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The abnormal “new normal”: The concept of the “new normal” as a framing structure in social media discourse: A cognitive-discursive analysis
Views:167This study is devoted to the analysis of the concept of the "new normal" and the description of its frame structure in everyday usage within social media discourse. Based on a cognitive-discursive approach, the study examines the transformation of the meaning of the expression "the new normal" from its original economic-political term into a polysemous linguistic tool for expressing evaluation, anxiety, and rejection. Using comments from social media platforms (such as Facebook, Telegram, and LiveJournal), the study identifies frames and thematic groups in which this concept is actualized: the moral and value devaluation, the cultural-civilizational crisis, ideological pressure, the normalization of violence, the mediatization of tragedies, and the social adaptation to post-COVID realities. The analysis shows that the "new normal" functions in media discourse as a marker of normative transformation and a cognitive representation of crisis phenomena. The concept serves as an ironic label, a means of stigmatization, emotional evaluation, and as a tool for expressing identity and describing the "other" amid global and local changes.
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The Outlines of Meaning’s Analysis of Social Phenomena in the Concept of S. L. Frank
14 p.Views:462The present paper deals with the problem of how cultural meanings are perceived in S. L.
Frank’s social theory. His conception lies between two main paths of sociological thought:
Durkheim’s cognition of social facts as objective phenomena on the one hand, and Weber’s
cognition of subjective meanings of personal actions, on the other. In his theory Frank concentrates
on the concept of objective forming idea-force, which resembles the concept of
social fact in its quality of exerting pressure on individual consciousness and volition, but it
should be brought into harmony with interpretive methodology. In Frank’s view social ideas
are regarded as a force forming social relations and therefore lie in the foundation of social
institutions. These are, for example, ideas of state, of family, of friendship and so on. Social
ideas are connected with the consciousness of the individual by their moral force. That is
why such ideas are accepted by the individual at the emotional level of his spiritual life,
because they believe that these ideas are true and organize their meanings and activities according
to them. Thus social meanings of moral good or evil in human relations and in the
social structure arise. At the same time they signify the emergence of sacred phenomena in
society. Human beings, according the Frank’s theory, have an internal need to be possessed
by the sacred senses that give them the feeling of the participation in the implementation of
the transcendent goals. Society is an objective living idea which provides sacred meanings
for the individual. On the whole, a society’s life is formed by the historically specific complex
of ideas that are freely accepted or rejected by individuals and determine their feelings and
behavior. There is no contradiction between personal freedom, creativity and social structure
in S. Frank’s theory. The author of the present paperfinds similarities between S.Frank’s ideas
and the fundamentals of cultural sociology. -
B. Spinoza, N.V. Gogol, J. Baudrillard: On the Debate about Theocentrism and Anthropocentrism
13 p.Views:314Interest in the problem of man, in the structure of the world and in its foundations is brought together, with all the difference, Spinoza, Gogol, Baudrillard. In the lineup of authors, three main attitudes are revealed. Spinoza: all that exists is theocentric; one must strive to comprehend God and His "extensions" (not creatures!) in the form of the world and man. Gogol: comic-romantic criticism regarding intramural irrationality with the author's aspiration for an eschatological perspective. Baudrillard: immersion in the pan-social as the only being, although it has (starting from the Renaissance) an empty foundation. According to Spinoza, man, nature, the world, in general, everything in reality is an extension of God. Not "creation"! - it is a continuation, practically an integral part of God, some "doubles", although those with less "good." It turns out that God is not able to separate himself from what is around him, what is in the outside world and everything that is not He considers himself to be. Gogol, on the other hand, strove to portray man as really different in relation to God and at the same time capable of changing (the concept of “Dead Souls”). Isn’t the “apocalypse of our time” outlined by Baudrillard? Its unchanging Marxist-Freudian jargon is intended only to serve the immediate intention of reforming social reality. The Baudrillard concept is marked by post- and neo-romantic skepticism regarding the nature of man and society. The extra-Marxist (and non-Freudian) in Baudrillard - his bet on "reversibility", on the "gift" (in the terminology of Moos and his followers) of the "gift", ie installation on a "symbolic exchange" between communicants in all spheres of existence. Thus, Baudrillard comes to recognize the linkage "modern / postmodern" and to recognize the benefits of modernity. The transformation of “dead souls” is a path that Gogol also thought about realizing on different grounds and which opposes the complacency of Spinozist machines.
