Myth Of Hero Research Articles

A Mythical Medieval Hero in Modern East Java: The Masked Dance Gunung Sari as an Alternative Model of Masculinity

Abstract This article analyzes the east Javanese male-style masked dance Gunung Sari, a dance that has captivated me for the feminine qualities and ways of moving that performers in the east Javanese regency of Malang identified. I argue that by performing and talking about Gunung Sari, the character portrayed (also named Gunung Sari), and Gunung Sari dancers, artists have maintained cultural space for a particular sense of masculinity, one imbued with femininity, that they situated in local east Javanese culture, in effect producing an alternative to dominant national Indonesian models that separated maleness from femaleness. I draw on my experiences studying and performing Gunung Sari, conversations with my teachers, and observations of performances from 2005 to 2007 and subsequent visits to explore negotiations of gender through dancers’ offstage character and lifestyle, the story cycle from which the dance is drawn, accompanying gamelan music, dance movement, and mask iconography. Artikel ini menganalisa Tari Gunung Sari yang merupakan salah satu tari topeng gaya pria Jawa Timur. Bagi penulis, keistimewaan Gunung Sari terletak pada kualitas dan gerak-gerik feminim yang ditunjukkan oleh para seniman di Kabupaten Malang. Penulis hendak memperlihatkan bahwa dengan menarikan dan berbicara tentang Gunung Sari, tokoh yang diperankan (juga bernama Gunung Sari), dan penari Gunung Sari, para seniman telah memelihara suatu ruang kebudayaan untuk pengertian kejantanan tertentu, yaitu kejantanan yang diilhami oleh kewanitaan serta memperlihatkan bahwa kejantanan tertentu tersebut berada di dalam budaya lokal Jawa Timur. Menurut penulis, para seniman tersebut menciptakan contoh kejantanan sebagai alternatif untuk contoh-contoh nasional Indonesia dominan yang memisahkan kejantanan dari kewanitaan. Penulis memanfaatkan pengalamannya mempelajari dan menampilkan Gunung Sari, percakapan dengan guru-gurunya, dan pengamatan pertunjukan dari tahun 2005-2007 serta kunjungan-kunjungan berikutnya untuk mengkaji negosiasi gender melalui karakter dan gaya hidup para penari di luar panggung, siklus cerita yang menjadi asal Gunung Sari, iringan gamelan, gerak tari, dan ikonografi topeng.

THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NOVELS OF PAULO COELHO

The Brazilian author Paulo Coelho is a winner of Guinness Book of World Records and the world ambassador of psychological literature. The present paper intends to study the selected works of Paulo Coelho in the light of the reputed American mythologist and psychoanalyst Joseph Campbell’s theory on Emanations which is depicted in his seminal work The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Campbell’s thoughts revolving around mythology, metaphysics, and psychology, forming the structural principles of literature, do essentially evolve a story pattern. Campbell like Freud and Jung regards dreams highly significant, as dreams provide a thoughtstructure and express the unconscious. Campbell’s psychoanalytical theory largely bears on that of Jung. For Campbell myths and dreams have their origin in the unconscious wells of fantasy, though they may differ on some aspects. He considers the mythic heroes as archetypes representing the collective unconscious and, also as the versions of those archetypes both in spiritual and psychological terms. The paper intends to develop the mythical and psychological bearings in the novels of Coelho as it describes the adventure, quest, and transformation of the hero, supernatural power, occult rituals, destiny, and the interpretations of dreams in the Jungian terms, besides retaining their fictional element. Coelho’s novels The Pilgrimage, The Alchemist and The Zahir very well exemplify that how can a literary writer translate the myths which contain the eternal values afresh in terms of the existing realities through the use of the modern psychology.

Opinions on Obesity, Nutrition, and Basal Metabolic Rates

Being overweight or obese is one thing, but childhood obesity is another thing altogether. Everything around you are different, even yourself. The entire picture becomes clearer when you have your own experience—when you yourself have been an obese child. Memories come and seem that you are looking at yourself in a film. A long movie playing your past, all for you. As per the ancient Balkan mentality, overweight/obesity is a sign of wellness and wealth, and this is true in some families. The way that they eat, love, drink, and celebrate is sometimes connected with being prosperous and being “healthy.” Some centuries ago, a woman had to be overweight/obese to be considered beautiful. In “The Epic of the Kreshniks,” (Albanian mythology) being beautiful, especially for women, means being big and fat. The mythical hero Muji needed to marry the biggest and the fattest woman in the district (Epic of Kreshniks” is a kind of Albanian mythology, for heroes for big sizes, where hyperbolic and metaphor are very common. In the meantime, has served as a subtracts of our creation of Albanian nation).

