Cultural studies as a separate science appeared. Culturology as the science of culture. The problem of culture typologies

Introduction

Fundamentals of cultural studies
Culturology as a system of knowledge
Human-Culture Interaction

Conclusion

List of sources used

Introduction

Interest in culture accompanies the entire history of mankind, so the study of cultural studies as a science and academic discipline is very relevant at the present time. But it has never before attracted such close attention as it does today. Therefore, it is no coincidence that a special branch of human knowledge that studies culture, and cultural studies, the corresponding academic discipline, appeared.

Culturology is a theoretical discipline that studies the essence, patterns of existence and development of culture as a whole.

The term "culturology" consists of the articulation of two words: the Latin cultura - culture and the Greek logos - science, knowledge, i.e. literally means "science of culture". However, culture as a specific social phenomenon is studied by many sciences, such as, in particular, the philosophy of culture, the sociology of culture, the psychology of culture, the theory and history of culture, art criticism, anthropology, etc.

Culturology in its development went through two stages: 1) Until the middle of the 20th century, when the study of culture was carried out within the framework of philosophy, ethnography, history and other social and human sciences. Especially great contribution to the study of culture was made by Herder, Kant, Nietzsche, Taylor, Morgan. 2) After the middle of the 20th century, when cultural studies emerged as an independent scientific discipline.

Culturology has its own language, called the conceptual apparatus. Within the framework of cultural studies, its own system of terms has developed - words that have a strictly defined meaning. These words are borrowed from different sources: from other branches of knowledge: philosophy, sociology, history; from the language of everyday life - and therefore it is very important to find their culturological content, to agree on an unambiguous use and understanding.

Cultural studies is a science that studies culture. This is its specific subject, which distinguishes it from other social, humanitarian disciplines, making it necessary to exist as a special branch of knowledge.

The object of study of this essay is cultural studies as a science and academic discipline.

The subject of the study is the principles of the functioning of culture in society.

The purpose of this work is to describe and characterize the concept of cultural studies as a science and academic discipline.

This goal led to the solution of the following tasks:

Consider the basics of cultural studies.
Describe cultural studies as a system of knowledge.
To reveal the essence of the interaction between man and culture.

1. Fundamentals of cultural studies

The foundations of cultural studies as an independent scientific discipline, the subject of which is culture, which cannot be reduced to the objects of philosophical and other approaches to this phenomenon, were laid down in the works of the American scientist Leslie White. Attempts to discover behind this nominal unity, fixed by the concept of "culture", the real, to adequately express it by scientific means, is one of the main tasks of cultural studies. At present, there is no complete solution to this problem. Culturology is still in its infancy, refining its subject and methods; its appearance as a scientific discipline has not yet acquired theoretical maturity. But this search indicates that cultural studies is a kind of knowledge that has already outgrown the “parental” guardianship of philosophy, although it is interconnected with it.

Currently, there are quite a lot of ideas about cultural studies. However, among this diversity, three main approaches can be distinguished.

The first— considers cultural studies as a complex of disciplines that study culture. The forming moment here is the goal of studying culture in its historical development and social functioning, and the result is a system of knowledge about culture.

Second- represents cultural studies as consisting of sections of disciplines that study culture in one way or another. For example, culturology as a philosophy of culture claims to understand it as a whole, in general. There is also an opposite position, according to which cultural studies is a section of the philosophy of culture that studies the problem of the diversity of cultures (typology, systematization of knowledge about culture without taking into account the factor of cultural self-consciousness). In this case, it is possible to identify with cultural studies and cultural anthropology, the sociology of culture, as well as the separation of philosophical cultural studies as a science of meanings, meanings taken in their entirety in relation to a certain region or period of time.

Third approach reveals the desire to consider cultural studies as an independent scientific discipline. This involves the definition of the subject and method of research, the place of cultural studies in the system of social and humanitarian knowledge.

It should be noted that there are several models of modern cultural studies:

As a starting point for the formation of culturology as an independent scientific discipline, one can use the concept of culturology as a system of knowledge. To solve the main issue in this interpretation - the justification of the system-forming principle that plays a conceptual role for the formation of cultural studies as a relatively independent branch of social and humanitarian knowledge - it seems extremely important to find out the reasons and needs for its formation. The appearance in the 20th century of a special knowledge about culture, which claims to be relatively independent and called "culturology", is due to:

a) awareness of the speculative nature of the classical “philosophy of culture”, its inability to fully comprehend the rich empirical (ethnographic) material, the need to develop such an understanding of culture that can reliably link theoretical ideas about it and its practical implementation in all spheres of human eternal life;

b) the need to develop a methodology that will provide both an adequate study of culture by private sciences and their substantive unity, arising from a substantial understanding of culture;

c) the desire to develop a “common denominator” in understanding culture in the context of a sharp increase in contacts between different cultures (due to the development of means of communication), the need to search for their common nature, manifested in local cultural diversity;

d) the importance of the issue of comparison, subordination of different cultures, in particular European and non-European, in the conditions of the collapse of the colonial system and the growth of national self-consciousness in the countries of the "third world";

e) the expediency of a holistic, systematic analysis of culture as a sphere of state policy, the adoption of comprehensively justified management decisions in it;

f) the need to form the cultural needs of a person and meet them in a consumer society, justify successful economic activity in the field of mass culture;

g) the alarming growth of technocracy, rationalism, caused by a new round of scientific and technological progress, the awareness of the importance of a humanitarian "counterweight" for maintaining the stability of human existence, as well as the desire to compensate for the still existing state of premature and narrow professionalization with cultural studies.

In addition to the influence of these factors, the understanding of the essence of culture is of paramount importance for the formation of cultural studies. The category "culture" has attracted and still attracts many researchers with the depth of its content and heuristic significance. The breadth of the social phenomena covered by it causes a special effect of attaching a multitude of semantic shades to this concept, which, in turn, leaves its mark on the understanding and use of the term "culture" by various disciplines and in various historical eras. Nevertheless, the analysis shows that the unifying, driving principle in the development of cultural studies must be sought in the rich traditions of the European history of philosophy. This allows us to consider, as an element of cultural studies as a system of knowledge, the historical development of ideas about culture - from ancient to modern cultural theories, concepts that can also be represented as relatively independent areas of philosophical thought.

Modern culturology is formed, emerging from the "parental" care of philosophy, acquires its own subject of research and substantiates the methods corresponding to it. Undoubtedly, first of all, the culturologist deals with the results of cultural activity (objects, products of cultural creativity - for example, music, paintings), but his task is to go deeper, to assimilate the spirit of culture (mentality, cultural paradigm), regardless of what is his theoretical position. In this case, a second - communicative - layer of culture is revealed, this is the level of communication, institutions of education and upbringing. And, finally, the very basis of culture, its core, its archetype - the structure of cultural activity. Different researchers identify it in different ways: with the language, the psychological make-up of the nation and the method of sacralization, the adopted symbolism system, etc. In all these cases, the pathos of the cultural search remains unchanged - integrity, the integration basis of society, consideration of history as the intersection of the creative self-expression of the "ego" and the development of cultural tradition in the spiritual space of the ethnos.

Culture as an object of study is multifaceted, but usually in its study there are directions, in the center of which are the following problems:

- culture as a special form of human and human life, the causes and main factors of its emergence, formation and development;

- historically established forms of cultures, their specificity, development trends, internal processes;

— comparative analysis different cultures in time and space - comparative studies (Latin comparative “comparative”);

- the place and role of the individual as an object and subject of culture. Any of these areas is somehow connected with others, and only together they can expand our understanding of culture.

Culturology, if it claims to be a scientific discipline and its own subject of study, inevitably turns to the "archeology of culture", reveals its genesis, functioning and development, reveals the ways of cultural inheritance and sustainability, the "code" of cultural development. This work is carried out at three levels:

Preservation of culture, its basic foundations, hidden behind the verbal and symbolic shell.
Renewal of culture, institutions of knowledge renewal, innovative influences on the "code" of culture.
Translation of culture is the objectified world of culture as the world of socialization of the individual.

All three levels, characterizing culture in a wide range of its forms (science, technology, art, religion, philosophy, politics, economics, etc.), at the same time make it possible to identify the structure, mode of activity, integrity of culture, which does not can be reduced to a description of the achievements of culture (elite culture), and involves the formulation and conceptual solution of the problem of recreating such integrity.

All these considerations make it possible to draw some conclusions about the subject and task of cultural studies as a scientific discipline. Its subject is the genesis, functioning and development of culture as a specific human way of life, which reveals itself historically as a process of cultural inheritance, outwardly similar, but still different from that existing in the world of living nature. The task of culturology is to build a “genetics” of culture that would not only explain the historical and cultural process (on a global and national scale), but could predict it and, in the future, manage it.

Understanding the subject, tasks and program of cultural studies requires the involvement in scientific circulation of extensive, versatile material from all areas and spheres of social creativity, however, the main field of research in this synthetic field of knowledge should be the way of thinking, way of life, way of activity " privates» subjects of history. Paleopsychological reconstruction - along with the deciphering of familiar systems, i.e. semiotic analysis - therefore, there is both a method and content of cultural studies as a theoretical discipline that is not reducible to illustrative and descriptive and involves a strictly conceptual type of formulation, setting and solutions to their problems.

The foregoing allows us to characterize the interaction of the elements of cultural studies as a system of knowledge. First of all, it should be noted that culturology, standing out from philosophy, acts as a style of philosophizing and the connection with it embodies the philosophy of culture. No matter how philosophy itself is considered (scientist or worldview), the philosophy of culture is the methodology of cultural studies as a relatively independent scientific discipline and provides a choice of its cognitive guidelines, gives the possibility of different interpretations of the nature of culture.

If the philosophy of culture is aimed at understanding it as a whole (universal), then cultural studies considers culture in its specific forms (special), based on a certain material. That is, in cultural studies as a scientific discipline, in comparison with the philosophy of culture, the emphasis is shifted to explaining its specific forms with the help of theories of the so-called middle level, based on historical factology. And philosophy performs a methodological function, determines the general cognitive orientations of cultural studies.

This approach is also characteristic of the history of culture. Its facts and values provide material for describing and explaining specific historical features of the development of culture, and, being a section of cultural studies, it is designed not only to fix these features, but to ensure the identification of the archetypes of modern culture and understanding it as a result of the study. -toric development. Culturology studies the historical field of cultural facts, including both the past and the present. Processes of cultural historical development interest in this science to the extent that it allows us to understand and explain the thread of modern culture.

Thus, as a starting point for the formation of cultural studies as an independent scientific discipline, one can use the concept of cultural studies as a system of knowledge.

2. Culturology as a system of knowledge

The interdisciplinary nature of cultural studies expresses a general trend modern science, strengthening of integrative processes, mutual influence and interpenetration of various fields of knowledge in the study of a common object of study. The logic of scientific research leads to the synthesis of a number of sciences, the formation of a dialectically interconnected complex of scientific ideas about culture as an integral and diverse system.

The most important element of cultural studies as a system of knowledge is cultural anthropology, which studies specific values, forms of communication, objectified results of cultural activities in their dynamics, and mechanisms for the transmission of cultural skills from person to person. For a culturologist, it is fundamentally important to understand what is behind the facts of culture, what needs are expressed by its specific historical, social and personal forms. The historical development of ideas about culture in itself does not “lead” to culturology, this is what cultural anthropology does.

Other elements of cultural knowledge can also be distinguished. For their understanding, it is important to give the basic approaches to the very concept of culture already at the first acquaintance with cultural studies.

Two research directions dominate in domestic cultural studies. Since the mid-1960s, culture has been viewed as a combination of material and spiritual values created by man. With great latitude, this approach differs uncertainty since there are no exact criteria for what should be considered cultural values. The axiological interpretation of culture lies in the calculation of that sphere of human existence, which can be called the world of values. It is to him, to this world, from the point of view of the supporters of this concept, that the concept of culture is applicable. It appears as a majestic result of previous human activity, which is a complex hierarchy of spiritual and material formations significant for a particular social organism.

Supporters of the activity concept see a certain limitation in such an interpretation of the concept of culture. In their opinion, the axiological interpretation closes cultural phenomena in a relatively narrow sphere, while "culture ... a dialectically realized process in the unity of its objective and subjective moments, prerequisites and results." The activity approach to culture is concretized in two directions: one considers culture in the context of personal development , other- characterizes it as a universal property of social life.

The search for a meaningful definition of culture leads, therefore, to an understanding of the generic way of being a person in the world, namely, to human activity as the true substance of human history. The unity of the subjective and the objective realized in activity makes it possible to understand culture as “a system of non-biologically developed mechanisms, thanks to which the activity of people in society is stimulated, programmed and realized” (E. Markaryan). In other words, culture acts as a “mode of activity” (V. E. Davidovich, Yu. A. Zhdanov), a “technological context of activity” (3. Feinburg), which gives human activity an internal integrity and a special kind of orientation, and acts as a way of regulation, preservation, reproduction and development of all social life.

It should be noted that the activity and axiological approaches do not exhaust the whole variety of views on the concept of culture in modern philosophical literature. The works of a significant number of authors reflect the main concepts of Western cultural studies: structural-functional, semiotic, the concept of cultural anthropology, etc.

An attempt, traced in the works of L. White, to create a theory of culture capable of considering both pre-literate and written cultures in one vein, was made by M. K. Petrov.

The current situation allows using the term "culture" to fix general difference human life-activity from biological forms of life, the qualitative originality of historically specific forms of this activity at various stages of social development within certain eras, socio-economic formations, ethnic communities (primitive culture, European, ancient (Greek and Roman ), Russian culture), features of consciousness and behavior of people in specific areas of public life (work culture, political culture, culture of thinking), the way of life of a social group (for example, class culture) and an individual (personal culture).

The semiatic approach considers culture as a sign system, analyzes their meaning, meanings, features, role in the life of a person and society.

AT recent times the “dialogue” approach, in which culture is considered as a “meeting” of cultures, is gaining significant popularity.

The presented systematic nature of cultural knowledge finds its expression in the theoretical consideration of culturology as an academic discipline.

Based on the state standards of cultural training of students and specifying their qualification characteristics and professiograms, training should be aimed at studying the basic concepts of the theory of culture, familiarization with the main directions, schools and theories in world and domestic cultural studies, knowledge of the main stages and patterns of development of world and domestic civilization and culture, including modern problems of conservation and the most effective use of cultural heritage.

In accordance with these standards, a specialist in the natural sciences and engineering profile should know the initial concepts and terms of cultural studies, the most important schools and concepts of world and domestic cultural studies, and the characteristics of the main stages in the development of culture in the history of society. He must also be able to navigate cultural, artistic, aesthetic and moral issues and behave in life in accordance with the requirements for a cultural, intelligent and professionally literate person.

In addition to the above requirements, a specialist in the social and humanitarian profile needs not only to have information in these areas, but also to understand the logic of the basic concepts of culture, characteristics and contradictions in the development of civilization and culture of the 20th century, to know the basic patterns of formation and development European civilization and its prominent role in the world process, to master the skills of aesthetic and ethical analysis of works of art and life situations, the basics of professional ethics.

The principles of culturological training should have an adequate mechanism for their implementation, which is formed on the basis of an analysis of the practice of teaching culturological disciplines in Russian universities, as well as the requirements of the state educational standard for cultural studies.

So, cultural studies arose at the intersection of philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, ethnography, art criticism, linguistics and a number of other disciplines. Culturology is a system of knowledge about the essence, patterns, existence and development, human meaning and ways of comprehending culture.

3. Interaction between man and culture

Culture is a multifaceted concept that affects all spheres of human life. Culture is commonly understood as the socially progressive creative activity of mankind in all spheres of being and consciousness. According to its inner content, culture is a process of human development as a social individual, a way of his existence as a subject of cognition, communication and activity, a measure of his individual (creative, social, individual, moral, aesthetic and physical) improvement. Culture is inseparable from human society, in which it is born and formed, where its continuous development takes place. And at the same time, it is it that largely determines the nature and level of development of society as a whole and of a particular individual. The outstanding philosopher V.S. Bibler in his research notes that the concept of "culture" is formed, in his opinion, from three definitions:

Culture as a form of simultaneous existence and communication of different people - past, present and future;

Cultures, a form of dialogue and mutual generation of these cultures;

Culture is a form of self-determination of an individual in the horizon of personality, a form of self-determination of our life, consciousness, thinking;

Culture is the invention of "the world for the first time".

The main cultural value is the man himself. From the point of view of V.S. Bibler, the understanding of a person in the context of culture is an understanding of the individual in all its uniqueness, uniqueness and universality.

The role and place of culture in human activity can be very clearly understood on the basis of the idea that human activity is ultimately of a reproductive nature. Social reproduction includes the reproduction of the individual, the entire system public relations, including technological and organizational, as well as culture. The essence, main content and purpose of the sphere of culture is the process of social reproduction and development of the person himself as a subject of versatile social activity and social relations. Culture, taken as a necessary element of social reproduction and at the same time as the most important characteristic of the subject of activity, develops in unity with the reproduction process as a whole in all its historical concreteness.

The objective activity of a person is the basis, the true substance of the real history of the human race: the totality of objective activity is the driving premise of human history, the entire history of culture. And if activity is a way of being a social person, then culture is a way of human activity, the technology of this activity. We can say that culture is a historically and socially conditioned form of human activity, that it is a historically changing and historically specific set of those techniques, procedures and norms that characterize the level and direction of human activity, all activity, taken in all its dimensions and relationships. In other words, culture is a way of regulating, preserving, reproducing and developing all social life.

