Editorial [PDF]
Aaron Aquilina, Jeffrey Micallef: Lancaster University, University of Malta
“How have you constructed life?”: An Interview with William Watkin [PDF]
The antae Editorial Board: University of Malta
Interrupting Tradition: Now-time (Jeztzeit) In and Out of the Theatre [PDF]
Joel White: King’s College, London
‘Progress has its seat not in the continuity of elapsing time but in its interruptions—where the truly new makes itself felt for the first time’. Interruption, as articulated by Walter Benjamin in The Arcades Project, presupposes both the potential continuation of historical time (defined as the sequential movement of history toward its end) as well as its possible cessation. To interrupt, meaning to “break between,” implies a space of allowing that punctures the status quo—be that status quo the disequilibria of power and material means or otherwise. Where the new ruptures, tradition maintains. For Benjamin this interruption occurs in the present. The present, being the site of interruption, is endowed with a potential to break with the self-positing structures of the past. The time of the present, now-time as Benjamin conceives of it, does not, however, condition itself transcendentally but must, instead, be immanently possible in and of world. The necessity for the metaphorical becoming space of time in the phrase “space of allowing” only reconfirms this. This article questions how we can think and actualise interruption in both philosophy and the theatre. It argues that the theoretical germ for Benjamin’s concept of now-time derives from his work on the idea of tragedy found in his essays of the 1920s and in The Origins of German Tragic Drama. Elucidating these texts, this paper reconciles Benjamin’s aesthetic and political philosophies.
Death in Digital Games: A Thanatological Approach [PDF]
Renata E. Ntelia: University of Malta
Analysing our time is an important part of our understanding and modi operandi. At the same time, of equal importance is the analysis of the end of time, that is, the time of death. The analysis of death contains a paradox, since there is no way of knowing death before death, and writing about death after the grave contradicts death itself. Nevertheless, death is a diachronic consistency which defines our presence, existence and, of course, every era, both culturally and temporarily. It reigns over our consciousness and its manifestations: language, philosophy, religion, literature and the arts. Nowadays, we live in the era of digital revolution and are re-familiarising ourselves with many established perceptions of the world we live in and the manner we experience and communicate within it. Death, together with our acknowledgement of it, is no different. Much can be said about how death is perceived through social media and digital applications, but my core focus will be death in digital games. Digital games, as a relatively new medium, and an ergodic one at that, have many interesting aspects that remain unexplored and are worth looking closer into as they provide an exciting field of study. Being one of—if not the most popular leisure activity of our age—one cannot be more in our time than when engaging with digital games. They pose a different approach to interactivity, and for that reason function in a novel manner and are accompanied by new challenges and a need for methodological tools. In this case however, digital games themselves will provide the tool for analysing such a timeless and simultaneously time-perceived idea as death itself, a great example of how the contemporary can not only facilitate the intertemporal, but also re-introduce it in innovative ways.
What’s all the fuss about Disney?: Narcissistic and Nostalgic Tendencies in Popular Disney Storyworlds [PDF]
Maria Cremona: University of Malta
This article seeks to study the narcissistic and nostalgic desires cultivated in cinematic audiences by modern Disney story franchises. Through its storyworlds, the Disney conglomerate is a key player in the cultural formation and consciousness of global audiences, young and old. The research demonstrates how narcissism and nostalgia are used as a means for personal development and amelioration of the present condition as well as a means of control over the viewers’ self-understanding and knowledge of past and present realities. The essay explores Baudrillard’s concept of controlled narcissism which illustrates how a subject’s self-development is hampered by media conglomerates that disseminate a fixed formula which becomes their means of exercising control over time, space and identity formation. This article also considers the use of nostalgia by media and entertainment industries. Using the works of Fredric Jameson, Linda Hutcheon and Svetlana Boym, this study investigates the commodification of nostalgia which promotes a recyclable and romanticised view of the past as well as the prospective use of nostalgia which allows the viewer to critically reflect on past and present times. These theories are applied to two contemporary case studies to understand better how narcissistic and nostalgic tendencies are manifested in the complex and transformative journeys of the flawed protagonists in contemporary popular Disney storyworlds.
Oscar Wilde: A Victorian Sage in a Modern Age [PDF]
Haythem Bastawy: Leeds Trinity University
This article assesses Oscar Wilde’s reaction to the fin de siècle and argues against his widely-accepted position as a main figure in the English avant-garde movement, a view which major literary critics such as Peter Gay, Sos Eltis, and S. I. Salamensky promote today. Based on Foucault’s definition of modernity as ‘a break with tradition' rather than a specific time, I argue that Wilde was not the modernist author he is widely perceived as, but a conventional Victorian sage who cleverly adopted, and tailored, the fashion of his time to deliver his thoroughly traditional teachings. The paper is split into five sections. The first of deals with Wilde’s creation of his dandy self and the influences of Carlyle, Arnold and Christ over him; the second section examines Ruskin’s influence over Wilde’s theory of art, and Wilde’s self-perception; the third section continues to examine the influence of the Victorian sages on Wilde by exploring his criticism of contemporary modernity in some of his works; the fourth and fifth sections deal with Wilde’s views on the roles of the sexes and his homosexuality respectively, and weigh these views, through further close analysis of his works, against the argument of his modernity. The research ends by asserting that Oscar Wilde was thoroughly Victorian in his views and themes, and that he perceived himself as a sage for his modern age.
