Issue 45 (2022, 1) Summary

ARTICULT #45 (1-2022) January­-March

SUMMARY

THEORY OF ART

WHY WAS VLADIMIR LENIN ALWAYS HAPPY TO LISTEN TO BEETHOVEN’S APPASSIONATA?
Research article
UDC 7.01
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-6-17
Author: Jakobidze-Gitman Alexander Sergeyevich, PhD in film studies, curruculum manager at the Witten/Herdecke university (Germany), e-mail: Alexander.Jakobidze-Gitman@uni-wh.de
ORCID: 0000-0001-8186-9370
Summary: The article analyses Maxim Gorky's account of Vladimir Lenin's visit to a home concert in 1920 and its screen adaptation by director Yuri Vyshinsky (1963). The author questions the possible reasons for the Soviet leader's particular predilection for Beethoven's Appassionata (piano sonata op. 57). The main subject of the study is Lenin's ambivalent attitude towards this piano sonata: on the one hand, he is ready to listen to it every day; on the other hand, it evokes in him too human emotions that hamper his activities as a revolutionary leader. The article traces possible sources that may have influenced Lenin’s perception of Beethoven's music and compares some structural elements of the Appassionata with the dialectic of spontaneity and consciousness from Lenin’s revolutionary theory.
Keywords: Maxim Gorky, music and literature, music and politics, Leninism, de-Stalinization, the dialectic of “spontaneity-consciousness”, Marxist-Leninist aesthetics, the personality cult

For citation:
Jakobidze-Gitman A.S. “Why was Vladimir Lenin Always Happy to Listen to Beethoven’s Appassionata?” Articult. 2022, no. 1(45), pp. 6-17. (in Russ.) DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-6-17

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HISTORY OF ART

THE UNITY OF MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE MONUMENT “TO THE FIRST BUILDERS OF KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR”: TO THE QUESTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE EARLY WORK OF V.E. GOREVOY
Research article
UDC 7.071.1+725.94
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-18-24
Author: Sazonov Vadim Vladimirovich, sculptor, Union of Artists of Russia, postgraduate student, A.I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: sazonovadim2805@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9053-6874
Summary: The article deals with the problem of synthesis of sculpture with natural and architectural spaces. Attention is drawn to the peculiarities of human perception of this cultural phenomenon. Already in the 1960s, there was considerable interest in the effect of including the surrounding landscape in the figurative structure of an architectural and sculptural ensemble. The author reveals how the creative method of V.E. Gorevoy, one of the largest sculptors of Leningrad-St. Petersburg over the past fifty years, was formed against the background of a powerful rise in monumental sculpture and memorial architecture. His early work reflected the artistic problems of the era in the history of Soviet monumental art. The sculptor was involved in the process of solving complex creative tasks, mainly the task of creating a special environment by means of sculpture that affects the emotions and patriotic feelings of the viewer.
Keywords: sculpture, synthesis of arts, urban environment, environmental space, V.E. Gorevoy, monumental sculpture, architectural and sculptural ensemble, M.K. Anikushin

For citation:
Sazonov V.V. “The unity of monumental sculpture and the environment in the monument “To the First Builders of Komsomolsk-on-Amur”: on the issue of the problems of V.E. Gorevoy's early work.” Articult. 2022, no. 1(45), pp. 18-24. (in Russ.) DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-18-24

