The focus of this paper is on comprehension of concepts and problems central to the theory of Franco-American philosopher and anthropologist R. Girard. Despite the recent increase of interest in the ideas of the author among Russian-speaking audience, in Russian educational community his creative heritage have not yet been sufficiently explored. The topics developed by R. Girard have a significant place in the modern science of man and society: the nature of human aggression, the origins of religious and cultural institutions, the phenomenon of crowd and the laws of imitation, the social morality. The paper aims to analyze the most important problems and concepts of R. Girard’s philosophical project (scapegoat, constituent violence, duplicity, sacrifice), focusing on the mimetic theme inside his theory. Researching various sources, from ancient literature and mythology to studies in psychology and ethology, the author of “Fundamental Anthropology” reaches the conclusion that at the basis of all social institutions lies mimetic capacity that makes human beings reproduce the actions and borrow desires of their tribesman. The “desire without object”, leading to mimetic rivalry, represents a threat to the stability of society, reflected in a risk of mimetic crisis, destabilization of moral values and “war of all against all”. According to Girard, the practice of sacrifice acts as a compensatory mechanism, so-called “pharmakon”, which helps to overcome the destructive consequences of mimesis.

The author of the following article analyses the changes in aesthetic perception, happening in the context of the new stage in the evolution of media culture, connected with the “multiplication” of personal screens. The state of symbiosis with virtual reality is determined by the concept of “polyontism”, implying the coexistence of several equivalent realities, which gives rise to a sense of mixed reality. The phenomenon of mixed reality includes, in the first place, the destruction of boundaries between the real world and the virtual one, which, of course, affects the character of reality perception, way of thinking and self-consciousness. The contemporary cultural type of symbiosis with virtual reality changes the perception of all basic characteristics of being — space and time. On the examples of contemporary art, the author analyzes those changes. The hyper-realistic approach to the images created by means of various technologies can be considered today as a general trend in art, reflecting the changes in the perception of space and physicality under the influence of the phenomenon of mixed reality. The absence of night and the symbolization of death in virtual reality determine the electronic chronotope, where time becomes space in any place of which you can always go back.

Contemporary media technologies are incorporated in our life, affecting our everyday experience. In this connection, it is necessary to study the practices of individual users. One of the most popular social media practices is telling the private stories. The users of social networks often share their personal information and make this information public. It is the reason to continue the discussions about the relationship between the public and the private. This article is devoted to representations of love relationships in social media. The research is aimed to reveal how a user constructs the representation of their own personal life in the space of social media. Creating the digital chronicle of their love relationships, users use certain discursive strategies. In this study, the users’ practices are interpreted in the context of public and private perspective. Special attention is paid to the situation of the user’s own interpretation of their subjective experience. The space of social networks is considered as an area of opposing discursive strategies. Those strategies come from the interpretation of this space as personal or as public.

The article deals with mythological structures of the phenomenon of professional designer’s tradition. For a long time, professional design was deemed a “by-product” phenomenon and a periphery of the “true” art, and therefore it was studied insufficiently. Only at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries, the designing activity in Russia became a separate profession, which allowed forming its own corporate culture. Researching this culture is a new and actual scientific problem, because of development of the profession of designer and its growing importance in the contemporary socio-cultural spaces. This area includes specific norms, values and ima-
ginative beliefs, which allow to advance the hypothesis that they can be considered as a form of social consciousness or a myth as a means of constructing reality. The corporate mythology is analyzed through representation and formation of professional identity, within the archetypal matrix included in the professional community. Identification of the ideal-typical construction describing the cultural shape of designers’ community is of great interest. The article contains a qualitative analysis of the Russian designer Artemy Lebedev’s biographical discourse, which is made to define the specificity of mythmaking. This analysis is based on Internet resources.

In the context of modern culture globalization, it is extremely important to study the specific features of regional creative schools of jewelry. The analysis of decorative arts, including jewelry and art objects, allows to investigate the processes of artistic integration, using the material as close as possible to the person, their body, the metaphysics of their world-view and attitude. Every national school of jewelry art, being a part of the European process, has its own unique history of development. The evolution of the English school of artistic jewelry is interesting by the fact that today it is one of the leaders of the international movement in the field of jewelry as a form of plastic arts. The school owns both general and private features of this unique region, separated from Europe and, at the same time, representing a part of its culture.