In other words, each individual can only be considered a "cultured person" when he owns the means of using the achievements of the society in which he lives. After all, social production acts both as a condition and as a prerequisite for human activity, while culture is a kind of principle of communication between society and the individual, a way of his entry into social life. The development of the ability to use what society has created and accumulated, the mastery of the methods of this use - this is what characterizes the process of cultivating a person.

In such a vision of culture, such a feature comes to the fore as the reproduction of activity on historically given grounds - a scheme, algorithm, code, matrix, canon, paradigm, standard, stereotype, norm, tradition, etc. It is the presence of certain specific schemes coming from generation to generation and predetermining the content and nature of activity and consciousness, allows us to grasp the essence of culture as a translator of activity, an accumulator of historical experience. It should be borne in mind that culture is a system of successive rules of activity transmitted from the past to the future, from the deed to the future deeds.

Thus, the main and only comprehensive beginning of discussions about culture always and everywhere becomes a person - his special position in the world around him, his activity, the products of this activity - something that is somehow connected with human life in the world of nature and in the world of people.

Conclusion

So, summarizing all of the above, we can draw a number of conclusions:

Culturology as a relatively independent science, as an academic discipline, appeared relatively recently, the very concept of "culturology" appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. Culturology is the science of culture, its essence, patterns, mutual influence of national cultures and civilizations. Culturology includes the theory of culture and the history of cultures The theory of culture studies the essence, patterns of development of culture, explores the processes of emergence and development of specific, existing and existing cultures, civilizations.

Culture is studied by many sciences.

1) Ethnography, ethnology are historical sciences that study the history of the emergence of ethnic groups, their culture and way of life. These are descriptive sciences based on the collection and analysis of empirical data.

2) Social and cultural anthropology - studies, as a rule, the cultures of primitive, traditional communities, is descriptive.

3) Philosophy of culture - studies the most general approaches to the study of the essence, goals and values of culture, the conditions of existence and forms of manifestation. It is in many ways identical to the philosophy of history, since history is seen as the deployment and expression of the meaning of culture.

4) Sociology of culture - studies the structure and functioning of culture in connection with social institutions (studies modern society).

5) Culturology and history.

a) the historian studies the results of the cultural activity of mankind, embodied in "texts" (works of art, treatises). He is interested in facts. A culturologist studies culture as a whole. He is interested not so much in the fact itself, but in the cultural human meaning of this fact.

b) the historian studies Culture, that is, its outstanding achievements. A culturologist studies culture both with a capital and with a small letter, as the spiritual state of a person and society (the culture of everyday life).

Thus, cultural studies in relation to other sciences acts as a science that generalizes their data, creates a theoretical basis for them and determines general patterns cultural development.

List of sources used

Special literature

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After reading this article, you will learn what cultural studies are, what this science studies, what varieties of it stand out and what other disciplines it interacts with. We will consider all this in detail. First of all, we should decide on the meaning of the concept of interest to us. Cultural studies is a term derived from the following ancient words: "cultura" (Latin, translated as "cultivation") and "logos" (Greek, "teaching"). It turns out that about culture. However, everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. The word "culture" itself has several meanings. This should be taken into account in order to give a complete answer to the question: "What is cultural studies?"

What is culture?

In Adelung's "Dictionary" of 1793, this concept means the ennoblement of all the moral and mental qualities of a people or person. I. Herder gave it a number of different meanings. Among them, one can note the ability to develop new lands, domesticate animals; the development of trade, crafts, arts, sciences, etc. Herder's ideas generally coincide with the opinion of Kant, who connected the successes of culture with the development of the mind. Kant believed that the establishment of universal peace is the final goal towards which mankind aspires.

National and world culture

Culture is a multilevel system. It is customary to subdivide according to the carrier. Allocate, depending on this, national and world culture. The world one is a synthesis of the best achievements of various national cultures and peoples inhabiting our planet.

National, in turn, is a synthesis of cultures of social strata, classes and groups of a particular society. Its originality, originality and originality are manifested both in (language, religion, painting, music, literature) and in the material (traditions of production and labor, features of housekeeping).

Spiritual and material culture

Culture is also divided into genera and species. The basis for this division is man. There is spiritual and material culture. However, this division is often conditional, since in reality they are interpenetrating and closely related. Some culturologists believe that it is wrong to classify certain types of culture only as spiritual and material. They permeate her entire system. This is an aesthetic, ecological, political, economic culture.

Culture and humanism

Culture is historically associated with humanism, since it is based on a measure of human development. Neither scientific discoveries, nor technical achievements in themselves determine this or that society, if there is no humanity in it at the same time. Therefore, the humanization of society is its measure. The goal of culture can be considered the all-round development of man.

Functions of culture

There are many of them, we will list only the main ones. The main function is humanistic, or human-creative. All other functions are related to it in one way or another. One might even say that they flow from it.

The most important function of culture is the transfer of social experience. It is also called information, or the function of historical continuity. Culture, which is a complex sign system, is the only mechanism by which social experience humanity is transmitted from one state to another, from epoch to epoch, from generation to generation. It is no coincidence that it is called the social memory of all mankind. If the continuity is broken, new generations are doomed to the loss of social memory.

Another important function of culture is epistemological (cognitive). This feature is closely related to the first one. Culture concentrates the experience of many generations, accumulates knowledge about the world and thereby creates favorable opportunities for its development and knowledge.

Normative (regulatory) function is associated with the definition different types and aspects of personal and social activities of people. Culture influences human behavior in the sphere of everyday life, work, interpersonal relationships. It regulates the actions and deeds of people, and even the choice of spiritual and material values. Note that the regulatory function relies on law and morality as normative systems.

Sign (semiotic) is another important function. Culture is a sign system. It presupposes knowing it, owning it. It is impossible to master its achievements without studying sign systems.

Also very important. Culture is a system of values. It forms certain axiological orientations and ideas in people. By their quality and level, we most often judge the culture of people. Intellectual and moral content, as a rule, is the evaluation criterion.

The emergence of cultural studies

Note that the concept of "culturology" arose relatively recently, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Researchers began to use it together with synonymous concepts. For example, E. B. Tylor, an English anthropologist and ethnographer, gave the following title to the first chapter of his book, written in 1871, The Science of Culture. And W. F. Ostwald, a German philosopher, physicist and chemist, in his 1915 work "System of Sciences" proposed to call the totality of research and the branch of knowledge about the modes of activity that are specifically human, "culturology", or "the science of civilization".

This science has gone through several stages in its formation and development in its short history. The history of cultural studies is marked by the creation of a number of approaches. In addition, it distinguishes numerous models, or varieties. Today, there are 3 main approaches that define cultural studies as a science. Let's briefly characterize each of them.

Three Approaches

First, it is a complex of disciplines that study culture. Secondly, this is a special section of the socio-humanitarian discipline. In this sense, this science in the study of culture relies on its own methods (for example, the philosophy of culture in philosophy). Thirdly, it is an independent scientific discipline, which has a unique specificity.

We will consider the subject and object of cultural studies from the standpoint of the latter approach.

Object and subject of cultural studies

The object of science is a set of qualitatively defined processes and phenomena of reality, according to its main features, inner nature, the laws of development and functioning, which are essentially different from other objects of this reality. The subject also expresses the interest of scientists in the study of a particular area of reality. It is clear that culture can be both the subject and the object of research. As an object, it is considered in the broad sense of the word. From this point of view, it is often defined as a combination of various methods and results of human activity, which are transmitted from generation to generation non-biologically (by the method of education and training). This object of cultural studies is inherent not only to it, but also to various socio-humanitarian sciences.

As regards the subject, domestic literature there are 2 points of view. The first of them is that it is a culture "in the narrow sense of the word." Research interest in this case is directed to the following general aspects of human activity:

Sign, semiotic system (B. A. Uspensky, Yu. M. Lotman);

Means of mutual agreement and mutual understanding in collective activity, that is, social norms existing in society (A. Ya. Flier);

The totality of meanings and values (A. A. Radugin, N. S. Chavchavadze).

The second point of view refers to the Leningrad school (Ikonnikova, Kagan, Bolshakov and others). According to her, it is important for cultural studies when studying culture that it is not so important to take into account its versatility. It is more important to consider it as a complete system.

Models (varieties) of cultural studies

It should be noted that the difficulties in determining the subject and object of research in cultural studies arise due to the specifics of culture, which is the link between a person and the world around him. In addition, it is a special form of being inherent in society and man. Therefore, it can be studied in different ways, that is, using different methods. Today there are many models of cultural studies, but a single science has not yet been created. These models are based on different approaches and methods in the study of culture. They can be reduced to several main varieties. Each of them deals with specific issues of cultural studies. Let us briefly characterize each of them.

Philosophical culturology defines the essence of culture, how it differs from nature. Its main task is to explain and comprehend it by analyzing its most essential and common features. The subject of study of this model is the role, functions and in the life of society and man. In addition, it determines trends in the evolution of culture. And, finally, this model reveals the reasons for its heyday and crisis, ups and downs.

What is historical cultural studies? It is easy to guess that it gives us knowledge about a particular culture in a particular historical period. However, its subject matter is somewhat broader. This is a regional, national, world culture or related to a certain era. This model states the facts, describes its manifestations and events in it, highlighting the most outstanding achievements of mankind. These are the main tasks of historical culturology.

We have not yet considered all models (varieties). What does sociological cultural studies study? It considers the socio-cultural phenomena and processes taking place in society. This model studies the functioning of culture as a whole in society. However, not only that. The tasks of sociological cultural studies include the study of individual subcultures.

Let's move on to the next model. It is also necessary to talk about what psychoanalytic cultural studies studies. It explores the problems of the individual, which acts as a consumer and creator of the achievements of civilization. Its subject is the individual characteristics of a person's attitude to culture, the originality of his spiritual behavior.

Ethnological (ethnic) cultural studies explores customs and traditions, rituals, beliefs and myths. In addition, she is interested in the way of life of pre-industrial, traditional societies and archaic peoples.

Philological culturology deals with the study of national culture through oral folk art, literature and language.

We have described only its main varieties, or models. To the question: "What is cultural studies?" we answered. Now let's talk about the disciplines and sciences it interacts with.

Interaction with socio-humanitarian disciplines

Culture This expression belongs to Democritus, an ancient Greek philosopher. Culture is not inherited biologically, but only through upbringing, training, familiarization with it. Let us consider how the science of interest interacts with other socio-humanitarian disciplines. All of them are divided into the following two groups:

Those which are distinguished in accordance with the type of specialized activity (for example, pedagogy, religious studies, art history, political science, economic sciences, etc.);

Sciences about the general aspects of human activity (sociological, psychological, historical, etc.).

The development of cultural studies takes place in interaction with the first group. Here the science of interest to us acts as a sphere of interdisciplinary synthesis. She is interested in what general patterns of development can be found in politics, economics, religion and other fields of activity. Within the framework of interaction with the second group, a specific cultural method is singled out, which can be applied within any humanities and social sciences.

Interaction with history, ethnography, archeology and philosophy

The relationship of this science with history is obvious. Not a single textbook on history is complete without a story about the cultural achievements of the time, about the cultural life of people. In addition, the science of interest to us is connected with ethnography, which studies the cultural and everyday characteristics of different nationalities. Archeology studies the history of society based on the material remains of human life. But the achievements of culture are spiritual and material values.

Archaeological methods make it possible to study the achievements of various nationalities and historical eras. Philosophy is also related to cultural studies. It is a tool for cognition, forecasting, interpretation, and its theories are used. Cultural studies, like other sciences, needs a philosophy on which all branches of knowledge are based. It helps to understand the essence of civilization, to evaluate society, as well as the level of development of culture from a certain angle.

So, we have opened the declared topic. In conclusion, we add that cultural studies are actively developing today. Universities offer students professional training in this field. Although specialists in this field are not in demand in the same way as, say, in the field of economics, many school graduates consider the direction of "culturology" as one of the priorities.

The subject of cultural studies

In a broad sense, cultural studies is a complex of individual sciences, as well as theological and philosophical concepts of culture; other elephants, ϶ᴛᴏ all those teachings about culture, its history, essence, patterns of functioning and development, which can be found in the works of scientists representing various options for understanding the phenomenon of culture. Excluding the above, culturological sciences study the system of cultural institutions, with the help of which the upbringing and education of a person is carried out and which produce, store and transmit cultural information.

From the ϶ᴛᴏth position, the subject of cultural studies forms a set of various disciplines, to which ᴏᴛʜᴏϲᴙ include history, philosophy, sociology of culture and a complex of anthropological knowledge. In addition to ϶ᴛᴏgo, the subject field of cultural studies in a broad sense should include: the history of cultural studies, the ecology of culture, the psychology of culture, ethnology (ethnography), theology (theology) of culture. At the same time, with such a broad approach, the subject of cultural studies appears as a set of various disciplines or sciences that study culture, and can be identified with the subject of philosophy of culture, sociology of culture, cultural anthropology and other theories of the middle level. In this case, culturology loses its own subject of study and becomes an integral part of the above disciplines.

A more balanced approach seems to be one that understands the subject of cultural studies in a narrow sense and presents it as a separate independent science, a certain system of knowledge. With this approach, cultural studies acts as a general theory of culture, based in their generalizations and conclusions on the knowledge of specific sciences, such as the theory of artistic culture, the history of culture and other particular sciences about culture. With this approach, the initial basis is the consideration of culture in its specific forms, in which it will remain as an essential characteristic of a person, the form and way of his life.

Based on the foregoing, we conclude that subject of cultural studies there will be a set of questions of the origin, functioning and development of culture as a specifically human way of life, different from the world of wildlife. It is worth noting that it is designed to study the most general laws of the development of culture, the forms of its manifestation that are present in all known cultures of mankind.

With this understanding of the subject of cultural studies, its main tasks will be:

the most profound, complete and holistic explanation of culture, its
essence, content, features and functions;
study of the genesis (origin and development) of culture as a whole, as well as individual phenomena and processes in culture;
determining the place and role of man in cultural processes;
development of a categorical apparatus, methods and means of studying culture;
interaction with other sciences studying culture;
the study of information about culture that came from art, philosophy, religion and other areas related to non-scientific knowledge of culture;
study of the development of individual cultures.

The purpose of cultural studies

The goal of cultural studies becomes such a study of culture, on the basis of which its understanding is formed. It is worth saying that for ϶ᴛᴏ it is extremely important to identify and analyze: the facts of culture, which together constitute a system of cultural phenomena; connections between elements of culture; the dynamics of cultural systems; methods of production and enjoyment of cultural phenomena; types of cultures and underlying norms, values and symbols (cultural codes); cultural codes and communications between them.

The goals and objectives of cultural studies determine the functions of ϶ᴛᴏ science.

Functions of cultural studies

The functions of cultural studies can be combined into several main groups according to the tasks being implemented:

cognitive function - the study and understanding of the essence and role of culture in the life of society, its structure and functions, its typology, differentiation into branches, types and forms, the human-creative purpose of culture;
conceptual and descriptive function - the development of theoretical systems, concepts and categories that make it possible to draw up a complete picture of the formation and development of culture, and the formulation of description rules that reflect the features of the deployment of sociocultural processes;
estimated function - the implementation of an adequate assessment of the influence of a holistic phenomenon of culture, its various types, branches, types and forms on the formation of social and spiritual qualities of an individual, social community, society as a whole;
explaining function - a scientific explanation of the features of cultural complexes, phenomena and events, the mechanisms of functioning of agents and institutions of culture, their socializing impact on the formation of personality on the basis of scientific understanding of the revealed facts, trends and patterns of development of sociocultural processes;
ideological function - the implementation of socio-political ideals in the development of fundamental and applied problems of the development of culture, regulating the influence of its values and norms on the behavior of the individual and social communities;
educational(teaching) function - the dissemination of cultural knowledge and assessments, which helps students, professionals, as well as those who are interested in cultural issues, to learn the features of this social phenomenon, its role in the development of man and society.

The subject of cultural studies, its tasks, goals and functions determine the general contours of cultural studies as a science. Note that each of them in turn requires in-depth study.

The historical path traversed by mankind from antiquity to the present has been complex and contradictory. On this path, progressive and regressive phenomena, the desire for the new and the commitment to familiar forms of life, the desire for change and the idealization of the past were often combined. With ϶ᴛᴏm in all situations leading role culture has always played in people's lives, which helped a person adapt to the constantly changing conditions of life, find its meaning and purpose, and preserve the human in a person. By virtue of ϶ᴛᴏgo, man has always been interested in the ϶ᴛᴏth sphere of the surrounding world, which resulted in the emergence of a special branch of human knowledge - cultural studies and ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙa learning academic discipline that studies culture. Culturology - ϶ᴛᴏ first of all the science of culture. This specific subject distinguishes it from other social, humanitarian disciplines and explains the necessity of its existence as a special branch of knowledge.

The formation of cultural studies as a science

We note the fact that in modern humanities the concept of "culture" belongs to the category of fundamental ones. Among the many scientific categories and terms, there is hardly another concept that would have so many semantic shades and be used in such different contexts. It is this situation that is not accidental, since culture is the subject of study of many scientific disciplines, each of which singles out ϲʙᴏ aspects of the study of culture and gives ϲʙᴏ understanding and definition of culture. With ϶ᴛᴏm, culture itself is polyfunctional, therefore, each science singles out one of its sides or parts as the subject of its study, approaches the study with ϲʙᴏthese methods and methods, finally formulating the ϲʙᴏth understanding and definition of culture.

Attempts to give a scientific explanation of the phenomenon of culture have a short history. The first such attempt was made in

17th century English philosopher T. Hobbes and German jurist S. Puffenlorff, who expressed the idea that a person can be in two states - natural (natural), which will be the lowest stage of his development, since it is creatively passive, and cultural, which they considered as a higher stage human development, because it is creatively productive.