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Figures of the Young Actress in the Dramatic Art of A.N. Ostrovsky and A.P. Chekhov
Views:246The present study focuses on the turning point in drama history between the artistic concept of A.N. Ostrovsky, the founder of modern Russian theater, and that of A.P. Chekhov, who transformed the former approach in the matter of just a few decades. I propose that an analysis of Ostrovsky’s Talents and Admirers (1881) and Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896) can reveal the borderline that divides the dramatic formations belonging to these two separate periods. The analysis concentrates on the transformation of a specific motive, the portrayal and the dramatization of the chances of destiny available for the figure of the young actress. I presume that the dramaturgical features surfacing through the exploration of this portrayal will outline the differences in the approach and in the poetic means used by the outstanding representatives of these successive periods in drama history. Thus, I am not seeking intertextual instances in the narrow sense of the term. Rather, I am after a thematic and motive-based congeniality and its saturation with a new meaning, coming from the functional shift that establishes a connection between the texts of the pieces by Chekhov and Ostrovsky. This approach to intertextuality in the broader sense of the term, which is not primarily present in references at the textual level but is rather based on, for example, thematic congruity, can play an important part also in the assessment concerning functional history, in exploring reception-related peculiarities and, consequently, in the validation of the historical aspect.
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Linguistic Means of Constructing “Own” and “Other” in B. Akunin’s Novel "The Diamond Chariot"
Views:208The article discusses the ways of linguistic construction of the concepts of “own” and “other” in B. Akunin's novel The Diamond Chariot. The methodological basis of the study is cognitive discursive analysis. The protagonist of the novel arrives in Japan and meets with new realities, objects, places, social organization of life. In this process, we observe the contact of two cultures – the Japanese and European-Russian. Japanese appears in the novel in a wide layer of Japanese vocabulary, which is introduced into the text in a variety of ways (translation in the text, translation in a footnote, explanation, repetition with translation, the use of a foreign word in a typical context).The process of cognition of a foreign culture is accompanied by constant assessments through the prism of one's, previously learned experience. Evaluation is a structural characteristic of the construction of one's “own” and “others'” and reflects the dynamic nature of the process of acquaintance with a foreign culture. Other way stoembed foreign words in the text – using the structure of the concept – are also presented in the article. The experience of the meeting of two cultures also appears in the linguistic form in the communication of multilingual heroes of the novel among themselves, the characteristics of this discourse of strangers are described (interspersed in English, as well as interspersed in English and Japanese, written in Cyrillic).
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S. S. Bobrov’s Ode "The Kingdom of Universal Love": Erotogenesis and Phenomenology of Love (1785)
Views:288Among the genre concepts of Love formed in the poetry of the 18th century (erotic-political myth about the love of monarchs in an epithalamic ode; triumph of flesh and physiology in priapic ode; hedonism in anacreontic ode) a special place is occupied by the concept of historiosophical ode. In one of the works of this genre – «The Kingdom of Total Love» by S. S. Bobrov – an attempt was made to combine Eros and History. The ideas of Bobrov, a freemason poet, about the origin of Love go back to the myths of various genesis. Another idea was that Love brings light and harmony to non-living nature, and living nature is completely submitted to the Law of Love – the Law of the continuation of Life. In general, Love appears in Bobrov's historiosophical ode as a harmonizing cosmic force.
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Peculiarities of the Historiosophic Content of M. V. Lomonosov's Odes for The New Year 1762 and 1764
Views:251The paper deals with the formation of artistic historiosophy in the Russian literature of the 18th century. The main attention in the study is focused on the odic works of M.V. Lomonosov. The research demonstrates that in his odes Lomonosov used not only constant historiosophemes and ideologemes obtained from the general storehouse of philosophical, historical and political knowledge of his time, but also his own historiosophemes. The analysis of the two insufficiently studied M.V. Lomonosov's works – "… on Accession to the Throne and for the New Year 1762" and "… for the New Year 1764" – shows that an individualized historiosophic concept was developed in them. The range of Lomonosov‘s main historiosophic ideas is revealed, for example, summing up reign, the prosperity of Russia under the power of the House of Romanovs, "golden times", the dying and reviving god, and generally useful work for the benefit of Russia.
