politics of the twentieth century
Homeric epic
Epic means nothing more than a word about exploits (in Greek “epic” – “word”), songs that were performed by wandering singers. To the accompaniment of the lyre, they were sung or aed – the songwriter, or the rhapsodist – the performer and collector of heroic tales.
Tradition considers the creator of the ancient Greek epic of Homer, a blind stray aed, a beggar singer. Already in ancient Greece, his name was surrounded by legends. Many later considered this name to be a household name. “Homer” in one of the Greek dialects means “blind.” Many scientists, not understanding how one person could create verbally and keep in memory thousands of poems of the Iliad and Odyssey, questioned the existence of Homer himself (see Homer’s question). Continue reading
Watch books, read pictures
“The boundaries of my language represent the boundaries of my world.” This is what Wittgenstein said. And then, of course, you can not argue. Man is a creature: he likes to give names to everything. Even things that obviously do not need names. For us, a thing exists only if it has a name / title.
And most of us, if we ask what literature is, will say something like: “this is a story told through words.”
We are so used to it. So we were taught in school. Well, in general, all these old libraries, manuscripts, archives – because there are solid words, right? We grew up in an environment where text is primary. Continue reading
BORIS GROYS “POLITICS OF POETICS”
Today, the philosopher, theorist of art and curator Boris Groys is one of the most respected critics in the world art community. His recent book, The Politics of Poetics, is a collection of essays from two English-language books, Art Power and Going Public, as well as articles published in American and European journals. Some texts of the book are published in Russian for the first time. Groys is important to read to those who want to familiarize themselves with the contemporary philosophical discourse of modern art: at the same time it turns out that it is relatively easy to write about the complex. One of the main themes of the collection is the relationship of art to the art market and to the sphere of political ideologies. Continue reading