The doctrine of culture was developed at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. in the works of the German educator I.G. Herder, who considered culture in historical aspect. The development of culture, but in her opinion, is the content and meaning of the historical process. Culture will be the disclosure of the essential forces of man, which different peoples differ significantly, therefore, in real life there are different stages and eras in the development of culture. With all this, the opinion was established that the core of culture is the spiritual life of a person, his spiritual abilities. This situation persisted for quite a long time.

AT late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century. Works began to appear in which the analysis of cultural problems was the main task, and not a secondary one, as it was until now. In many ways, these works were associated with the realization of the crisis of European culture, the search for its causes and ways out of it. As a result, philosophers and scientists have realized the need for an integrative science of culture. It was equally important to concentrate and systematize the huge and diverse information about the history of the culture of different peoples, the relations of social groups and individuals, styles of behavior, thinking and art.

This was the basis for the emergence of an independent science of culture. Around the same time, the term "culturology" appeared. It was first used by the German scientist W.
It is worth noting that Ostwald in 1915 in his book "System of Sciences", but then the term ϶ᴛᴏt was not widely used. This happened later and is associated with the name of the American cultural anthropologist L.A. White, who in his works "Science of Culture" (1949), "The Evolution of Culture" (1959), "The Concept of Culture" (1973) substantiated the need to separate all knowledge about culture into a separate science, laid its general theoretical foundations, made an attempt to isolate it the subject of research, delimiting it from related sciences, to which he attributed psychology and sociology. If psychology, White argued, studies the psychological reaction of the human body to external factors, and sociology studies the patterns of relationships between the individual and society, then the subject of cultural studies should be the understanding of the relationship of such cultural phenomena as custom, tradition, ideology. It is worth noting that he predicted a great future for cultural studies, believing that it represents a new, qualitatively higher level in understanding man and the world. That is why the term "culturology" is associated with the name of White.

Despite the fact that culturology gradually occupies an increasingly firm position among other social and human sciences, disputes about its scientific status do not stop. In the West, this term was not immediately accepted, and culture there continued to be studied by such disciplines as social and cultural anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, etc. This situation indicates that the process of self-determination of cultural studies as a scientific and educational discipline has not yet been completed. Today, cultural science is in the process of formation, its content and structure have not yet acquired clear scientific boundaries, research in it is contradictory, there are many methodological approaches to its subject. Everything ϶ᴛᴏ suggests that this area of scientific knowledge is in the process of formation and creative search.

Based on all of the above, we come to the conclusion that cultural studies is a young science that is in its infancy. The biggest obstacle to its further development will be the lack of a position on the subject of all research, with which most researchers would agree. The identification of the subject of cultural studies takes place before our eyes, in the struggle of different opinions and points of view.

The status of cultural studies and its place among other sciences

It is important to note that one of the main issues of identifying the specifics of culturological knowledge and the subject of its study is to comprehend the relationship of culturology with other related or close areas of scientific knowledge. If we define culture as everything that is created by man and humanity (such a definition is very common), it will become clear why determining the status of cultural studies is difficult. Then it turns out that in the world in which we live, there is only the world of culture, which exists by the will of man, and the world of nature, which arose without the influence of people. Accordingly, all the sciences that exist today are divided into two groups - the sciences of nature (natural science) and the sciences of the world of culture - the social and human sciences. In other words, all the social and human sciences will ultimately be the sciences of culture - knowledge about the types, forms and results of human activity. Material published on http: // site
With ϶ᴛᴏm, it is not clear where among these sciences the place of cultural studies and what it should study.

To answer these questions, the social and human sciences can be divided into two unequal groups:

1. sciences of specialized types of human activity, distinguished by the subject of ϶ᴛᴏth activity, namely:

sciences about the forms of social organization and regulation - legal, political, military, economic;
sciences about the forms of social communication and transmission of experience - philological, pedagogical, art sciences and religious studies;
sciences about the types of materially transforming human activity - technical and agricultural;

2. sciences about the general aspects of human activity, regardless of its subject, namely:

historical sciences that study the emergence and development of human activity in any area, regardless of its subject matter;
psychological sciences that study the patterns of mental activity, individual and group behavior;
sociological sciences, discovering the forms and methods of uniting and interacting people in their joint life;
culturological sciences that analyze norms, values, signs and symbols as conditions for the formation and functioning of peoples (culture), showing the essence of man.

We can say that the presence of cultural studies in the system of scientific knowledge is found in two aspects.

First of all, as a specific cultural method and the level of generalization of any analyzed material within the framework of any social or humanitarian science, i.e. as an integral part of any science. At the ϶ᴛᴏ level, model conceptual constructions are created that describe not how this area of life functions in general and what are the boundaries of its existence, but how it adapts to changing conditions, how it reproduces itself, what are the causes and mechanisms of its orderliness. Within the framework of each science, one can single out such a field of research, which concerns the mechanisms and methods of organizing, regulating and communicating people in the ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙ areas of their life activity. Material published on http: // site
This is what is commonly called economic, political, religious, linguistic, etc. culture.

Secondly, as an independent area of social and humanitarian knowledge of society and its culture. In the ϶ᴛᴏm aspect, cultural studies can be considered as a separate group of sciences, and as a separate, independent science. In other words, culturology can be considered in a narrow sense and a broad one. Given the dependence on ϶ᴛᴏgo, the subject of cultural studies and its structure, as well as its connection with other sciences, will be highlighted.

Relationship of cultural studies with other sciences

Cultural studies arose at the intersection of history, philosophy, sociology, ethnology, anthropology, social psychology, art history, etc., therefore, cultural studies will be a complex socio-humanitarian science. Its interdisciplinary nature ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙ corresponds to the general trend of modern science towards integration, mutual influence and interpenetration of various fields of knowledge when studying a common object of study. With regard to cultural studies, the development of scientific knowledge leads to the synthesis of cultural sciences, the formation of an interconnected set of scientific ideas about culture as an integral system. With ϶ᴛᴏm, each of the sciences with which culturology contacts deepens the understanding of culture, supplementing it with its own research and knowledge. The philosophy of culture, philosophical, social and cultural anthropology, the history of culture and sociology are most closely related to cultural studies.

Culturology and Philosophy of Culture

As a branch of knowledge that emerged from philosophy, culturology has retained its ϲʙᴏ connection with the philosophy of culture, which acts as an organic component of philosophy, as one of the relatively autonomous sets of theories. Philosophies as such, seeks to develop a systematic and holistic view of the world, tries to answer the question of whether the world is cognizable, what are the possibilities and boundaries of cognition, its goals, levels, forms and methods, and philosophy of culture should show what place culture occupies in the ϶ᴛᴏth general picture of being, seeks to determine the transformation and methodology of cognition of cultural phenomena, representing the highest, most abstract level of the study of culture. Acting as the methodological basis of cultural studies, it determines the general cognitive guidelines for cultural studies, explains the essence of culture and poses problems for it that are significant for human life, for example, about the meaning of culture, about the conditions for its existence, about the structure of culture, the reasons for its changes, etc.

The philosophy of culture and cultural studies differ in the attitudes with which they approach the study of culture. Culturology considers culture in its internal relations as an independent system, and the philosophy of culture analyzes culture in terms of the subject and functions of philosophy in the context of philosophical categories such as being, consciousness, knowledge, personality, society. Philosophy considers culture in all its specific forms, while in cultural studies the emphasis is on explaining the various forms of culture with the help of middle-level philosophical theories based on anthropological and historical materials. With this approach, culturology allows you to create a holistic picture of the human world, taking into account the diversity and diversity of the processes taking place in it.

Culturology and cultural history

Story studies human society in its specific forms and conditions of existence.

These forms and conditions do not remain unchanged once and for all; uniform and universal for all mankind. It is worth noting that they are constantly changing, and history studies society from the standpoint of these changes. For ϶ᴛᴏmu cultural history identifies historical types of cultures, compares them, reveals the general cultural patterns of the historical process, on the basis of which it is possible to describe and explain specific historical features of the development of culture. A generalized view of the history of mankind made it possible to formulate the principle of historicism, in ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙ and with it, culture is seen not as a frozen and unchanging formation, but as a dynamic system of local cultures that are in development and replacing each other. We can say that the historical process acts as a set of specific forms of culture. Note that each of them is determined by ethnic, religious and historical factors and therefore represents a relatively independent whole. Let us note that each culture has its own original history, conditioned by the complex of ϲʙᴏ-like conditions of its existence.

Culturology in turn, he studies the general laws of culture and reveals its typological features, develops a system of his own categories. In this context, historical data help to build a theory of the emergence of culture, to reveal the laws of its historical development. It is worth saying that for this purpose, cultural studies studies the historical diversity of the facts of the culture of the past and the present, which allows it to understand and explain modern culture. It is in this way that the history of culture is formed, which studies the development of the culture of individual countries, regions, peoples.

Cultural studies and sociology

Culture will be a product of human social life and is impossible outside of human society. Being a social phenomenon, it develops according to its own laws. In the ϶ᴛᴏm meaning, culture will be the subject of study for sociology.

Sociology of culture explores the process of functioning of culture in society; tendencies of cultural development, manifested in the consciousness, behavior and way of life of social groups. In the social structure of society, groups of different levels are distinguished - macrogroups, layers, estates, nations, ethnic groups, each of which is distinguished by its cultural characteristics, value preferences, tastes, style and way of life, and many microgroups that form various subcultures. It must be remembered that such groups are formed on different grounds - gender, age, professional, religious, etc. The multiplicity of group cultures creates a "mosaic" picture of cultural life.

The sociology of culture in their studies is based on many special sociological theories that are close in terms of the object of study and significantly complement the ideas about cultural processes, establishing interdisciplinary links with various branches of sociological knowledge - the sociology of art, the sociology of morality, the sociology of religion, the sociology of science, the sociology of law, ethnosociology, the sociology of age and social groups, the sociology of crime and deviant behavior, the sociology of leisure, the sociology of the city, etc. Note that each of them is not able to create a holistic view of cultural reality. Material published on http: // site
Thus, the sociology of art will provide rich information about the artistic life of society, and the sociology of leisure shows how different groups of the population use their free time. This is very important, but partial information. It is quite clear that a higher level of generalization of cultural knowledge is required, and this task is realized by the sociology of culture.

Cultural Studies and Anthropology

Anthropology - the field of scientific knowledge, within the framework of which the fundamental problems of human existence in the natural and artificial environment are studied. Today, several areas stand out in the ϶ᴛᴏth area: physical anthropology, the main subject of which is man as a biological species, as well as modern and fossil anthropoid primates; social and cultural anthropology, the main subject of which will be the comparative study of human societies; philosophical and religious anthropology, which are not empirical sciences, but a combination of ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙenno philosophical and theological teachings about human nature.

Cultural anthropology deals with the study of a person as a subject of culture, will give a description of the life of various societies at different stages of development, their way of life, mores, customs, etc., studies specific cultural values, forms of cultural relationships, mechanisms for the transmission of cultural skills from person to person. This is important for cultural studies, because it allows us to understand what is behind the facts of culture, what needs are expressed by its specific historical, social or personal forms. We can say that cultural anthropology is engaged in the study of ethnic cultures, describing their cultural phenomena, systematizing and comparing them. In fact, it explores a person in the aspect of expressing his inner world in the facts of cultural activity. Material published on http: // site

Within the framework of cultural anthropology, the historical process of the relationship between man and culture, the adaptation of man to the surrounding cultural environment, the formation of the spiritual world of the individual, the embodiment of creative potentials in activity and its results are studied. Cultural anthropology reveals the "nodal" moments of socialization, acculturation and inculturation of a person, the specifics of each stage of the life path, studies the influence of the cultural environment, education and upbringing systems and adaptation to them; the role of family, peers, generation, paying special attention to the psychological substantiation of such universal phenomena as life, soul, death, love, friendship, faith, meaning, spiritual world men and women.

1. Cultural studies as a science

Culturology is a complex science, the subject of which is culture as a special part of the life of human society, its role and significance in the life of both individuals and society as a whole.

Culturology studies the prerequisites and processes of formation and development of certain phenomena of the material and spiritual spheres of life of various communities of people.

Cultural studies cannot be limited to explanation. After all, culture is always addressed to human subjectivity and does not exist outside of a living connection with it. Therefore, in order to comprehend its subject, cultural studies needs understanding, i.e. the acquisition of a holistic intuitive-semantic involvement of the subject in the comprehended phenomenon.

Culturology studies not only culture as a whole, but also various, often very specific, areas of cultural life, interacting (up to interpenetration) with anthropology, ethnography, psychology, sociology, economic theory, linguistics, etc., at the same time deciding own research tasks. In other words, culturology is a complex humanitarian science, the science of applied art.

Cultural studies belongs to the family of humanities. Generally speaking, almost all humanities in one way or another study culture and its manifestations. Firstly, it is she who comprehends culture as a whole - from everyday life to the concepts of the world and man, integrating the knowledge about culture that we receive from other humanitarian disciplines. Secondly, this makes it possible to study culture as a qualitatively peculiar phenomenon, as a system, which, as is known, is always richer than the sum of its components and cannot be reduced to it. And thirdly, this science is able to reveal the most general culturological laws that operate on all "levels" of culture and are applicable to its most diverse objects - from an individual to humanity as a whole.

At the same time, cultural studies cannot and should not replace special studies in the related humanities. As a humanities science, cultural studies naturally has more or less close ties with other humanities disciplines. So, culturology has a lot in common with philosophy, especially with that branch of it, which considers the main issue of philosophy not the primacy of spirit or matter, but the meaning human life. One way or another, but philosophy and cultural studies pose and try to solve similar problems. We also highlight the connection of cultural studies with aesthetics, general art history, literary criticism, and history.

Forms of culture refer to such sets of rules, norms and models of human behavior that cannot be considered completely autonomous entities; neither are they constituent parts of a whole. High or elite culture, folk culture and mass culture are called forms of culture because they represent a special way of expressing artistic content. High, folk and mass culture differ in a set of techniques and visual means. artwork, authorship, audience, means of conveying artistic ideas to the audience, the level of performing skills.

Types of culture we will call such sets of rules, norms and behaviors that are varieties of a more general culture. For example, a subculture is a kind of dominant (nationwide) culture that belongs to a large social group and is distinguished by some originality. For example, a youth subculture was created by an age group of people from 13 to 19 years old. They are also called teenagers. The youth subculture does not exist in isolation from the national one, it constantly interacts and is fed by it. The same can be said about the counterculture. This name is called a special subculture, antagonistic towards the dominant culture. We will refer to the main types of culture:

a) the dominant (nationwide) culture, subculture and counterculture;

b) rural and urban cultures;

c) ordinary and specialized culture.

Spiritual and material culture requires special discussion. They cannot be classified as industries. forms, types or types of culture, since these phenomena combine to varying degrees all four classification features. It is more correct to consider spiritual and material culture as combined or complex formations, standing aside from the general conceptual scheme. They can be called cross-cutting phenomena penetrating branches, types, forms, and types of culture.

Culture and its definitions

The concept of culture can be used in several meanings.

Firstly, it can serve to designate any specific cultural and historical community characterized by certain spatial and temporal parameters (primitive culture, the culture of Ancient Egypt, the culture of the Renaissance, the culture of Central Asia, etc.).

Secondly, the term culture is used to refer to the specifics of the life forms of individual peoples (ethnic cultures).

Thirdly, culture can be understood as some generalization, a model built according to a certain principle.

We can talk about the integrity of culture in the sense that it is a purely human phenomenon, that is, it develops together with man and thanks to his creative efforts. People, precisely because they are people, at all times and, despite all the differences in the natural and geographical environment, pose the same questions for themselves, try to solve the same problems, equipping their life on Earth. Uncovering the secrets of nature, the search for the meaning of life, creative impulses, the desire for harmony in human relationships, common to all times and peoples.

American anthropologists A. Kroeber and K. Kluckhohn analyzed more than 150 definitions of culture and divided them into six main types.

Normative definitions are divided into two groups. The first of these are definitions that focus on the idea of a way of life.

The second group - definitions that focus on ideas about ideals and values.

Functions of culture

Culture as a form of activity is ultimately intended to preserve and develop its own content, i.e. person. The purpose of culture, its duty or the role it plays in human life, is expressed in its functions:

) the creative (creative) function of culture is fundamental. All other functions are somehow connected with it and even follow from it. In his influence on nature, in the search for and production of means to satisfy his needs, a person forms a special world of objects and values - culture, and in this process he makes grandiose creative efforts that animals or insects cannot make.

"Overcoming" the genetic code of a biological being, a person artificially develops himself, i.e. here culture acts as a way of creative realization of a person, which are extremely diverse.

But culture not only invites a person to create, it also imposes restrictions on it. These restrictions apply not only to society, but also to nature. Cultural taboos protect society from destruction.

) the cognitive function is closely related to the creative function. The very process of transformation, change is associated with a deep cognitive act. Without knowledge about the surrounding world, it would be impossible to form a cultural world. Culture, concentrating in itself the best examples of creativity, made on the basis of their knowledge, acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development.

It can be argued that a society is as intellectual as it uses the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of mankind. The maturity of a culture is largely determined by the measure of mastering the cultural values of the past. For example, Japan was able to achieve a huge breakthrough in its development due to this ability of its culture. Other societies, unable to use the cognitive functions of culture, may stop their development, dooming themselves to backwardness.

