Scientific Fact and Artistic Image: Deformation of the subject field of Ukrainian theater studies in the 1920s

Abstract

The limits of professional activity are determined by the circle of persons who carry it out (who), the content of the activity (production, processing or any other actions aimed at changing the object), quality criteria, technical, ethical and other norms, forms of incentives and sanctions, etc. So, for a formal or informal small or medium-sized social group, the activity of which is inseparable of the situation in which it is carried out, because, in addition to production, it involves the organization of demand and sales, communication with the world external to the group, which leads to stratification activity itself into smaller independent functions (differentiation of production, sales, etc.) and to its transformation, sometimes almost to the point of self-destruction. The heart of professional activity — its subject field or subject matter — is determined not only by the subject of production, its quality criteria and boundaries but also by invisible communications, which are very often hidden from the direct consumer, among which a key role is played by a professional network (structured professional communication carried out by members of the group regarding the subject of production) and its reference library (theoretical works, technical instructions, protocols regulating activities, etc.). During the 1920s, when in Ukraine the self-reliance of activities aimed at the production of scientific facts, therefore, new and preferably practically oriented knowledge about the theater, and the separation of this sphere from others, was fixed in terms of theater studies, there was an extremely active process of formation of the subject field, network and reference library of theater studies. A key role in these processes was played (and not only because of his own professional activity but also as a result of his position in the network) theater historian Petro Rulin, in whose activities, precisely from the point of view of the formation and deformation of the subject matter of theatre studies, its main trends of the 1920s are highlighted.