Vol 3, No 1 (2023)

The work considers the theoretical dispute between different concepts of desire: "classical", structuralist, and post-structuralist. This dispute unfolds in two aspects: the social desire production and desire-scarcity connection. The author shows this dispute to be axiomatic and reflect the process of transition from an industrial society, which is based on shortage and lagging consumption, to a post-industrial society, which is based on excess and advanced consumption. The author relies on Lacan's and Kojève's concepts of desire and criticizes post-structuralist ideas of Deleuze, Guattari and Lyotard, particularly the concept of unconditional and unlimited desire. The article distinguishes between the concepts of innermost and sacramental desire in order to define the boundaries of the "desiring production". This distinction is applied in the analysis of "Solaris" by S. Lem and "Stalker" by Tarkovsky.

The article analyzes the use of the consciousness transfer concept in the literature, cinema and science. Both techno-pessimism and techno-optimism are shown to be associated with the consciousness transfer idea. The main reasons for the desire of characters’ intention to use the consciousness transfer technology, which is also termed as “breakdown phenomenon”, are demonstrated through the example of the LitRPG subgenre and science fiction films. It is typical for novels and screen novels to demonstrate both positive and negative consequences of the consciousness transfer, but the attitude towards the possibility itself is predominantly positive. Unlike many science fiction theories, which are far from becoming reality, several major scientific projects are already working on the concept of the mind transfer. However, existing projects are far from implementing the consciousness transfer technology and are more often involved in solving particular problems associated with individual brain diseases, or exploring the social and humanitarian consequences of developing the virtual reality generally and the human presence in it particularly. It is concluded that for the modern literature and cinema, the concept of consciousness transfer has turned into a myth about the consciousness transfer, generated by the dream of the human mind omnipotence, combined with a pessimistic idea about the human morality and the human society unity. Furthermore, this myth also reflects a substantial part of the human life being already inside the digital reality.

The article deals with the artistic functions of local spatial models in the Russian satirical and humorous prose of the 20th century. It gives an idea of the typology of comic evaluation objects (character, situation, event, space). Particular attention is paid to the city as a multidimensional cultural text, as a universal metaphor for the state world order. The work reveals a contradiction between the real scale of the county town and the ridiculously grandiose ambitions of its inhabitants. The article discusses the semantics of the province objective world in the satirical and humorous prose, the semantic content of distinguishing between one's own and another's. In this respect, the satirists and comedians’ development of the humorous specific technique is essential (the motives of rumor, the introduction of imaginary figures, playing with scales, elements of mystification).

This article attempts to analyze the semiotics of the urban space depicted by N. Garin-Mikhailovsky in «In the hustle and bustle of the provincial life» sketches. For this purpose, the main city locations, described by the author, are identified - the noble assembly, the governor's house, the apartments of the photographer and Abramson, Khlebnaya Square and some others. On the basis of the analysis, it is concluded that, when sketching a «portrait» of the city, Garin depicts it in almost the entire geographical extent - from the southwest to its northeastern outskirts; the intention to show «the whole» Samara in terms of the geographical extent is accompanied with a similar intention to show different social levels of the city life; urban locations are not depicted as static, remote and isolated objects, but as connected by a wide variety of connections and relationships. All this together allows us to consider the city, depicted in N. Garin-Mikhailovsky’s sketches, as a semiotic structure, a «complex meaning», and decoding is the only way to get closer to a real understanding of the formula in the title of the cycle – «In the hustle and bustle of the provincial life».