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VISUAL ARTS

AUDIOVISUAL ANALYSIS OF INSANITY AND LIMINALITY IN VIDEO ART OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE XXTH CENTURY
Research article
UDC 7.038.53:791.43
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-25-33
Author-1: Martynova Daria Olegovna, assistant of the Institute of History at the Saint-Petersburg State University (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), e-mail: d.martynova@spbu.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0426-6458
Author-2: Ageev Arseniy Artyomovich, student in Art Studies, Repin Saint-Petersburg Academy of Arts (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), e-mail: seniasenias12@yandex.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9460-8169
Summary: This article is devoted to the analysis of ways of audiovisual representation of insanity and liminality in video art of the second half of the twentieth century. The problems of the embodiment of the constructs of insanity and normality, the representation of psychological trauma, the effect of detachment in the art of video on the example of the work of Sam-Taylor Wood, Tina Keane, Bruce Nauman and Bill Viola are touched upon. The authors analyze the attempts of artists using video art to make the viewer experience a mental disorder. As a result, the authors come to the conclusion that the decisive role in this process was taken by the artist himself and his body, the use of a “self-portrait” shooting point to reveal simplified inside dramatizations of vivid mental states, balancing on the verge of normal and abnormal, and often flirting with established ideas about the norm.
Keywords: liminality in art, video art, representation of psychopathology in art, medical portraits, borderline in art, theater of the absurd

For citation:
Ageev A.A., Martynova D.O. “Audiovisual analysis of insanity and liminality in video art of the second half of the ХХth century.” Articult. 2022, no. 1(45), pp. 25-33. (in Russ.) DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-25-33

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PERSONAL STORYTELLING IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL COMICS: FORMS OF REPRESENTATION
Research article
UDC 7.071.1+75.056
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-34-41
Author: Lushkin Sergei Sergeevich, PhD student at HSE Art and Design School, Faculty of communication, media and design, HSE University (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: slushkin@hse.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8247-1479
Summary: The article provides to the problem of identity in autobiographical comics. In the recent years authors of comics have been increasingly addressing the topic of identity search, putting autobiography in the foreground. This study attempts to identify the most distinctive narrative strategies in autobiographical comics and to contextualise them within a new research field, one in which the authors' “experiments” in personal narrative are realised. The focus is on the two main methods of autobiographical storytelling employed in the work of comics. One is structured narrative and the other has more literary references and is similar to literary prose. The comparison of these methods has led to the question of the true identity of the author in the works he creates.
Keywords: comics, autobiography, narrative, autofiction, representation

For citation:
Lushkin S.S. “Personal storytelling in autobiographical comics: forms of representation.” Articult. 2022, no. 1(45), pp. 34-41. (in Russ.) DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-34-41

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CINEMA

CORMAC MCCARTHEY'S NOVEL “NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN” AND ITS SCREEN ADAPTATION BY THE COEN BROTHERS
Research article
UDC 791.43-2
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-42-51
Author: Cherkashina Margarita Vadimovna, PhD in Philology, Lecturer of Chair of History and Theory of Literature in the School of Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Institute for Social Sciences, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: ma4cher@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1081-381X
Summary: In 2007, McCarthy's novel became the first experience of screen adaptation in the Coen brothers’ career, who had previously developed their own scripts only. They cut several key scenes of the novel. For example, those when each of the three main characters having their military background manifests himself as a Nietzsche’s Übermensch, ready to confrontate with others (the Coens made one of them be the protagonist, it's Sheriff Bell who does not accept the incomprehensible new world because of its total immorality). The person with healthy instincts, Bell had transformed by the Coens into a sort of a perfect knight, the new generation calculated killer Chigurh – in a total psycho, and his victim Moss – just in a man “who's been underestimated by others for so long that he's come to overestimate himself”. McCarthy's bitter irony grows out of his novel structure (mise en abyme) mostly. At the same time the Coens movie brilliance is based on their canticle of Absurd, when the crazy killer flips a coin with his victims.
Keywords: Cormac McCarthey, the Coen brothers, screen adaptation, detective, thriller, modern novel

For citation:
Cherkashina M.V. “Cormac McCarthey's novel “No country for old men” and its screen adaptation by the Coen brothers.” Articult. 2022, no. 1(45), pp. 42-51. (in Russ.) DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-42-51

