SAMSON seminars
Nature(s) and Norms #1
Friday 21 October 2022, 16:30–18:30
In situ:
Institute of Polish Culture, room no.8
Ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, Warszawa
Online:
https://uw-edu-pl.zoom.us/j/94911375494?pwd=bXZnRnVYT29uRS9UQWFXeTFCKzVlZz09
Meeting id: 949 1137 5494
Meeting code: 883839
PRESENTATIONS:
Astrid Greve KRISTENSEN (Sorbonne University – CEFRES)
E(co)schatological Entrypoints: The Abject and the Anthropocene in Bianca Bellová’s novel Jezero [The Lake]
Matylda SZEWCZYK (IKP UW)
On Darkness and Light: Images of Nuclear Power and Reproduction
Moderator: Patrycja Pichnicka-Trivedi (IKP UW).
ABSTRACTS:
E(co)schatological Entrypoints: The Abject and the Anthropocene in Bianca Bellová’s novel Jezero [The Lake] – Astrid Greve KRISTENSEN
The 2016 Czech coming-of-age novel Jezero [The Lake] by Bianca Bellová conjoins the drying up of a life-giving lake with an obscene amount of bodily fluids bursting from its teenage protagonist. Together, this ecocritical subject combined and a rather literal interpretation of the abject, form a basis for my interpretation of this orphan narrative.
On Darkness and Light: Images of Nuclear Power and Reproduction – Matylda SZEWCZYK
The seemingly counterintuitive juxtaposition of nuclear energy images – power plants, atomic tests, nuclear apocalypses – with visions of reproduction (biological fertilization, parenthood, symbolical figures of parents and children) returns in the history of culture with puzzling frequency. It brings along the questions about the social attitude towards technology, science and the fundamental “facts of life” and has already been a subject of academic discussions, from the feminist analysis of Evelyn Fox Keller to historical reconstructions of Spencer R. Weart. The contemporary and historical functioning of these motives in visual culture will create the background for my presentation, concentrating on the images of nuclear apocalypse and parenthood/reproduction in the novels Sakhalin Island by Eduard Verkin (2018) and Brightness by Maja Wolny (2019).
About SAMSON seminars:
The project “Nature(s) and Norms” implemented in cooperation between the Institute of Polish Culture and the UMR 8224 EUR’ORBEM, in partnership with the French Centre for Research in Social Sciences in Prague is embeded into the Research Program SAMSON (Sciences, Arts, Medicine and Social Norms). It intends to conduct a series of seminars and workshops, the guiding principle of which is to analyse the process of formation of social norms. The aim is to examine the normative order of modernity, the representations and concepts of which will be explored at the intersection of art, literature, social and natural sciences, and medical discourse. The focus is on Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia and its normative processes in a period of intensive modernisation. The studied period is a crucial one for the development of European modernity, from the second half of the 18th century to the second half of the 20th century.