The Image of Modern Russian Intelligentsia: A Representation of Self-Identification

Abstract

The article gives an overview of researches, based on the methodological provisions of media psychology, psychosemiotics and narrative psychology, into the contemporary Russian intelligentsia, and determines the scientific and social significance of the intelligentsia as a «Russian specific phenomenon». Psychosemiotic and narrative analyses of the modern Russian intelligentsia were conducted on the basis of original texts of interviews with participants of the TV program «Posner». Psychosemiotic analysis has shown that modern mass media transform ideas about the contribution of the intelligentsia to the history of civilization, and its attitudes to the challenges of modernity. In the narrative, the dynamics of the States of the actors of the analyzed narrative text of the Respondent is established. It is determined that both methods largely complement each other, clarify and update the research of self-identification of the modern Russian intelligentsia. This article presents empirical results of psychosemantic representation of the image of the Russian intelligentsia. Ppsychosemantic analysis of public opinion regarding the image of the intellectual of the XIX–XX centuries and the image of the modern Russian intellectual was carried out using the author's specialized semantic differential. The sample consisted of the intelligentsia of the Angara region (scientists, musicians, artists, doctors, teachers) with a total number of 256 people. Based on the data obtained using a specialized semantic differential for assessing the images of the intelligentsia of the 19th and 20th centuries and the modern Russian intelligentsia, the leading factors that characterize the images of representatives of the intelligentsia of the 19th and 20th centuries are the following: social distance, voice of conscience, developed intellectual abilities, altruism, social elite, political leadership, patriotism; as for modern Russian intelligentsia they are: publicity, education, and social leadership. propensity to humanism, educated innovator, developed intellectual abilities, propensity to patriotism. There are differences in the images of the intelligentsia of the 19th and 20th centuries and modern Russian intelligentsia, which are manifested through the development of self-awareness, reflection on their place, role and purpose in life.