The study of the initial Soviet stage of the general education history is important both for understanding the transformative processes in the Soviet society as a whole, and for comparing the Soviet and post-Soviet societies. This issue is particularly topical due to the fact that, in accordance with the decree of the President of Russia, 2023 has been declared the Year of Teacher and Mentor. Having defined the impact of the state on the formation of priorities for professional activities in general education as the subject of research, the author highlights the educational and pedagogic course of work. An analysis of archival documents stored in the funds of the State Archive of Recent History of the Saratov Region was carried out. 1918 - 1941 Documents were studied within the framework of two historical periods. The first period started with the adoption of the "On a unified labor school" provision and ended in 1930 with return to stable programs and textbooks, the second period started in 1930 and ended with the beginning of World War II (1941). As a result of the study, it was found that loyalty to the content of educational programs in the twenties was replaced by increased control in the thirties. This period is characterized by the of teachers’ activities monitoring expansion that included student performance, the sanitary condition of schools, the school staff performance, assessment of the calligraphy rules observing by teachers when putting grades in students’ notebooks. Educational work remained a priority, since the curriculum in any discipline was associated with the communist education. The socialist competition in the school became a tool for controlling the professional activities of teachers. Educational institutions were involved in the socialist completion along with industrial enterprises. For schools the competition combined both vectors of teachers’ activities control and educational and pedagogic work in one tool. The widespread practice of ignoring the fulfillment of socialist competition conditions testifies to its visibility. The data, stored in the regional archive, on cases of conscious violation of the established work order, socialist competition imitation confirm that.

The article is devoted to the introduction of digital technologies into the practices of non-profit organizations. The authors consider the all-Russian and regional trends of data of the non-profit sector publicity and digital competence. The main purpose of the analysis is to show how the publicity affects the digitalization level of civil society institutions, primarily the non–profit sector. The article was based on the data of research projects conducted earlier on this issue, as well as the results of a sociological study initiated by the Public Chamber of the Samara region with regional experts involved (representatives of authorities at various levels, non-profit organizations, public chambers and public councils). The empirical study was carried out in 2 stages. At the first stage, a survey was conducted in an online format by sending emails with detailed instructions for respondents (total 50 people were interviewed). At the second stage, to clarify the collected empirical information, 2 in-depth interviews were conducted with the experts selected among those who participated in the survey earlier and who had experience in working with the digital environment and non-profit organizations of the Samara region. The data analysis describes the current situation in the field of the publicity of non-profit organizations, the results and risks of digitalization in the third sector.

The article reviews the publication: Goldebaev (Semenov) A.K. Selected / Compilation, preparation for publication, introductory article by M.A. Perepelkin, K.I. Morozovа (Samara, 2022). The book compilers have done a great research work on the study of the biography of the Samara writer A.K. Goldebaev and the publication of his three stories, which made up a kind of "autobiographical trilogy": "Bastards", "Mean Condition" and "In the Prairie" ("Summer Vacation"). The introductory article attempts not only to outline the external and internal mechanisms of influence on the formation of the writer's personality, but also to determine the place of Goldebaev’s in the historical and literary process at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. Thus, preceding the publication of Goldebaev's works, the compilers are trying to understand why the writer's name was forgotten in the 20th century. A consequential description of the life of the undeservedly forgotten writer is combined with a subtle analysis of his poetics. All this is intended to arouse the reader's interest in the personality and work of the provincial writer, who could remain in memory not only as a contemporary and correspondent of A.P. Chekhov and M. Gorky or a friend of A.S. Neverov, but also as an artist-thinker who comprehended his tragic time through literary images.

The article investigates reasons and preconditions for current difficulties in hermeneutics, caused by confusion of interpretation different concepts. The work considers three trends that affected the transformation of the interpretation notion in the 19th century: 1) the author role reduction followed by the interpreter role augmentation, 2) interpretation applicability expansion from the text to the world as a whole, resulting in the hermeneutics subject diffusion, 3) substitution of the text traditional hermeneutics by hermeneutic philosophies. Hard and soft interpretations are distinguished that base formation of hermeneutics different types.

The aphorisms of the journalist, publicist, physician August Osipovich Rosenthal (1830–1891) are introduced into scientific discourse. In 1855 Rosenthal raised an uprising that became part of the peasant uprisings of the mid-1850s. He was arrested and exiled to Siberia, later reinstated. In 1880 he emigrated: the published aphorisms refer to the overseas period of Rosenthal's life. The preamble to the text specifies biographical information based on archival sources from Rosenthal's personal fund (Manuscript Department of the IRLI (the Pushkin House) RAS, F. 258).
The published aphorisms are reflections on the moral nature of the human being and society. Distinctive features of Rosenthal's collection are a combination of didactics, humor and adherence to the knowledge scientific paradigm, openness to dialogue with the reader and declarative interactivity.