Culture and civilization

The concept of civilization is one of the most key concepts of modern social science and the humanities. This concept is very multifaceted and today its understanding is incomplete. In everyday life, the term civilization is used as an equivalent of the word cultural and is more often used as an adjective (civilized country, civilized people). The scientific understanding of civilization is associated with the specifics of the subject of study, that is, it directly depends on the field of science that reveals this concept: aesthetics, philosophy, history, political science, cultural studies. Depending on the specifics of research in civilization, they see:

cultural and historical type (Danilevsky, Toynbee),

a change in the cultural paradigm, manifested through form and style (Spengler),

interdependence of mentality and economic structure (Weber),

Stages of formation of the relationship between civilization and culture:

Primitive communal society - the Middle Ages. Culture and civilization are not divorced, culture is seen as a person following the cosmic orderliness of the world, and not as a result of his creation.

Renaissance. For the first time, culture was associated with the individual-personal creativity of a person, and civilization - with the historical process of civil society, but no discrepancies have yet arisen.

Enlightenment - new time. Culture is an individual-personal, at the same time a social-civil structure of society Þ concepts overlap. European enlighteners used the term "civilization" to refer to a civil society in which freedom, equality, education, enlightenment reign, that is, civilization was used to refer to the cultural quality of society Þ understanding by Morgan and Engels of civilization as a stage in the development of society following savagery and barbarism, that is, the beginning of a divergence of concepts.

Newest time. Culture and civilization are divorced, it is no coincidence that already in Spengler's concept, culture and civilization act as antipodes. logic of aesthetic development

6. Material and spiritual culture

The very existence of culture acts as a single process that can be divided into two spheres: material and spiritual.

Material culture is divided into:

production and technological culture, which is the material results of material production and the methods of technological activity of a social person;

reproduction of the human race, which includes the entire sphere of intimate relations between a man and a woman.

It should be noted that material culture is understood not so much as the creation of the objective world of people, but as the activity to form the "conditions of human existence". The essence of material culture is the embodiment of a variety of human needs that allow people to adapt to the biological and social conditions of life. The values of material culture, as a rule, have a certain price, as well as time limits for consumption.

The concept of spiritual culture:

contains all areas of spiritual production (art, philosophy, science, etc.),

shows the socio-political processes taking place in society.

Material and spiritual cultures are closely related. It is difficult to draw a line between them.

Myth and religion as forms of culture

The development of culture is accompanied by the emergence and formation of relatively independent systems of values. At first they are included in the context of culture, but then development leads to ever deeper specialization and, finally, to their relative independence. It happened with mythology, religion, art, science.

Myth is not only the historically first form of culture, but also a change in the spiritual life of a person, which persists even when the myth loses its absolute dominance. The universal essence of myth lies in the fact that it is an unconscious semantic twinning of a person with the forces of direct being, whether it be the being of nature or society. If the myth acts as the only form of culture, then this twinning leads to the fact that a person does not distinguish meaning from natural property, but semantic (associative connection from cause and effect. Everything is animated, and nature acts as a world of formidable, but mythological creatures related to man - demons and gods.

Religion, like myth, expresses the need of a person to feel his involvement in the foundations of being. However, now man is no longer looking for his foundations in the immediate life of nature. The gods of developed religions are in the realm of the otherworldly (transcendental). Unlike myth, it is not nature that is deified here, but the supernatural forces of man, and above all, the spirit with its freedom and creativity. By placing the divine on the other side of nature and understanding it as a supernatural absolute, a developed religion freed man from mythological fusion with nature and internal dependence on elemental forces and passions.

Religion began to dominate culture after myth. The values of secular culture and the values of religion are often not harmonious and contradict each other. For example, in understanding the meaning of life, in understanding the world, etc. The main thing in almost any religion is faith in God or faith in the supernatural, in a miracle that is incomprehensible by reason, in a rational way. In this vein, all the values of religion are formed. Culture, as a rule, modifies the formation of religion, but having established itself, religion begins to change culture, so that the further development of culture is under the significant influence of religion.

Art and science as a form of culture

Art creates a "second reality" for a person - a world of life experiences, expressed by special figurative and symbolic means. Introduction to this world, self-expression and self-knowledge in it constitute one of the most important needs of the human soul.

Art produces its values through artistic activity, artistic development of reality. The task of art is reduced to the knowledge of the aesthetic, to the artistic interpretation of the phenomena of the surrounding world by the author. In artistic thinking, cognitive and evaluative activities are not separated and are used in unity. Such thinking works with the help of a system of figurative means and creates a derivative (secondary) reality - aesthetic assessments. Art enriches culture with spiritual values through artistic production, through the creation of subjective ideas about the world, through a system of images that symbolize the meanings and ideals of a certain time, a certain era.

The role of art in the development of culture is controversial. It is constructive and destructive, it can educate in the spirit of lofty ideals and vice versa. On the whole, art, thanks to subjectivation, is able to maintain the openness of the system of values, the openness of the search and choice of orientation in culture, which ultimately brings up the spiritual independence of a person, the freedom of the spirit. For culture, this is an important potential and a factor in its development.

Science has as its goal the rational reconstruction of the world on the basis of comprehending its essential patterns. It is inextricably linked with philosophy, which acts as a general methodology of scientific knowledge, and also allows you to comprehend the place and role of science in culture and human life.

Science is one of the new institutions in the structure of culture. However, its importance is growing rapidly, and modern culture brings up profound changes under the influence of science. Science exists as a special way of producing objective knowledge. Objectivity does not include an evaluative attitude to the object of knowledge, that is, science deprives the object of any value for the observer. Science, giving knowledge to man, arms him, gives him strength.

The humanistic value, cultural role of science are ambiguous. If the value of science is measured by practical consequences, then, on the one hand, it gave a computer, and on the other, nuclear weapon. The highest value for science is truth, while the highest value for culture is man. Science, being a powerful means of rationalizing human labor, can successfully "roboticize" a person. By suppressing other forms of truth, science limits the possibilities of spiritual development. In an effort to control the content of education, science indirectly controls the system of human guidelines, which subsequently leads to the creation of conditions for the formation of a one-dimensional person, that is, a narrow and deep specialist.

The most important result of scientific progress is the emergence of civilization as a system of rationalized and technicalized forms of human existence.

The modern history of mankind without science is unimaginable. Science belongs to modern culture, gives rise to civilization and thus binds them into a holistic education. Science has become a fundamental factor in the survival of mankind, it experiments with its possibilities, creates new possibilities, reconstructs the means of human life, and through this it changes the person himself. The creative possibilities of science are enormous, and they are transforming culture more and more profoundly. It can be argued that science has a certain cultural role, it gives culture rationalistic forms and attributes.

Official culture, counterculture, subculture

The official culture, as a rule, has a greater potential for sustainability than the counterculture, relies on an extensive system of social coercion rural, youth subcultures, etc.).

Subcultures come in many forms. Some are determined by the peculiarities of historical development, others - by the ways and forms of cultural identification of specific people. Let us dwell on the main spectrum of modern subcultural variations.

ethnic subcultures.

Religious subcultures.

age subcultures.

Counterculture (Latin - against) is the direction of development of modern culture, which opposes the prevailing spiritual atmosphere of modern industrial society. The counterculture spread among some of the youth of Western countries in the 60s and 70s. 20th century The counterculture is characterized by the rejection of established social values, moral norms and ideals, standards and stereotypes of mass culture. The counterculture aims to overthrow modern culture, which seems to be an organized violence against the individual, a strangler of creative impulses. In the 70s, the counterculture movement reached a dead end and broke up into many diverse groups.

Elite, folk and mass culture

Elite culture, its essence is associated with the concept of the elite and is usually opposed to popular, mass cultures. Elite (elite, French - chosen, best, selective, selective), as a producer and consumer of this type of culture in relation to society, represents, from the point of view of both Western and domestic sociologists, culturologists, the highest, privileged strata (layer), groups , classes that carry out the functions of management, development of production and culture. This affirms the division public structure on the higher, the privileged and the lower, the elite and the rest of the masses. The definitions of the elite in different sociological and cultural theories are ambiguous.

Elite culture is formed within the privileged in any area (in politics, commerce, art) layers, communities and includes, like culture, folk values, norms, ideas, ideas, knowledge, lifestyle, etc. in a sign-symbolic and their material expression, as well as ways of their practical use (see Folk culture). This culture covers various spheres of social space: political, economic, ethical and legal, artistic and aesthetic, religious, and other areas of public life. It can be viewed at different scales.

In a broad sense, elite culture can be represented by a fairly large part of the nationwide (nationwide) culture. In this case, it has deep roots in it, including folk culture, in a different, narrow sense - it declares itself as a "sovereign", sometimes opposed to a national culture, to a certain extent isolated from it.

Mass culture is a product of the industrial and post-industrial era, associated with the formation of a mass society. The attitude towards it of researchers of different profiles - culturologists, sociologists, philosophers, etc., is ambiguous. It frightens and repels some with its aggressiveness and pressure, the absence of any moral and ethical restrictions, others delight, others show indifference. The phenomenon of mass culture is understood in different ways. Some researchers interpret it literally, i.e. as a culture of the masses, created by the masses, is thereby identified with folk culture. Sometimes it is considered as a professional, institutionalized culture that has replaced traditional folk art in its classical (historical) version, which supposedly has finally gone into the past. There is a point of view according to which mass culture appears as a universal, cosmopolitan, moving into a phase of global culture (on a global scale), when professional (classical), modernist, and other cultural incarnations turn into subcultures. Each of them is enclosed in its own limited socio-cultural space and is focused on a narrow audience.

Most often, in foreign and domestic cultural studies, mass culture is understood as "a massive way of being culture in a modern industrial society, a type of" cultural industry "that produces cultural products every day on a large scale, designed for mass consumption, subordinated to it as its goal, distributed through channels. , we will include technically advanced mass media and communications: D. McDonald's, S. Moskovichi, D. Burstin, O. Huxley, E. Moren, B. Rosenberg, D. Bell, M. Fishwick and many others.

Folk culture in the culturological aspect will be understood quite broadly and not limited to its historical layer, related to the distant past, i.e. as a sphere of non-specialized (non-professional) cultural activity of the oral tradition, existing according to the folklore type in the past and present, passed down from generation to generation in the process of direct interaction (joint actions, labor, ceremonial and ritual, festive). The elements that make it up (as well as culture as a whole) include: values, norms, meanings, ideas, rites, rituals, representations, knowledge, beliefs, lifestyle, artistic creativity, etc. in their sign-symbolic and subject-material incarnation, as well as methods of activity, labor, utilitarian and household (household, raising children, etc.), functioning technologies, i.e. practical handling of values, meanings, forms of their maintenance, preservation and transmission from one generation to another, as well as their transformation, renewal.

Typology of culture, principles of typology

classification of various types and forms of local and world religions. T.K. based on several criteria:

connection with religion (religious and secular cultures);

regional affiliation of culture (cultures of East and West, Mediterranean, Latin American);

regional and ethnic features (Russian, French);

belonging to the historical type of society (the culture of a traditional, industrial, post-industrial society);

economic structure (culture of hunters and gatherers, gardeners, farmers, cattle breeders, industrial culture);

sphere of society or type of activity (production culture, political, economic, pedagogical, environmental, artistic, etc.);

connection with the territory (rural and urban culture);

specialization (ordinary and specialized culture);

ethnicity (folk, national, ethnic culture);

level of skill and type of audience (high, or elite, folk, mass culture), etc.

Cultural concepts of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

Schopenhauer's contribution to cultural studies is seen in the fact that it was he who pointed to the space where human values and norms are formed that determine his activity, culture, for the most part lying outside the reasonable. Man is a suffering being. Being and suffering are interrelated concepts. In the philosophy of Schopenhauer, suffering is interpreted positively, since it is productive, the basis of creative activity. However, the fruits of human labor do not bring happiness to a person, he cannot satisfy his needs, since every satisfied need gives rise to a new one, and satisfaction - boredom. Man is crucified between suffering and boredom, both are evil. Schopenhauer does not limit himself to ascertaining evil in the world around him, but tries to outline the ways, following which a person can live life calmly, happily. According to Schopenhauer, happiness is peace. In such reflection, a well-known tradition can be traced, rooted in ancient Indian philosophy, set forth in the Upanishads. Schopenhauer saw the possibility of being removed from the constructions of the Will in the neglect of needs that go beyond the most necessary, thereby promoting an ascetic lifestyle. Moral self-improvement was considered by the thinker as a way of renunciation of the evil Will. But this is not the only way, liberation from the Will is possible on the path of aesthetic contemplation, which presupposes disinterested perception. In art, the subject forgets about himself and dissolves in the object, he forgets his individuality, his desires, and therefore his will, and remains only as a "pure subject, a clear mirror of the object"3. Aesthetic contemplation must be completely free from all interest. Selfless perception leads to a weakening of the Will, and peace sets in by itself, leading a person to happiness. In art, high ideals and values are fixed, this explains its power of influence on a person. Art liberates the elect from Will, it consoles the ordinary. Consumers look for oblivion in the art, the chosen ones watch how the Will unfolds and in this they find the meaning of life: not to participate in the actions of the Will, but to observe it from a distance.

He not only stated the inhumane tendencies in the development of man and society, but sought to find a way out of the nightmares of the era. Schopenhauer's idea of the "will to live" is transformed by Nietzsche into the "will to power", thereby gaining direction. Nietzsche's "will" is not the striving for the dominance of the strong over the weak, but the desire to make the weak strong. A person is free and strong if she is aware of herself as a person. The values that exist in bourgeois society destroy the individual, because they are based on the morality of justifying possession. Morality in such a society is selfish, and therefore inhumane. Democratic movements are rooted in Christianity and based on the morality of herd animals. Nietzsche criticizes Christianity in general and Christian morality in particular, because he does not accept its bourgeois-liberal spirit and material pragmatism. The process of denying God for Nietzsche was long and painful. He was born into a family of hereditary pastors. It was formed in the religious environment of the schools of Naumburg and Pfort. As a child, he intended to become a pastor as well. His conscience was extremely demanding and fearful. Nietzsche believed that religion rises above all knowledge - the basis of all knowledge. Having read Schiller, Hölderlin, Byron in his youthful years, he will slowly and with difficulty begin to free himself from the influence of religion. Slowly, because on faith in his life a connection with the past was made, difficult, because there was nothing to oppose it. “Very often, submission to the divine will and humiliation are only a cloak thrown over low cowardice, covering us at the moment of a bravura collision with fate”5. Nietzsche strove for truth, no matter how terrible and disgusting it was. He found it in Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation. Nietzsche's soul found peace, he was happy for the first time. Finally, a joyful support appeared in his life. Schopenhauer preferred Buddhism to Christianity, Nietzsche replaced Christ with Zarathustra. Both of them wanted to break out of their contemporary bourgeois-democratic culture, which they saw as flat and petty-bourgeois. In the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote out the values of a different culture, indicated the duties of subordinates, the duty and scope of power of the strong, including the superman, as well as the goal of the movement - a higher future. Throughout his life, Nietzsche solved only one problem - how can such a culture be created - a set of traditions, rules and beliefs, so that a person, obeying it, can ennoble his inner world? Neither science nor religion can save us, only art. A. Schopenhauer was the last German philosopher who made an attempt to create a comprehensive system capable of solving the fundamental problems of being, unraveling its mystery. The thinker, who was disliked not only by his contemporaries, but also by his descendants 1, accusing him of many mortal sins, left to mankind the most beautiful analytical system in the form of a voluminous treatise "The World as Will and Representation", preceding it with an appeal ". I present to mankind my completed work, in the hope that it will not be useless to him." 2. Schopenhauer dreamed of a culture whose goal would be man, and he addressed his book to him.

13. Socio-historical direction in cultural studies (Spengler)

It has the oldest, "classical" traditions and goes back to Kant, Hegel and Humboldt, grouping around itself mainly historians and philosophers, including religious ones. Its prominent representatives in Western Europe were Spengler and Toynbee, and in Russia - N.Ya. Danilevsky.

It is unlikely that anyone had such a noticeable influence on the cultural thought of the first third of the 20th century as Oswald Spengler. Like Nietzsche, he was a prominent representative of the so-called philosophy of life, opposing living intuition to “dead” rationalism in the process of cognition and relying in defining culture not on its material and technical side, but on its organic nature. He is considered a classic of the civilizational approach to history, i.e. its consideration, when the historical subjects are not individual peoples and states, but their vast centuries-old conglomerates, united by a common, primarily spiritual culture. In this, Spengler repeated our compatriot N.Ya. Danilevsky and, like him, was one of the most consistent critics of Eurocentrism and the theory of the continuous progress of mankind, considering Europe already a doomed and dying link. Spengler also owns the most common interpretation of the differences between the concepts of "culture" and "civilization", which he developed in detail in the book "The Decline of Europe". In this book, he considers history as an alternation of cultures, each of which appears to them as a kind of "organism", soldered by internal unity and isolated from other "organisms" like it. Spengler denies the existence of universal human continuity in culture. In the history of mankind, he distinguishes 8 cultures: Egyptian, Indian, Babylonian, Chinese, Greco-Roman, Byzantine-Islamic, Western European and Mayan culture in Central America. As a new culture, according to Spengler, Russian-Siberian culture is coming. Each cultural "organism" is measured out for about a thousand years of existence, any deep and fruitful interaction between them is impossible. Dying, each culture degenerates into civilization, passes from creative impulse to barrenness, from development to stagnation, from "soul" to "intellect", from heroic "deeds" to utilitarian work. Such a transition for Greco-Roman culture occurred, according to Spengler, in the era of Hellenism (III-I centuries BC), and for Western European culture - in the last century. With the advent of civilization, mass culture begins to predominate, artistic and literary creativity loses its significance, giving way to unspiritual technicalism and sports. In the 1920s, the "Decline of Europe", by analogy with the death of the Roman Empire, was perceived as a prediction of the apocalypse, the death of Western European society under the onslaught of new "barbarians" - revolutionary forces advancing from the East. History, as you know, has not confirmed Spengler's prophecies, and the new "Russian-Siberian" culture, which meant the so-called socialist society, has not yet happened. It is significant that some of Spengler's conservative-nationalist ideas were widely used by the ideologists of Nazi Germany.

