Prof. Gintautas Mažeikis on Weird Fiction and Symbolic Worlds (05.05.2026)
The European Centre for Philosophy of Culture (Faculty of Philosophy, UW) invites for the lecture by Prof. Gintautas Mažeikis (Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas).
“Post-Critical Theories on Weird Fiction: Searching for New Symbolic Worlds”
Abstract:
The lecture starts with the distinction between prejudice, superstition, and hyperstition pointing out their philosophical and cultural implications. For Hans G. Gadamer, prejudice (Vorurteil) is a positive, historically situated precondition of understanding, whereas superstition refers to an ungrounded belief sustained by tradition. The concept of hyperstition (Cybernetic Culture Research Unit, N. Land and M. Fisher) describes fictions that become real through recursive circulation, belief, and ritualized practices. In this sense, hyperstition works as a performative mechanism aligned with accelerationism, where narratives actively intensify and reconfigure reality. Weird and speculative fiction (H. P. Lovecraft, Stanisław Lem, Jeff VanderMeer, and J. R. R. Tolkien) is interpreted as a generator of such hyperstitions, producing “new myths” that infiltrate cultural reality. Land’s notion of the Abyss or Chasm further captures the fragmentation of meaning into multiple symbolic worlds (G. Mažeikis), undermining any unified global order. The concept of symbolic worlds is further connected with the semiotic theories of semiosphere (J. Lotman), unlimited semiosis (U. Eco), as well as the concepts of the iconosphere/phonosphere (J. Wahl and G. Cohen-Séat). Why is there still a need for diversity in forms of faith – such as delving into esotericism – and diversity in practices – such as exploring subcultures? The disappearance of a unified essence, a unified rationality, and a unified logic does not mean that absolute relativism prevails in each of the symbolic worlds. Quite the contrary, in some of them, totalitarian sectarianism with a specific way of thinking may flourish.
Date: 05.05.2026, 1:15pm
Place: Stary BUW, room 205
Contact: dr Przemysław Bursztyka (pbursztyka@uw.edu.pl)
Gintautas Mažeikis Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. His PhD dissertation and first book focused on Renaissance symbolic thinking, based on the works of P. O. Kristeller, E. Cassirer and F. Yates, and explored topics such as humanism and the occult in Renaissance Europe. His second thesis (habilitation) examined Pragmatics and Analytics in Philosophical Anthropology, drawing primarily on pragmatism in American cultural anthropology and European cultural studies. His current research interests lie in post-critical theory and symbolic thinking. In this area, he explores critical iconology and literary criticism, as well as the similarities and differences between A. Warburg school of iconology and post-critical interpretations. He analyzes the phenomena of metamorphosis and anamorphosis of consciousness in cultural and social contexts, the diversity of rationalities, and philosophical negotiation and diplomacy. He has published nine books in Lithuanian. His book Critical Theory and Symbolic Thinking (Springer Nature Link) is available in English and discusses critical theory, critical iconology and philosophical diplomacy from the perspective of negative dialectics. He has also published numerous articles in English. Mažeikis is also the author of fantasy/philosophical novels about the imaginary life of the “Lilims.”