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THE THEME OF LONELINESS IN SOFIA COPPOLA’S OEUVRE
Research article
UDC 791.43-2+791.43.04
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-52-67
Author: Soboleva Valeria Sergeevna, master’s student of the Faculty of Art History, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: lera-pike@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7950-8306
Summary: The theme of a human's estrangement from society or from himself has become a relevant object of study many social sciences of the twentieth century. Then the dominant existential paradigm served as fertile ground for the creation of a number of films dedicated to the representation of the phenomenon of loneliness, thereby prompting researchers to study the features of this phenomenon in cinema. The article focuses on identifying the essence and specificity of the theme of loneliness as a socio-cultural phenomenon on the example of the films of the outstanding modern director, the daughter of an influential figure in American cinema Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola. Based on the analyzed images, the author concludes that, despite the previously known cinematic techniques and plot moves in Coppola's works that convey a feeling of loneliness (the character's unstable emotional state, his difficulties of interaction with society, etc.), the director, however, rethinks this complex of ideas and introduces his own special, delicate vision of such a complex problem.
Keywords: loneliness, melancholy, social alienation, existential cinematography, Sofia Coppola, female gaze in cinema, theme of growing up, plot refrain, extreme long shot, close-up shot

For citation:
Soboleva V.S. “The theme of loneliness in Sofia Coppola’s oeuvre.” Articult. 2022, no. 1(45), pp. 52-67. (in Russ.) DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-52-67

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DRAMATIC CONFLICT: INTERNAL CONTRADICTION AS A PROJECTION OF ACTION IN FEATURE FILMS
Research article
UDC 791.43.01
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-68-74
Author: Kolotaev Vladimir Alekseevich, Dr.Habil. in philology, full professor, dean of the Faculty of the History of Art, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: vakolotaev@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7190-5726
Summary: I consider the reason to apply the basic relations of the pair of categories of the theory of dramaturgy, dramatic conflict and action, in relation to cinematography as determining the trajectory of the hero’s path. Through consideration of different points of view on what is primary, conflict or action, analyzing the impactful theories of drama, I prove that in feature films, psychological problems, an unremovable internal contradiction that puts the hero before a choice, is the trigger mechanism for action, as a chain of events that form a character arc. The reflection on the nature of the dramaturgical conflict, introduced by Hegel in his Aesthetics, attracted the attention of researchers in the 20th – 21st centuries, who generally considered the action as a kind of event that causes a clash of forces. Under the influence of Freud’s psychoanalysis, in many circumstances, the conflict is seen as an internal condition for the development of the organic form, and in relation to film dramaturgy, as an internal unresolved contradiction that causes a reaction from the environment and provokes external events that push the hero to actions, and the characteristics of the last is fully determined by the stage of development of his or her identity.
Keywords: dramatic conflict, collision, action, identity, movie character, internal contradiction

For citation:
Kolotaev V.A. “Dramatic conflict: internal contradiction as a projection of action in feature films.” Articult. 2022, no. 1(45), pp. 68-74. (in Russ.) DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-68-74

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METHODOLOGY

TO THE THEORY OF DARK MEDIA
Research article
UDC 7.01
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-75-84
Author: Markov Alexander Viktorovich, Dr.Habil. in philology, full professor, Chair of the Cinema and Contemporary Art Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow, Russia), e‑mail: markovius@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6874-1073
Summary: The concept of dark media, justified by Eugene Thacker, fully fits into today studies of the contingent. This article aimed to explore the potential of classical media theory to clarify the functional boundaries of this concept. I prove that it is possible to substantiate dark media as a phenomenon only by recognizing the connection between the main and auxiliary media, and then showing how this connection contributes to the transition from clear to dark media and vice versa. Building on the theory of corporeal media dating back to Giambattista Vico, critically rethinking the formalizing media theory from Wolfgang Riepl to Marshall McLuhan, I refine the concept of dark media as opposed not only to the concept of clarity, but also to the concept of the historical age, the concept of the class of messages and the concept of a group of interrelated practices, including practice of writing, each time undermining the influence claims of these concepts.
Keywords: media theory, new media, classical culture, dark media, actor-network theory, new ontologies

For citation:
Markov A.V. “To the theory of dark media.” Articult. 2022, no. 1(45), pp. 75-84. (in Russ.) DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-75-84

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