The middle of the 20th century was the period of development of the post-war English jewelry, when it was struggling with the traditional notion of jewelry as exclusively goldsmithery. In the 1960—1970s, there was the establishment of the English school of author’s jewelry art. Finally, at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, English artists-jewelers joined the international movement of “artistic jewelry” creation. The essence of this movement lies in the interpretation of jewelry as an independent field of plastic arts, functioning as art objects in the contextual field of a person.

The idea of synthesis, compilation, collaboration of contemporary dance with folk elements can be seen in various works of modern choreographers. This kind of synthesis is aimed to enrich modern dance with energy and vitality; it is a know-how of modern Russian choreographers. Thus, there is a current need to define this phenomenon, as it appeared in theoretical discourse.

This article investigates a phenomenon of contemporary dance, which has never been theorized before (hereinafter “postfolk dance”). The author makes an effort to distinguish the term “postfolklore” (existing in the modern Russian folklore studies) and the term “postfolk dance”, introduced by the author, by using a comparison chart. The chart shows some similarities and differences in using the term “postfolk” in the studies of modern folklore and contemporary dance (six positions). As a result, “postfolk dance” is defined as quite a new phenomenon in professional postmodern choreography, appearing due to development of interdisciplinary processes and multimedia integrating in modern art techniques. Dance pieces of modern choreographers, where contemporary dance structure is combined with folk elements, creating a certain signature style, are given as examples, i. e. a subject of possible investigation.

The musical style of Eurodisco, popular in the 1980s in Western Europe, gained, under the influence of many factors, some original features in the Soviet Union in the second half of that decade, which allowed to consider it as a specific phenomenon of the culture of the late USSR. Being a part of mass culture and a mainstream of the Soviet and Russian pop music at the cusp of the 1980s—1990s, having faced a lack of interest from listeners in the 1990s, this phenomenon, which received the name of “Soviet” or “Cooperative” disco, has been experiencing a new surge in popularity since the second half of the 2000s, though in the countercultural environment now. The article deals with the process of Eurodisco’s evolution in the Soviet and Post-Soviet space in the period from the middle of the 1980s to the middle of the 2010s. It has switched from a commercial pop music and mainstream into an indie-culture and underground. The article takes steps to help understand the process of transformation of the elements of mass culture into those of elite culture.

The article is devoted to the problem of cyclicity of Yu. Falik’s choral composition “Liturgical Chants”. The relevance of the topic is associated with the increasing importance of spiritual music in the sphere of national culture, with the creation of musical works in a variety of genres and forms, oriented both to liturgical and concert performance.

The novelty of solving the problem is determined by the consideration of this cyclic work in the context of the genre typology of the works of Russian sacred music, which includes a triad of traditional genres, mixed genres and non-traditional genres. The choir cycle of Yu. Falik, consisting of 15 chants for canonical texts for choir a cappella, belonging to different services, different church holidays, refers to the genres of mixed type.

The article deals with the features of the dramatic construction of the choral cycle, the use of musical expressiveness means, the image-thematic content, which is based on the liturgical idea, consonant with the main Orthodox divine service — Liturgy: purification, enlightenment, soul’s transformation through the Eucharist, adoption of the Holy Communion. An important observation of the article’s author is the presence of systematicity in succession of the chants that are not associated with a specific church service or holiday. In the first part of the cycle, before the Cherubic Song, the theme of repentance prevails, in the second — the theme of hope for salvation, the glory of the Lord.

Finally, the author draws a conclusion about the characteristic features of this work, which is, on the one hand, close to the cantata-oratorio genre, on the other hand, it bears the features of the liturgical and singing tradition.

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin’s work is frequently seen as the central phenomenon of historicist architecture of the 19th century. Nevertheless, the historicist paradigm differs greatly from what is deduced out of Pugin’s writings. The aim of the following paper is to clarify Pugin’s relations with the antiquarian tradition of the previous centuries and to derive his notion of “truthfulness” in architecture from this tradition. There is also analyzed Pugin’s work as a writer and theorist of architecture, his professional psychology and leanings. A special place is given to consideration of Pugin’s conceptions described in his book “Contrasts”, which made the author famous. What is new in the development of this topic, it is its “antique” angle, given in the context of appeal to the intellectual history of that period and images of the contemporaries, predecessors and followers of the thinker. The article concludes that the value of Pugin as an architect is inferior to his contribution to the theory of architecture, and his creative life in whole can be called successful only partly.

