The Post-Marked World: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century

187 Pages·2013·1.235 MB·English

by  Krystyna Kujawińska-Courtney, Izabella Penier

The Post-Marked World

The Post-Marked World:
Theory and Practice in the 21st Century

Edited by

Krystyna Kujawi(cid:276)ska Courtney, Izabella Penier
and Sumit Chakrabarti
The Post-Marked World: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century,

Edited by Krystyna Kujawi(cid:276)ska Courtney, Izabella Penier and Sumit Chakrabarti

This book first published 2013

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2013 by Krystyna Kujawi(cid:276)ska Courtney, Izabella Penier,

Sumit Chakrabarti and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-4940-5, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4940-1
The editors of this volume are grateful to Amcor Rentsch Polska
for their help and support in the publication of this volume

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................................ ix
The Post-Marked World: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century
Krystyna Kujawi(cid:276)ska Courtney, Izabella Penier, Sumit Chakrabarti

Part I: “Post” and Theoretical and Political Implications

Negotiating with the Post-world: Gains, Losses, Prospects......................... 3
Marta Wiszniowska-Majchrzyk

Late Postmodernism: Are We In a New Era of Postmodernism? .............. 19
Metin Colak

Silvio Berlusconi and the Second Italian Republic: A Model Post-
Democracy? ............................................................................................... 35
Piotr Podemski

Part II: Literature and Performance: Post-interfaces and Dialogues

The Pre- and Post-Holocaust Reading of The Tempest by Leon Schiller,
or the Polish-Jewish Relations ................................................................... 53
Agata D(cid:261)browska

Postmodern Fireworks or Postcolonial Vengeance: The Strange Case
of Salmar R. ............................................................................................... 69
Joanna Dy(cid:225)a-Urba(cid:276)ska

Has Postmodernism Really Reached the National? Appropriation
and Interpretation in Sita Sings the Blues ................................................. 83
Justyna Fruzi(cid:276)ska
viii Table of Contents

Part III: Feminisms and the “Post”: Problems of Representation

Irigaray’s Critique of the Ocularcentric Paradigm: A Postmodern
Feminist Perspective .................................................................................. 95
Monika Sosnowska

Art and Feminism from a Poststructuralist Perspective ........................... 109
Márcia Olivera

Part IV: Ethnic and National Ruptures: The “Post” across Cultures

Towards the Post-ethnic American Studies? Postcolonial Interventions
in the US Black and Minority Studies ..................................................... 123
Izabella Penier

Post-Indian Warriors of Simulation: Sherman Alexie’s Flight
as a “Story of Survivance” ....................................................................... 139
Monika Kocot

Postcolonialism and the Polish Colonial Dream ...................................... 153
Maria (cid:224)ukowska and Justyna St(cid:266)pie(cid:276)
INTRODUCTION
THE POST-MARKED WORLD:
THEORY AND PRACTICE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
KRYSTYNA KUJAWI(cid:275)SKA COURTNEY
UNIVERSITY OF LODZ
IZABELLA PENIER
UNIVERSITY OF LODZ
SUMIT CHAKRABARTI
UNIVERSITY OF BURDWAN

It is a cliché now to claim that we live in a “post”-marked world, and
indeed the “post-isms” are some of the most used, and abused expressions
in the language. In a general sense, the various kinds of “post-isms” are
regarded as a rejection of a prevailing number of cultural certainties on
which our life in the so-called Western world has been structured since the
eighteenth century. Postmodernism and its derivatives—poststructuralism,
postcolonialism, post-communism, post-feminism, to name a few—have
challenged our belief in “cultural” progress. In other words, the “post-
isms,” which are anti-authoritarian in their outlook, teach us to be
invariably critical of universalizing theories, and embrace scepticism about
what our cultures stand for. Engaging with the “post-isms” can be
regarded as both a philosophical and political endeavour, which
demonstrates, among other things, the instability of language, meaning,
narrativity and generally any formal systems. In a continual search for
paradoxes, instabilities, and the unknown, the “post-isms” are more
concerned with the destabilizing existing theories and their pretensions to
truth rather than with the positive construction of other grand narratives
that could be applied over an entire scientific community.
In our publication the prefix “post” is used in two senses: temporal—as
in the coming after, and ideological—as in replacing or superseding. Both
of these senses seem to suggest different things to different critics. For