This article is focused on the necessity of dogmatism and alienation for the genesis of human subjectivity. Viewpoints of F.T. Mikhailov, M.B. Turovsky and L.S. Chernyak on a certain aspect of philosophy of education are compared with Heidegger’s consideration of the education as Paideia. The author uses the beginning of Heidegger’s “Plato’s Doctrine of Truth”, where Heidegger, expounding Plato’s Parable of Cave, shows that Plato’s understanding of Paideia is interpretation of the meaning and purpose of education as human freedom; but, at the same time, one aspect of Paideia is a return back to the cave - as a result of the irrevocable link between Paideia and uneducation. It is suggested to strengthen this link in the process of education: one should not only return to the cave, but also put the chains on again, because the Subjectivity (freedom) will not arrive without this step. In the context of Chernyak’s concept, the “returning to the cave” is a required moment for the human subjectivity formation, impossible without participation of the unthought Other being. This participation of the Other requires some human efforts, represented by inscription (alienation) of the human Subjectivity into the objective life world. Mikhailov’s position, though it has got many innovations, still follows the interpretation of alienation by Hegel and Marx, that means the human alienation is understood as a transient stage of history. Mikhailov’s colleagues, Turovsky and Chernyak, believe that the alienation is not only obligatory, but also a constantly repeating moment in the formation of human Subjectivity (freedom). Changes in ontogenesis generate development of the culture (as an embodiment of human Subjectivity). Therefore, the ontogenesis recapitulates cultural phylogenesis, as it precedes the latter. This leads to the problematic of hermeneutic circle and mental space, since the formation of human Subjectivity requires not only the alienation of Subjectivity, but also a creative overcoming of it.

The Double-Post culture, which is based on the digital “Grand Style”, is noted for its special kine(sthe)tic format, characterized by the virtualization of the spatial, the tactile, and the corporal. Dominance of the visual part generates the person’s desire for a physical experience of the world’s tangibility and own corporality. Overcoming of the lack of tactile in culture comes either through the actualization of direct kinesthetic experience or by means of the indirect visual kinesthetic. The postnonclassical art (the media art, labyrinth-installations, mirrored rooms) offers some previously impossible ways of perception, construction and physical exploration of the multi-dimensional visual reality. The tactile and kinesthetic sensations begin to play the role of an “augmented” virtuality in the viewer-participant’s communication with the intangible, visual spaces and images. Therewith, the kinesthetic and the visual create the counter “flows” of sensory perception, which intersect, overlap and interfere, forming some fundamentally new spatiality and imagery. Due to the interference of the visual and the kinesthetic, the postnonclassical artworks obtain some sophisticatedly dissected fractal spaces that give to a person the fullness of the bodily presence through the simultaneous co-existence of the person’s physical body and an infinite set of mutually exclusive physical reflections to be experienced in the format of indirect visual kinesthetic. The article examines the history of labyrinths and mirrored rooms from the viewpoint of cultural studies and analyzes the media performances by Ph. Decouflé, Ch. Sandison, the Cloud Gate theatre and others, the movies with the plot or composition connected with a labyrinth (“The Cube”, “The Maze Runner”, etc.), and the art installations with mirrored rooms by L. Samaras, Y. Kusama, T. Frank, S. Salat and others.

The article is devoted to studying of context as a sense-forming basis for an artistic and creative process. The concept of context is analyzed; some specifics of its interpretation in various spheres of scientific knowledge are revealed; features of this phenomenon’s projection to the musical art area are disclosed. The author justifies the idea that the artistic context should be considered as a complex system that includes two interconnected subsystems. The first one comprises common sociocultural determinants; the second one integrates immanent artistic and creative components. The article focuses on the movements of the both designated subsystems within the coordinates of historical traditions and current trends. The standard typology of a context is given, those its kinds which are the most significant for the musical art are pointed out, and their content is described in detail. Special attention is paid to the artistic context in its synchronic and diachronic manifestations, which correspond to the problem of traditions and innovations. The author suggests an approach to comprehension of these complex phenomena, which, along with other factors, design the artistic context of the epoch.

The article analyzes the Google Book Search project: its objectives, both the declared ones (the radical democratization of knowledge) and real (to create a new market of paid services), stages of the project’s implementation, dynamics of change in its assessments according to the American scientific journalism. It is noted that the project underwent a substantial correction in the course of litigation and developing of settlement agreement with holders of the copyright on the books included in the scope of operation of the Google Book Search. It indicates that the service was gradually modified towards greater comfort and comprehensiveness of the utilities provided. Particular attention is given to the identification of social and cultural implications of the monopolization of knowledge dissemination: the marginalization of large strata of the book heritage as a result of the absolutization of algorithms of the search results automatic ranking; the metadata errors that can mislead users; the preferences that the book search engine gives to the English literature. The article thoroughly analyzes the critical arguments against the cultural expansion of global brand, which were put forward by the professional library community. There is reviewed the position of Jean-Noel Jeanneney, president of the French National Library, who considers the Google book project as continuation of the globalist cultural policy, leading to indirect discrimination of other cultures, which contradicts the Declaration on Cultural Diversity, UNESCO, 2001.

