Konferencija Lodzėje

Spalio 22-24 d. Tomas Pabedinskas dalyvavo konferencijoje Fashion: Model and Readers, Lodzėje (Lenkija), kur skaitė pranešimą Fashion as the Expression of Identity on Subculture Scene. Pagal pranešimą parengtas straipsnis bus publikuotas konferencijos pranešimų rinkinyje. Žemiau pateikiama pranešimo santrauka.

 Paper Fashion as the Expression of Identity on Subculture Scene analyses the relationship between individual or alternative identity and iconic representations of established social and cultural roles on Lithuanian subculture scene. The identity of a person is analyzed as daily re-enactment of certain social and cultural roles, which follows given cultural schemes and changes these schemes by adding new features to it with every new repetition. Both the re-enactment of social roles established in certain subcultural groups and the attempts to change or reject these roles become externalized and emphasized in the context of various subcultures. Fashion understood in its broadest sense becomes extremely important part of these social roles as the fusion of different visual signs of identity reveals itself through it.

The theoretical basis of this article is the concept of identity as of a performative phenomenon. The investigation of the subject is based on the writings of sociologist Erving Goffman who uses terms of theatre as metaphors describing social roles in everyday life as well as on the concept of performative sexual identity formulated by feminism theorist Judith Butler. In this theoretical framework various aspects of personal identity are treated as external enactment of the identity which has no permanent internal core.

The paper applies such theoretical approach to the analysis of material from a particular interdisciplinary project on subcultures, which was realized by the author of the paper and his colleague Ph.D. Rasa Pranskevičiūtė. The project resulted in a book, which includes photographs of representatives of different subcultures taken in a photo studio and written interviews of the persons photographed. The book provides authentic material for the case studies presented in the paper and gives an opportunity to combine perspectives of artistic and scientific research.

The paper concludes by stating the possibility of certain limited freedom to modify established social roles as well as its expressions through fashion by contextualizing it in new ways and “customizing” these roles according to individual world-views and personal ideological perspectives of the representatives of different subcultures.



Leave a Reply