Vol 1, No 1 (2021)

The article formulates the categories of general semiotics: sign, meaning, semiosis, layer and vector of semiosis. The purpose of the reasoning is to show the methodology of semiotic research as such, and general semiotics as ontology. The result of the reasoning is to demonstrate the semiotic circle of cognition and activity, which includes objects of perception as signs of sensory perception, objects of mind as signs of language and concepts of reason as complexly organized signs of reflexivity. The receptive and projective vectors of semiosis are introduced as direct cognition and reflexive activity respectively. The transition from cognition to activity - as intuition, organized via the models of aphorism, dialogue or system as philosophical inventions in the sense of I.I. Lapshin. The problem of the new that arises in intuition is considered as a question of the transformation of a specific semantic, syntactic or pragmatic rule in the layer of perception, mind or reason. The ontological thesis supported in the reasoning is that objects, subjects or concepts are not entities, but the rules of semiosis from the standpoint of general semiotics. By virtue of the fact that the conditions for the possibility of sign activity are the rules, by virtue of the rules constitute an objective unsigned meaning extracted by semiotic reflexivity, insofar as they objectively exist in the interaction of the environment and the subject.

The article is devoted to the analysis of practices and ways of inventing new functions of technical objects. The purpose of the work is to identify, classify and describe practices that cause new functions of technical objects. The function of a technical object (artifact) is understood as the work performed by an artifact and aimed at realizing a certain purpose set by a person. The authors analyze the duality of the nature of the artifact, due to its physical structure and its involvement in purposeful human activity. The functional and semiotic approaches to understanding technology are compared. The differences between function and meaning of artifacts are identified. The case method is used to analyze how new artifact functions appear. Reinterpretation is defined as a way to create new meanings for an artifact without changing its physical structure of the artifact. Adaptation is considered as the adaptation of technical objects to the needs of the user.
It is shown that new functions appear in artifacts both on the physical level, through the introduction of constructive changes, and on the semiotic level, through the transformation of the semantic content of objects. In the final part of the article, a conclusion about the possibility of applying the results obtained in the field of marketing and promotion of technical systems and devices is made.

The topic of the work is relevant, since at present the Russian literary criticism is rediscovering the features of the artistic expression of Soviet literature of the 1920s. The aim of the study was to discover the features of the poetics of Green’s text that allow us to identify the novel under consideration as expressionist. Research methods used in the article: comparative-historical and semantic analysis of texts. At the beginning of the article, the research of the novella «Gray Car» by A.V. Polupanova and L.U. Zvonareva is considered, inaccuracies and obvious factual errors are noted, indicating a lack of understanding of the text, a mixture of such forms of expression of the author’s position (according to B.O. Korman) as «hero-narrator» and «author-narrator». As an empirical material, in addition to the novel by A. Green, the works of G. Mayrink, F. Kafka and L. Perutz were used. As a result of consideration of the novels «the Golem», «Castle», «the Cossack and the Nightingale», «the Wizard of judgment» was allocated with the following features art in the world of the expressionist literary works: a) the problem of identity associated, as a rule, the main character; 2) semema madness, which became a constant for expressionist texts; 3) mysterious (hidden) order of a seemingly chaotic world; 4) the lack of success of speech acts. All these features were found in the story of A. Green, so it seems that the new approach to the work of the writer as a representative of Russian expressionism, demonstrates its consistency and can be contrasted with the more traditional consideration of the author’s prose as a super-textual unity.

In this article, we are talking about how the time of radical changes transforms the literary situation, changes the very content of modernity. This content includes a change in the types of artistic thinking, the interaction of style trends, the emergence of relevant topics, the change in the very forms of existence of a literary work, the change in the writer's status in society, the birth of new reader requests. Literary modernity is considered as a polyvector process, which includes various creative groups and writing communities. They offer their own innovations. The essence of the novelty of the next epoch can be expressed in an active dispute with the previous literary models. Contemporaries can put different content into the concept of a new one. So, in a highly political 1920-ies features of the new could suddenly acquire focus not on the ideological dominance of creativity and talent on the aesthetic quality of its products, to update the art forms («Serapion's brothers», «Pass»). Under the new one, we understood the variants of a fruitful synthesis of fiction and everyday life, realism and symbolism, realism and expressionism, point specifics and broad abstraction. The fate of individual genres (for example, the novel) was considered. The new could manifest itself in the very understanding of the timeliness (relevance) of a literary work. With the gradual introduction of strict regulation in the literary process, the understanding of such relevance changed (the theory of social order). The non-obviousness of the new (hidden timeliness) allows us to reevaluate the literature of the 1920s, to look at it from a century-old distance. The true innovations of this time are revealed.

