Dis-obedience to the father Bracha L. Ettinger's theory and installation confronted with Freud and Lacan

The aim of this article is to study the underpinnings of the matrixial theory introduced by Bracha L. Ettinger, and her installation in the Freud Museum – to be more precise, Freud’s study room – so as to examine their paradoxical status in Freudian‑Lacanian space(s). As I attempt to show, both parts of Ettinger’s activity are not against the Law of the Father, but rather they constantly dis‑obey his rules; Ettinger tirelessly endeavours to include the Mother alongside the paternal order. We thus observe not so much the rejection of Freud’s and Lacan’s paradigms as the movement on their boundaries and their subsequent transgression – and this may be seen as the greatest promise Ettinger provides us with

Spectral-fragile-(un)homely: The haunting presence of Francesca woodman in the House and Space2 series

In the House and Space2 photographic series, Francesca Woodman captures the environments that may be considered disruptive; still, it is a female model—in her inconstant poses, always partially blurred or hidden—that holds the viewer’s attention. The pictures therefore evoke a twofold sense of obscurity, since their unfriendly interiors are occupied by the uncanny, semi-absent yet ceaselessly present, dis-appearing woman, who turns out to be Woodman herself. Woodman’s spectral presence and the unhomely locations she haunts—being simultaneously the photographer and the object of her photographs—are examined in this article by means of Bracha L. Ettinger’s matrixial theory. Ettingerian psychoanalysis, juxtaposed with Roland Barthes, Sigmund Freud, and Jacques Lacan, provides the tools to challenge the dominant non-affirmative understanding of Woodman’s self-portraits as works of disappearing and failing subjectivity: an understanding whose obvious point of support is found in the artist’s biography. Instead, Ettinger’s system makes it possible to look at this oeuvre through the prisms of fragility, homeliness, and the potential emergence of blurry, ghostly subjectivity. Moreover, the article examines the ways in which Woodman resists the divisions imposed on her and the medium she uses (such as the Barthesian triad of Operator, Spectator, and Spectrum, and the dichotomies of me / the Other and subject / object)

Gazing at Eurydice: Authorship and Otherness in Bracha L. Ettinger

A historical photograph of women and children from the Mizocz ghetto taken in 1942 just before their execution constitutes one of the most recurring motifs in Bracha L. Ettinger’s visual art. By means of her artworks, Ettinger endeavours to retrieve these women’s dignity and work through their traumas at a point when they are unable to do it themselves. Yet, one cannot ignore a number of questions that arise in the context of this kind of aesthetic practice; after all, Ettinger uses an archival photograph, taken by an anonymous photographer, and her acts of altering and decontextualising this “ready-made” material are aimed at producing a certain artistic effect. The objective of this article is to reflect on the issue of authorship in Bracha L. Ettinger’s theory and art. Having introduced two Eurydicial artworks, I proceed to unravel the status of a matrixial artist-author. In order to do so, I analyse such notions as ready-made art, matrixial Otherness, trauma of the World, gaze, and appropriation

Catherine de Zegher, Griselda Pollock, red., “Art as Compassion: Bracha L. Ettinger”, Brussels: ASA Publishers, 2012, 320 s.

Recenzja książki : Catherine de Zegher, Griselda Pollock, red., “Art as Compassion: Bracha L. Ettinger”, Brussels: ASA Publishers, 2012, 320 s

Partykuły spajające jako podklasa jednostek metatekstowych

In this paper, the author tries to collect and comment on the statements that have been made in Polish linguistics on conjuncting particles. Among three main features of conjuncting particles that are discussed are: their adsentential nature, contextual dependency,and positional mobility. Conjuncting particles prefer placement near (before, after, and even within) a thematic part, are often accompanied by prosodic stress on a thematic expression, and prefer longer, sentential contexts. This paper proposes their interpretation as adthematic operators that link what is being said about a new topic to what has been said before on another topic. Because topic linking is more challenging for a conversational partner than conjucting rhemes (where a supreme theme ensures a bond between them), conjuncting particles require the relevant preceding context to be adjacent to the theme-rheme structure introduced by them.Autorka komentuje istniejące w polskim językoznawstwie opisy klasy partykuł spajających. Za podstawowe trzy kryteria wyróżniania tej klasy uznaje ich dozdaniowość, zależność od przedtekstu oraz zmienność pozycyjną. Zauważa, że partykuły spajające preferują pozycję w pobliżu (przed, po, a nawet wewnątrz) części tematycznej i często towarzyszy im silny przycisk prozodyczny na wyrażeniu tematycznym. Preferują one również dłuższe, zdaniowe konteksty. Zaproponowana w tym tekście interpretacja partykuł spajających sprowadza się do uznania ich za komentarze dotematyczne, wiążące to, co jest mówione o nowym obiekcie z tym, co zostało wcześniej powiedziane o czymś innym. Ponieważ tego typu wiązanie tematyczne jest interpretacyjnie bardziej wymagające niż wiązanie rematyczne (odbywające się wszak w ramach jednego nadrzędnego tematu), partykuły spajające wymagają, aby odpowiedni przedtekst był bezpośrednio przylegający do struktury T-R, którą one komentują

Jeffrey Weeks, What is Sexual History?, Cambridge, Malden: Polity Press, 2016 [recenzja]

Recenzja książki Jeffrey Weeks, What is Sexual History?, Cambridge, Malden: Polity Press, 2016, 187 s. Oprawa miękka, publikacja anglojęzyczna

Uraz - bliskość - nie pamięć : psychoanalityczny dyskurs traumy od Freuda do Ettinger

Trauma is a notion whose perception in the psychoanalytic discourse has undergone dynamic changes, starting from the transfer of this concept to the psychic ground, through the conceptualisation of its impossibility of being shared, ending with Bracha L. Ettinger’s intervention. The aim of this paper is twofold: to track these changes and to (re)define the potential of the trauma discourse(s). After the analysis of main assumptions concerning the psychic wound in the thought of the fathers of psychoanalysis, the author proceeds to the branch of trauma studies influenced by the Holocaust, so as to finally introduce Bracha L. Ettinger – a clinical psychoanalyst, theoretician, artist, feminist and member of the Second Generation after the Holocaust – and her matrixial theory. As the author endeavours to demonstrate, this thought provides us with the tools to rethink the shape and possibilities of the trauma discourse