Socio-philosophical analysis of the visualization of cultural identity in the “theater” of everyday life

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the specific features and socio-philosophical foundations of the visualization of cultural identity in the “theater” of everyday life. The research methodology is based on: 1) the theory of the image, which evolves from the perception of the image as a simple sign to the understanding that in some cases it can become a symbol (with broad interpretational possibilities); 2) method of sociocultural analysis in the framework of concept of theatricality of sociocommunicative manifestations of culture. The effectiveness of the concept of theatricality of sociocommunicative manifestations of culture is due to the fact that it allows you to “collect” at one point performative, medial, iconic, semiotic and other concepts of philosophical understanding of social processes and phenomena. This approach showed the need for a new look at the dramatization of life, where not only “the whole world is the theater, and the people in it are actors”, but also every person is a “theater”. A look at the modern world as a combination of individual, personal “theaters” (the scientific novelty of the research) made it possible to identify the special functions of costume and jewelry in the scenography of these “theaters”. These functions are manifested in situations that require a person to create a certain image. Then the costume and jewelry become: 1) an active component of the sociocommunicative space, as mediums of information of a certain nature; 2) a form of self-presentation; 3) a way to visualize cultural identity. It is shown that the causes of the emergence of cultural phenomena of fashion and theatricalization of life are the same: in both cases, the desire of people to “try on” different roles is realized. This correlates with the possibility of simultaneously determining several identities for one person, which means not a loss of identity or the replacement of one’s own identity (imposed), but the search for additional personal identities. Costume and jewelry provide ample opportunities for such personal creative experiments with identity/roles in the “theater” of everyday life. Characteristic features of the modern “theater” of everyday life, as well as the cultural situation in general, are dynamism, frequent changes of form and states. Therefore, the change of images (which is easily accomplished by changing jewelry and accessories) contributes to this sociocultural game.