This article is devoted to an attempt to consider the concept of B. Brecht’s epic theatre in terms of the cubist principle as a characteristic technique of the avant-garde and postmodernism, based on overcoming traditional mimetic forms when creating an artistic whole and suggesting such a way of organizing an artistic image in which affective involvement based on «ready-made» forms of perception and recognition, is replaced by the need for the so-called «work of understanding». The main objectives of the article include the discovery and description of the mechanisms for the implementation of the cubist principle in the concept of Brecht’s epic theatre. The goal of the study is to prove the productivity of considering Brecht’s poetics in terms of the cubist principle. The research is carried out on the basis of an integrated approach that combines systemic-holistic and hermeneutic methods. The block of empirical materials includes Brecht’s works on the theory of epic theatre, as well as the works of Russian and foreign literary scholars and art theorists, devoted to both highly specialized aspects of Brecht’s theory of dramaturgy and issues related to the problem of authenticity of artistic expression and features of the structure of a work of art in the context of the collapse of traditional ideas about an artistic object as a result of imitation or expression of the artist’s inner world. The results obtained make it possible to present the concept of Brecht’s epic theatre as an experience of problematization of the creative act in a situation of crisis of artistic forms and reveal the expediency of considering Brecht’s poetics in terms of the cubist principle due to a much broader view of the technical and ideological-content aspects of his concept, in contrast to previously adopted concepts «montage» and «separation of elements».

Since the beginning of 2020, the world has suddenly found itself in a unique situation - the spreading of the coronavirus has caused serious consequences in all areas and at all levels of society and required a radical change in people’s lives. The purpose of this article is, after presenting and analyzing the economic and social consequences of the spreading of COVID-19 and the measures taken by the government, to show that they have had an impact on all areas of the social system and that they will have a further reflection over time. The analysis used a sociological approach that interprets society as an integral system of interrelated and interdependent elements.
The analysis showed that, especially in spring, instead of looking for options that balance safety and the ability to work, introducing fewer measures, but more carefully thought out, and strictly monitor their compliance, in fact, too many measures were taken. As the result, the control over their observance was weak. It is difficult to deny the lack of a systematic approach and thinking in perspective. The focus was exclusively on the results characterizing the spread of the coronavirus, ignoring the effects in other areas of public life, as well as in relation to diseases other than coronavirus. The epidemic highlighted problems and gaps in the country’s health care system and showed that there is a need to rethink the universality of market principles, whether they are applicable to health care system, and whether cost-effectiveness is the most important indicator for it, or the criteria for it effectiveness are different.

The article discusses the working conditions and employment of American working youth during the global pandemic (2020) within the discursive space of the online communities of the social network Reddit. The aim of the study was to conduct a discourse-analysis of professional virtual communities of American working youth. The main tasks were to analyze the specifics of the language of online communication of American working youth, to identify the main problems of employment and labor relations relevant to young Americans, to find out how much American working youth identify with the working class, and to study its class interests, class positions and feelings of solidarity. Infrequent (basic) and frequent (additional) content analyses were used to analyze empirical information (143 text and visual posts in 11 communities of the social network Reddit). The results of the study draw conclusions about the presence of a specific language of communication, similar conditions of employment and living standards, the stability of class positions and the high level of virtual solidarity of American working youth. Comparison of the data obtained with the results of our previous study of virtual communities of Russian working youth allows us to tell about the similarities and differences between American and Russian youth. The main common feature characteristic of both (American and Russian) working youth is the presence of their own group identity.