INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURAL RESEARCH

Vladimir KONEV

Samara National Research University, Samara, Russia
Professor of Department of Philosophy
Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, Professor

Pedestal Person and Podium Person

The article discusses different types of human behavior in the Enlightenment culture, which is interpreted as a culture of the Representation, and post-Enlightenment culture, which is interpreted as a culture of the Presence. Since ancient times, the tradition of representing the significant and important in the form of sculptural sculptures has become established in European culture. The idea of the monument as an image on a pedestal has become a cultural symbol of the significance of the presented. What was honored with the pedestal, is significant. Pedestal and Presented by him are a symbol of cultural representation. Life around (in the area) the pedestal formed a special type of person, a special anthropological type of behavior. This is the type of pedestal person.
The culture of the twentieth century as cultures of the Presence changes value orientations: from monologue to dialogue, from necessity to chance, from past to present. A person is going to have to organize their action by himself. Personal "signature" under the action is important here. A “signature” must be presented; it needs to be demonstrated. The demonstration field provides a podium. Thus, another cultural type of person is affirmed - the type of person the podium, a person who shows his presence in the world. Selfie, facebook, social network, Instagram, Twitter, etc. - all this creates a space podium culture of the Presence. The article argues that the lifestyle and behavior of generations of millennials (Generation Y) and centellials (Generation Z) are the type of person podium. The problem is discussed how new cultural values can be constituted on the basis of this type of behavior. If the culture of Representation has defined the human world where life is mediated by the text, then the culture of the Presence creates a world in which life shows itself events.

Key words: The culture of the Representation, The culture of the Presence, pedestal person, podium person, a personality, an act, a freedom.

References

Svetlana KARDINSKAYA

Saint-Petersburg State University of Industrial Technology and Design, Saint Petersburg, Russia
High School of Printing Arts and Media Technologies, Institute of Media Technologies, Department of Advertising
Professor, Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy

Worlds of Rap Poetry: Art at the Limit of Contemporaneity

The article contains an actual problem of Contemporary Art, involved transforming the principles and forms enshrined in culture. It is the result of an analysis of a number of current aesthetic concepts. The study is aimed at creating the analytical aesthetic model, which can be used to analyze contemporary art. To construct this analytical model, I relied on the hermeneutic method of M. Heidegger. Heidegger designates a work of art as a “blow," which overturns everything that is habitually and reveals the hidden. Creating a work of art involves revealing what is present in the everyday world, but remains hidden outside of aesthetic experience. The Husserl’s concept of “lifeworld” is important elements of the presented aesthetic model. Husserl, in particular, comprehends the structure of the "lifeworld" as the structure of a "monad", which is both a subject and an object. This allows to interpret the “lifeworld” through the Leibniz's concept of the “monad”. From the position of Leibniz, the "monad" is the "body of subjectivity" included in the "texture" of everyday life. At the same time, the "monad" as a subject constructs many imaginary worlds. The Identity of an object and a subject in the "monad" allows us to comprehend art as a process of forming new “folds” on the “body” of culture. Art becomes the clarification of “gaps” in the existence of culture and the delineation of new contours of its meanings. The specificity of contemporary art consists in the "dotted line" of this contour, in the intentional underdetermination of meanings. Such the "dotted line" makes it possible for the existence of lacunas, providing a variety of aesthetic meanings. The article constructs interpretive models of texts of Russian rap artists (Husky, IC3PEAK). They contribute to clarify the principles of creating modern artworks that modify and update the space of culture.

Key words: contemporary art, aesthetic concepts, hermeneutic method in philosophy, “life world”, rap, poetry.

References

Yuriy RAZINOV

Samara National Research University, Samara, Russia
Professor of Department of Philosophy
Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy

Anastasiya ATYASKINA

Samara National Research University, Samara, Russia
Master of Philosophy

Foolishness for Christ

Foolishness for Christ as a kind of madness remains within the margins of philosophical and scientific reflection. In this regard, the article attempts to revise Foolishness for Christ not only as a certain social, spiritual, and corporal practice, but also as a certain type of (monologic) discourse. The authors here draw attention to the fact that in Michel Foucault’s research on madness, in his lineup of “deviants”, there was no place for foolishness for Christ. The reasons for such neglection can be explained by the secular orientation of Foucault's thinking and his emphasis on the discourses of power. In this article foolishness for Christ is presented as “holy madness”, and a foolish person as a representative of “heaven” who is obsessed with God. In this regard, the focus is on the phenomenon of obsession, which is presented as obsession with God. In doing so two forms of obsession are distinguished and discussed – religiously ethical and aesthetical madness. Because the practice of being foolish for Christ consists in representing God (heaven), the practices of humility come into focus: self-abasement, mockery and austerity. Attitudes to these practices allow to draw a thin line of demarcation between saints and holy fools.
In subsequent historical transformations in the context of secular culture, foolishness for Christ acquires the properties of aesthetical madness. At first in the form of mystical individualism, and then in the form of tragic romanticism. Art becomes the sphere of manifestation of foolishness, and it focuses on experiencing the perishability of the material world and its beauty.
In both forms of madness, the experience of “two-worlds-ness” is presented in different ways. A holy fool, not fully belonging to either the other world or this world, finds himself on the border of two worlds, in a marginal area. His role is that he, as an agent of the teleological “incompetent” discourse, represents a special kind of madness, which can be called transcendental madness. The authors argue that by reducing the mind to reason, rational culture has “vivisected” the Kantian concept of reason, which in a sense is reckless. The recklessness of reason lies in the free setting of the goals and final conditions of the activity of the mind. Reason devoid of the transcendental inoculation of the mind is nonsensical. However, if it is placed in the center and declared as the mind, then the mind becomes nothing more than transcendental madness. Such an interpretation allows us to conclude that the mind is not only a structure, but also a direction (thoughts, feelings, desires, actions, wills), it is the ability to move in the right direction, capturing the “hum of Being” and tuning in to the frequency of its “call”.

Key words: madness, foolishness for Christ, obsession, marginality, border, reason, mind, mania, macabre.

References

Nikita MESHCHERYAKOV

Independent scientist, Samara, Russia
Master of Philosophy

The Dark Side of the Moon: on the Issue about Marginality of Philosophy

The article attempts to revise the popular idea of the «central» or «dominant» position of philosophy in culture and present it as a marginal phenomenon. The marginality of philosophy seems to be a «dark spot» of its self-consciousness. In this regard, the main forms and factors of the philosopher's marginalization are analyzed: 1) as a seeker of wisdom, 2) as a representative of the scientific community, 3) as a social figure. The main phenomena of the marginalization of philosophy are exclusivity and exclusion. Both forms have both internal and external causes. The exclusivity of the figure of the philosopher is expressed in positive terms: «sage», «teacher», «thinker», «preacher», «intellectual», «scholar», « profound man». Exclusion is expressed in negative terms: «talker», «idler», «snob», «sophist», «holy fool», «creator of utopias», «outrageous manners», «city madman», etc. Both meanings of exclusivity and exclusion have existed since the beginning of philosophy, where the veneration and even cult of sages is interspersed with the ostracism of «talkers» and intellectual charlatans. Since the positive image of the «wise man» is firmly embedded in the normative code of culture, much of the attention is paid to figures of exclusion. It is shown that the marginalization of the figure of the philosopher occurs not only because of external (social) exclusion, but also because of self-exclusion. Philosophers often form closed communities, a kind of intellectual caste, breaking away from the space of social communication. For this reason, at certain stages of history in the marginal field of culture is not only the so-called "non-academic" philosophizing, but also the academic tradition itself. This self-isolation is largely due to the specifics of thought practices and the language of philosophy.
In this context, constructive and destructive marginality are distinguished and the problem of constructive participation of philosophy in the life of society is raised. The postmodern situation of total publicity and communication requires an appeal to the experience of ancient sophistry and appropriate "grafting" to the tree of philosophy.

Key words: philosophize, the marginality of philosophy, academic philosophy, postmodernism, sophistry, VUCA-world.