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The Search for a Social Ideal as a Cultural Tradition of Russian Thought
Views:241This study investigates some important lines of Russian social thought of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the context of the interpretation of the social ideal. Four perspectives of the problem are outlined: the first one is cultural geographic, divided into three branches (Westernism, Slavophilism and, Eurasianism), the second one is sociological positivism, the third one is philosophical liberalism, and the fourth one is religious thought. The cultural-geographic orientation created a wide field of the work of social thought in studying the paths of social development. Sociologists positivists P. Lavrov and N. Mikhailovsky, who were founders of ‘narodnichestvo’ movement, formulated the notion of social ideal as an object of sociological research. The positivist perspective that was intended for the ideals of social solidarity, transformed into the left the traditionalism that was narodnichestvo ideology. Narodnichestvo created the ideal prerequisites for the dissemination of Marxism in Russia. Liberal philosophic thought offered the original concept of the development of personality as a social ideal (P. Novgorodtsev). The fourth perspective was closest to the modern comprehension of the processes of unification of humankind and the development of the world economic system. The issue of social ideal thus became the main tradition of thought in the pre-revolutionary Russia.
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The transformation of the camp theme in Sergei Lebedev’s novel “Oblivion”
Views:128Sergei Lebedev’s novel Oblivion offers an original reworking of the tradition of Russian camp prose. Its central themes are the legacy of Stalinist terror, the intergenerational transmission of trauma, and the necessity of a conscious resistance to their consequences. This paper explores how Lebedev, drawing on the concept of post-memory, intertwines personal family history with questions of collective memory, highlighting the destructive effects of silencing the past and the absence of accountability for historical crimes. At the core of this interpretation is an analysis of the narrator’s journey through space, time, and self-discovery, structured around the mythological motif of descent (katabasis). The funeral ritual plays a key role in the novel’s initiation structure: the symbolic burial and mourning of victims who vanished without a trace becomes an act of memory restoration, offering the possibility of reconciliation and a new beginning. Lebedev critically engages with contemporary Russian memory politics, stressing the moral imperative to uncover and give voice to the traumatic past.
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Between Mystery and Riddle: From Narrative Strategy to Literary Genre
9 p.Views:254In the paper a difference is made between the mysterious and the enigmatic as fundamentally
different narrative and genre strategies. The first is typical of the so-called novelmystery
or the novel-myth, charcterized by the concept of impossible rational comprehension
of the mystery explained by the plot. The second represents a vast field of criminal literature,
where the plot is dependent on a riddle that has a pre-given answer. The differences between
these two types of novels are manifested at all the main levels of poetics, especially in the
specific traits of the subject-oriented organization. However, the paper shows that the general
strategy of the mysterious is also implemented through different moods in different criminal
genres such as classic detective stories, the police novel, the “adventurous investigation”, and
the “victim-centered investigation”. Thus, we can conclude that the mystery and the riddle
can reassemble genre constructive strategies not minus then narrative. -
Culture and Normative Sociable Systems in a Period of Crisis: Issues of Theory and Practice
Views:166This article is devoted to the analysis of topical questions of the development of culture and normative sociable systems in a period of crisis. People faced new concept of reality in the third decade of 21st century. In the era of a brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible world the question of responsibility for the state of culture and normative sociable systems is most acute. As representatives of culture, education and science, researchers can create the space of clean, healthy, favorable opportunities for the development in the post crisis period.
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Era of Post-Pragmatical Strategies
12 p.Views:216An extended definition of culture as a phenomenon that includes processes and results of human communities interaction with wildlife, e.g. viruses is propounded. An indicator of development limitations of Global civilization-cultural integrity is proposed. We put forward the concept of a post-pragmatic strategy of a cultural unit. The latter signifies social integrity that represents a separate culture – a stable set of traits, categories, patterns reproduced in series of generations. We believe a cultural unit to be a large-scale system. Our study is carried out in the context of the emerging intellectual discipline Hygiene of Culture with the help of methodology of sustainable reproduction of a cultural unit. The aim of the study is to form methodological bases for the reaction of cultural unit aimed at confronting phenomena similar to COVID-19. The result is altruistic post-pragmatic strategy, free of mistrust. We propose to supplement the known security dilemma as follows. Actors allocate their military budgets in proportion to confidence/mistrust rates to opponents while likelihood of risk events in the environment increases according to sandpile model and information noise rises.
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The Transformation of Spiritual Culture in the Context of the Formation of the "New Ethics" (Problem Statement)
Views:269The article is devoted to the analysis of the spiritual values that are being formed today and the reasons for the actualization of the New Ethics. Catastrophic dynamism leads to the elimination of the stable social groups as well as to the maximum diffuseness of personal boundaries. At the same time, the transformation of the communication system brings an extremely vulnerable virtual body to the forefront of cultural life. The new communication system, social atomization, the lack of understandable guidelines in the process of socialization and self-identification - all this turns the concept of “border” into a basic one for the New Ethics. However, the design of boundaries and self-defense mechanisms does not always lead to the expected positive results. We come to the conclusion, that an initially inadequate assessment of the aggressiveness of the environment forces a person to build the most aggressive defense mechanisms: the man himself is transformed into a source of toxicity, which in turn makes the environment even more toxic than it was originally.