Another representative of the socio-historical school is Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) - an English historian and sociologist, author of the 12-volume "Study of History" (1934-1961) - a work in which he (at the first stage did not without the influence of O. Spengler) also sought to comprehend the development of mankind in the spirit of the cycle of "civilizations", using this term as a synonym for "culture". Initially, Toynbee considered history as a set of parallel and sequentially developing "civilizations", genetically little connected with one another, each of which goes through the same stages from rise to breakdown, decay and death. Later, he revised these views, coming to the conclusion that all known cultures, fed by world religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.), are branches of one human "tree of history". They all tend towards unity, and each of them is a particle of it. World historical development appears as a movement from local cultural communities to a single universal culture. Unlike O. Spengler, who singled out only 8 "civilizations", Toynbee, who relied on broader and more modern studies, numbered from two to three dozen of them, later settling on thirteen that received the most complete development. driving forces history, in addition to the divine "providence", Toynbee considered individual outstanding personalities and "creative minority". It responds to the "challenges" thrown to this culture by the outside world and spiritual needs, as a result of which the progressive development of a particular society is ensured. At the same time, the “creative minority” leads the passive majority, relying on its support and replenishing with its best representatives. When the “creative minority” is unable to realize their mystical “life impulse” and respond to the “challenges” of history, it turns into a “dominant elite” that imposes its power by force of arms, and not by authority; the alienated mass of the population becomes the “internal proletariat”, which, together with external enemies, ultimately destroys the given civilization, if it does not first perish from natural disasters.

Without denying the progressive development of mankind, Toynbee saw it primarily in spiritual perfection, in religion, which in the future will become a single universal religion. Objectively refuting racism and “Eurocentrism” with his works, Toynbee was sympathetic to the national liberation movement, advocated cooperation and mutual understanding between all peoples, for their cultural self-determination, which allows preserving the ethnic diversity of the world in the face of the “Westernization” that threatens it. He also understood the danger of this process in relation to modern Russia, and agreed with the rather widespread hypothesis that communist ideas and revolutionary ferment were historically brought into our country from the West.

The main distinguishing feature of Toynbee as a theoretician and historian of culture was an impartial and pluralistic vision of humanity as a family of equal peoples, excluding any national or regional arrogance and the use of force. The refined English intellectual Toynbee was quite critical of the notorious “Western”, primarily American, civilization, which is gradually sweeping the whole world and now claims to be unique, referring to its growing lack of spirituality, folklore facelessness, consumerism and economic aggressiveness, often covered up by allegedly universal ideals. He treated the geopolitical mistrust between Russia and Europe that still exists and is still certain. “If we look at the clash between Russia and the West through the eyes of a historian,” he wrote in 1952, “we see that for literally whole centuries until 1945, the Russians had every reason to look at the West with no less suspicion than we Today we are looking at Russia.”

The symbolic direction of cultural studies is widespread all over the world.

A peculiar concept of culture was put forward by J. Huizinga in the book "Experience in the Study of the Game Element in Culture". He attached particular importance in the emergence and development of world culture to the game as the basis of human coexistence in any era. Its civilizational role is in following voluntarily established rules, anti-authoritarianism, allowing the possibility of a different choice, and the absence of the oppression of “seriousness”. In his opinion, culture arose as a game in the process of human evolution. Its main manifestations were: religious cult, poetry, music, dance, etc.

Huizinga analyzed game elements in language, justice, war, science, poetry, philosophy, art, culture different eras especially in the culture of Ancient Rome. The slogan "Bread and circuses", the role of amphitheaters in Roman cities testify to the importance of the game in the life of the Roman state. In medieval culture, chivalry, justice and legal proceedings, the institution of guilds, and schools were game elements. The Renaissance is a cheerful and festive masquerade, dressing up in the attire of a fantastic and ideal past. The carrier of the game element of the XVII century. became a wig. The playful beginning, the naive spirit of ambitious rivalry are also characteristic of the 18th century: clubs, literary societies, collecting, secret unions, religious sects, etc. Since the 20th century, as Huizinga noted, the game element in the cultural process began to gradually disappear. This was noticeable even in the evolution of the men's suit, in which instead of bows, ribbons, short pants and long camisoles, modern trousers and a jacket, monotonous hairstyles were established. In subsequent times, the spirit of pragmatism increasingly penetrated the game, mass spectacles became overly organized, hiding creative imagination. Culture acquired an inhuman character along with the approval of ideals bourgeois society. states, political parties, organizations, churches, as Huizinga believed, were not effective enough to create the foundations of a strong and humane civilization; the level of civilization depended on the victory of one state, one race or one class. The basis of culture, according to Huizinga, was to be the domination of man over himself.

15. Game concept of culture by Johan Huizinga

A significant place in the theory of cultural studies is occupied by the game approach to the study of culture. Culturology is looking for answers to the question: "How did a new phenomenon arise in the natural world - culture?". One such response was the game concept of culture. Man has always had the ability and inclination to clothe all aspects of his life in forms of playful behavior. Play is, above all, a free activity. All researchers emphasize the disinterested nature of the game. Before changing environment, the man did it in his own imagination, in the realm of the game.

The game concept of culture was holistically formulated by the Dutch historian and idealist philosopher Johan Huizing in his work “The Playing Man”. She considers the game as the fundamental principle of culture, which arises and unfolds in the game, has a game character. Game is a comprehensive way of human activity, a universal category of human existence. Play is not a way of life, but the structural basis of human action. And in order for the game content of culture to be culture-creating, it must remain pure. The goal of the game is in itself. The game itself, at the very beginning, lies outside the realm of moral norms. She can be neither bad nor good. A moral, as well as an immoral, act is performed according to certain rules of this or that game. In essence, the game is incompatible with violence. It is moral actions that testify to the proper observance of the “rules of the game”. After all, morality is nothing but a tradition rooted in the past. Immorality, from this point of view, is a deliberately chosen position "outside the game", i.e. something absurd by definition.

Speaking of the game factor, J. Huizinga convincingly shows its extraordinary effectiveness and extraordinary fruitfulness in the emergence of all major forms of social life. Being its essential impulse, gaming competitions, more ancient than culture itself, from time immemorial filled life and, like yeast, contributed to the growth and development of forms of archaic culture. The cult grew in the sacred game. Poetry was born in the game and continued to exist in game forms. Music and dance were pure play. Wisdom and knowledge were verbalized in ritualized games that were played like a contest. Law stood out from the games associated with the life and relationships of people. The settlement of disputes with weapons, the conventions of the life of the aristocracy were based on game forms. Therefore, there can be only one conclusion here: culture, in its initial phases, is played. It does not grow out of the game, it unfolds in the game and as a game.

Genuine culture cannot exist without game content. culture presupposes a certain self-limitation, a certain ability not to perceive one's own aspirations as something ultimate and supreme, but to see oneself fenced off by some voluntarily accepted boundaries. J. Huizinga emphasizes that culture still wants to be "played" - according to mutual agreement regarding certain rules. It's hard to look at all our deeds from the point of view of the game. In the deepest depths of the human being, something seems to oppose this, but even in the dramatic condensation of the most important moments in the life of mankind, everything that happens does not go beyond the paradigm of the game in general.

Psychoanalytic concepts of culture (Freud, Jung)

Of particular interest in cultural studies is psychoanalysis and the concept of culture of the creator of the unconscious, the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He not only used his deep knowledge of the historical and philosophical tradition, but also proposed his own original, albeit somewhat eclectic, system of philosophical cultural studies. Among his works should be noted "The Psychology of the Masses and the Analysis of the Human" (1921), "Totem and Taboo" (1913), "Dissatisfaction with Culture" (1930).

Traditionally, it was believed that the main regulator of human behavior is consciousness. Z. Freud found out that under the cover of consciousness there is a deep layer of aspirations, inclinations, desires that are not realized by the personality, and the cause neuropsychiatric diseases are unconscious experiences. But why are these experiences painful and negative? The psychiatrist came to the conclusion that subconscious drives are associated with objects and actions that are socially unacceptable, condemned from the point of view of a generally accepted cultural norm, morality. And therefore, the very thought of them causes a feeling of shame and a desire to get rid of inclinations in a person.

As a result, socially taboo impulses are forced out into the sphere of the unconscious. However, being driven into the “underground”, into the “underworld” of the psyche, they do not cease to exist and, being unconscious, continue to influence human behavior. The unconscious principle, according to Z. Freud, determines the entire structure of the human psyche, the content of consciousness and all forms of cultural activity.

According to Freud, the unconscious governs the pleasure principle, consciousness - the reality principle. Under the influence of reality, a person becomes a conscious, thinking subject. This rationality, rationality, according to Z. Freud, is imposed on him from the outside. Civilization (or culture) does not mean the end of the state of nature. The pleasure principle exists, lives in the unconscious, influencing reality. The history of man and civilization is, according to Z. Freud, the return of the repressed principle of pleasure. In other words, human civilization is built on instincts, and the main value of a person is the satisfaction of instincts.

According to Z. Freud, the central place in the system of human drives belongs to the sexual instinct - libido, around which the psychoanalysis method he built revolves. He interprets the unconscious as a sphere saturated with the energy of libido, a blind instinct that knows nothing but the pleasure that a person experiences when this energy is discharged.

According to Freud, the collision of the pleasure principle with the reality principle leads to cultural activity. How? If, under the influence of socio-cultural conditions, the instinctive aspirations of a person are blocked, the mental energy of the libido of the unconscious begins to look for workarounds that compensate for the impossibility of immediate satisfaction. One of these methods is sublimation - the process of transferring the energy of sexual desire to objects that are socially acceptable, the instincts are desexualized, liberated from their power, which finds its expression in fantasizing.

Primitive culture and its specificity

Primitive culture is the largest and longest historical form of culture. Throughout this era, the biological race of man was formed.

The Stone Age is divided into ancient (Paleolithic), middle (Mesolithic) and new (Neolithic). The boundaries of the Stone Age 2 million - 6 thousand years ago. The Stone Age was replaced by the Copper Age (Neolithic), which lasted 4-3 thousand years BC. Then came the Bronze Age (4th - early 1000 BC). At the beginning (1 thousand BC, it was replaced by the Iron Age.

Paleolithic - since the crudest and simplest stone tools made of pebbles were the elementary tools of labor - the Paleolithic is called the ancient stone age. In addition to stone, there were wooden and bone ones. Ancient man did not know clothes, shoes, there were no housing buildings. When it gets cold, caves are explored. They exterminated a whole species of animals from the caves (for example, bears). They did not know how to use fire, in the Paleolithic era there was no fire, no utensils. They ate raw freshly killed game, roots, mushrooms, berries. Primitive people begin to accumulate knowledge about therapeutic narcotic substances.

Mesolithic - stone tools are being improved, the range of products is expanding: stone axes, axes, chisels, paper clips, piercings, arrowheads, stone arrowheads. Improving quality and technology. A large assortment of bone and wooden things appears (mowing needle, clothes, shoes, bow, arrows, spear). Fire appears. People are actively settling in large areas. There is a community, collective responsibility, there is an increase in population and resettlement. The Mongoloid variety passes through the Berings.

Neolithic - the great Neolithic revolution took place. Characteristics: the finest variety of tools, agriculture, cattle breeding, the transition to settled life, villages and cities appear.

The most important distinguishing feature of primitive culture is syncretism - indivisibility, non-differentiation of its forms. Another important feature of this culture is its lack of writing. This determined the ways of preserving and transmitting the experience necessary for survival; the possibilities of verbal communication were small, the main information channel of culture was labor activity. Mastering and transferring the meaning of labor operations was carried out by showing and imitation. Actions after which a beneficial effect was observed became patterns that were copied and passed on from generation to generation and turned into a hardened ritual. For archaic man, magical rituals seemed as necessary and effective as any labor acts. The world of meanings was set by rituals. Pay special attention to the ritual "Own - Alien". With the development of language and speech, a new information channel is being formed - oral verbal communication. At this stage, mythological consciousness becomes the spiritual basis of primitive culture. Myths permeate all forms of human life and act as the main "texts" of primitive culture. In myths, practical information and skills of economic and social activity are fixed and consecrated. Thanks to their transmission from generation to generation, the experience accumulated over many centuries is preserved in social memory. Pay special attention to the rites of burial and initiation, as well as totemism, animism, fetishism, shamanism and primitive magic.

Culture of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian writing, literature and mythology

The peoples of Ancient Egypt created an original, interesting and rich culture, many of whose values entered the treasury of world culture, became its organic part.

Writing

One of the outstanding achievements of the ancient Egyptians was a peculiar writing system that could convey many shades of thought, complex movements human soul.

Ancient Egyptian writing originated from primitive patterns<#"6" height="6" src="/wimg/11/doc_zip1.jpg" />To reveal the specifics and uniqueness of medieval culture as an integral and qualitatively new stage in the development of European culture, following after antiquity. An analysis of European cultural specificity (in this case, medieval) is extremely important not only in terms of studying European culture. Understanding the European specifics allows you to better understand and comprehend the features of the national culture (which, in turn, is one of the requirements of the State Educational Standard).

On the example of medieval culture, which is the result of a contradictory synthesis of ancient traditions, the culture of barbarian peoples and Christianity, to reveal the complexity of the actual problem of the interaction of different cultures, to show the ambiguity and drama of the process of cultural interaction. The so-called "dialogue of cultures" can take very painful, painful forms.

To the maximum extent possible within study guide volume to show the features of Western European medieval culture in its historical and cultural specifics through the analysis of the cultural material of the era.

The analysis of medieval culture does not pretend, for obvious reasons, to exhaustive completeness, to cover the entire diverse cultural palette of the Middle Ages. The manual aims, along with the above, to summarize and reveal in the most accessible form the main achievements of medieval culture, to acquaint students with the content of the era that was inherited by subsequent culture, to show the contribution of the Middle Ages to the culture of mankind.

And the last. The study of medieval European culture will provide materials for students to think independently about the fate of European culture, encourage students to think about the problem of European specifics, help to see the diversity of cultures, and allow them to better understand and comprehend the specifics of the formation, formation and development of national culture.

Culture of the "Italian" Renaissance

In the XIII century, changes began in the worldview and worldview of the Italians, thanks to which quite soon the Middle Ages began to seem something alien, black, and sometimes scary. The Middle Ages itself was not such a homogeneous dark layer of time, as it seemed to the people of the Renaissance and as we imagine it today. It consisted of three epochs, very different from each other: the “dark ages”, when the natural feudal dominated on the cooled down ruins of the Roman Empire that committed suicide; the high era of chivalry, which ultimately threw Europe to the East, and, finally, the autumn of the Middle Ages - the time of the burghers, the domination of craft and trading cities, from which the Renaissance grew.

The people of the Renaissance renounced the previous era, presenting themselves as a bright flash of light in the midst of eternal darkness, despite the fact that they owed almost everything they had to the Middle Ages. This emotional surge of renunciation of the past was nothing more than an attempt to determine the time and find their place. The Renaissance felt that psychologically it was not similar to the Middle Ages, just as the worldview of the Florentine bourgeois of the 15th century, the owner of a bank and manufactories, could not be similar to the way of thinking of an artisan guild locked in a cramped dimly lit shop.

The Renaissance proclaimed itself the successor of antiquity, without actually being one. If the Middle Ages grew up on the remains of Rome, remaining the bearer of the idea of a universal monarchy, and perceived the ancient world as a half-forgotten pagan past, then the Renaissance raised the banner of the revival of the great traditions of Rome and Greece as a form of rejection of the Middle Ages. It was an attempt at self-determination, which had nothing to do with a genuine study of the ancient heritage. The people of the Renaissance had a very vague idea of this bygone era and did not seek to expand or systematize their knowledge in this area in any way. They, like children choosing toys in a store, pulled out individual statues, individual frescoes, individual books. It was more of a game, a curiosity about something other than the Middle Ages, than a serious interest.

Renaissance turned Ancient Rome in a quarry in a quarry for the extraction of marble, statues and architectural elements that were supposed to decorate beautiful palaces and cathedrals. The famous architect Donato Bramante built new rome, mercilessly destroying the traces of antiquity, for which even among his contemporaries he was nicknamed the Destroyer. Only in the 30s of the 16th century, already at the end of the Renaissance, the Vitruvian Academy was formed in Rome, whose members began to describe and measure the surviving ancient buildings. Moreover, this was done not with the aim of preserving them, but in order to obtain material for writing comments on the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius. Moreover, only the lack of suitable technical means did not allow Pope Sixtus V in the mid-80s of the 16th century to complete the work of his predecessors and demolish the Colosseum.

The culture of the "northern" revival. Reformation

Under the "northern" Renaissance, it is customary to mean the culture of the XV-XVI centuries in European countries lying north of Italy.