References

Elena IVANENKO

Samara Academy for the Humanities, Samara, Russia
Chief of the project «Philosophy in the Net» www.filosofiavseti.ru, Manager of the Philosophical Samara project www.phil63.ru
Master of Philosophy

Deadpool and Theodicy: A World of Fair Death

This case study explores the plot of the contemporary comics blockbuster (Deadpool, 2016) in order to identify the type and purposes of death's marginalization in popular culture. The theoretical framework of this case is conceptualization of the victim's status and the analysis of modern state of exception that allows this status to be created or eliminated. Marginalization of violent death, murder, and victimization in contemporary culture is linked to the biopolitics (Foucault’s governmentality and pastoral power) and its values, which are widely disseminated in the media. The specificity of the Deadpool’s narrative is seen as a response to the cultural demand that arises under the pressure of biopolitical ideology. Death and murder scenes can be described as constructing states of exception, in the logic of the Agamben’s concept homo sacer. The methodology involves the concepts of cultural convergence (Henry Jenkins), metacomics (Camille Baurin), transfictionality (Drew Jeffries), metalepsis (Denis Millier) and mundane game (Allain Boillat) based on the idea of multiple worlds in the Leibniz monadology. This case study problematizes the priority of revenge and justice (the Deadpool effect) within the concept of Belief in a Just World, and suggests a way out into the broader semantic horizon of theodicy to explain some of the social changes reflected in the comics.

Key words: Marginality, death, victim, culture of convergence, popular culture, Deadpool, biopolitics, state of exception, homo sacer, metacomics, theodicy, Belief in a Just World, revenge, mundane game.

References

Elena SAVENKOVA

Samara Academy for the Humanities, Samara, Russia
Аssociate Professor

Аd marginem vs in centro? Commemoration of Terrorist Attacks’ Victims

This article traces the development of the process of memorialization of the sites of major terrorist attacks. The main question is: how work the legitimation of memory places and how memorials work with collective grief. The very concept of «memory places» refers to the concept of Pierre Nora («les lieux de mémoire»), who drew attention to the symptomatic conflict between memory and history and the specific distribution of memorials in the twentieth century.br /> Death ad marginem is recognized as a necessary condition of the social order. The situation in which death is forced into the center of life requires urgent and emergency measures, but they are not easily implement correctly. Using the example of the construction of a memorial in Oklahoma City, the potential of spontaneous and organized memorialization is considered. This paper studies the problem of commemoration of the terrorist attacks’ victims, and the question of the appropriation of memory places by official state structures.br /> The main thesis of the article: the death of victims of terrorist attacks irreversibly undermines the uniformity of the «oecumene» of consumerist society. It is this line that, most commonly, escape the attention of researchers focused on specific cases, grouped around the «in centro» zone. However, in fact, trauma always remains at the border, and it is this «ad marginem» status that is sometimes not taken into account.

Key words: marginal sites, marginalization, death, terrorist attacks’ victims, spontaneous commemoration, ritual, memorial complex.

References

Andrey GASILIN

Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia
Research Fellow

Ethics of Evil and the Holiness of Crime in the biography of Jean Genet by J.-P. Sartre

The research is dedicated to the problem of mutual metaphorical relationship between Holiness and Crime in the biography "Saint Genet, comedian et martyr" by Jean-Paul Sartre. The article explores the methodological and theoretical backgrounds of this work, the influences of the Psychoanalytic and Marxist traditions, as well as early Sartre’s inventions in the field of Existential Psychoanalysis. The research focuses on the logic of the genesis of the paradoxical figure of Saint-Criminal, in the context of the Sartre’s original approach to the analysis of biographical material. The article examines the peculiar properties of mentioned approach to the analysis of the Genet’s childhood, manifested mainly in the intentional rejection of the use of the Oedipus complex in favor of the so-called “theological complex”, as well as corresponding shift in the emphasis of interpreting biographical data to symbolic figure of the Mother. Among other things, the research compares Sartre’s concept of Holiness with the notion of the Sacred by Giorgio Agamben and makes assumption about the possible development of this concept in alternative political theology. The main conclusion of the research is that mentioned concept of the Holiness is: 1) An instrument of Marxist criticism of bourgeois society, and 2) A means of exposing the neurotic nature of modern literature.

Key words: Sartre, Genet, Agamben, crime, holiness, existential psychoanalysis, Freudo-marxism, morality, biographical method, political theology.