Leisure is an essential part of free time in the modern life. However, under the influence of global social trends, the essence of leisure activities changes inevitably. Definition of what a person’s individual free time really is depends not so much on the particular person’s types of leisure activities as on which interests they realize in their leisure activities most of all, which functions of the leisure activities are popular. To understand diverse senses of the modern leisure, it is necessary to reconsider traditional research approaches. The article offers a solution to this problem via building a typology of leisure behavior, which would reflect not only the internal communication between various leisure activities, but also the possible leisure strategies, determined by the objectives (motivation) of these activities. From this perspective, studying the leisure space, during more or less extended periods of time, provides an opportunity to capture, empirically, the impact of external factors (e.g. macrosociological changes) on the type of leisure activity content.

The article is dedicated to the problem of how the phenomenon of contemporaneity influences the traditional Chinese art and the imagery of the Yunnan religious woodprints zhima in particular. The author describes the changes that have happened to the Yunnan deities’ iconography in the 20th and the 21st centuries. The article explains the reasons why the images from the everyday life and environment have begun to appear in the pieces of religious graphic art. The author gives a brief review of the household items depicted on the woodprints burnt as a sacrifice to the ancestors. The images of immortals wearing clothes of the 20th century are also described. As an example of the imagery influenced by the contemporary society, the deity Che Shen’s iconography is examined. Che Shen used to be the deity of cart, but by now all the kinds of the modern wheel transport have come under his patronage. The article touches upon the problem of the zhima artistic style modification, caused by the fact that sometimes the countryside craftsmen presently copy contemporary magazine illustrations. Based on the folk pictures of Jiu Shen, the spirit of stables, and the deities of cattle, the author also provides examples of how the traditional style of zhima is being transformed. Particular attention is drawn to the cases of creating new iconographic types by replacing the deities’ images with their attributes.

Military caricature used to be very relevant and popular in the period of Napoleonic Wars. The caricatures not only satirized the enemies, but illustrated the most important battles and war events. And it is natural that plenty of interesting and clever caricature subjects were copied by artists from different countries. These groups of subjects moving from one national culture to another are known as “migrant” subjects. In this research, the author presents the most illustrative examples of the migrant subjects of the Napoleonic Time from the collection of the State Literary Museum, which were published in England, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, and France. There are some of them: “Napoleon the Conqueror of the World”, “Cancer Riding”, “Napoleon-Devil”, “Inverted World”, “Soap Bubbles”, and “Carnival”. Following its main goal, the research attempts to trace how artists from different countries embodied the same subjects and themes in their national artistic manner and created their own specific style in caricature.

The article reveals some iconography and composition features, caused by their purpose, of the portraits of Emperor Maximilian I. The official portraits emphasize the idea of legitimacy of Maximilian. Some of them underline the right of Maximilian I to govern in Burgundy. The engraved portraits and portraits on coins, which could be seen by a lot of people, deal with the idea of crusade and form the image of valorous knight. The portraits painted for private goals strive to commemorate the person himself first of all. The early works demonstrate a rich, powerful, strong and self-confident figure. Among the typical characteristics of the later portraits, there are the increased distance between the picture and spectator, and the portrait’s special sacral sense.

For the first time, the article considers the artistic dialogue between Schiller’s tragedy “The Maid of Orleans” and the eponymous opera by Tchaikovsky. The selected perspective allows the author to reveal various aspects of creative individuality of the German dramatist and the Russian composer. Whereas Schiller emphasizes the sublime heroism so that the ascent of the heroine to eternal life becomes the main storyline in his drama, Tchaikovsky makes the plot take a turn towards a tragedy. This significantly changes the balance of semantic accents in the opera. In particular, a number of characters surrounding Joan receive a new interpretation. Tchaikovsky enters into a dialogue not only with Schiller’s tragedy, but also with the genre of French Grand Romantic Opera, creating an original composition with a focused and dynamic development, and major symphonic generalizations as well. The relevance of this dialogue for the development of the theme of Joan of Arc’s heroism in the twentieth-century art is underlined in the conclusion.

