Academic literature on the topic 'Postsoviet culture'

There are two problems discussed in the article. The first one is the phenomenon of mass literature and semiotic approach to it. According to Lotman, mass literature of the 20th (and 21st) centuries is not so much an object of semiotics as of sociology. However, it is possible to consider mass literature of earlier times as an object of semiotics of culture. Lotman discusses Russian mass literature of the 18th and 19th centuries as such an object in the article “Massovaya literatura kak istoriko-kulturnaya problema”. Considering mass literature a dynamic factor of the semiotic system, Lotman distinguishes its main features: a high degree of automatization and syndrome of retardedness. In the second part of the article the author discusses the phenomenon of mass poetry in contemporary Lithuania. This kind of mass literature is much more similar to the phenomenon discussed by Lotman than to the mass literature of the postmodernist epoch. Lithuanian mass poetry employs the codes of national romanticism (the end of 19th century) and considers itself an ignored part of high culture. This sort of poetry unknown to Western societies exhibits archaising tendencies in the modern postsoviet culture.

Theories of hybrid culture and transculturalism are analyzed from the point of view of comparative literature. In the modern world the transformation of multiculturalism and globalism towards transculture is an inevitable consequence of the complicated processes of cultural interaction in all countries of the world. Transculturalism is an alternative to multiculturalism as a product of globalism and has different rhetoric of the Other. The transcultural concept, put forward by F. Ortiz as an alternative to the asymmetric concept of acculturation in the area of cultural contacts, provided opportunities for describing the complex processes of cultural interaction in the era of globalization. Transculture is based on the cultural polyphony, in which there should not be a complete synthesis, where the cultures retain some opacity. The concept of transculturality can be used as a basis for a modern comparative analysis of literature. At the same time, key issues of interaction of cultures in post-Soviet discourse are not solved. Therefore, the study of methodologies of post-Soviet studies is important not only as theoretical problem, but also as a problem of general cultural significance. Therefore, the Caribbean philosophy, which is being built as a significant element of contemporary comparativism in the field of interaction between cultures, directly concerns the problems of choosing ways of further postcolonial development of postSoviet cultures. Transculturalism proposes the principle of hybridity instead of the archaic principle of the purity of national culture, declaring the change in attitude to national languages, cultural traditions and the very concept of nation-state, giving way to the processes of transnationalization and polyglossia associated with the principle of the networked cosmopolitanism. This is a new relationship between languages and cultures. Ultimately, this new andmagological interaction between the Own and the Other. It is a search for a new unity of the various Others.

The name of B. Akunin appeared on the Russian literary market about three years ago. His novel "Azazel" was announced as the first in a "literary project" which aimed at presenting "all genres of the classical criminal novel". The mysterious author managed not only to produce eight novels of this project but also two other novels about Russian provincial life and one about the adventures of a young Englishman in contemporary Russia. The author immediately became a success, and disclosed his real name - Grigory Chkhartishvili, a well-known man of letters, a translator and connoisseur of Japanese language and culture. This may provide an explanation for his literary manner: his novels are out of the ordinary not only as criminal stories with a complicated plot and an ingenious detective to solve the mysteries, but also as works of postmodernistic literature with intertextual connotations and complicated historical and literary associations. It is rather unusual that the author of seemingly entertaining criminal novels should provoke political debates amongst his readers about his political message. The article deals not only with the facts of B.Akunin's literary work and its criticism, but also presents an attempt to analyze his working methods and place him in the context of postsoviet Russian prose.

The dombra is one of the most widely used musical instruments, which originated in ancient times and is still preserved today. The dombra is widespread among the Turkic peoples from Altai to Anatolia. According to archeological excavations and stone monuments, the origin of the dombra dates back to the ancient Turkic era. The origin of the dombra was the Altai Mountains, the golden cradle of the Turkic peoples. According to the research of the well-known turkologist Sartkozha Karzhaubayevich, an ancient dombra-like musical instrument found in a cave of the ZhargalantKairkan ridge in the foothills of the Mongolian Altai Mountains has two strings and nine keys. In the ancient Turkic period, the dombra instrument was widely used, as can be seen in the images of a man holding a dombra, carved on the balbal stones, the handles of weapons such as swords and daggers. This article is devoted to the problems of philosophical analysis, which can be used to identify reliable information about the phenomenon under study. In addition, this article summarizes the characteristic features of traditional Kazakh culture, as well as the features of the existence of folk musical genres. The historical data of the dombra phenomenon in the culture and musical creativity of the postSoviet era and its influence on the development of the activities of the Kazakh people are considered. The article also describes the varieties of dombra of standard factory manufacture, defines the features of the structure and manufacture of dombra – the most common folk musical instrument in Kazakhstan, the types of dombras, the physical and mechanical properties of strings made of guts, and polymer material. The results of the study allow us to delve into many current problems that have not been fully solved: leveling cultural differences between different ethnic groups, preserving the self-identity of the nation in the era of all-consuming globalization

