Search

Search Results

• Between Cyborg and Larva: A Vicious Circle That Human Beings Experience in the Post-humanist Era

  8 p.

  Andrey Chukurov

  Views:

  213

  The article reveals the reasons for and specific features of the transition to the posthumanist
  era. The author of the study reviews the criticism of classical humanism and analyzes
  the relationship between the concepts of "trans-humanism" and "post-humanism." In a
  situation in which a permanent identity is impossible and people move to a “current” “unstable”
  identity, the Imaginary becomes the main guideline for the self-identification process.
  Human beings are unable to cope with the challenges of our time and are aware of their own
  inferiority. That is why they are trying to improve themselves through the available body
  modifications. However, this process gives them a new panic attack over the potential loss
  of control over the body. Analyzing these processes, the author turns to the most controversial
  and specific phenomenon of popular culture – "body horror". This genre reveals the deep
  layers of consciousness, fears and insecurity of human beings in the post-humanist era.

• The Function of the „Author’s Mask” in “The Soul of a Patriot or Various Epistles to Ferfichkin” by Yevgeni Popov

  Annamária Vass

  Views:

  151

  Playing with the author’s figure is not a new device in Postmodernism. One may refer to “Either/Or” by Søren Kierkegaard or “The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” by Alexander Pushkin, or “The Fiery Angel” by Valery Bryusov. At the same time the foreword of “The soul of a patriot or Various epistles to Ferfichkin” proves that in Postmodernism this game is taken to the next level. The author who abandoned their fictional space and renounced theirauthorial role during Modernism returns and re-takes their formal place. However, he does not do it seriously but hiding behind the mask of the author – says Malmgren, introducing the term of the author’s maskinto literary discourse. In this analysis I state that Popov, using the author’s mask, turns the traditional interpretationof the author’s role inside out.  I conclude that, on the one hand, the author’s mask ridicules the concept by which the author’s biography is the key to his work. On the other hand, it makes fun of Vinogradov’s view, according to which there is always an abstract author hiding in the text who carries its real meaning. I come to the conclusion, that Popov uses this narrative technique to emphasise that it is impossible to look at a literary work as an arsenal of ultimate truths and statements.