Элемент безумия и декадентства в русской культуре

Логос. 2025. Т. 35. № 2. С. 257–276.

Glebov O., Demenchuk P.

The article is devoted to the study of S.A. Kuryokhin's hypothesis that the element of ‘madness’ is a characteristic feature of Russian culture. The study of this hypothesis is valuable because, firstly, the conceptualisation of the concept of ‘madness’ will make it possible to understand Kurekhin and his work, resulting in the formation of a new definition for this concept; secondly, the analysis of this concept will make it possible to look at Russian culture from a new perspective, resulting in the identification of the characteristic features of Russian culture. In this regard, the aim of the paper is to identify the element of madness, which, according to Kurekhin's hypothesis, is implicitly contained in outstanding works of Russian culture. In the course of the study, the authors extrapolate the concept of madness to Russian culture as a whole. The strategy of the work is determined by searching for anomalies in the works of M.I. Glinka and P.I. Tchaikovsky and explaining the causes and conditions of their occurrence. As a result of the study, the authors come to the conclusion stating that anomalies in the works of Russian culture are caused by the dissonance of form and content due to the combination of two opposite epistemes. The origin of these anomalies is explained by the difference between the constitutive attitudes of Russian and Western cultures. The comparative analysis of worldview bases allows us to conclude that the way of constituting reality characteristic of Russian culture is oriented towards the operation of combination, whereas Western rationalism is oriented towards distinction. From this it is concluded that the paradigm of Russian music combines the formal use of music theory techniques, but meaningfully incorporates melodies from the structure of traditional music. This way of structuring musical material in the constitutive strategies of the rational tradition of academic music is perceived as meaningless and insane, so culturally the rational paradigm characterises Russian works of art as decadent.

Keywords: социальная антропология, social anthropology, русская культура, Russian art, русское искусство, Russian culture, философия музыки, philosophy of music, безумие, madness, Decadence, декадентство, Russian classical music, Sergey Kuryokhin, Mikhail Glinka, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, русская классическая музыка, Сергей Курехин, Михаил Глинка, Петр Чайковский