In connection with the preparation by the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences of a collective monograph on the results of the implementation of the megath­eme “Russian project of civilizational development: philosophical foundations”, the book review analyzes the experience of preparing monographs of recent years devoted to the civ­ilizational interpretation of Russia. As follows from the review of monographs, there are stable interdisciplinary research teams that continue to comprehend the civilizational identity of Russia in the subjects of various disciplines (philosophy, sociology, political science, cultural studies). The problems of the architectonics of civilizational development, the correlation of So­viet civilization and the Eurasian project, the prehistory of Russia as a geo-civilization, its position in the modern world order, the identification of Russia as a northern civilization are discussed. The concept of local civilizations is mainly used as the most convenient methodological tool. Sociologists are testing the methodology of civilizational analysis (J. Arnason, S. Eisenstadt). The civilizational identity of Russia is recorded ambiguously. The frontal comprehension of the civilizational nature of Russia has not led to significant results. Peer-reviewed scientific monographs are recommended to the widest range of readers and are mainly made in an informational and educational style. The degree of scientific elaboration of the problems under consideration and the analysis of available solutions to them are rarely recorded. Ideas are formulated intuitively, without sufficient conceptual justification. Therefore, the authors’ proposals on the civilizational develop­ment of Russia look naively utopian The discussions of civilizationists (in particular, bul­garists and tatarists in the Republic of Tatarstan) remain insignificant for the population. These are manifestations of the postsoviet regression of scientific and methodological culture in social and humanitarian studies. According to the author the review shows that the fruitful directions of civilizational re­search are the assimilation of French civilizationism of the XIX century, the clarification of the disciplinary status of the concept of civilization and the civilizational approach, the identification of fundamental values specific to local civilizations.

The problem of a person in psychology, its formulation and solution are rooted in the development of human and social sciences in general. In Russia, the formation of these sciences had a difficult history. The specificity of Russian modernizations and waves of enlightenment manifested itself in the borrowing of models and intellectual traditions, in the domination of the state over society, in the priority of the instrumental aspects of development over the humanitarian, as well as in the inconsistency and incompleteness of cultural and psychological processes associated with the transformations of the person himself. If the result of the European Renaissance was the emergence of a new type of personality, which then followed the paths of reformation, modernization and enlightenment, then the Russian Renaissance had a weakly expressed form, and its meaning consisted not only in a turn towards man, but also in the revival of European humanitarian values in Russia. The processes of humanization of society, anthropologisation of life and individualization of culture, initiated by the Renaissance spirit, had in Russia the character of constantly renewed, dispersed and latent movements. It is shown that anthropological problems were developed not only in the well-known works of N.G. Chernyshevsky, P.L. Lavrov, K.D. Ushinsky, in the approaches of V.M. Bekhterev, B.G. Ananyev and S.L. Rubinstein, but also in the unobvious activities of G.G. Shpet and GAKhN scientists, in the study of issues of art and architecture, in journalism and literary work. From the standpoint of retrospective and genealogical analysis, it was found that the anthropological turn was carried out throughout the twentieth century, manifested in the development of personality psychology, the psychology of the subject, as well as in the existential and philosophical approaches of postsoviet psychology. The expression of the anthropological approach in psychology was not only the movement towards the construction of human psychology, but also the emergence of the psychology of everyday life, focusing on the changes of the present and the ethnographic diversity of human existence.

