Article
Miinus-disain ja kotiteolisuus
The paper examines a rare explored phenomenon of Soviet cover design –a number of official releases produced by the only recording concern Melodija on the one hand, and so-called “tape-albums” became widespread among underground people in the late Soviet Union, on another.
This article combines Media Studies' and Fan Studies' approaches to such phenomenon as global manga spread, highlighing the role of participatory cultures and fan communities in the distribution, translation and interpretation of manga in Russia. The first part of the article is dedicated to participatory cultures as a concept and cultural reality in Russia, to differences between such notions as "otaku" (manga and anime fans), fan practices, fan cultures and participatory cultures. The article stresses the productive transformative potential of participatory cultures as cultural agents, their ability to cross national and cultural borders on their own terms and to influence the development of global phenomena within local contexts, even when national cultural industries, including the mass market, are not capable for some reasons to fulfil this task properly. The second part of the article is dedicated to the international reception of a controversial manga and anime title "Made in Abyss". This case demonstrates the ability of participatory cultures to become a space for open discussions of problematic questions, for production of knowledge and thinking about Japan as well as about local cultures.
The author examines the delicate relationship between such phenomena as philosophy and popular culture. After formulating three attitudes of philosophers working with popular culture (left-critical, right-critical and left-objectivistic), the author proposes the term «crossroad» to show at what point of evolution of philosophy of culture and social theory during the XXth century converged popular culture and philosophy. This «crossroad» turned out to be post-modernism in such representation in which the American Marxist philosopher Fredric Jame-son began to talk about. Postmodernism before Jameson was understood as a trend in art, and only Jameson came up with the idea to extend it to the entire culture that dissolved in during the 1970s in the economy. It was Jameson who first stated the thesis that nowadays high and popular culture represent a single space. Briefly describing Jameson's approach, the author shows what this synthesis of postmodern philosophy and popular culture has led to. Recog-nizing popular culture as legitimate, and its then state as «postmodern», social philosophers began to develop the idea of expansion of culture into the social sphere, however, not in everything agreeing with Jameson. The author emphasizes the idea that the beginning of the XXI century was marked by a surge of philosophical interest in popular culture.
This article examines special features of pleasure gardens (amusement parks) in the late imperial Russia and demonstrates them as sociocultural phenomena. The author attempts to broaden the horizon of the urban leisure studies by addressing to the experience of amusement parks and urban history studies gained by the foreign colleagues. Pleasure gardens appeared to be remarkable phenomena in the urban space of the late imperial Russia in both, a province and capital cities. They managed to become the fin-de-siècle translators of the developing mass culture and were also a place where high culture met the low. The author stresses the significant contribution of the pleasure gardens into the leveling of the audience tastes and into the leisure democratization.
This year’s final issue of Orientaliska studier consists of papers initially given at the conference on Manga Studies held at Stockholm University, Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies from 6-8 September. The conference was arranged on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Japan. A wide variety of topics within this broad field of research are covered by the 15 contributors. An introduction is written by conference organizer and guest editor Jaqueline Berndt, professor of Japanese Language and Culture at Stockholm University, Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies.
Russian rock music of the 1980s - 2000s by the opinion of many scholars has become a phenomenon largely formed by the religious interests of its creators. For example, the fascination of one of the classics of Russian rock Boris Grebenshikov for Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism is well known. But scholars rarely raise the question not about religious, but about esoteric influences in the works of Russian rockers. In the paper, we plan to review key influences of the esoteric teachings on the formation of Russian rock music of the turn of the century. This overview will examine in details the works of bands Va-Bank, Nautilus Pompilius, the Orgy of the righteous, Rada and Ternovnik, Civil defense and performers Sergei Kuryokhin, Vasily Shumov, Psoy Korolenko. It is possible to highlight several key questions that are important to the review: which of the representatives of Western esotericism inspired Russian musicians; what images, teachings, theories they used in their music and songs; how conscious was their appeal to esotericism; was it a tribute to fashion, artistic technique or an expression of personal opinion. The answers to these questions will help to reveal the specific nature of the influence of Western esotericism on the Russian rock and to show its originality or maybe even its uniqueness.
The article is concerned with results of content analysis of textbooks for high school in the area of social and human sciences. The author uses the typology of values introduced by S. Schwartz which consists of two value axes — “conservation — openness to change” and “selfassertion — caring about people and nature” — and describes values that underlie each subject area and then compares these values with results of mass surveys of the values of Russians.
The paper examines the historical context underlying a series of peasants' visions that occurred in Verkhotursky district (Western Siberia) from 1687 until 1691. Most of the apparitions involved the Mother of God giving the recipients a variety of instructions. Most often she demanded that they cease cursing. As a result of the circulation of stories about these visions, governor (voevoda) Grigory Naryshkin ordered that those who cursed be fined but later cancelled this order in 1689. The paper argues against the older understanding, that these visions constituted inventions on the part of the local officials in order to fine peasants. It also reproduces examples of peasants' stories about the visions.
One of the most important indicators of company's success is the increase of its value. The article investigates traditional methods of company's value assessment and the evidence that the application of these methods is incorrect in the new stage of economy. So it is necessary to create a new method of valuation based on the new main sources of company's success that is its intellectual capital.