DOI: 10.7256/2409-8744.2016.3.19493

Abstract: The subject of this research is the policy and public work of Komsomol and manifestations of the cults of V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin during its implementation in the 1950’s. The author examines their influence upon the political culture of the Soviet youth. Special attention is given to the manifestations of cult in literature and visual art. At the same time, the author took into consideration the specificity of the youth consciousness justified by the age, as well as by the status of youth as a social group. It is highlighted that as a rule, young men and women stood out in their lack of life goals, indecisiveness of social orientations, and incompleteness of the process of formation of their own ideology. The Komsomol is being viewed as a sociocultural phenomenon. It is demonstrated that in fight against cult of personality, Komsomol (as well as the government) was not consistent. Not denying the direction of disenchantment of the personality cult itself, in the late 1950’s, Komsomol more often expressed intolerance towards the supporters of a radical rejection from the cult political behavior. Unlike the previous years, Lenin’s cult did not serve as an instrument of strengthening the cult of Stalin, but rather contributed into the strengthening of the Komsomol political leadership, as well as added “sacredness” to the political regime.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8744.2016.3.16718

Abstract: The subject of this research is the socio-psychological functions of faith, fear, laughter, and enthusiasm in the semantic inversion of imageries of social realism, social art, and conceptualism. The goal of this work is to follow the dynamics of a cultural archetype within the history of the Soviet art, its historical links and transformations. The author pursues correlation between the images of faith, fear, laughter, and enthusiasm as the semantic codes that define the ideological orientation of development of art systems in the history of Soviet art. The method of semantic analysis of the cultural codes of social realism, social art, and conceptualism allows cognizing the role of the collective unconscious in establishment and transformation of the cultural archetypes in Soviet art. In this article the author poses a question about the role of emotional expressiveness of images in the Soviet art in a new way. The author demonstrates how the fear, laughter, and enthusiasm in the art of social realism and post-Soviet avant-garde unite into the symmetrically-opposing semiotic-culturological projections. The issue of semantic inversion in art from social realism to conceptualism the author associates with the analysis of the role of ideological reforms in establishment and development of a cultural archetype.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8744.2016.3.18055

Abstract: This article examines the influence of environmental ideas upon culturology and the definition of culture itself. The author briefly describes the process of establishment of environmentalism as an interdisciplinary approach, as well as to its key principles. Special attention is given to the research which can serve as an example of a successful integration of environmentalism into humanitarian sciences, as well as to the analysis of their heuristic value. The author demonstrates how overcoming the traditional thinking opposition of nature and culture, implemented within the framework of environmentalism, clarifies the methodological orientations of the cultural research and leads to formation of the new scientific directions and disciplines. The conclusion is made that the traditional conceptualization of the notion of culture through comparison with nature, decreases its relevance under the influence of the environmental concepts. An active process of search and formation of the new approaches towards the study of culture, which suggest the new ways of understanding of the human-nature relations, is taking place in the context of environmentalism.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8744.2016.3.18665

Abstract: The subject of this research is the analysis of the absurd as a spatial constant of glamorous social from the perspective of philosophical reflection. In modernity, absurd turned into a universe by capturing all of the spheres of social and subjecting human life to its logic. Having claimed itself ontologically, the absurd affected the gnoseological and axiological constants of the being of personality, which significantly transformed both, the subjective and objective. In the social we can observe dual strategies, where the priority belongs to the Nothing. Moreover, the ideology of glamor itself turns out to be absurd because of postulating the endlessness of beauty, youth, and wealth within the limits of human life. The author determines that the absurd has many modi of manifestations in modernity, being born in the gaps of being between the Something and the Nothing. The existence of the absurd has initially been set; however in a positive aspect, illustrating the Nothing, it contributes into development (by contradiction), while in negative aspect – leads to chaos, nonsense, and crisis. Glamorous format of the absurd encourages essences and actions, covering them with an alluring fleur, which results in the failures in the functionality of the consciousness and a routine situation of the eternal. The analysis of the absurd demonstrated its multifacetedness and expanding scale, which allows speaking about a universe of the absurd in the space of the glamorous. The subjective and objective of the absurd are dialectically connected with each other, as well as they justify each other. The paradoxicality of this situation consists in the fact that the Nothing in a form of the absurd acquires a status of the real, beginning to live its own life.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8744.2016.3.17102

Abstract: This article presents the study the two cases of film festivals in Volgograd (Arthouse festival “Films with No Limits” in 2009-2015, and days of German and Russian featured films “Briefly!” in 2013-2015), as well as the analysis of experience of holding these festival for the purpose of determining their role for the sociocultural environment and demand among the targeted audience. This work contains a historical review of film festivals since 2000’s, their evaluation as the sociocultural projects (goals, contents, management aspects) in the context of the urban cultural environment. The authors of this article have a direct connection to the organization and hosting of these projects, thus they resort to self-description of the activity and reflection of their personal experience, as well as conduct a cross-reference analysis. The authors make conclusions on the social and cultural importance of the film festivals, their conceptual peculiarities and their role in the province. Among the most significant roles, the author highlight the humanitarian, which consists in formation of the value orientations, professional communicative and other cultural competencies of the audience, and also contribute into the reproduction of the urban cultural environments. This article is relevant from the perspective of its contribution into the chronicle of the cultural life of the city of Volgograd, as well as practical application of the presented results in sociocultural development.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8744.2016.3.17809

Abstract: The subject of this research is the youth subcultures based on the commonality of tastes in music and the existing various forms of music activity. This problem is relevant to the modern world with neighboring globalization strategies and the effort of cultures to preserve identity. These processes in many cases are outspoken in creative practices, including subcultural. Namely through subcultural practices the youth finds the application to the strive for self-expression, which often cause rejection by the dominant culture. The main conclusion consists in the acknowledgment of the necessity of careful attention to the youth subcultural practices as an expression of aesthetic values and identification strategies of the modern youth. The authors note the importance of comparison of the subcultural practices with the basic aesthetic values, as well as of inclusion of the forms of subcultural activity into the more extensive sociocultural context for the purpose of encouragement of the creative skills and self-expression among the youth.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8744.2016.3.18279

Abstract: Based on the analysis of several films made by the brothers Korda’s creative union in the late 1930s – early 1940s, the author considers the method of formation in them the image of India and its inhabitants, highlighting the stereotypes inherent in the discourse of Orientalism and the traditions of colonial binary logic. In a broad sense, the work refers to the ideology of British colonialism, which in Russian historiography developed primarily from written sources of the second half of the nineteenth century. A correlations between the film images and the previous literary tradition, the political strategies of the British Empire on the sunset of the colonial period and the official propaganda are traced. The author concludes that the approach to Indian theme meant the use of scenes, which would have been impossible to imagine in the European world. The exotic played the main role in escapistic in spirit, fantastic and adventure films «Elephant Boy» 1937, «the Drum» 1938, «The Thief of Bagdad» 1940 and «The Jungle Book» 1942. As a result, the image of India represented an image of the Other that did not imply compulsory negative characteristics. India in the Korda’s films is a special world with its own history, visual code and dictionary, which is far from the image of the country ready to obtain the independence from the British Empire.