6533b837fe1ef96bd12a34f8

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Na stykach iskrzy: literackie konteksty rocka

subject

description

David Bowie and dystopian literature; Nick Cave and the four phases of experiencing trauma; Lou Reed and the politics of sexual transgression (inspired by Frank Wedekind’s plays); P.J. Harvey’s socio-political, photographic poetry; Maciej Maleńczuk and his reinterpretations of Emily Dickinson’s poetry; Swans and the quest for metaphysics in the spirit of William Blake’s thought; Prince and Jehovah’s Witnesses’ utopian projections; Queen and the fine arts of Richard Dadd and Grandville; The Beatles and Charles Manson’s insane pseudo-philosophy (as well as their impact in Nine Inch Nails); Nina Simone and the policy of racial and gender equality; Peaches and her hypersexy subversion of the culture of male sexism. These are the topics undertaken by the book entitled Sparking Points: Literary Contexts of Rock Music. The topics directly refer to rock music but are approached from the literature-specialist’s angle that is open for a broader, cultural context in which both music and literature function. Indeed, the book situates itself on the sparking points. Firstly, these points are connected to the book’s thematic, i.e., the relations between rock music and literature (as well as culture). Secondly, the contexts explored in the book cover such points of reference as identity, spirituality, or sexuality. Finally, the sparking points describe the author’s approach to the analysed questions, which is not only academically cold, but also emotionally personal. Thus, they can be placed somewhere between the openness to the external context – informed by Edward W. Said’s category of “worldliness” – and passion. It is so, because Sparking Points: Literary Contexts of Rock Music is not only a fruit of the responsibility towards readers. The book is also characterised by emotional engagement which is displayed in the author’s attitude. After all, for many people, music – and literature, and culture – never exists outside of reality, both universal and personal. On the contrary, it constitutes this reality in which one functions.