2025-02-04

Reception of War in the Context of Structure of Feeling

Linas Bliškevičius (PDF)
https://doi.org/10.53631/MIS/2024.16.4

The article investigates the nuanced, layered responses to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine within the visual art field in Lithuania, situating this analysis within the broader context of cultural production amid crisis. Through the conceptual lens of Raymond Williams’ ‘structure of feeling,’ the paper explores potential shifts—or the lack thereof—in the collective cultural sensibilities and expressive modalities that define the Lithuanian artistic milieu during this tumultuous period. Williams’ notion of a ‘structure of feeling’ encapsulates the intangible, affective undercurrents that inform the practices, values, and perceptual frameworks of a given cultural moment. By applying this concept, the paper seeks to ascertain whether the lived reality of permacrisis—a sustained state of overlapping, compounding crises that characterise the early 21st century—has facilitated or hindered the emergence of a new cultural sensibility within the visual arts in regard to the given political event. In examining this ‘structure of feeling,’ the analysis is contextualised within the prolonged historical and cultural conditions that preceded the war. The term ‘permacrisis’ is employed as a heuristic device, capturing not only the socio-political, economic, and ecological volatility, but also the psychological exhaustion that has become endemic in recent decades. This state of permacrisis serves as both a descriptor of the period and a determinant of how war and conflict are interpreted, symbolised, and expressed in visual art forms. The research suggests that the sustained nature of various global crises—ranging from ecological degradation and financial instability to ideological polarisation—has fostered a pervasive sensibility that could inhibit transformative shifts in artistic conventions or thematic focus.

Consequently, the article posits that the ‘structure of feeling’ characterising Lithuanian visual art remains fundamentally continuous with pre-war expressions and, with a few exceptions, is shaped by long-standing anxieties and established conceptual frameworks rather than by the immediate impact of the conflict. This persistence raises questions regarding the capacity of contemporary art to reflect new realities in the context of permacrisis. In conclusion, the paper argues that the permacrisis condition contributes to a non-realisation of emergent, distinct artistic sensibilities that might otherwise manifest themselves in response to the war. Instead, Lithuanian visual arts seem to reflect an adaptive, yet fundamentally unaltered, continuity of cultural sensibility, one that absorbs external shocks without undergoing a profound structural reconfiguration. The analysis implies that the potential for developing a novel ‘structure of feeling’ may be constrained by the overwhelming complexity and persistence of intersecting crises, which anchor artists to established forms of expression even amidst transformative historical events.

Keywords: structure of feeling, permacrisis, war, fatigue