Vol 1, No 1 (2021)

Full Issue

PHILOSOPHY

Semiotics as methodology and ontology

Nesterov A.Y.

Abstract

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.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):6-13
pages 6-13 views

Metaphorics of phenomenal judgments and the problem of social verification

Baryshnikov P.N.

Abstract

The article describes the basic semantic principles of generating phenomenal judgments. Phenomenal judgments are considered as linguistic representations of the phenomenal properties of consciousness and indirect descriptions of subjective experience that occur in a private subjective semantic space. Linguistic representation in propositional and conceptual forms creates a special area of metaphorical connections that are involved to the process of social verification in the communicative interaction. The most important component of phenomenal judgments is the speaker’s conviction that the recipient has similar properties of mental content. The mechanisms behind the emergence of phenomenal judgments are not entirely clear. In this case an interdisciplinary approach seems to be the most promising. The paper examines the results of methodological interferences of the body-oriented paradigm in cognitive sciences with the analytic philosophy of mind (consciousness). The problem of phenomenal judgments is an interaction area of ontology and semantics and requires a comprehensive linguo-philosophical research, a step on the path to which this article is made.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):14-18
pages 14-18 views

Between functionalism and semiotics: two ways to change the functions and meanings of technical objects

Yastreb N.A.

Abstract

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.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):19-25
pages 19-25 views

LITERATURE STUDIES

Elements of expressionism in the story of A. Green «Gray Car»

Pozdnyakov K.S.

Abstract

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.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):26-32
pages 26-32 views

Art nouveau period: borders and concepts

Belobratov A.V.

Abstract

The article offers an extensive overview of modern approaches to definition of art nouveau as a literary era and to establishing its chronological boundaries. There have been analyzed main variations of the self-definition of the era as well as researchers’ attempts to find an appropriate definition to this complex aesthetic phenomenon. The extended interpretation of art nouveau as a «macroepoch» is examined, the period dating back to the end of the 18th century and connected primarily with the artistic system of Romanticism. Based on the aesthetic manifestos of German Naturalism, the meaning of the literary situation in 1880th Germany is examined, where the widespread proclamations of the «aesthetic revolution» and «modern» attitudes coexisted with the adherence to the deterministic aesthetics of the previous decades. The leading trends in the culture of the fin de siècle are connected with the onset of the first stage of art nouveau in the art and literature of 1890-1900, soon to be replaced by avant-garde art at the turn of the second decade of the new century. Avant-garde, which associated itself with modernity, was mainly destroying already established art forms. This article suggests that the literary avant-garde as a «project of the future» manifests a utilitarian approach to the attitudes of the art nouveau on the brink of the new century, making art nouveau accessible for the «audience» and bringing the artist into the space of political interaction with the society.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):33-41
pages 33-41 views

The concepts «modern», «new» and «timely» in the literary consciousness of the 1920s

Golubkov S.A.

Abstract

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.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):42-48
pages 42-48 views

Classics and modernity in the creative consciousness of Mikhail Bulgakov

Korablyov A.A.

Abstract

The article presents the experience of analytical reading of M.A. Bulgakov’s novel «The Master and Margarita». The purpose of the work is to clarify the author’s attitude to modern literature and to the forms of its implementation in the modern ideological context. Based on the structural and typological relationships, the author reveals the architectonic scheme of the novel, which determines the plot features of the composition. Concepts and activators of the plot action are the images of Bezdomny, Berlioz and the Master. They associatively focus on other characters comparable to them (writers, ideologists, mystics, etc.), as well as numerous prototypes, including V. Mayakovsky, S. Yesenin, M. Gorky, V. Lenin, etc. The prototypes of the novel are organized in such a way that they denote not only the contextual contour of the work, but also its conceptual certainty. The cryptological reading of the novel, taking into account the ratio of contour and conceptual prototypes, clarifies the author’s attitude to modern phenomena and to modernity itself as a holistic phenomenon. The author’s criterion of historical, social and cultural manifestations of modernity is the classical measure.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):49-60
pages 49-60 views

Poetics of B. Brecht’s epic theatre in terms of the cubist principle

Moroseeva D.D.

Abstract

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».

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):61-69
pages 61-69 views

Self-Identification of the character in the modernist novel by Lena Etlang «Pobeg kumaniki»

Poleva E.A.

Abstract

Lena Eltang’s novel «Pobeg kumaniki» («Escape (Sprout) of the Brambles») is interpreted as a modern modernist prose that inherits the principles of the poetics of the «stream of consciousness» literature. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was the work of A.A. Zhitenev, Ya.V. Soldatkina,
N.T. Rymar, T.L. Rybalchenko.
The self-identification of the main character in the novel by Lena Etlang «Pobeg Kumaniki» is complicated because of the absence of external supports of existence (home, communication with relatives, the name given to him at birth is not mentioned). Moras defines himself as a «guest» and a «ubiquist», that is, a person who can exist in different conditions, but this does not answer the question «Who am I?». The second thing that complicates self-identification is the inability to relate yourself to any particular «Other» (both in culture and in the environment), since situationally there are contradictory auto-associations with a variety of images from mythology and literature. The third challenge is the desire to combine not only different, but opposite (male and female, and depraved innocent, naive and wise, etc.). Pragmatism and the multidimensionality of identity, the desire to realize in my life «more options» (which gives the writing, creation of the text itself as others) that make the process of identity complex and unfinished. Another reason for the difficulty of identifying oneself is the limited epistemological possibilities and the inability of a person to take a position of «non-necessity» in order to see himself holistically. Eltang uses the Eastern parable of the cart, which illustrates the inability of a person to describe anything holistically, authentic to the essence of the described phenomenon. The main artistic principle of image-building in the novel is ambivalence, and the basic ideas are the «multiplicity of consciousness» and the incompleteness of a person’s self-identification in the course of life.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):70-77
pages 70-77 views

SOCIOLOGY

Pandemic COVID-19 and measures to limit its spreading in Bulgaria: aftermaths and conclusions

Mantarova A.I.

Abstract

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.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):78-90
pages 78-90 views

Discourse analysis of young people regional identity (based on empirical research executed in Togliatti)

Tsvetkova I.V., Ivanova T.N.

Abstract

Scientific approaches to social identity consider it as a dynamic structure, the result of social construction. The purpose of the article is a discursive analysis of the image of the city, which characterizes the features of the structure of the regional identity of young people. The novelty of the approach is to develop a methodology for analyzing the discourse of regional identity based on the study of the image of the city in the minds of young people. Materials and methods: The empirical base of the study includes essays written by young residents of Togliatti about their attitude to the city, its history, past, present and future (N=25). Text analysis involves the study of structures of discourse that characterize the perception of the youth of the city’s history, the modern image of the city, and ideas about its future. The results of the research: The results of the discursive analysis revealed the specifics of the description of the image of Togliatti by young people in three time dimensions: in the past, present and future. The analysis of the image of the historical past of the city shows that it includes the contrast of the Stavropol stage to the period of the second half of the twentieth century, when Togliatti was formed. The Soviet past of Togliatti has a value for young people as an era of great achievements. The modern image of Togliatti is constructed as a contrast to this period; the authors demonstrate critical attitude to it. The image of the future city is presented as optimistic but uncertain. Discussion and conclusions: The development of discursive analysis is a promising area of scientific research of regional identity. The methodology makes it possible to identify and describe the dynamic structures of images that shape the attitude of young people to the region.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):91-99
pages 91-99 views

Discourse analysis of the American working youth communities on the social network Reddit

Bocharov V.Y.

Abstract

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.

Semiotic studies. 2021;1(1):100-113
pages 100-113 views

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