The art of the Netherlands, Germany and France (the main centers of the northern Renaissance) in the 15th century developed as a direct continuation of the Gothic, as its internal evolution towards the "worldly". The end of the 15th and 16th centuries was a time of great upheavals for the countries of Europe, the most dynamic and turbulent era in their history. Widespread religious wars, the struggle against the dominance of the Catholic Church - the Reformation, which grew in Germany into a grandiose Peasants' War, a revolution in the Netherlands, a dramatic glow at the end of the Hundred Years War of France and England, bloody feuds between Catholics and Huguenots in France. It would seem that the climate of the era was not conducive to the formation of clear and stately forms of the High Renaissance in art. And indeed: the Gothic tension and feverishness in the northern Renaissance does not disappear. But, on the other hand, humanistic education is spreading and the attractiveness of Italian art is increasing. The fusion of Italian influences with original Gothic traditions is the originality of the Northern Renaissance style.

Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into German can be considered the true beginning of the Northern Renaissance. This work continued for twenty years, but individual fragments became known earlier. The Lutheran Bible makes an era, firstly, in the German language: it becomes the basis of a single German language; secondly, it sets the precedent for the translation of the Bible into a modern literary language, and translations into English, French, and others will soon follow.

Among the types of artistic activity, painting was in the lead - as in the Italian Renaissance. The first among the great masters of this period should be called Hieronymus Bosch. In Bosch's paintings, written mostly on religious subjects, the combination of dark medieval fantasies and symbols with elements of folklore and accurate realistic details is striking. None of the subsequent masters of painting around the world will write such fantastic images bordering on insanity, but the influence of H. Bosch will be felt in the 20th century in the work of the surrealists.

Gais Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) can be considered one of the best portrait painters of this period. He owns portraits of Erasmus of Rotterdam and astronomer Nicholas Kratzer, Thomas More and Jane Seymour, interpreting the images of contemporaries as people full of dignity, wisdom, restrained spiritual strength. He also created wonderful illustrations for the Bible and "Praise of Stupidity", a series of engravings "Dance of Death".

A peculiar individuality was also noted in the work of the head of the Danube school of painting, Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538). He belongs to the priority in the formation of the landscape genre. However, his most interesting painting remains the Battle of Alexander with Darius (1529). The battle scene on Earth is echoed by the Sun, Moon and clouds competing in the sky. The picture is filled with many decorative details, exquisite in color, delightful in its pictorial skill. In addition, this is one of the first battle scenes painted in oil, so Altdorfer can be considered the founder of another pictorial genre.

The age of the Northern Renaissance was short-lived. The Thirty Years' War intervened in this process and delayed the development of German culture. But in history it has remained as an amazingly integral era, as a club of geniuses, masters of the word and painting, who communicate with each other, participate in a common struggle, travel, paint amazing portraits of each other, and are mutually inspired by ideas. The involvement of the peoples of the northern countries in the pan-European cultural process began at the time of the Northern Renaissance.

Summing up, it should be noted that the Renaissance in Italy and the Reformation in Northern Europe can, as N. Berdyaev did, be considered as stages of a transitional period that marked the end on a historical scale of one type of civilization (cosmogenic, traditional) and the beginning of a new, technogenic civilization.

general characteristics Western culture of modern times (XVII-XIX centuries)

Some scholars consider the New Age as one of the stages in the evolution of human society. Thus, in the teachings of K. Marx (1818-1883), history is depicted as a process of changing socio-economic formations subject to objective laws. Its most important factor is the class struggle. Marxism sees the essence of modern history in the development of the capitalist formation, where capitalists (bourgeois) and hired workers (proletariat) become the main social classes.

In the 50-60s of the XX century. R. Aron and W. Rostow create the theory of industrial society. It describes the transition from a backward agrarian "traditional" society dominated by Agriculture and class hierarchy, to an industrialized society with mass production, a market economy and a democratic social order. At the heart of this transition are technical innovations combined with an entrepreneurial and competitive spirit. Industrial society takes shape in Europe in the XVII-XIX centuries.

Today, in Western and Russian publications, the expression "modern era" (from the French modern - new, current, modern) is often used. Modern is understood as a political and economic system created in the same XVII-XIX centuries. in Europe and the USA, along with its corresponding forms of culture. The spread of the norms of the modern era to other regions of the world is called modernization. Societies that have not taken the path of modernization are regarded by supporters of this concept as backward, primitive, undeveloped, and even beyond history. The ideological orientation of these views is obvious.

Thus, one can see two approaches to the study of the New Time. One focuses on the emergence of a new form of society (capitalist, industrial, modernized), the other - the formation of a new type of person. Many historians gravitate toward the first, and culturologists and philosophers gravitate towards the second. However, most modern studies and descriptions of the New Age tend to give its multidimensional image, using various scientific traditions. The most interesting in this sense are the works of scientists from the Annales French historical school, who advocated a turn to the study of long-term processes, the evolution of various kinds of structures (demographic, market, mass consciousness), and the introduction of mathematical methods of data processing into history. Such is the three-volume work of F. Braudel (1902-1985) “Material Civilization, Economy and Capitalism of the 15th-18th Centuries”.

For us, New Time is a historical and cultural system that developed and existed at a certain time (the beginning of the 17th-80s of the 19th centuries) in Western Europe and North America. This system is a unique combination of civilizational, economic, social, political, cultural phenomena, historical forms of human life. The choice of these chronological frames is explained by the following. Undoubtedly, the emergence of many of the most important elements of the New Age is associated with the epochs of the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Reformation. However, only in the XVII century. they are combined into one whole and become the determining factors of European history. In the XVII-XIX centuries. the new European civilization reaches its peak, realizes the possibilities inherent in it. Late 19th and 20th centuries - this is already a period of rethinking and criticism of the ideas and values of the New Age, so it is advisable to talk about them separately.

Two periods can be distinguished in the modern history of Europe. The first covers 1640-1789. During these years, bourgeois social and economic relations finally supplanted the medieval ones. The second period of modern history - from 1789 to 1880 - the time of victory and the establishment of capitalism throughout Europe. The French Revolution of 1789-1799 played a decisive role in this process. and the subsequent reign of Napoleon Bonaparte (from 1799 - first consul, from 1804 to 1815 - emperor of France). The development of the European civilization of modern times combines evolutionary and revolutionary moments, the slow accumulation of certain phenomena and sharp, painful jumps that led to upheavals in the economy, politics, and culture.

General characteristics of the culture of the XX century. Postmodern culture

The aesthetic specificity of postmodernism in various types and genres of art is connected, first of all, with the non-classical interpretation of the classical traditions of the distant and near past, their free combination with ultra-modern artistic sensibility and technique. A broad understanding of tradition as a rich and diverse language of forms, whose range extends from ancient Egypt and antiquity to modernism of the 20th century, results in the concept of postmodernism as a freestyle in art that continued the aesthetic line of mannerism, baroque, rococo.

Postmodern dialogue with the history of culture is associated with a revival of interest in the problems of humanism in art, close attention to the content aspects of creativity, its emotional and empathic aspects. At the same time, the intensity of this dialogue creates a kind of ironic double code that reinforces the playful principle of postmodernism in art. Its stylistic pluralism forms a theatrical space of a significant layer of modern culture, whose decorativeness and ornamentality accentuate the figurative and expressive principle in art, asserting itself in a dispute with the trends of the previous modernist period.

The deep significance of postmodernism lies in its transitional nature, which creates opportunities for a breakthrough to new artistic horizons based on an unconventional understanding of traditional aesthetic values, a kind of amalgam of the Renaissance with futurism. The idea of Western culture as a reversible continuum, where the past and present live a full-blooded life, constantly enriching each other, encourages not to break with tradition, but to study the archetypes of classical art, synthesizing them with modern artistic realities. The departure from the revolutionary denial of aesthetics returns the development of the culture of the 20th century to an evolutionary course, which is felt not only in architecture, painting, literature, music, cinema, dance, fashion, but also in politics, religion, and everyday life.

Thus, the spread of postmodernism in architecture slowed down the destruction of the historical centers of cities, reviving interest in ancient buildings, the urban context, the street as an urban unit, bringing architecture closer to painting and sculpture on the basis of a common landmark - the human figure. There was a rehabilitation on a new theoretical basis of such basic aesthetic categories and concepts as beautiful, sublime, creativity, work, ensemble, content, plot, aesthetic pleasure, which were rejected by neo-avant-garde as "bourgeois". Seeing in neomodernism or "late modernism" (new abstractionism, high-tech architecture, conceptualism, etc.) its competitor, the aesthetics of postmodernism proceeds at the same time from a non-confrontational, pluralistic approach to other currents of contemporary art, for example, folk art, insisting on integrity world of artistic culture.

At the same time, in relation to this stage, there is also the term "neoconservative postmodernism", reflecting the influence of the ideas of neoconservatism on postmodern aesthetics. The protest and criticism of predecessors in the counterculture of the "new left" was replaced by the self-affirmation of the "new right" on the basis of the conservation of the cultural traditions of the past by combining them. The result is a situation of aesthetic balance between tradition and innovation, experiment and kitsch, realism and abstraction.

If the signs of postmodernism in painting in the 70s were still quite vague, then in architecture they are rapidly crystallizing. It was in architecture that the costs of modernism, associated with the standardization of the living environment, manifested themselves first and in the most obvious form. Postmodernism introduced new dominants into architecture - spatial and urban thinking, regionalism, environmentalism, and design. Appeal to the architectural styles of the past, the diversity and eclectic combination of materials, polychrome, anthropomorphic motifs significantly enriched the language of architecture, turning it into a bright, funny, understandable public art.

Over the past two decades, postmodernism, acquiring more and more respectability in the eyes of specialists and the general public, tends to be epic, monumental, meaningful self-identification. Interest in classical antiquity stimulates the search for harmony, perfection, symmetry in contemporary artistic life.

The Significance of Landscape and Acculturation in the Formation of Russian Culture

Culture of Ancient Russia

Culture of Russia in the 9th century. reflects the period of transition from tribal unions to a single ancient Russian people. At this time, first pagan, and then Christian religious ideas dominated. The culture of Ancient Russia was influenced by connections with Byzantium, Zap. Europe, with the East. Education was accessible to the general population. Craft and construction developed successfully. Already in the 11th century. Chronicles and icon painting were carried out. From the 11th century wandering buffoon actors became known. Epics, legends, etc. were created by the people. etc., passing from generation to generation. As early as the beginning of the 10th c. Slavic writing came to Russia, created by Cyril and Methodius. From the 11th century The Ostromir Gospel and the Izborniki by Metropolitan Hilarion have come down to us. Nestor at the beginning of the 12th century completed the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years". In pre-Mongol Russia, during the period of fragmentation, local centers of chronicle writing were created, the “word about Igor's regiment” was written. The temple Byzantine cross-domed style dominated in architecture (St. Sophia Cathedrals in Kyiv and Novgorod). Later, during the period of fragmentation, local schools arose. Special elegance at the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, the Assumption and Dmitrievsky Cathedrals in the city of Vladimir. The Romanesque style was mainly used. The centers of independent principalities were rebuilt. The culture of Ancient Russia originated from the cultures of local East Slavic tribes. At the same time, despite its Slavic orientation, Russian culture actively developed contacts with foreign cultures, primarily with Byzantium, Bulgaria, the countries of Central Europe, Scandinavia, the Khazar Khaganate and the Arab East. The culture of Ancient Russia developed so rapidly that by the 11th century. reached a fairly high level. In its development, it was more and more subordinate to the feudal order, which increasingly prevailed in society. An important role in its formation was played by Christianity, which set the model of Russian culture and determined the prospects for its development for many centuries.

Culture of the Russian Enlightenment

bright star Russian culture this period was literature. Almost all the ideas that excited the minds were tested on literary material. The most significant and productive in this respect were the first and last thirds of the century.

Russian literature of the 19th century is a phenomenon that belongs to the entire world culture. Under authoritarian conditions, it was at the same time a church, a school, a law office, and a testing ground. In addition, Russian literature turned out to be a real soothsayer, because many of its predictions came true.

The roots of the future tragedy of the Russian people also lie in the cultural life of Russia in this century. In the second half of the century, Russia flooded socialist ideas. Relying on the images of the long-suffering Russian peasantry and proletariat, many simply began to speculate on these ideas, although, undoubtedly, there were people who were sincerely interested in improving the material and spiritual conditions of life at the bottom of the social ladder. But often such thoughts were of an abstract nature, without much understanding of the true concerns and problems of the existence of the same peasants. The main tragedy of the Russian intelligentsia is seen in isolation from the people, believing that it was this factor that played a negative role in the subsequent history of Russian culture. What is the essence of this gap?

The existence of elite and grassroots cultures is an objective reality of any society, but unlike the West, according to P.N. Milyukov, the distancing between the vanguard of the intelligentsia and the popular masses in Russian culture took place not in the field of external forms of life and not even in the field of new critical ideas, but, above all, in relation to faith. The upper and lower classes had a different understanding of faith. For the upper strata of Russian society, the ritual formal side of faith has always come first, while the lower strata have paid more attention to the irrational manifestations of faith. And the rapprochement between the polar regions of the social structure was possible only through enlightenment and education, that is, pulling up the masses to the level of the intelligentsia. But the misfortune of Russian culture, which was clearly manifested in the 19th century, was that the matter of public education was left at the mercy of mediocre, inert officials and the church, which saw in this process only a form of educating an obedient little man. However, in the last third of the century, there has been some convergence of the positions of the top and bottom, which is associated with changes in the economic development of the country, but this process was almost stopped at the beginning of the twentieth century. The intelligentsia turned the people away from itself for a long time.

. "Golden Age" of Russian culture

Architecture and sculpture. The end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries is the era of classicism in Russian architecture, which left a bright imprint on the architectural appearance of both capitals and other cities.

Buildings in the style of classicism are distinguished by clarity, balance, a clear and calm rhythm, and well-balanced proportions. The main laws of architectural composition were symmetry, emphasizing the center, the general harmony of parts and the whole. The main entrance to the building was located in the center and was designed in the form of a portico (the protruding part of the building with columns and a pediment). The columns had to be different in color from the walls. Usually the columns were white, the walls were yellow.

For forty years, from 1818 to 1858, St. Isaac's Cathedral was built in St. Petersburg - the largest building erected in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. 13 thousand people can be inside the cathedral at the same time. The project was designed by the French architect Auguste Montferrand (1786-1858). The sculptor P. K. Klodt and the artist K. P. Bryullov took part in the design of the appearance and interior decoration of the cathedral. The cathedral was supposed to personify the power and inviolability of the autocracy, its close alliance with the Orthodox Church. The majestic building of the cathedral makes a strong impression. And yet, the author of the project and the customers cannot but be reproached for a certain gigantomania, which testified to the entry of classicism into a period of crisis.

According to the Montferrand project, a 47-meter column of granite monolith was erected on Palace Square (1829-1834) - a monument to Alexander I and at the same time - a monument in honor of the victory of Russian weapons in the Patriotic War of 1812. The figure of an angel holding a cross was made by B. I. Orlovsky.

After the fire in Moscow, such outstanding buildings were erected as the Bolshoi Theater (architect O. I. Bove), the Manege (the same architect, engineer A. A. Betancourt), the Board of Trustees on Solyanka (architect D. I. Gilardi) . A monument to Minin and Pozharsky was erected on Red Square - the work of Ivan Petrovich Martos (1754-1835). Following the traditions of classicism, the sculptor dressed his heroes in antique clothes.

At that time, the construction of profitable (apartment) houses began in St. Petersburg. They required several entrances, but according to the canons of classicism, only one main entrance could be made - in the center of the building. Shops began to be located on the lower floors of apartment buildings, but their wide windows did not fit in with the norms of classicism. And he left, swept away by the criticism of his contemporaries and the urgent demands of life.

Russian painting.

Academic painting reached its peak in the work of Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806-1858). For more than 20 years he worked on the painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People", in which he put all the power and brightness of his talent. In the foreground of his grandiose canvas, the courageous figure of John the Baptist catches the eye, pointing the people to the approaching Christ. His figure is given in the distance. He has not yet come, he is coming, he will definitely come, says the artist. And the faces and souls of those who are waiting for the Savior brighten, cleanse.

Two remarkable portrait painters of their time - Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (1782-1836) and Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776-1857) - left us lifetime portraits of Pushkin. Kiprensky's Pushkin looks solemn and romantic, in a halo of poetic glory. “You flatter me, Oresta,” Pushkin sighed, looking at the finished canvas. In the portrait of Tropinin, the poet is charming in a homely way. Some special old-Moscow warmth and comfort emanates from Tropinin’s works. , probably so fresh, so inspired on his canvases of the face ordinary people. And the youth and charm of his "Lacemaker" are endless.

Theater and music.

Foreign troupes and serf theaters continued to play an important role in the theatrical life of Russia. Some landowners gradually became entrepreneurs (theatrical entrepreneurs). Their theaters were turned into public ones. In, both serfs and civilian actors began to perform. Such theaters existed, for example, in Penza and Kazan.

Many talented Russian artists came out of the serfs. Mikhail Semenovich Shchepkin (1788-1863) was a serf until the age of 33. Pavel Stepanovich Mochalov (1800-1848) grew up in the family of a serf actor. In one of Belinsky's articles, Mochalov's performance of the role of Hamlet is described in detail. According to Belinsky, Mochalov "gave Hamlet much more strength and energy... and gave him much less sadness and melancholy than... Shakespeare's Hamlet should have...". Another outstanding performer of the role of Hamlet on the Russian stage at that time was V. A. Karatygin.

Literature of the early 19th century

The greatest prose writer of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, writer and historiographer Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766 - 1826) was no stranger to liberalism in his youth. His "Letters of a Russian Traveler" played important role in acquainting readers with Western European life and culture. The most famous of his stories is Poor Lisa(1792) tells a touching love story between a nobleman and a peasant woman. “And peasant women know how to feel,” this maxim contained in the story, despite its moderation, testified to the humane direction of the views of its author. At the beginning of the XIX century. Karamzin becomes a conservative. The writer's new views were reflected in his work "History of the Russian State".

