Search results for "Culture theory"

From the prehistoric to the posthuman selfie

2019

Abstract LeRoy McDermott’s hypothesis proposes a perceptual interpretation of the Venus statues from to the Upper Paleolithic period these being in fact the first examples of human self-representations. The arguments he brings are of an artistic nature par excellence and they refer to the visual distortions arising from the subject’s point of view. The fantasy of being admired by others through the means of the nude selfie has generated a whole trend in today’s pop culture and Kim Kardashian is a prime example in this sense. The “shareware body” has gone through an entire history of significance, from Albrecht Dürer’s mystical meaning of the body, to Érika Ordosgoitti’s activist take on the…

The formal method in Germany and Russia : the beginnings of European psycholinguistics

2018

Abstract German–Austrian psychology is a direct source of the European formalism movement both in the German context (Germany, Austria) as well as in Russia. This interest of the formalists in the corporeal component of linguistic and literary production has resulted in a particular research stream, which could be defined as a ‘linguo-somatic orientation’. In particular, this is the case of Alois Riegl’s [1] perceptive ‘tactile–optical’ method; Adolf von Hildebrand’s [2] architectonic conception; Konrad Fiedler’s [3] ‘sensorial aesthetics’; W. Wölfflin’s [4] ‘basic concepts’ of the art history, W. Worringer’s [5] psychological arts typology as well as Oskar Walzel’s sound-corporeal poetics …

Kulturen des Reparierens

2018

Reparieren und Instandhalten sind ökonomisch wie kulturell zentrale Praktiken im »Leben« technischer Dinge und Infrastrukturen. Der Band rückt diese bislang wenig untersuchten Tätigkeiten in den Vordergrund und fragt nach den Wissensformen der unterschiedlichen Kulturen des Reparierens. Die Expertisen und politischen Ambitionen menschlicher Akteure finden dabei ebenso Berücksichtigung wie die Eigendynamik der Dinge. Die Beiträge untersuchen Praktiken wie die Uhr- oder Computerreparatur sowie Räume wie die Wohnung und das Krankenhaus, das Repair Café und die Stadt des Globalen Südens. Nicht zuletzt geht es um die Frage, inwiefern Reparieren und reparaturfreundliches Design zu mehr Nachhaltig…

Viable Systems Approach and Consumer Culture Theory: A Conceptual Framework

2013

The aim of this study is to depict the relational dynamics between the firm/ brand and the individual/consumer or communities of consumers. To this aim we propose a conceptual framework, integrating the viable systems approach (VSA) with consumer culture theory (CCT), which considers the individual as an active co-maker of the product/brand (‘prosumer’). The VSA view of the firm overcomes the limitations of CCT research, which is mainly focused on the individual, giving little consideration to the other actors in the context. Among the different approaches under the umbrella of viable systems we chose the VSA because of its emphasis on the analysis of the systemic external relations with th…

Amorality, Immorality and Individualism in Hanif Kureishi’s Intimacy

2019

Abstract Hanif Kureishi, an acclaimed contemporary British writer of Pakistani origin, is known to the Romanian reading public primarily through the translations (under the aegis of the Humanitas publishing house) of his novels Intimacy, The Buddha of Suburbia, The Nothing, Gabriel’s Gift and Something to Tell You. One of the foremost representatives of British postcolonial literature, Kureishi masterfully, and at times shockingly, explores the postmodern urban world of human desolation, loneliness and alienation, with the surgical precision and mercilessness of a “terrorist”, as he himself describes the writer and his artistic mission in an interview. Intimacy, in a classic Proustian or Jo…

Book review: Philip Smith and Alexander Riley, Cultural Theory (2nd edn). Oxford: Blackwell, 2009. viii + 307 pp. ISBN 978 1 405 16907 3

2010

Clarice Lispector, Agua Viva: Autobiography, Exile, Violence

2019

Abstract Considered “the great witch of Brazilian literature”, acclaimed as the best woman-writer of Jewish origin and the perfect example of an exquisite reconfiguration of European modernist ideas, Clarice Lispector is a fascinating author. This is obvious since her first novel Perto do coração selvagem (Near to the Wild Heart, 1943), a book that was awarded several literary prizes in Brazil, even if afterwards the text would be often ignored within the critical studies dedicated to Lispector. Compared to Borges and Kafka and even to the narrative strategies used by Virginia Woolf (apparently influenced by James Joyce’s stream of consciousness, even if Lispector underlined that she had no…

Profane and sacred love in the writings of Julius Evola

2019

Abstract Noticing the steep degradation of love in the modern society, Evola makes an effort to overpass the social, commercial or biological conceptions of love and to unravel the forgotten ideas about love. Looking at the current modern situation, few people could imagine love as transcendent, as a force capable of overpassing the limitations of a human being. As emphasized by Evola, the union between the two lovers, when it is conceived as the unification of the opposite tendencies in a sacred union, can find the lost path towards the Unity. By detachment and transmutation, the use of the sexual energy may even lead to supra-natural powers, ecstasies and elevated consciousness.

Aspects of anthropomorphism in food advertising

2019

Abstract The article outlines the evolution of anthropomorphism, from the prehistoric phase in the contemporary one, along with related concepts such as animism and personification. A number of food brands now use this metaphorical language to influence consumers behavior. Anthropomorphic archetype becomes thus the stereotype of communication strategies and the environment in which messages propagate is governed by the paradigm of corporeality. The rhetoric of many advertising campaigns “sex exploits” successfully the cliché of carnal seduction, namely to arouse gastronomic appetite by the erotic appetite.

From the advertising campaign to the election campaign - online evolution

2019

Abstract The present study looks at how to structure an election or commercial advertising campaign in the online environment, the strategy it must follow in promoting it, without neglecting: the large or small frequency of interventions on social networks, the type of message, the target audience and the effects sought. All these stages are found in both business and online policy. In the election campaign, the most important goal is how we can turn into voices the likes received on the social network media. During the commercial advertising campaigns, the main goal is to achieve profit by strengthening the image of the brand. The success or failure of a campaign depends, to an overwhelmin…