The article is dedicated to the academic apprehension of the isomorphism of activity processes of the Teacher and the Artist. The author underlines that the revelation and verification of the deep initial connection between pedagogy and art has never become the subject of the specific theoretical analysis until now. In the logic of the cultural approach, the author uncovers the syncretical character of teaching activity, demonstrates the isomorphism of the main stages of the Teacher’s and the Artist’s creativity process, proves that Teaching is a creative profession. In the article, the concept of “pedagogic method of world exploration” is introduced for the first time, its content is revealed and its relation to the artistic method of world exploration is proved. The author presents the Teacher’s creative work as a form of art, performed within the teaching activity, and identifies the similarities and differences between the Teacher’s and the Artist’s activity processes and final results. The author proves the immanence of the artistic methodology of teaching activity and demonstrates the need for artistic education within the system of teacher’s training and retraining.

The article examines functional differences in professional activity of the concertmaster and the accompanist, in the following planes: the historical traditions, professional identity, and national and mental perception by the theorists and practitioners of musical performance as well as by music lovers. The author specifies main typological characteristics for the accompaniment as an instrumental support for the soloist, and the art of concertmaster as an art of ensemble playing, by the examples of instrumental and vocal genres. Structural analysis of the specific features of perception of the accompaniment and concertmastery in Russia and in foreign countries is performed. The “range of abilities” and the “range of responsibilities” of a concertmaster and an accompanist are analyzed in detail from the standpoint of music-making and from the teaching and managerial points of view. The author concludes that these problems are not studied enough, and, as a consequence, there is not any clear gradational scale for assessment of the activities of accompanists and concertmasters.

Intersections of lyric and prosaic texts are the significant points in the system of symbols in the works of Vyacheslav Ivanov. The article considers the image-symbol “gemstone” as a method for prosaic texts poetization which helps the author illustrate his philosophical conception more precisely and more capaciously. Vyacheslav Ivanov realizes the potential of the symbol in the system of individual paradigms developing around each stone. The pearl is a symbol of harmony between the world and the spirit, of reflection of the universal essence in a small particle of matter. The diamond is a symbol of heavenly inspiration as the supreme aesthetic sense. The emerald is a symbol of spiritual earthly life. The agate is a sign of presence of the female element dealing with mysteries. In his philosophical works, the author uses gemstone themes in the structure of extended tropes that constitute the paradigms. The pearl goes well with the water theme; the diamond matches the heavenly themes, spiritual giftedness; the emerald is embedded in the paradigm of symbolic meanings of the green colour; the agate fits in the paradigm of the meaning of reflectivity. The essence of the gemstone symbol is not only in the ability to reflect something visible, but also in the ability to keep the hidden, inaccessible to an ordinary sight. The generalized image of gemstone reveals the aesthetic value of artistic expression. The gemstone is a symbol of relation between the visible world phenomena and their transcendent true essence, manifested in the works. A poet and writer, like a miner or a jeweler, needs to discover, mine and process this most real meaning, and then the secret of achieving the ideal will be revealed to the person.

The article analyzes the content of the story by Ada Ivanovich, a modern writer, “And He Took his Death from his Horse”, published on the Internet, in the context of the virtual Russian prose, called seteratura. The author concludes that the motif of the hero’s death “from horse” has been transformed in the new Russian literature. A link is drawn between the creative work of A. Ivanovich and that of V.S. Vysotsky, a phrase from his “Song” of Wise Oleg is used as her story’s title. The writer put her character in a different historical era, changed his social status, and filled the storyline of the hero’s life and death with new content and motives that led to an unexpected interpretation of the main character’s image. The narrative about the main character’s tragic fate has three elements particularly underlined by the story’s author in connection with the hero’s living in the Soviet era: the complexity of acquiring a vehicle; the hero’s affection for his car; the death “from horse” is a suicide inside the car.

The article is devoted to the significance of the engraving for the history of book and the development of science and culture. For the first time ever, the engraving is regarded as an invention equal in its importance to the invention of printing, as a specific book technique, existing not only in collaboration with the typographic printing, but also on its own. In the modern era, this technique enabled the creation of a special type of book, without which the progress in science and culture would have been impossible. The article reviews the methodological issues connected with writing of the history of book and its study in the modern period. What is new here - it is putting the question of studying the engraving through the historical process of book culture development, studying the engraving as a specific book technology, ensuring development of the specific, engraved, type of book, which played an important role in the book culture in almost every book genre (scientific, technical, medical, etc.) providing transmission of the data (knowledge) unattainable for verbal means of communication. This approach reveals new areas for research, some processes unstudied by bibliology; opens up new approaches and principles of writing the history of book and studying the history of book art.