The works of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1783 - 1852) constituted an important stage in the development of Russian lyrics - the romantic stage. Zhukovsky experienced a deep disappointment with the Enlightenment of the 18th century, and this disappointment turned his thoughts to the Middle Ages. As a true romantic, Zhukovsky considered the blessings of life to be transient and saw happiness only in immersion in the inner world of a person. A brilliant translator, Zhukovsky opened Western European romantic poetry to the Russian reader. Particularly remarkable are his translations from Schiller and the English Romantics.

In contrast to the romanticism of Zhukovsky, the lyrics of K. N. Batyushkov (1787 - 1855) were earthly, sensual, imbued with a bright view of the world, harmonious and graceful.

Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1769 - 1844) began his literary career as a journalist and playwright of the radical educational trend. However, his main merit is the creation of a classic Russian fable. Krylov often took the plots of his fables from other fabulists, primarily from La Fontaine. But at the same time, he always remained a deeply national poet, reflecting in his fables the peculiarities of the Russian national character and mind. Krylov opposes the privileges of the nobility and the arbitrariness of the strong, mocks officials, judges the characters of his fables from the point of view of the people. He brought the fable genre to a high naturalness and simplicity.

The largest poet among the Decembrists was Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (1795 - 1826). The author of tyrannical poems, such as "Citizen" and "To the temporary worker", he also wrote a series of patriotic "Dooms". Under the influence of Pushkin, Ryleyev created the romantic poem "Voinarovsky", which depicts the tragic fate of the Ukrainian patriot.

Ideologically, two of the greatest writers of that time, Griboyedov and Pushkin, were associated with Decembrism at certain periods of their lives.

The merits of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov (1795 - 1829) to Russian literature are based on one work. “Griboyedov did his own thing - he wrote “Woe from Wit”,” - with these words Pushkin summed up the brief life of his remarkable contemporary. In "Woe from Wit" (1824) there is no intrigue in the sense that French comedians understood it, and there is no happy denouement in the finale. The comedy is based on Chatsky's opposition to other characters who form the "famus circle", the noble society of Moscow. The struggle of an advanced person (Herzen directly calls Chatsky a “Decembrist”) against secular foundations, who have lost their national dignity and crawl before everything French, stupid martinets and persecutors of education, ends with the defeat of the hero. But the public pathos of Chatsky's speeches reflected the full force of indignation that had accumulated among the progressive Russian youth, their boundless hatred of serfdom. By satirically sharpening real features, Griboedov created relief types in which he outlined not only social features, but also individual ("portrait", as he himself said) features. He endowed each character with sharp, almost epigrammatic lines that immediately became proverbs.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837) - the great national genius, the creator of poetic works of unsurpassed beauty and perfection. As an artist, he developed with extraordinary speed, unmistakably assimilated the most valuable and significant in Russian and world culture. Brought up on French classicism of the 17th century and enlightenment literature of the 18th century, at the beginning of his creative way passed through the influence of romantic poetry and, enriched by its artistic conquests, was one of the first in the literature of the 19th century to rise to the level of high realism.

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (1803 - 1873) stands apart from Pushkin's galaxy. A poet-thinker, he achieves an amazing unity of thought and feeling. Tyutchev devotes his lyrical miniatures to depicting the connection between man and nature.

The work of Pushkin's greatest successor in the field of poetry, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841), is marked by the pathos of denying contemporary reality. Lermontov took shape as a poet in an era of timelessness, when the Decembrist movement had already been stifled, and the new generation of progressive, thinking people had not yet grown strong. This gave rise to motives of loneliness and bitter disappointment in his poetry.

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov (1821 - 1878), editor of Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski, was a friend and associate of Belinsky and Chernyshevsky. In the struggle that the revolutionary democrats waged against the liberal camp, Nekrasov took the side of the democrats, although not always consistently. In the person of Nekrasov, Russian literature put forward a revolutionary-democratic poet of great ideological depth and artistic maturity. The civic tendency of his poetry does not appear in him in the form of an abstract declaration, it flows entirely from the realistic reflection of life.

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826 - 1889) - a satirist of world significance. His satire, imbued with a conscious democratic tendency, is directed against the existing order in Russia, bringing them to the point of caricature and grotesque. Shchedrin shows great freedom in choosing forms and genres, resorting to satirical essay and feuilleton, novel and dialogue, comedy and pamphlet. In The History of a City (1869 - 1870) he gives a generalized satirical image of tsarism, the supreme power of the Russian empire. In the novel "Lord Golovlevs" (1870 - 1880) the disintegration of a noble family is shown, and the abomination and stench of serfdom are embodied in the image of Judas. Mine artistic analysis Shchedrin clarified and supplemented in Poshekhonskaya Antiquity (1887-1889), where he processed the same vital material in a form close to a memoir. In "Tales" (1869-1886) Shchedrin, using a conventionally fantastic form, with exceptional force, clarity and expressiveness, showed the social characteristics of Russian life - peasants, officials, gentlemen generals, as well as the relationship between them.

Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) occupies an outstanding place among the figures of world culture. Tolstoy came from the highest noble nobility, but he refused titles and acted as a spokesman for the ideas and sentiments of the many millions of Russian peasants. In the biographical trilogy "Childhood, adolescence and youth" (1851-1856), the protagonist Nikolenka Irteniev belongs to those morally sensitive people from the ruling class who are acutely aware of social injustice and the lies of life around them. The image of such a person, painfully seeking the truth, wanting to understand what is happening, runs through all of Tolstoy's work.

. "Silver Age" of Russian culture

At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, Russia made a significant contribution to world scientific and technological progress, which was called the "revolution in natural science", since the scientific discoveries made during this period led to a revision of established ideas about the world around.

Physicist P.N. Lebedev was the first in the world to establish the general patterns inherent in wave processes of various nature (sonic, electromagnetic, hydraulic, etc.), and made other discoveries in the field of wave physics.

The outstanding Russian scientist V. I. Vernadsky gained worldwide fame for his encyclopedic works, which served as the basis for the emergence of new scientific directions in geochemistry, biochemistry, radiology.

Vernadsky was President Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1925; Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1912; Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1917), the first President of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1919), professor at Moscow University (in 1898-1911). Vernadsky's ideas played an outstanding role in the formation of the modern scientific picture of the world. At the center of his natural science and philosophical interests is the development of a holistic doctrine of the biosphere, living matter (organizing the earth's shell) and the evolution of the biosphere into the noosphere, in which the human mind and activity, scientific thought become the determining factor in development, a powerful force comparable in its impact on nature with geological processes. Vernadsky's doctrine of the relationship between nature and society had a strong influence on the formation of modern environmental consciousness. He developed the traditions of Russian cosmism, based on the idea of the internal unity of mankind and the cosmos. Vernadsky is one of the leaders of the Zemstvo liberal movement and the party of the Cadets (Constitutional Democrats). Organizer and director of the Radium Institute (1922-39), Biogeochemical Laboratory (since 1928; now the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences). State Prize of the USSR (1943).

Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov created the doctrine of higher nervous activity and conditioned reflexes, introduced into practice a chronic experiment that made it possible to study the activity of a practically healthy organism. With the help of the method of conditioned reflexes developed by him, he established that the basis of mental activity is physiological processes occurring in the cerebral cortex. Pavlov's studies of the physiology of higher nervous activity (2nd signal system, types nervous system, localization of functions, systemic work of the cerebral hemispheres, etc.) had a great influence on the development of physiology, medicine, psychology and pedagogy, and the Nobel Prize in 1904 for research in the field of physiology of digestion became recognition of his many years of work.

In 1908 I.I. also received the Nobel Prize. Mechnikov for his work on immunology and infectious diseases.

Mechnikov created the Russian school of microbiologists and immunologists, among his students - A.M. Bezredka, L.A. Tarasevich, D.K. Zabolotny, Ya.Yu. Bardakh, etc. Except scientific papers, he left an extensive literary legacy - popular science and scientific and philosophical works, memoirs, articles, translations, etc.

At the origins of modern astronautics was a nugget, a world-famous scientist - K.E. Tsiolkovsky. Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was the first to substantiate the possibility of using rockets for interplanetary communications, indicated rational ways for the development of astronautics and rocket science, and found a number of important engineering solutions for the design of rockets and a liquid-propellant rocket engine. Tsiolkovsky's technical ideas find application in the creation of rocket and space technology.

Literature

The ambiguous nature of Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century. most prominently reflected in the Russian artistic culture of the Silver Age.

On the one hand, in the works of writers, the stable traditions of "critical realism" of the 19th century are preserved. Leading positions are occupied by luminaries - L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, V.G. Korolenko, D.N. Mamin-Siberian. They are being replaced by I.A. Bunin, A.I. Kuprin, M. Gorky.

The "Silver Age" can hardly be designated by anyone with one name: expressions like "Gorky period" or "Blok's galaxy" are absolutely impossible here. The peculiarity of the century is that the halo was created by a variety of writers, often polarly different in their creative principles, in the direction of talent, who argued with each other in the most severe way.

But all of them were united by one thing, the main thing: the awareness of their era as a completely special one, going beyond what was before, in the nineteenth century in the first place, and at the same time - an active, effective attitude towards this era and its problems.

Painting

The World of Art, the World of Art, is an association of artists created in St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century, which made itself known with a magazine and exhibitions, from whose name it got its name. The "World of Art" included different time almost all leading Russian artists: L. Bakst, A. Benois, M. Vrubel, A. Golovin, M. Dobuzhinsky, K. Korovin, E. Lansere, I. Levitan, M. Nesterov, V. Serov, K. Somov and others. All of them, very different, were united by a protest against the official art planted by the Academy, and the naturalism of the Wanderers. The slogan of the circle was "art for art's sake" in the sense that artistic creativity in itself carries the highest value and does not need ideological prescriptions from outside. At the same time, this association did not represent any artistic movement, direction, or school. It was made up of bright individuals, each went his own way.

The art of the "World of Art" arose "on the edge of thin feathers of graphic artists and poets." The atmosphere of new romanticism, which penetrated into Russia from Europe, resulted in the vagaries of the vignettes of the then fashionable magazines of the Moscow symbolists "Scales", "Golden Fleece". The design of the patterned fences of St. Petersburg was connected with the aspirations of the artists of the Abramtsevo circle I. Bilibin, M. Vrubel, V. Vasnetsov, S. Malyutin to create a “Russian national style”. The soul of the editorial board of the magazine "World of Art" was A. Benois, the organizer was S. Diaghilev. A lot of attention on the pages of the magazine was paid to theoretical issues: the problem of artistic synthesis and the synthetic method, book graphics and its specifics, popularization of the work of contemporary Western artists. Special place in the work of the World of Arts was occupied by St. Petersburg, “the window to Europe”, its image as a symbol of the unity of Russian and Western European culture (the so-called St. Petersburg style). Peter the Great, according to Benois, was "the main idol of their circle." The artists of the "World of Art" and the "modern style" paid tribute. In 1902-1903. In St. Petersburg, the World of Art organized a permanent salon "Modern Art", where works of decorative and applied art and interior design were exhibited, reflecting the new trends of Art Nouveau. In 1903, the St. Petersburg World of Art united with the Moscow group "36 Artists", as a result of which the "Union of Russian Artists" was formed. In 1904, the magazine "World of Art" ended its existence.

A number of major Russian artists - V. Kandinsky, M. Chagall, P. Filonov and others - entered the history of world culture as representatives of unique styles that combined avant-garde trends with Russian national traditions.

Kandinsky believed that the innermost meaning can be most fully expressed in compositions organized on the basis of rhythm, the psychophysical effect of color, contrasts of dynamics and statics.

Abstract canvases were grouped by the artist into three cycles: "Impressions", "Improvisations" and "Compositions". The rhythm, the emotional sound of color, the vigor of the lines and spots of his pictorial compositions were called upon to express powerful lyrical sensations, similar to the feelings awakened by music, poetry, and views of beautiful landscapes. The carrier of inner experiences in Kandinsky's non-objective compositions was the coloristic and compositional orchestration, carried out by pictorial means - color, point, line, spot, plane, contrasting collision of colorful spots.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985), painter and graphic artist. A native of Russia, since 1922 abroad.

The innovative formal techniques of cubism and orphism, learned during the years of Parisian life - geometrized deformation and faceting of volumes, rhythmic organization, conditional color - in Chagall were aimed at creating a tense emotional atmosphere of paintings. Everyday reality on his canvases was illuminated and spiritualized by eternally living myths, the great themes of the cycle of life - birth, wedding, death. The action in Chagall's unusual canvases unfolded according to special laws, where the past and the future, phantasmagoria and everyday life, mysticism and reality were fused. The visionary (dreaming) essence of the works, coupled with a figurative beginning, with a deep “human dimension”, made Chagall the forerunner of such trends as expressionism and surrealism

Sculpture also experienced a creative upsurge during this period. Her awakening was largely due to the trends of Impressionism. Significant progress on the path of renewal was achieved by P.P. Trubetskoy. His sculptural portraits of L.N. Tolstoy, S.Yu. Witte, F.I. Chaliapin and others. They most consistently reflected the main artistic rule of the master: to capture even if little noticeable instantaneous internal movement of a person.

The combination of the tendencies of impressionism and modernity characterizes the work of A.S. Golubkina. In generalized symbolic images, she tried to convey the mighty spirit and awakening consciousness of the workers (“Iron”, 1897; “Walking”, 1903; “Seated”, 1912 - all plaster, Russian Museum; “Worker”, plaster, 1909, Tretyakov Gallery) . Impressionistic fluidity of forms, richness of shadow contrasts (characteristic, first of all, for the early works of the sculptor), appeal to symbolism in the spirit of Art Nouveau (high relief "Swimmer", or "Wave", on the facade of the Moscow Art Theater, plaster, 1909; "Birch", plaster , 1927, Russian Museum) coexist in the work of Golubkina with the search for constructiveness and plastic clarity, especially manifested in her acutely psychological portraits (Andrei Bely, plaster, 1907; E.P. Nosova, marble, 1912; T.A. Ivanova, plaster, 1925 - all in the Russian Museum; A. N. Tolstoy, A. M. Remezov, both wood, 1911, V. F. Ern, wood, 1913; G. I. Savinsky, bronze - Tretyakov Gallery).

A significant mark in the Russian art of the Silver Age was left by S.T. Konenkov. (1874-1971) An outstanding master of Russian sculpture of symbolism and modernity, who continued the traditions of the "Silver Age" in completely new historical conditions.

Early 20th century - this is the time of the creative take-off of the great Russian composers-innovators A. Scriabin, I. Stravinsky, S. Taneyev, S. Rachmaninov. In their work, they tried to go beyond traditional classical music, to create new musical forms and images.

A notable feature of the culture of the Silver Age was the search for a new theater. They are associated with the names of outstanding directors - K. Stanislavsky, V. Meyerhold, E. Vakhtangov.

The activities of Stanislavsky had a significant impact on the Russian and world theater of the 20th century. Since 1877 on the amateur stage (Alekseevsky circle, Society of art and literature). In 1898 with V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko founded the Moscow Art Theater. For the first time, he approved the principles of the director's theater on the Russian stage (the unity of the artistic concept that subjugates all the elements of the performance; the integrity of the acting ensemble; the psychological conditionality of mise-en-scenes). He sought to create a poetic atmosphere of the performance, to convey the "mood" of each episode, the authenticity of the images, the authenticity of the actor's experience (1914), developed the methodology of acting creativity, the technique of organic transformation into an image ("Stanislavsky's system"). He played in many theater performances. He also worked in the field of musical theater. From 1918 he headed the Opera Studio of the Bolshoi Theater (later the Stanislavsky Opera House).

Remaining faithful to the general laws of art, feelings and the organics of the actor's existence in the image, Vakhtangov affirms the need for a new stage language corresponding to the time of social fights and explosions, refuses the poetics of the intimate psychological and everyday theater, from the "fourth wall" - the ramp separating the world of the stage from hall, proclaims "death to naturalism", strives for direct contact between the actor and the viewer, requires a festive, enchanting theatrical convention

The theme "Culture of the Silver Age" is inexhaustible. These are hundreds of wonderful names, dozens of trends, directions. In the era of the Silver Age, many areas of human activity received new development, but completely new manifestations of the human mind also arose. Cinema arose, man began to master the airspace, put electromagnetic waves at his service.

The rapid development of culture at the turn of the century, of course, contributed to the democratization of society and the desire for enlightenment. The spirit of freedom, the absence of restrictions on creativity, even some de-ideologization - all this contributed to the emergence of so many currents that often even reached the point of absurdity. But time always puts everything in its place, and the true values remain for centuries, and the heroes do not die.

Unfortunately, the Great October Revolution contributed little to the further development of free thought. The fate of many geniuses of the Silver Age was tragic: those who could not or did not want to create according to the rules of socialist realism were forced to immigrate and wander around foreign lands. Many were repressed and ended their lives in the Gulag, the rest had to change their ideals and adapt to new conditions, which also, as a rule, led to a tragic ending.

Russian culture of the Soviet period

Spiritual searches and cultural construction in the 20-30s.

So, a socialist revolution is taking place in Russia. And after a few years civil war Soviet power is established on the territory of the former Russian Empire, headed by the Bolshevik Party. The price of this revolution for Russian culture was very high. If we talk in general about the concept of the cultural policy of the Bolshevik Party, then the tasks of creating a new type of culture - a socialist culture - were put forward as a long-term perspective. Therefore, the cultural revolution became the main socio-cultural component of the post-October era. Its essence was that it was considered as a process of radical breaking of the existing stereotypes of social consciousness and spiritual and moral guidelines in people's behavior.