References

Olga AVERYANOVA

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
Chief of Department of Photographic Art
Ph.D. in Art History

The Inversion of the Realistic in the Photographic Practices of Modernism

The Article is devoted to one of the photographic practices of modernism, the so-called camera-less photography or photogram. In the early 20th century many avant-garde artists began to use photography as a material of contemporary art. The picturesqueness of the photogram at this stage is almost comparable to abstract painting. Christian Schad, Man Ray, Laszlo Mohoy-Nagy, El Lissitzky experiment with reality, which was the basis of the photographic. The spread of the photogram as a way to create an actual work of art in the first decades of the 20th century implied an interest in the phenomenon of the universal language of modernism, based on the deconstruction of traditions, including the realistic ones, and specifically in photography. The photogram turned out to be included in modern cultural streams, including those that are associated with the intersection of pragmatic and idealistic ideology, embodying the visual needs of the emerging new consumer society. The study of versions of camera-less images created at about the same time by different authors presents the photogram as one of the avant-garde models of art.

Key words: photography, photogram, rayography, shadograph, Henry Fox Talbot, Man Ray, Christian Schad, lászló Mahou-Nagy, El Lissitzky, modernism.

References

Natalia NIKIFOROVA

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities
PhD in Culturology, Postdoctoral Researcher

Electricity in Technolandscapes of Russian Science Fiction and Utopian Novels of the Nineteenth Century

In science fiction and utopian novels published in Russia in the nineteenth century locations and territorial characteristics set certain coordinates to interpret various cultural phenomena and ideas. Ideas about the progress, development, evolution and possible future are located in exotic countries, remote regions, on other planets, at the bottom of the ocean, other temporal periods. Spaces in the novels are not a stable static background or a container for the narrative, rather they set a framework for reflection on the problems of colonization, specificity of the status of Russia in terms of its relation to the West and to the East, about alternative possibilities of “non-western” progress, about the role of science and technology in social change. Basing on the approaches of spatial analysis, developed within literary studies, the paper looks at loci of concentration of technoscientific practices linked with study and usage of electricity (the role of electricity in social wellbeing of the utopian communities; electrotechnical devices that become the means to reach certain territories and states of mind; places of presentation and exposure of electrical technology; affective and irrational connotations of the “places of electricity”). Possible scenarios of social, political and material development in the examined novels are dependent on technology – electricity is capable of automation of labor and liberation, as well as of bringing justice and tranquility. Thus utopias turned into “technotopias” where spatial code defined the framework of perception of progress. The paper also analyzes the questions of technological intervention into natural landscapes, the role of transportation in spatial analysis of literary works, temporal characteristics of science fiction and utopian novels.

Key words: electricity, technotopia, science fiction, utopia, spatial turn.

References

Vladyslav NEPIYPOV

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
Doctoral School of Arts and Design
Graduate Student

Between Cinematography and Animation: the Problem of Defining a Digital Film

The article is devoted to the scholarly rethinking of the digital film’s s concept, which today is widely used in both scientific research and industry. Lev Manovich writes about the "death" of the cinema and its transformation into animation, another point of view is presented, for example, by the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, who says that digital technology is just a new form of transmitting visual information. However, there is nether universally accepted definition of a “digital film”, or theoretical basis for its analysis. This situation causes methodological difficulties for the academic research of digital cinema.
Encountering classical and modern scientific theories with the industrial experience of digital cinema, its technical innovations and tendencies for integration with other digital genres, such as computer games or animations, questions are raised about the nature of modern cinema, the problems of presentation and representation, and the change in the aesthetics of cinema as art.
The trend towards convergence of digital genres creates new opportunities for considering digital film as a new form of cinema, possessing qualities inherited not only in classical cinema, but also in modern digital cultures and technologies.

Key words: Digital film, digital cinema, animation, computer games, convergence, remediation, theory of film, digital culture.

