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non-places |visual culture |overexposure |online identities |loneliness |Alt [C]Lit poetry

Streszczenie

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which loneliness has become the epitome of contemporary human condition for the Millennial generation, together with its impact on the psychological and emotional side of human expression and the urban landscape, as expressed through art and the virtual. Modern megacities are shaping and configuring what we nowadays understand as art. In the case of Alt [C]Lit poets, whether it is New York City or Los Angeles, the US urban landscape has a great influence on how these young authors have configured their poetic production: their experiences and referents belong to these cities. In this paper, I would like to discuss how spaces, especially urban spaces, have generated physical isolation and have transitioned into a mental landscape, to which the virtual contributes to increase anxious alienation that manifests itself through the body and the configuration of human subjectivities. Therefore, I will analyze hypermodern identity/ies that result from the urban landscape of megalopolises, the manner in which the virtual has generated online communities and has contributed to (hyper)sexualization, and the way in which Zafra’s concept of netianas can be applied in order to analyze the paradoxical position of loneliness and early-adulthood through the Alt [C]Lit poetry and other related-literary and visual production.

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discrimination |contemporary American fiction |September 11 |American society

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The aim of the article is to discuss the representation of discrimination and polarization of the American society after the events of 9/11 in Laila Halaby’s novel Once in a Promised Land (2007). The novel presents the point of view of “the Other” and focuses on the analysis of the antagonistic processes in the American society and their outcomes in the lives of ordinary citizens, accused of being “the Other.” The article examines the deterioration of beliefs and values and the “death” of the American Dream. Based on the fundamental theory of Trauma Studies, the article discusses the issues of personal and collective trauma and their representation in Laila Halaby’s novel. Collective traumas may unify or polarize the society–both aspects have had negative outcomes in the USA. Increased patriotism and solidarity were particularly prominent during the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and resulted in the discrimination and polarization of the society, the anger being directed at Muslim communities. The first days of the aftermath marked the start of antagonism on different levels: despite being US citizens, representatives of the Muslim communities experienced harsh reactions in their neighborhoods, jobs, social spheres, etc. For many of those “on the other side” these processes meant the end of their normal lives and dreams. The article examines both the informational and empathic approach used by the author of the novel to disclose irreparable processes that may happen in any society.

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nuclear fiction |nuclear narrative |terrorist narrative |nuclear terrorism |nuclear awareness |James Reich |Bombshell

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This paper studies the phenomenon of fictionalizing terrorism as a literary response to the violence paradigm within nuclear narrative from the perspective of nuclear awareness formation as a critical thinking product about the nuclear energy related issues within the Nuclear Anthropocene. Focusing on James Reich’s Bombshell (2013), the paper goes beyond literary critical analysis of exploring the ways of fictionalizing the sociopolitical and psychic motives and ideas behind an act of terrorism. The paper highlights the factual component of the literary figurations of terrorism and terrorist activities in nuclear fiction, which is regarded here not only as a factor of weakening the apocalyptic rhetoric of nuclear narrative by transforming its “fabulously textual” nature, but mainly as a trigger of shaping public awareness and knowledge management on nuclear history and nuclear industry with a view to considering the possible patters of nuclear terrorism within the contemporary nuclear agenda.

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climate change |climate fiction |risk society |the culture of fear

Streszczenie

An example of near-future climate fiction, Nathaniel Rich’s 2013 novel Odds Against Tomorrow envisions a catastrophic, global warming-related flooding of the New York City area. Despite the novel’s (post)apocalyptic focus, a large part of it can be in fact perceived as preapocalyptic, inasmuch as it explores people’s traumatic responses to potential future disasters, even before they actually happen. The aim of the article is to analyze the novel’s depiction of the culture of fear, which has permeated the modern society as a consequence of it becoming what Ulrich Beck famously termed a “risk society.” In a risk society, human industrial and technological activity produces a series of hazards, including global risks such as anthropogenic climate change. In the novel, Rich shows how financial capitalism commodifies these risks by capitalizing on people’s fears and their need for some degree of risk management. Finally, the paper looks at the text as a cli-fi novel and thus as a literary response to the pretrauma caused by environmental risks.

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Capitalism |Riley |hybrids |becoming-animal

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The aim of the article is to dissect the phenomenon of capitalist labor in the US as depicted in Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You (2018). The primary focus of the article is the film’s rendering of the creation of horse humans which the article reads as a metaphor for class relations in the modern society. First, the article analyzes the film’s plot in the context of the cultural assumptions and beliefs connected with the figure of the horse. Next, it draws on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “becoming-animal” in order to unveil the revolutionary potential possibly latent in hybridization. Finally, after commenting on the ways in which capitalism weaponizes technological development, the article inscribes the notion of hybridization into the nature-culture dichotomy.

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TV series |African-American women |Shonda Rhimes |black feminism |intersectionality |Racism

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Drawing from intersectionality theories and black feminist critiques of white, masculinist, and racist discourses still prevailing in the American popular culture of the twenty-first century, this article looks critically at contemporary images of African-American women in the selected television series. For at least four decades critics of American popular culture have been pointing to, on the one hand, the dominant stereotypes of African-American women (the so-called controlling images, to use the expression coined by Patricia Hill Collins) resulting from slavery, racial segregation, white racism and sexism as well as, on the other hand, to significant marginalization or invisibility of black women in mainstream film and television productions. In this context, the article analyzes two contemporary television shows casting African-American women as leading characters (e.g., Scandal, 2012-2018 and How To Get Away With Murder, 2014-2020) to see whether these narratives are novel in portraying black women’s experiences or, rather, they inscribe themselves in the assimilationist and post-racial ways of representation.

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Native Son |Black urbanity |Chicago |The Hate U Give |Widows |racial violence

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In this article we look at three recent films–Native Son (2019, dir. Rashid Johnson, based on Richard Wright’s 1940 novel), Widows (2018, dir. Steve McQueen, based on a 1983 TV series), and The Hate U Give (2018, dir. George Tillman Jr., based on a book by Angie Thomas)–by Black directors that showcase the interactions between Blacks and whites in an American urban milieu. We argue that the setting of two of these films–Native Son and Widows–in Chicago, with The Hate U Give being set in a fictional urban setting bearing a strong resemblance to the Windy City, serves to articulate the continuing racial divisions of American cities in the twenty-first century. The three films show that the fossilization of the divide between Black and white districts inevitably leads to outbreaks of racial violence.

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violence |Hotline: Miami |consumption |procedural rhetoric |game narration

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The article explores the challenges to (media) consumerism posed in the indie action game Hotline: Miami (Dennaton Games, 2012). Hotline deconstructs not only indulgence associated with violent gaming but also its main nostalgic interest–the cultural era of the 1980s–through a ludification of excess. I will aim to demonstrate this through an analysis of the game’s “procedural rhetoric” (Bogost) and narrative structure. Overwhelming the player’s senses with intense audiovisuals, and explicitly confronting her motivations for participating in extreme violence, the game balances the game experience between a trance-like state of indulgent overexposure and metaleptic commentary. The sensory overload is also sharply contrasted with the level of precision necessary to complete the levels, bending the adrenaline-pumping core of the gameplay towards mechanics more common in stealth-based games. The system of in-game rewards and the overall narrative structure further complicate the purposefulness of player acts, questioning the teleology of gore in gaming and subverting the conventional notion of video game violence as entertainment. As I will argue, the metaludic commentary destabilizes the game through irony, relativizing the player’s commitment to it. In so doing, it makes Hotline: Miami a prime example of “dissonant development” (Dyer-Witheford and De Peuter), a game that manages to both sweep the market and challenge its basic premises as an entertainment medium.