Theory and History Of Culture, Art
28 Dec 2023
Culturological Aspects of the Evolution of Communication in the Postmodern Era
In the article, the authors take a cultural approach to the process of evolution of communication in the postmodern era. Using the method of comparative analysis, the article compares classical theories of communication and their transformation in the sociocultural space of our time. The authors use the works of postmodern researchers on this issue and trace in them those essential contradictions that lead to the depersonalization of the communication process itself. This approach determines both the relevance and scientific novelty of the article, since the very problem of communication in the postmodern information society is, on the one hand, discursive and contradictory in nature, and on the other, requires cultural scientific justification. The comparison of communication paradigms in the domestic and Western European traditions, the contradiction of these concepts, seems fruitful. The very definition of postmodernity as a constantly emerging phenomenon in history, as opposed to considering it as an independently evolving phenomenon (“post-postmodern”, “metamodern”, etc.), also deserves attention. The article provides a comparative analysis of the mentioned concepts of Western cultural scientists. The authors’ conclusion that such a substitution of concepts is inherent in postmodern consciousness in general, and currently in the process of de-theorizing humanities knowledge in particular, logically follows from the research conducted. The article is addressed to both culturologists and a wide range of interested researchers of the phenomenon of communication.
28 Dec 2023
Transformation of Christian Symbols in Children’s Drawings of Leningradians in the 1940s
Over the past decades, many studies have been carried out on children's drawings of the Great Patriotic War, most of them were dedicated to the memorable dates of the Great Patriotic War and devoted to the topic of preserving historical memory. The relevance of this study lies in the insufficient development of the topic of children's drawings of war from the point of view of the problem field of art criticism. Methods of art historical analysis make it possible to fill the gap and show the process of creating artistic images of children's war drawings to be more complex than it appears when using other scientific methods. The purpose of the study is to study the semantic features of children's drawings of war with Christian symbols. The author focuses on Christian symbols, dates and conditions for creating the drawings, and their existence. Using the example of the transformation of Christian symbols, the author shows possible algorithms for studying the semantics of children's drawings created in military conditions. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that children's drawings from the 1940s are presented for the first time. with Christian symbols, the role of children's drawings as a carrier of information about the artistic and creative process of children during the Great Patriotic War is determined, the importance of children's drawings as a mechanism of continuity is shown. The study uses a historical approach, which is combined with a formal-stylistic method of interpreting children's drawings and an iconographic method. Christian symbolism in children's drawings manifests itself in different ways, both indirectly and directly, but in general its use is spontaneous. Christian symbols in children's drawings do not indicate the religiosity of their authors. The process of forming artistic images took place with the participation of adult mentors in the conditions of anti-religious Soviet propaganda. In this connection, it follows that Christian symbols are undergoing a significant transformation. Despite the fact that the religious aspect is excluded from the artistic process, children's drawings demonstrate an effective mechanism for transmitting accumulated cultural, historical and artistic experience. Art historians still have a lot of work to do, on the one hand, to take a different look at the memorial function of children’s war drawings, on the other hand, to come closer to understanding the artistic and historical value of children’s drawings and their specificity in historical and visual contexts.
28 Dec 2023
Culture and Mythology in Cultural Studies: A Meaning-Forming Aspect
The article examines issues related to the relationship between culture and mythology in cultural studies. Through the symbolic concept of cultural genesis, the formation of meaning-forming mythologies that influence stereotypes of meaning formation is shown. The mechanics of perception of reality by a person of culture is considered in its connection with the dynamics of mythology. The conceptual constructions of researchers connecting the themes of mythology and mythologization with the foundations of worldview and conscious reflection, such as F.V. Schelling, E. Durkheim, L. Levy-Bruhl, B. Malinovsky, J. Sorel, E. Cassirer, R. Barthes, C. Lévi-Strauss. The article also devotes space to studying the influence of mythology on the formation of neuroses, as consequences of cultural influence on human consciousness. A special place in the article is given to the mechanism of interdependence of the act of perception and the activity of internal mental structures, in their connection with the forms of social consciousness. The form of human existence in culture is considered through a situation when the utilitarian use of material begins to be combined with its sign function, in the process of which a picture of the world and the meaning of existence begin to appear. The development of this form of existence is considered in its dynamics – from archaic mythology to modern mythological paradigms. Based on the material presented, it is concluded that when researching in the field of the internal side of culture, it is necessary to take into account the schematics of human conceptualization of reality.
20 Jan 2023
Post-drama Theater: About a New Challenge to the National Theatrical Culture
In the study devoted to the current problems of Russian theatrical culture, the authors analyze fundamentally different theoretical and creative approaches to the cultural understanding of theatrical art. On the one hand, the modern domestic theater is focused on borrowing Western European theatrical culture, on the other hand, this situation creates a deep contradiction with the tradition of the national theater, its history, evolution and fundamental principles.
06 Nov 2021
Images of Life and Death in the Folk Art Tradition оf the South of Russia (Based on the Material of the Folk Art Culture of Belgorod Oblast)
The article aims to consider the founding principles of the traditional Russian worldview through the images of life and death captured in the regional ornament. Being in many cases an actual continuation of the most important rituals of culture and a marker of their boundaries, the ornament today deserves an analysis of its value-based and visual structures at a new level.
22 Jul 2021
The Problem of the Culturological Dimension of Sport as a Sociocultural Phenomenon
The article analyzes the current situation with the culturological scientific understanding of the sociocultural phenomenon of sport, and actualizes the related problems. Arousing the well-deserved researchers’ interest, this phenomenon is considered in the absence of justified methodological instruments in the field of culturological knowledge. In the various dimensions of sport proper, sociological, political, philosophical and many other approaches, the sociocultural phenomenon of sport acquires different, sometimes opposite meanings.
27 Apr 2021
The Cultural and Existential Situation of the “First Buddhism” and the Modern World
Modern humanity has entered an era of deep crisis. On the one hand, it reached unprecedented heights of civilization and culture, but, on the other hand, the limit of the very possibility of its further existence was openly revealed. The consciousness of the unattainability of world history has created a problematic situation, intensifying interest in the history of the spiritual culture of humankind. A special place in these searches is occupied by the worldview of the “first Buddhism”. The core of the Buddha’s teachings is the way to overcome the cycle of life and ensure the fusion of the personal human soul with the Universal. Having been knocked out of the caste-determined society and forever losing a return to the world of lost well-being, the Buddha understood that the main obstacle here is the karmically deterministic cycle of life. It was necessary to find means to overcome it. The Buddha finds these in spiritual self-improvement, ultimately ensuring the fusion of the personal human soul with the “breath of Cosmos”.
26 Dec 2020
The Ideology and Sociocultural Landscape of Russia: Images of the Future Statehood and Civilization
The relevance of the study of the problems of the interaction of ideology and culture is due to the entry of humankind into a new era of understanding its own purpose, as evidenced by the planetary anthropogenic catastrophe caused, according to some experts, by the pandemic of the artificial coronavirus, when the fruits of scientific research returned like a boomerang for earthlings.
24 Dec 2020
The Theme of the Crisis of Western Civilization in Fyodor Tyutchev’s and Nikolai Berdyaev’s Historiosophy
The article discusses the theme of the crisis of Western civilization in the historiosophical works of Fyodor Tyutchev and Nikolai Berdyaev. The methodological basis of the research is general philosophical methods and methods of cultural analysis.