В статье дан культурологический анализ состояния системы формирования гражданской позиции молодежи в постсоветский период. Автор рассматривает работу по воспитанию гражданской культуры и гражданской позиции молодежи как важный компонент обыденных практик, складывающихся вне официальных, формализованных государственных структур. Гражданская субкультура оформляется на протяжении жизни человека. Система взаимодействия гражданина и государства рождалась в нашей стране в условиях западно-восточного культурного пограничья. Этот фактор послужил выработке самобытного культурного типа человека, который был воспринят народами, вошедшими в поле российской культуры. В условиях постоянной готовности к защите складывались цели и принципы жизни, направленные не на достижение устойчивого благополучия, прибыли, построения домакрепости, что свойственно культуре западного типа, а на сохранение духовных оснований. Их содержание оформлялось в суперсмыслах, выраженных в таких метафорах, как Мать Сырая Земля , Святая Русь или Русский Мир . В советской России эти принципы раскрылись в деятельности культучреждений, где традиционное основание дополнялось идеологией советского государства. В девяностые годы прошлого века система формирования гражданской культуры, выработанная в советский период, была подвергнута разрушению. Были уничтожены практически все культурные учреждения советского типа, а оставшиеся коммерциализированы. Подготовленные в вузах культуры специалисты культпросветработы переориентировались на коммерческую деятельность. Сегодня цифры отчетов министерств и ведомств культуры и образовательных систем демонстрируют рост участников творческих коллективов и объединений, но в них не отражена социокультурная природа статистики постоянство и непрерывность занятий в свободных, общедоступных творческих кружках и объединениях подменены разовыми и точечными посещениями коммерческих форм. Эксклюзивность отдельных объединений и коллективов, работающих на основе народной традиции и сохраненной в её недрах гражданственности, не соотносима с системой воспитания гражданственности советского типа. Можно сделать вывод, что идеи и принципы организации гражданского воспитания молодежи сегодня находятся в стадии формирования, и это требует внимания государства и серьезной работы специалистов по сохранению традиционной основы народной культуры русского типа (основы российской государственной культуры).The article presents a cultural review of the status of the system that forms civic attitudes in young people in the postsoviet period. The author regards civic attitudes as a part of Russian culture based on the peasanttype Russian culture and the basic part of activities on building civic culture and attitudes in young people as an important element of regular practices developed beyond official formalized state structures. The civic subculture develops during the course of a lifetime. Its code is preserved in the mentality, life ways, behavior stereotypes. The system of citizenstate interactions emerged in the conditions of the westandeast culture frontiers. This feature facilitated the development of an original cultural personality type. The peoples, part of Russian culture, adopted this type. The necessity to be always ready for defense urged to develop objectives and principles of life that aimed to preserve spiritual bases rather than to achieve stable wellbeing, profit, to build a homefortress, which is inherent in the western type of culture. The content of the spiritual bases was outlined in supersenses expressed in metaphors Mother Earth, Holy Russia or Russian World. In Soviet Russia, these principles were developed in activities of organizations of culture with traditional bases supplemented by the ideology of the Soviet state. In the 1990s, the system of forming the civic culture developed in the soviet period was subjected to destruction: all soviettype organizations of culture were mostly eliminated, those remaining were commercialized while professionals who graduated from universities of culture were retrained for commercial activities. Nowadays, numbers in the reports of culture ministries and departments and of education systems demonstrate the growth of participants in artistic groups and teams, but they do not show the sociocultural nature of statistic numbers, that is, the constancy and continuity of activities in free, availableforall artistic groups and teams is substituted by onetime and random visits of commercial organizations. The exclusivity of individual groups and teams that work based on the folk tradition and the civic attitudes it preserves cannot replace the education system that forms civic attitudes of the Soviet type. The conclusion is the following: the ideas and principles of the development of civic attitudes in young people are now being formed, which requires attention from the state and serious work of experts in the preservation of the traditional basis of the Russian-type folk culture (which is the basis of Russia's state culture).

In terms of both production and consumption, video games and gaming are a significant phenomenon in Russia, a fact acknowledged by the authorities and mainstream media. Although internet use in Russia has been a point of academic interest over the past few years, scholars have been slower to research video games despite their increasingly popular position in the media ecology of the region. Similarly, despite the abundance of theory and data on gaming in North America and Europe, game studies researchers have hardly skimmed the surface of the cultures, preferences and activities of gamers further afield. This dissertation investigates the online gaming sphere in Russia, presenting an empirical study of the industry, providing insight into gamers themselves, and analysing the media and political discourses surrounding gaming in Russia. In this study, I draw upon survey data, forum, website, and blog posts, user comments from gaming forums and analyses of local games to construct a picture of gaming activity and identity amongst gamers. In particular, I show how Russian-speaking gamers present themselves as members of a distinct subcultural group. Online gamers who participated in this study are shown to consume and discuss games in ways that can differ from elsewhere in the world, but they still retain common beliefs about the importance of expertise, taste and self-discipline within the gaming community. They display a great deal of knowledge about the games and communities available to them locally, while also consuming foreign games in selective and critical ways. For the reader conversant with game studies work, the dissertation constitutes a challenge to West-centric theories of gaming and gamers and demonstrates the importance of cultural context in shaping gaming practice. Throughout the dissertation, interactions between global and local, media and subcultural definitions of ‘gamer’ are crucial to understanding how gaming plays out in a Russian context. The self-definition of gamers differs greatly from mainstream media concepts of gamers. I contextualise discourses of the gaming self within an analysis of how the Russian media presents gamers as young people in need of moral and emotional guidance. Moreover, I show how contemporary media assessments of games and gamers have much in common with earlier moral panics about Western-inflected media and subcultures, such as rock music and style. Ultimately the gaming landscape in Russia is shown to be full of tensions, and the task of this dissertation is to identify, assess and compare these disparate discourses.

The research focuses on the complex situation concerning the rigid definition of national cultural identities in the post-Soviet space. In contemporary Ukraine the conflict between alternative cultural models reflects social and political struggles. The contemporary Ukrainian literature in Russian represents a productive field of research in order to analyze the post-Soviet national context. Such a literary phenomenon rises in the interstitial passage between Ukrainian fixed opposite identifications: we deal with a proper hybrid phenomenon which grows out of the passage from the Soviet domination to the national independence.