At the same time, the cultural revolution is a state policy aimed at changing the social composition of the post-revolutionary intelligentsia and breaking with the main traditions of the cultural past. The creator of the slogan of the cultural revolution V.I. Lenin in his work “Pages from a Diary” defined its main tasks as follows: the elimination of cultural backwardness and, above all, the illiteracy of the country's population, opening up space for development creative forces working people, the formation of a socialist intelligentsia and ensuring the dominance of the ideology of scientific communism.

Naturally, in this case, the intelligentsia could not expect anything good from the Soviet government. Hence its mass exodus abroad. Those who could, left on their own, and those who were expelled by the Soviet government /suffice it to recall the famous “philosophical ship”, when famous Russian philosophers, scientists and other figures of Russian culture were sent abroad on it in 1922 /. The majority of those who left had a hard time with their forced departure, because they were true patriots of their Motherland, and therefore did everything possible to preserve Russian culture.

Publishing houses are being created that print books in Russian, and numerous newspapers and magazines are published. Great educational work was carried out by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, as well as the Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, whose professors were Russian philosophers - S. Bulgakov, V. Zenkovsky, V. Ilyin, G. Fedotov, S. Frank.

It was thanks to the great educational work that the Russian emigration retained its national character, and the children of emigrants who left their homeland at a young age or were born in emigration received education in their native language and did not break ties with Russian culture, but continued to develop it even in conditions of complete separation from their native soil.

The largest detachment of Russian culture in exile was represented by figures of artistic culture. These were almost all famous writers and poets of that time: A. Averchenko, M. Aldanov, L. Andreev, M. Artsybashev, K. Balmont, N. Berberova, I. Bunin, Z. Gippius, M. Gorky, B. Zaitsev , A. Kuprin, I. Odoevtseva, M. Osorgin, I. Severyanin, A. Tolstoy, V. Khodasevich, M. Tsvetaeva, I. Shmelev and many others. Subsequently, A. Tolstoy, M. Gorky, A. Kuprin, M. Tsvetaeva returned to their homeland. Feeling deep nostalgia for Russia, the vast majority of Russian writers actively continued their work, contributing to the development of Russian literature. A.A. Bunin in 1933 was the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature for his literary work.

The eradication of illiteracy was a real socio-cultural revolution during these years. This process largely determined the new system of education. In 1925, a decree “On the introduction of universal primary education in the country” was adopted, according to which the Soviet school was created as a single two-stage / the first stage - five years of study, the second - four years /, public, teaching in the native language. Its most important principles were: the connection of education with production work, the continuity of the levels of education and upbringing.

If we talk about the sphere of artistic culture, then its existence in the 20s. was largely determined by the confrontation between two groups in literature - RAPP / Russian Association of Proletarian Writers / and "Pass".

By the mid-1930s, an integral social system had developed in the USSR, which can be defined as "state socialism". During this period, enlightenment and science achieved quite great success. There were reasons for this. By the end of the twenties, the head of the Soviet state I.V. Stalin realized that there was little hope for a world revolution, and therefore it was necessary to strengthen the Soviet state as a bulwark of world socialism. And for this it is necessary to carry out industrialization at the beginning - to create a self-sufficient industrial production. And already in the 30s. The USSR became a country that could produce almost any kind of industrial product.

The Academy of Sciences of the USSR became the center of scientific thought, and its branches and research institutes were established throughout the country. On the other hand, the development of education and science in the Soviet years was also determined by the fact that the traditions of scientific schools that had already formed in pre-revolutionary Russia were not completely lost. In addition, the majority of natural scientists, mathematicians, and technologists did not emigrate, but remained at home. Yes, and talents, including in the scientific field, have never been transferred to our land.

From here in the Soviet Union there were national literature, music, painting, theater, cinema (Tajik, Uzbek, Georgian, Tatar, Chuvash, etc., etc.) And the creations of Russian composers, painters, sculptors, directors and other artists called Soviet. But even in such conditions, many traditions of truly Russian culture were preserved, because the Russian mentality, which was formed over the centuries, could not just dissolve among such an entity as the Soviet people.

The most massive and popular art has become cinema and, above all, fiction. It became sound and multi-genre. Films on a historical theme were created by directors S. Eisenstein / "Alexander Nevsky" /, V. Pudovkin / "Suvorov" and "Minin and Pozharsky" /, V. Petrov / "Peter the First" /. The events of the revolution and the civil war were devoted to the films of G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg "Trilogy about Maxim", E. Dzigan "We are from Kronstadt", Y. Raizman "The Last Night", A. Zarkhi and I. Kheifits "Deputy of the Baltic", M. Romm "Lenin in October" and "Lenin in 1918". One of the most truly popular films of Russian cinema was the famous "Chapaev" by the brothers G. and S. Vasiliev. The musical comedies directed by G. Aleksandrov "Merry Fellows", "Circus", "Volga-Volga", "Bright Path", in which the first star of Soviet cinema Lubov Orlova shone, as well as I. Pyryev "The Rich Bride", " Tractor drivers”, “Pig and shepherd” with another movie star Marina Ladynina.

Culture during the Great Patriotic War and the first post-war decade

Aircraft designers - Ilyushin, Lavochkin, Mikoyan, Petlyakov, Polikarpov, Sukhoi, Tupolev, Yakovlev - made their contribution to strengthening the country's defense potential. At the end of the war, S. Korolev and M. Yangel began laying the foundation for the development of rocket technology. And in Moscow, a laboratory began to operate under the direction of I. Kurchatov, which began to develop the fission of uranium.

During the war years, there was a "warming" of relations between church and state. The Soviet leadership realized that the church is the organization that can be used to raise the morale of the people, i.e. can contribute to the rallying of the people for the struggle against foreign invaders. Therefore, churches began to open again, theological seminaries began to function again, within the walls of which cadres of clergy were trained for the newly opened church parishes.

Art had an even greater influence on rallying and raising the patriotic spirit of the people during the war years. The experience of domestic art during the war years completely refutes the walking aphorism: "when the guns fire, the muses are silent." For our art, the Great Patriotic War was a time of powerful upsurge in all areas of artistic creativity. Literature, music / especially songwriting /, painting and poster graphics, documentaries and feature films - all wartime art, regardless of type, genre, style, has common features determined by life itself.

It was during this formidable time that the theme of the Motherland, Russia sounds with renewed vigor in the works of many writers. These features marked the military lyrics of poets of different generations, aesthetic schools, life and creative experience, who were united by the consciousness of the enormous significance of what was happening. The heroic Russian character was fully revealed in A. Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin", A. Tolstoy's story "The Russian Character", chapters from M. Sholokhov's novel "They Fought for the Motherland", K. Simonov's story "Days and Nights". The brightest page in the cultural life of besieged Leningrad was the premiere of the Seventh Leningrad Symphony by D. Shostakovich, dedicated to the defenders of the city.

During these years, special attention was paid to cinematography as the most important mass means of ideological education. The cinema of the war years creates its own chronicle, sometimes turning to the help of literature, but more often - according to original scripts. The feat becomes the content, the plot of the films - a military, labor feat, a moral feat. Cinematography opens up new layers of life, new facets of the national character. Although the achievements of the cinema of the war years were unequal, its overall contribution to the victory can hardly be overestimated. Cinema drew examples of heroism, resilience, self-sacrifice from life and, in turn, returned to the viewer a charge of courage, optimism, hatred of the enemy and faith in victory. It was the films of the war years, and above all - "The Secretary of the District Committee" and "Six o'clock in the evening after the war" by I. Pyryev, "Two Soldiers" by L. Lukov, "She Defends the Motherland" by F. Ermler, "Invasion" by A. Room, "Rainbow » by M. Donskoy - were of great educational value and left a significant mark on the emotional memory of the people.

The war is over. Peaceful days have come. The country began to heal its wounds. And in the first post-war years, one of the central places was given to ideological work. The war had a great impact on the spiritual climate of society. A generation of people has grown up, hardened by the war, endured its hardships, with hope for a better future. People have increased self-esteem. However, no matter how fair the war is for the people, it worsens the psychological climate of society. The participation of people in mass exterminations, the depreciation of human life, child homelessness, the destruction of families - all this created many problems for the authorities, which led to increased administrative pressure on various aspects of society, and the activities of cultural workers were subjected to strict control. To this should be added the beginning of the "cold war" as a confrontation between two social systems, which led to the creation of the so-called "Iron Curtain" between the USSR and the USA, as well as the countries of Western Europe.

"Thaw" in the spiritual life of society and cultural life countries in the 1970s and 1980s

After the death of I. Stalin /March 1953/ and the XXth Congress of the CPSU, there comes a moment of renewal of our society, called the "Thaw" / after the name of the story of the same name by I. Ehrenburg, which appeared at that time /. During the Thaw, a global socio-cultural turn took place in Soviet society: the myths of Stalinism were debunked, public consciousness was freed from dogmas and ideological stereotypes. The process of spiritual renewal in Soviet society touched, first of all, on the problem of the responsibility of the "fathers" for the departure from ideals. October revolution, which has become a criterion for measuring the historical past of the country, as well as the moral position of an individual.

As for art, in the 50s and 60s a large galaxy of young and talented writers, different in their style, came to literature. But they were united by the fact that in their work they rejected the concept of the “man-cog” of the state machine, and showed the life of ordinary people with their sorrows and joys, i.e. without false pretenses. These include: V. Aksenov, B. Akhmadulina, A. Voznesensky, V. Voinovich, E. Evtushenko, A. Zhigulin, F. Iskander, Yu. Kazakov, V. Maksimov, R. Rozhdestvensky, N. Rubtsov. At the same time, such a trend as “village prose” arose in literature. Representatives of this trend - F. Abramov, V. Belov, B. Mozhaev, E. Nosov, V. Ovechkin, V. Rasputin, V. Shukshin - saw the disappearance of the Russian village, the depreciation of folk culture, the tragedy of turning the people into a silent and downtrodden marginal. the works of writers - "villagers" were, as it were, a signal of alarm and pain.

A whole generation of young film directors, screenwriters, and actors grew up in the 1960s. S. Bondarchuk, I. Talankin, G. Chukhrai, A. Alov and V. Naumov, M. Khutsiev, in close cooperation with the masters of older generations - M. Kalatozov, Y. Raizman, M. Romm, S. Gerasimov - created many significant films that have become an event not only in Soviet, but also in world cinema. First of all, these are “Forty-First”, “Ballad of a Soldier”, “The Fate of a Man”, “The Cranes Are Flying”, “Nine Days of One Year”, “I am Twenty Years Old”.

During the years of "stagnation", as an internal protest against official art, which went in line with the dominant ideology, underground art was formed / from the English. Undergraund - underground /. It is most fully manifested in music / a phenomenon of rock culture /, in literature / the so-called samizdat / and fine arts / it is enough to at least name the Leningrad partnership called “Mitki” or artists, participants in the so-called “Bulldozor Exhibition” /.

The seventies were the time of the rise of theatrical art. Especially popular were such theaters as the Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theater in Leningrad, headed by G. Tovstonogov, as well as Moscow theaters - Sovremennik, headed by O. Efremov / then, when Efremov became the head of the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov, he was replaced by G. Volchek / Drama and Comedy Theater on Taganka, headed by Yu. Lyubimov. The Bolshoi Theater remained the center of the musical theater. During these years, ballerinas and dancers shone on its stage - M. Plisetskaya, N. Timofeeva, E. Maksimova, M. Liepa, V. Vasiliev, M. Lavrovsky. He was also glorified by the names of singers and singers - G. Vishnevskaya, T. Milashkina, T. Sinyavskaya, B. Rudenko, I. Arkhipova, E. Obraztsova, V. Atlantov, E. Nesterenko, Yu. Gulyaeva.

The seventies are also the heyday of the so-called author's / bard / song. Its representatives were very popular: B. Okudzhava, A. Galich, V. Vysotsky, Yu. Vizbor, Yu. Kim, A. Gorodnitsky, T. and S. Nikitin, N. Matveeva. The "stars" of the stage of the first magnitude were L. Zykina, E. Piekha, A. Pugacheva, S. Rotaru, I. Kobzon, M. Magomaev, L. Leshchenko.

In the seventies, domestic cinema successfully developed. It was during these years that the flowering of creativity of such masters of the screen as G. Danelia, E. Ryazanov, L. Gaidai, A. German, I. Averbakh, S. Rostotsky, M. Schweitzer, A. Konchalovsky, N. Mikhalkov, V. Melnikov falls , A. Tarkovsky, A. Mitta.

One of the founders of cultural studies, the founder of the study of cultures within the framework of a holistic science is L.A. White. Thanks to the work of this scientist, the term "culturology" has become scientific.

L. White was engaged in the development of the science of culture all his life. It, in his opinion, includes the identification of the structure of such a phenomenon as culture; analysis of the relationship between the concepts of "culture", "nature" and "society; a criterion for the development of cultures; the theory of cultural systems and the explanation of such classical problems of anthropology as exogamy, kinship systems, the evolution of forms of marriage, and much more. "Culturology," wrote L. White, is a very young branch of science. After several centuries of development of astronomy, physics and chemistry, several decades of development of physiology and psychology, science has finally turned its attention to what determines the "human" behavior of a person to the greatest extent - to his culture ... An explanation of culture can only be cultural" The anthropologist outlined the main ideas and the general concept of the study of culture in his fundamental works: "The Science of Culture" / 1949 /, "The Evolution of Culture" / 1959 / and "The Concept of Cultural Systems: the Key to Understanding Tribes and Nations".

In general theoretical terms, culturology is defined by White as "a branch of anthropology that considers culture / institutions, technologies, ideologies / as an independent ordering of phenomena organized in accordance with their own principles and existing according to their own laws." According to White, it is not society that is a specific feature of the human species, but rather culture, alike. how they are different phenomena. For many years, engaged in theoretical research and practical research in the field of anthropology, instead of a psychological explanation of culture, based on the individual-personal qualities of a person, he offered a culturological one.

The main provisions of the culturological approach are that people behave this way and not otherwise, because they were brought up in certain cultural traditions. The behavior of the people, according to L. White, "is not determined by the physical type or genetic gender, not by ideas, desires, hopes and fears, not by the processes of social interaction, but by an external extrasomatic tradition. Brought up in the Tibetan linguistic tradition, people will speak Tibetan, and not on the English language. Attitude towards monogamy, polygamy or polyandry, aversion to milk, taboo relationship with mother-in-law or. the use of the multiplication table is all determined by people's reactions to cultural traditions. The behavior of the people is a function of its culture. "And culture in a person's life acts, in his opinion, as an independent process: "determines itself", forming new combinations and connections. So, a certain form of language, writing, social organization, etc. develops from a previous state of progressively interacting elements.

"The stream of culture flows, changes, grows, develops in accordance with its inherent laws - this is the dominant constant in the concept of the American evolutionist. There was no place for a cultural person here. Indeed, is a biological individual "man-animal" needed to explain the development of mathematics, money circulation ", ideology? He is just a passive spectator, reacting to the "stream of culture". White considered man as an essential factor in evolution only in the process of the emergence of culture. When it arose, all its metamorphoses from a human animal / in an individual or collective state / are already people are needed only to pass it on to other generations.

L. White believed that cultural studies should be provided with a material, cognizable subject of study. If the phenomena of culture are studied in all interconnections with each other, without connection with the human body, then they will become the subject of cultural studies.

White considered the ability of a person to symbolize as the initial element of culture, which determines the sign of humanity. "A symbol," he writes, "can be defined as a thing or phenomenon, action or object, the meaning of which is imposed by a person: holy water, a fetish, a ritual, a word." A symbol combines physical form and meaning. Moreover, the second cannot be established with the help of the senses or chemical analysis, it depends on the cultural tradition. As an example, he took holy water, which does not differ in composition from ordinary water; introduced the concept of symbolic behavior, "as a result of which meanings are created and perceived by indistinguishable senses", subject to rational comprehension and transmitted through language. In other words, the scientist considered words to be the most important rational symbolic forms in culture, assigning a certain role to the symbolic nature of culture. He distinguished two types of signs: those associated with the physical form and those not dependent on it. The non-subordination of the world of symbols to sensory perception emphasized the rational, intellectual nature of cultural phenomena / customs, concepts, cultural codes / in comparison with phenomena in the animal world.

Under the influence of W. Ostwald and other supporters of energyism, L. White believed that the main content of the dynamics of cultural changes is the degree of energy supply of mankind, and "the history of civilizations is the history of increasing human control over energy." In accordance with this, White proposed to consider cultures as forms of organization and systems for the transformation of energy. He used the concept of "entropy" in cultural studies as the degree of organization of processes. The Universe is dominated by the laws of thermodynamics, according to which energy tends to uniform dispersion in space, and the structure of the Universe - to simplification /increase in entropy /, as a result - to a certain equilibrium state /thermal death of the Universe/. However, in living organisms and human communities, the process goes in the opposite direction in terms of the complexity of the structure and the accumulation of energy.

In search of the form and content of cultural studies, L. White comes to the conclusion that the cultural system consists of three levels: "a technological layer at the base, a philosophical one at the top, and a sociological layer between them." All culture is based on the technological level and depends on it, since it is a combination of material, mechanical, physical means and techniques for their use. Therefore, it is primary, because without it, a person as an animal species could not interact with nature. The technological layer affects the content of the sociological /social/ level, including interpersonal relationships. The philosophical /ideological/ layer covers cultural values, art, expresses technological forces and reflects social systems.

White's merit lies primarily in the fact that he clearly raised the question of the need to define the subject of cultural studies as a science, those phenomena that should be within its competence.