separation walls embody frustration that stems from unresolved traumas of the past that perpetuate the impotence to solve or re-solve these traumas. Individuals living in the shadows of such walls have incorporated the pain of these traumas into their identities, a pain that leads to an external expression of the incorporation that is then directed towards the wall changing its purpose, turning it into a canvas of creative capitulation in front of the power represented by it. The artifacts that start populating and decorating such walls function as a form of aesthetic domestication, shifting impotence into potency, offering a new semiotic field for the definition of the term “aesthetic resistance.” The objects discussed in this paper include the Berlin Wall and the Israeli–Palestinian separation wall (as seen from Netiv HaAsara and Bethlehem). Walls are not specifically defined in this text. They can be metaphorical, and conventional (without material representation), they can be represented by differences that separate people, institutions, and political structures from each other. This text has not been written with the desire to offer a thorough academic introduction into “teichopolitics” (the politics of walls); instead, it provides a phenomenological “description” of a sort of different experiences regarding various ways of seeing, feeling, and understanding walls.

Interior Space Design for Psychotherapy Sessions

Irina-Ana Drobot — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the elements that can bring a state of well-being to the client in the setting of psychotherapy sessions. Every element has its own effect on the client; according to Davies (2018), for example, windows that allow the passage of sunlight could bring about a state of calm and relaxation; plants, as they are a part of nature, can also contribute to mental well-being; the way therapist and client sit is also meant to improve their relationship, and establish it on equal and friendly terms; colors should also be chosen to suggest a soothing atmosphere, and, to this purpose, greens and blues are recommended. Psychological and cultural perceptions of the psychotherapy space design will be considered, together with the recommendations of psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud. By examining past and present trends and recommendations, we could draw general conclusions about the psychotherapeutic relationship and the way it can be facilitated by space design.

Historic(al) New York as Fictional Object

Alexandru Oravițan — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This paper aims to investigate the portrayal of New York City in prominent American literary works, ranging from Washington Irving’s (1809) A History of New York to contemporary post-9/11 novels through an analysis of how evolving depictions of the city have been transformed into potent and revealing fictional objects that enrich the literary works into which they have been integrated. By employing the classification of fictional objects into native, immigrant, and surrogate set forth by Terrence Parsons (1980) in his landmark work Nonexistent Objects, this applied study on New York posits that, within the larger literary framework of the novels under discussion, cities construed as fictional objects manage to stimulate an active reading of the text and prompt diverse interpretations of their broader cultural significance. Essentially, this paper illustrates how the historical identity of New York City has been continually reimagined in American literature and how these imaginative representations continue to influence our contemporary popular perception of the city.

The Elasticity of Space in Karen Tei Yamashita’s "Tropic of Orange"

Milos Blahut — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Karen Tei Yamashita’s novel Tropic of Orange is a study of space shaped by history, urbanism, globalisation, and ecology. Yamashita explores the social injustice, urban, and environmental changes happening in postmodern and futuristic Los Angeles through seven characters and their respective storylines, narrated by various narrators with different styles. Most characters experience spatial and temporal distortions in their everyday lives, allowing them to try to understand the events unfolding around them. Yamashita depicts space as an organic, changeable, and elastic unity. I argue that by viewing space more holistically, Yamashita offers solutions to some of the overarching problems California has been facing for a long time, namely racism, displacement, class differences, transformation of urban space, violence, and the threat of ecological catastrophe. The convergence of space and time in the narrative, mixed with magic realist tropes, enables Yamashita to interrogate and critique the contemporary socio-economic conditions of the Latin American community in Los Angeles.

Silent Sites of Memory in Paule Marshall’s "The Chosen Place, The Timeless People"

Florentina Rosca — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

As the title of the book suggests, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People (1969) is place-focused; it is indeed a narrative of place and its people. The main fictional setting is a fictive Caribbean island, which acts as an essential locale in the protagonists’ act of (re)memory and (com)memoration. An emotionally charged place, this apparently insignificant island acquires a majestic stature in the book; it is space and place, home and exile, paradise and purgatory, past and present, remembrance and forgetfulness. This paper focuses on specific sites which are emblematic of the island community, given the complex role they play in the restoration of memory and identity. Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire will be used here with an understanding that, in a Caribbean setting, places record the monumentality of loss caused by colonialism and its aftermath. The cane field and Sugar’s bar are places where the past lives, bearing constant proof of terrifying colonial abuse. Other locales, however, mainly dwellings and gardens, will be identified and examined as a solution to the protagonists’ exile. The paper aims to demonstrate that all these locales are the essence of the island or, to paraphrase Derek Walcott, they are the genuine fresco, map-less, history-less yet quintessential for the ‘persistence of memory.’

Moving Homes, Moving Histories: Displacement and Refuge in Remi Weekes' "His House"

Priyanjana Das — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Abstract The past few decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in the mass movements of people across borders owing to political turmoil(s) and uprising(s). Such displacements, especially towards continents like Europe and North America, have given rise to narrative and cultural productions introducing a crucial intersection of existing socio-cultural and historical debates around the larger rubric of refugee community and culture. One such instance of South Sudan, experiencing a recent civil unrest and administrative change, leading to forced migration, has been explored through the visual and visceral cinematic experience encapsulated by Remi Weekes’ independent Netflix film ‘His House.’ The film tells an evocatively poignant story of two Sudanese refugees, seeking home and refuge, who are given asylum in Britain under various oppressive conditions. The film is, quite literally, perched on the binaries of culture, tradition and memory that go on to become the foundation of certain necessarily imaginative ideas of home and livelihood the couple builds across borders, away from their homeland. My paper would discuss the desire for ‘home’ in an asylum seekers’ life highlighting journeys and (re)production of narratives as an essential part of their trans-cultural lives. My arguments attempt to discuss the re-construction of (cross)cultural topologies and reconfiguration of space/borders. Finally, my research seeks to incorporate larger debates on myth and memory-making by negotiating space and imagination within the corporeal reality of ‘home.’

Book Review. "Art in Urban Space: Reflections on City Culture in Europe and North-America," edited by Tamás Juhász

Krisztina Kitti Tóth — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Book Review. Elizabeth Strout's "Lucy by the Sea"

Anca Peiu — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0200