The article examines the stages of creative career of the composer, the brightest representative of the era of symbolism — A.N. Scriabin. His philosophy, concentrated around the main world-transforming idea of the composer — creation of the Mysterium, is known for its total cosmic scope. Many researchers of the symbolist’s works note this; however, the process of realization of Scriabin’s global ideas in the music of Art Nouveau through the prism of his own philosophy remains to this day in the background. It is customary to speak about the scope of ideas for his outstanding symphonic compositions, the innovative qualities of the music, the global philosophical ideas of the composer, originating from the reformist works of R. Wagner and the Dionysian philo-
sophy of F. Nietzsche. His biography, the history of creation of his works and many other things are exhaustively studied as well. However, this article is largely dedicated to a specific matter — evolution of the composer’s musical style, at each stage of which a miniaturized incarnation of the late Romanticism in Scriabin’s refined style can be tracked. In other words, the problem of incarnation of the late Romanticism philosophy and the mysterium aspirations of Symbolism in the refined decorative music of Art Nouveau are of considerable interest. Thus, the innovative principle of the proposed article is in the originality of A.N. Scriabin’s works reviewing method: the composer creates a unique style, in which global cosmological ideas are wonderfully reflected directly in the elegant “box of Art Nouveau”.

The article is devoted to the analysis of visual space organization in Andrei Tarkovsky’s films. This work precisely focuses on the frame, which is a border between different spaces and types of representation inside the image, and the texture, which is considered in connection with the concept of natura naturans, meaning “Nature naturing”. Tarkovsky often constructs his shot in such an order that to create an illusion of existence of multiple dimensions inside it. In his mise en scenes we can frequently see windows, doors, pictures, mirrors, which we can name “frames inside the frame”. In addition, the film director used to choose special textures, which the viewer is unable to identify. Due to deformation of scale, the spectator cannot understand what is depicted on the screen. Tarkovsky shoots such objects and surfaces that can create fantastic landscapes. The camera can find in an ordinary object something unusual, in a finite one — infinity. The substance seems to create new forms in itself, which refers us to the concept of natura naturans. These methods are used almost in all Tarkovsky’s films. His aim was to transform pictorial problematics into a purely cinematic thing, turning its spatial elements into temporal ones, which is the main principle of his visual style.

The subject of the research is the poetics of the productions by director Vladimir Magar, created in cooperation with designer Boris Blank and staged at the A.V. Lunacharsky Sevastopol Academic Russian Drama Theater in the 2000s. The article analyzes the main features of creative style of the director and the designer, as well as the birth process of the director’s plot. There are discussed the main aspects of organization of the performances’ space and the opportunities of its transformation. Special attention is paid to the concept of unified playing environment. The role of details in scenographic design is examined in the paper.

The article is based on using of the comparative-historical method, personal audience experience of the author, analysis of literary sources. The creative collaboration of Vladimir Magar and Boris Blank in Sevastopol is comprehensively studied for the first time. The study of their creative methodology can become indicative for identifying the patterns specific to regional theatrical life and may restore some pages of the history of Russian theatre, which have been out of the scope of research so far. During 14 years, symbolic and gaming productions, with elaborate theatrical nature, were the result of the artistic collaboration of the director and the designer with a similar attitude. Those productions brought the theatre to a certain professional height.

The unformed term “totalitarianism” is a serious problem for researchers. The article raises the question about the reasons behind the lack of clarity in the definition, and attempts to discover the recipe for the renewal of a constructive discussion. The basic point seems to be the mismatch between the methodology of social sciences and the object of study. The aggravating factor is the numerous inconsistencies in the available body of evidence relating to the totalitarian era, which makes sociological methods and statistical techniques inapplicable. The dominant current presentation of totalitarianism is based on the structural and institutional approaches of political science and sociology, being thus just a rationalization of the totalitarian actuality, in need of considerable revision and correction. Many solutions, crucial for gaining an adequate perception of the complex social and cultural phenomenon “totalitarianism”, have been already made available in humanities or are potentially contained in their approaches. In the course of analyzing the special features of the phenomenon under investigation, the author comes to the conclusion that clear understanding of the concept of “totalitarianism” is impossible without calling for the notions of “personality”, “inner self”, “soul”, “psyche”, “good and evil”, “living and dead”, “culture”. The article establishes the importance of totalitarianism’s examination within the philosophic, cultural, literary and psychological discourses at the current stage of the term development. The expected positive contribution of the article to the subject matter may be gradual evolution of the interdisciplinary view on totalitarianism into the condition of non-contradiction, as well as bridging the growing gap separating from the eyewitness testimony of the era.