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Comedy against a tearful background: The interference of catharsis in L.S. Petrushevskaya’s play Colombina’s Apartment
Views:244The paperraises the question of catharsis in modern dramaturgy as a complex and ambiguous aesthetic reaction of the reader. The concept of “interference of catharsis” is introduced, meaning the combination of two of its types, laughter and tears, due to which a synergistic effect occurs that enhances both reactions. The introduced definition is tested based on the analysis of Petrushevskaya’s one-act play Colombina’s Apartment, which is recognized as an example of a philosophical farce. It is noted that in modern drama, the place of pure tearful and laughter catharsis has been taken by their reduced derivatives. Irony replaces open laughter, and feelings of bitterness or regret replace tears. The analyzed play is recognized as an example of modern metadrama. Petrushevskayauses not only the traditional characters of the commedia dell'arte (Harlequin, Pierrot, and Columbine) ata new time and in a new setting, but also the poetics of puppet theater, as well as the realities of Soviet children's theater. Laughter, which operates throughout the entire play, is removed at the end by the bitterly ironic aesthetic reaction of the readers, which is caused by compassion for the funny characters. Superimposed on one another, they create what is called the interference of catharsis.
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The Function of the „Author’s Mask” in “The Soul of a Patriot or Various Epistles to Ferfichkin” by Yevgeni Popov
Views:245Playing with the author’s figure is not a new device in Postmodernism. One may refer to “Either/Or” by Søren Kierkegaard or “The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” by Alexander Pushkin, or “The Fiery Angel” by Valery Bryusov. At the same time the foreword of “The soul of a patriot or Various epistles to Ferfichkin” proves that in Postmodernism this game is taken to the next level. The author who abandoned their fictional space and renounced theirauthorial role during Modernism returns and re-takes their formal place. However, he does not do it seriously but hiding behind the mask of the author – says Malmgren, introducing the term of the author’s maskinto literary discourse. In this analysis I state that Popov, using the author’s mask, turns the traditional interpretationof the author’s role inside out. I conclude that, on the one hand, the author’s mask ridicules the concept by which the author’s biography is the key to his work. On the other hand, it makes fun of Vinogradov’s view, according to which there is always an abstract author hiding in the text who carries its real meaning. I come to the conclusion, that Popov uses this narrative technique to emphasise that it is impossible to look at a literary work as an arsenal of ultimate truths and statements.
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Hero of Contemporary Russian Prose: Anna Skotnicka, Szczelina. Bohater współczesnej prozy rosyjskiej i jego światy, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2020, 335 s. ISBN: 978-83-233-4771-2
Views:172The text contains a review of the monograph by the Polish literary critic Anna Skotniсka A fissure: A hero of contemporary Russian prose and his worlds. The author considers incompleteness, absence, and insufficiency as a property of the existence of the character of the works of Russian writers of the late 20th to early 21st centuries. The sources of this problem, according to Skotnicka, can be seen in the state of disintegration of the social, psychological and mental image of the world in a changing reality, especially historical changes: the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as political, cultural and social transformations. With these phenomena, the Polish literary critic also connects the concept of chaos, which is characteristic of the postmodern perception of the world as disunited, incomprehensible, alien in relation to people. Skotniсka considers these problems based on the works of Mikhail Kuraev, Svetlana Aleksievich, Roman Senchin, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Vladimir Makanin, and Mikhail Shishkin. The author refers to the current achievements of the humanities, especially philosophy. The work is innovative and stimulates reflection on the state of the modern human.
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Object – Body – Flashback in “The Seagull” by Michael Mayer
6 p.Views:276The article features the transformation mechanisms of Chekhov’s play “The Seagull” in its film adaptation of 2018 by Michael Mayer. The director’s concept activates the opposition “memory – forgetfulness” and this is based on composition-visual reminiscences, i.e. flashbacks. The world of objects and the body discourse in the film complies with that specific film story of nostalgia in which the past is not simply going back to the things the characters were through, but also as a new reading of Chekhov’s intertextuality in the context of Anglo-Saxon cinema culture as well as a stylized memory of the Russian classic writer and his times.