Artur Skweres - Böcker

This groundbreaking book uses observations made by Marshall McLuhan to analyze the aesthetics of science fiction films, treating them as visual metaphors or probes into the new reality dominated by electronic media: -          it considers the relations between the senses and sensuality in Blade Runner, the visually-tactile character of the film, and the status of replicants as humanity’s new clothes; -          it analyzes the mixture of Eastern and Western aesthetics in Star Wars, analyzing Darth Vader as a combination of the literate and the tribal mindset; -          it discusses the failure of visual society presented in the Terminator and Alien franchises, the rekindling of horror vacui, tribalism, and the desire to obliterate the past as a result of the simultaneity of the acoustic space; -          finally, the book discusses the Matrix trilogy and Avatar as being deeply related in terms of the growing importance of tactility, easternization, tribalization, as well as connectivity and the implosion of human civilization.

The second part of the book contains chapters, which examine texts related to contemporary crises expressed in the visual media of advertising and photography, but also in foreign language teaching.

The second part of the book contains chapters, which examine texts related to contemporary crises expressed in the visual media of advertising and photography, but also in foreign language teaching.

Homo Viator in Contemporary European Comedy Movies explores the popular yet critically underexamined theme of travel and vacation in European comedic cinema, while also engaging with urgent topics such as migration, displacement, and the refugee experience across various comic genres. Despite the commercial success of these comedies produced after 1989, scholarly engagement with them has remained limited. Authors Artur Skweres and Adam Domalewski aim to fill this gap by examining how humor becomes a powerful lens through which Europe laughs at, negotiates, and reimagines its borders.Structured in two parts, the book first focuses on the figure of the traveler (homo viator) and their pursuit of meaning, transformation, and comic adventure. The second part turns to comedies centered on migrants and refugees, revealing how comic genres can interrogate and even challenge dominant narratives of exclusion, adaptation, and mobility. Unlike many traditional and contemporary media platforms that often adopt clear political stances and dismiss opposing perspectives, the comedies discussed in this book offer a space where conflicting discourses can coexist—highlighting comedy’s unique ability to approach sensitive and contentious issues in a playful yet thought-provoking manner.This study shows that comedy provides a rich framework not only for exploring movement and migration-related themes, but also for addressing broader issues such as family dynamics, spiritual growth, economic struggle, and shifting urban–rural relationships.

This book reveals the hitherto critically disregarded ludic elements in popular American comedy films, building on and expanding the theories developed by Johan Huizinga in his classic study Homo Ludens (1938) and Roger Caillois in Les jeux et les hommes (1958).