The article is devoted to a method of cultural transformations mapping, which may be used in studying the zones of cultural exclusion and the processes arising on the “edges” of cultural paradigms (actualization — deactualization — reactualization). The article reveals the meaning of the terms “actual”, “deactualization”, “reactualization”, used for description of cultural phenomena within the mapping method. This method gives an opportunity to work with specific factual data, creating a “cultural transformations map”. Due to this mapping, looking similar to tabulation, it is possible to visualize the criteria of the transformations during cultural paradigms changes.

The article provides a brief description of using the mapping method by the example of the study called “The transformation of advertising poster in the first thirty years of the twentieth century”, where the formation and development of Russian advertising poster was presented as changes in cultural paradigms fitting into the scheme of “actualization — deactualization — reactualization”. The article describes a number of procedures used in the mapping method: definition of the periods in research (“pre-avant-garde”, “avant-garde”, “post-avant-garde”), selection of the material and its analysis, introduction of certain criteria for the paradigms comparison, and tabulation of the results. The article also emphasizes the problematic points that need to be considered while using the cultural transformations mapping method.

In the article, there are published for the first time two documents, which are autographs of the great Russian poet G.R. Derzhavin. They are stored in the Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library, where they arrived in 1970 within the collection of the famous bibliophile of the Soviet time, variety artist N.P. Smirnov-Sokolsky. These documents are a part of the heritage of one of the classics of Russian literature, which determines their historical and cultural significance. The first of the documents is a bill for a thousand rubles, drawn by G.R. Derzhavin to the merchant D.V. Obraztsov in 1780. The second one is a letter to Prince Alexei Borisovich Kurakin, asking for assistance in a court case to I.Ya. Bludov, G.R. Derzhavin’s second cousin. This article proposes a new dating for the second document, indicates the place of these materials in the study of G.R. Derzhavin’s biography.

The article represents a review of the book by A.I. and G.Yu. Demchenko “Milestones. Events. Faces. The Art of Saratov” (Saratov: Saratovtelefilm — Dobrodeya, 2015), devoted to the study of the region’s artistic culture as a holistic phenomenon, in the totality of all branches of art (architecture, graphic art, literary art, musical art, theatre and cinema art). The review reflects structural and conceptual parameters of the book, features of the presentation and analysis of the vast artistic material. The article assesses the publication and exposes its uniqueness and relevance. The emergence of this work leads to reflection on the role of artistic regional studies in the general context of cultural studies in Russia, on the “inevitability” and priority of regional cultural studies in the conditions of the Internet cyberculture development, as on the opposition to the depersonalizing trends, depriving a person of soil identity. The book is also considered, in the context of scientific and educational activities of Doctor of Arts, Honored Art Worker of Russia, Director of the Center for Comprehensive Art Research A.I. Demchenko, as a part of the author’s project “Artistic Treasury of the Volga Region”. Aimed at attracting attention to the spiritual wealth accumulated over four centuries of the region’s existence, this project provides a new look at the country’s culture as a whole, taking into account the contribution to the national treasury of the “infusions” from regional cultural centers.

London artist and designer Yinka Shonibare (Yoruba) is well known in Europe and America as a master of historical, literary and artistic reminiscences, primarily on the theme of the Victorian era. His interest in the history and culture of Africa and Great Britain (literature, painting, theater, cinema, etc.) determined the main line of his work, which is engaged by the audience and marked a new direction in the development of the contemporary art, conventionally called transvantgardism. The gene substratum of Shonibare’s creative works contains all the richness of world art traditions — from classics to postmodern — and, of course, visual practices of Nigerian ethnics (Igbo and Yoruba).

The installations of Y. Shonibare is considered to be examples of unique beauty and provocation (Black Dandy; headless, but quite recognizable, figures clothed in the “luxuriant batik” invented by the artist). The Master is playing his game with the audience. His works are interactive and need to be decoded. The artist provokes the audience, makes it reflect on the past, present and future, destroy the stereotypes, especially in the field of ethnic and racial relations. The problem of identity — individual and collective — is also in the center of his attention.