‘Gnawing at stone, feeding rainbows.’ Aquatic imagination and reparative reading of myths

Abstract

For Socrates, being possessed by the nymphs (‘nympholeptos’) meant a departure from conventionalised patterns of perceiving the world by increasing fluidity in its understanding. Although it may have seemed frightening for many people, it actually demanded gratitude for the elevation of the spirit and the heightened understanding, both wise and prophetic. Can a reparative reading of ancient beliefs and myths through aquatic imagination promote contemporary inclusive and empathetic thinking? An attempt to answer this question is made by referring to water ‘nymphs’ in the Polish art and literature of the 20th and 21st centuries: Harey from Stanisław Lem’s novel Solaris, Emma Goldman appearing as a buoy on KarolinaFreino’s startling Confluence statue on a watery floodplain in Kaunas, and girls — the protagonists of Anna Baumgart’s film Wanda — stunned and liberated by water. In each case, the element of water supports thinking in terms of emergence, potentiality, and reparative change.