References

Dimitri SPIVAK

D.S.Likhachev Russian Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage, Russia
Head of the UNESCO Chair on Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue, Head of Center for Basic Studies in the Sphere of Culture
Human Brain Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St.Petersburg, Russia
Principal Research Fellow, Doctor of Sciences in Philology

Guylchokhra SEYIDOVA

Chairperson of the Branch of UNESCO Chair on Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue in the Northern Caucasus, Derbent, Russia
Associate Professor of the Department of Legal Sciences and Humanities of the Derbent Branch of Dagestan State University
Teacher Emeritus of the Republic of Dagestan, PhD in Philosophy

Alina VENKOVA

Herzen State Pedagogical University, St.Petersburg, Russia
Associate Professor, PhD in Cultural Studies
D.S.Likhachev Russian Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage, Moscow
Center for Basic Studies in the Sphere of Culture, Principal Research Fellow

Psychological Peculiarities of Shiite Muslims in Russia: Factor Analysis

Main results of exploratory factor analysis of data acquired as a result of a mass survey of psychological attitudes and characteristics of Shiite Muslims in Russia are presented. The survey was conducted under the auspices of UNESCO Chair on Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue, based at D.S. Likhachev Russian Scientific Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage. A group of 100 dwellers of the city of Derbent, Republic of Daghestan, active practitioners of Shiite Islam, were interviewed, basing on the facilities of the Juma Mosque, which is focal for religious and societal life of the corresponding community. Differences and similarities between four subgroups of our respondents, i.e. aged / young Shiite women / men, formed the main topic for four formal analysis, which was divided into three blocks, directed at measurement of the degree of (a) psychological activation / tension, (b) activation of basic defense strategies, (c) involvement of psychological reserve mechanisms, including intrinsic religious attitudes, applied for the purpose of coping with life stress. Basic conclusions consist in the following regularities:
– (a) inner structure of integral index of psychological activation is based upon a constellation of two hidden factors, which tend to contribute to the feeling of inner balance in different ways. The first one comprises psychological agility, positive mood, and sufficient level of involvement; the second one involves the existence of moderate psychological tension (or, relaxation). This structure, which is highly characteristic for both aged Shiite women and men, is proper for young people as well, although in a somewhat reduced form;
– (b) inner structure of basic defense strategies comprises the action of two hidden factors, one of which includes projection, negation, and intellectualization; another one comprises regression, and substitution. Basing on the results of content analysis, the former factor may be regarded as based upon mature and complex defense strategies, while the latter factor comprises less sophisticated ones. Being characteristic for all the four subgroups of our respondents, this structural pattern may be regarded as specific for the subculture of Shiite Muslims in general;
– (c) inner structure of intrinsic religiosity of aged Shiite men and women is defined by balance of two hidden factors, one of which is based upon the feeling of one’s ‘proximity to God’ or, ‘a mighty spiritual force’, while another one is formed by conducting ‘constant spiritual practices’. This structure tends to be quite static (especially in the case of the former factor), and to include phenomena bordering on the extrinsic religiosity (as in the case of the latter factor). Contrary to this, inner structure of the intrinsic religiosity of young Shiites, especially male ones, tends to be much more dynamic, interiorized, and insight-oriented. This set of results seems to corroborate our hypothesis that there exist two focal types of intrinsic religiosity in the present-day Shiite community, one of which is proper for aged Shiite people, another one – for young people, particularly young Shiite men.
These results seem to be most constructive for the purpose of structuring systematic intercultural dialogue with Shiite Muslims, particularly the interfaith one.

Key words: Psychological activation, psychological defense strategies, intrinsic religiosity, Shiite Muslims, intercultural dialogue.

References

Anna SUVOROVA

Perm State University, Perm, Russia
Associate Professor of Department Culturology and Social-Humanitarian Sciences, PhD in History of Arts

The Hidden Art: the review on book «The Hidden Art: 20th – early 21st Century Self-thought Artist from the Audrey B. Heckler Collection»

The book’s review investigates contemporary research and institutional approaches to definitions and boundaries of self-taught art, art brut and outsider art in the contemporary period. “The Hidden Art: 20th ‒ beginning of the 21h century Self-thought from the artist Audrey B. Heckler Collection”, published by the American Folk Art Museum, shows how the discourse of non-professional art in America has been developed, how were formed the conceptual approach to the description of this field. The book reveals the high importance of self-taught art for the American art context, and the interpretation of American non-professional art as an important part of American art identity. The authors of “The Hidden Art” describe the new boundaries of Outsider Art and Self-Taught Art in the contemporary period: new visuality, problems, and imagery of modern culture affect both “the Insiders” (contemporary artists) and “the Outsiders”.

Key words: discourse, outsider art, art of the mentally ill, art brut, self-taught art.

References