Stefan Themerson’s Opera (St. Francis & The Wolf of Gubbio or Brother Francis’ Lamb Chops)

The paper focuses on the experimental work of Stefan Themerson (St. Francis and The Wolf of Gubbio or Brother Francis’ Lamb Chops, an Opera in 2 Acts, text and music by Stefan Themerson, drawings by Franciszka Themerson, De Harmonie – Gaberbocchus Press, Amsterdam–London 1972) and the question of intermediality in general. An interpretation of the ‘semantic opera’ (written in 1954–1960, as a continuation of Semantic Divertissements [1962] and factor T [1956]), places Themerson’s idea in the context of the aesthetics of intermediality. The author signals a terminological confusion connected with the understanding of St. Francis and The Wolf of Gubbio (semantic opera; hybrid work; intermedial work, etc.) and argues that the aesthetics of intermediality appear to be an important and inspiring context for the interpretation of Themerson’s text and life. In this case, considerations on the subject of textuality show, on the one hand, different relations between literature, painting, music and theatre (artistic intermediality), and, on the other, the phenomenon of intermediality as the aesthetics of existence

Literary Acoustics

Bringing together sound studies and intermediality theory, this essay revisits the notion of ‘literary acoustics’ to inquire into the usefulness of intermediality studies for analyzing the relations between literature and sound. The second part of the essay is dedicated to an illustrative analysis of Ben Marcus’s highly experimental, noisy book The Age of Wire and String

Приглашение к танцу: интермедиальные аллюзии в ранней поэзии Т. С. Элиота

В статье рассматриваются связи между танцем, изобразительным искусством и модернистской поэзией, послужившие основой поэтического эксперимен­та

Media do not exist : performativity and mediating conjunctures

Collection : Theory on demand ; 31Media Do Not Exist: Performativity and Mediating Conjunctures by Jean-Marc Larrue and Marcello Vitali-Rosati offers a radically new approach to the phenomenon of mediation, proposing a new understanding that challenges the very notion of medium. It begins with a historical overview of recent developments in Western thought on mediation, especially since the mid 80s and the emergence of the disciplines of media archaeology and intermediality. While these developments are inseparable from the advent of digital technology, they have a long history. The authors trace the roots of this thought back to the dawn of philosophy. Humans interact with their environment – which includes other humans – not through media, but rather through a series of continually evolving mediations, which Larrue and Vitali-Rosati call ‘mediating conjunctures’. This observation leads them to the paradoxical argument that ‘media do not exist’. Existing theories of mediation processes remain largely influenced by a traditional understanding of media as relatively stable entities. Media Do Not Exist demonstrates the limits of this conception. The dynamics relating to mediation are the product not of a single medium, but rather of a series of mediating conjunctures. They are created by ceaselessly shifting events and interactions, blending the human and the non-human, energy, and matter

The Installation of Prince Mangkubumi Performing Javanese History

Representation of Javanese history in performance plays an important role in the self-characterization of the Special Region of Yogyakarta. It legitimizes the power of the rulers and strengthens the identity of the city and its inhabitants. The audiences know the stories and this is part of the fun. In the study of oral traditions it is essential to take these performances into account. In the stories featuring famous political figures from the history of Mataram and Yogyakarta, there is an intricate relationship between the written and the spoken word: all are based on both oral and written traditions and are performed ‘orally\u27. Prince Mangkubumi, who was to become the first sultan of Yogyakarta in 1755, is one of the historical personages who are protagonists in various performance genres. Focusing on the tale of Prince Mangkubumi\u27s accession to the throne, I shall reflect on how the televised kethoprak version combines a (written) text with a mediated (aural/visual) performance to present the story