The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus

The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus

The Hero at a Thousand Places: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five as Anti-Monomyth

ABSTRACT Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) has remained the most widely discussed of his novels in the five decades since its publication. However, the volume of critical work produced on it far outweighs the unique lines of thought investigated. The critiques have mostly been limited to – diagnoses of Billy Pilgrim’s mental disorder, locating the sources of the diagnosed ailments, examinations of Vonnegut’s intended philosophy, comparisons of the novel to other anti-war works, and investigations of the elements of humor and science fiction in the novel. This article attempts a close reading of the novel along the lines of the hero quest, or monomyth, as chronicled in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) by Joseph Campbell. The article disentangles the novel to release the inherent quest narrative from its non-linear structure and reinterprets it in terms of Campbell’s quest stages to reveal an uncanny resemblance to the mythical hero’s journey. The nature of the journey and the hero’s traits, and the departures observed in Vonnegut’s monomyth from Campbell’s determine the relevance and implications of Billy’s quest and warrant the need to coin his quest anew, namely the anti-monomyth.

Heroic Self-discovery of the Shepherd in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist

This paper examines the heroic self-discovery of a common shepherd in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist (1988) through the concept of popular culture. Santiago, the protagonist, abandons his home and family in teenage for a mysterious hidden treasure. What are the reasons that make him to undertake an adventurous journey from the known to the unknown land? So this paper draws on ideas from Marshall W. Fishwick and Joseph Campbell to respond the shepherd’s journey in order to substantiate his expedition as an adventure of the hero. Santiago’s journey of self- discovery can be analyzed in the theoretical frame of the hero journey and the quest of myth. Therefore, Santiago’s journey from Andalusia to Africa in search of a hidden treasure is uncommon because he begins his journey in a response to an exotic recurring dream where a child summons him to the Pyramids of Egypt. This is the reason why his journey differs from the celebrities, artists, politicians, and mythical heroes.

FC Bayern Munich as a ‘victim’ of National Socialism? Construction and critique of a ‘heroic myth’

ABSTRACT FC Bayern Munich has described its history during the Nazi era as that of a victim under the dictatorship that was systematically disadvantaged. Numerous institutions and the media have supported the football club until 2016 in presenting this self-portrayal as historical truth. Since then, doubts have been raised about this view of history due to the discovery of numerous, previously unknown sources. This article analyses the central elements of the ‘heroic history’ which FC Bayern is said to have written in the Third Reich. In particular, the core statements of the club museum in the Allianz Arena (Munich) are critically examined. As a result of this examination, it becomes clear that the self-image that the football club has of its role in the Nazi era is, demonstrably, a historical myth. In FC Bayern’s marketing, this myth aims to enhance its reputation in the national and international media and to claim moral superiority in competition with other football clubs.

Migration has Stripped Us of Our Manhood: Contradictions of Failed Masculinity Among South Asian Male Migrants in Greece

This article explores the contradictions of the failed masculine stature of South Asian male migrants in Greece. Transnational migration provides low-class rural Indian and Pakistani men an opportunity to socially re-inscribe their adult breadwinner stature. It discusses relational hierarchies of masculinities that shape these men’s encounters with Greek employers, compatriots in Greece, and transnationally located families. Discriminatory state migration and labor regimes intersect with discourses of racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia to reinforce these racialized men’s sense of failed masculinity. Relative powerlessness to a range of local and co-ethnic men further emasculates them. Consequently, they adopt a series of compensatory strategies that include self-valorizing their masculinity relationally vis-à-vis co-ethnic males and Greek male workers. Strategically repositioning self as indispensable to the Greek nation and accentuating personal sacrifice for families notionally transforms them into mythic heroes. Notwithstanding, precarious migrant status in Greece renders hegemonic masculine stature elusive to them.

ΠΑΡΑΤΗΡΗΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΟΥΣ ΑΘΛΟΥΣ ΤΟΥ ΗΡΑΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΩΑΝΝΗ ΠΕΔΙΑΣΙΜΟΥ

REMARKS ON HERCULES’ LABOURS OF JOHN PEDIASIMOS Hercules’ Labours were composed by John Pediasimos for educational purposes in a peculiar form comprising both prose and verse. The Hercules’ Labours had been among the most popular texts of school textbooks during the 14th, 15th, 16th centuries; the fact is well shown by the extensive number of manuscripts (39) transmitted.The complete “prose” collection consists of fourteen texts. The first is a metrical preface, i.e. a distich in Byzantine dodecasyllable. The second, a poetical work, is transmitted either as an exaposteilarion or as a poem composed in six political verses and it contains the list of the twelve Labours of the hero.The remaining twelve texts contain respectively eachone of the twelve well known Labours of the mythical hero. The aformentioned texts have already been published, but it would be worth publishing the interlinear comments and the analysis related to them contained in the manuscripts.The poetic form consists of thirteen texts: a monostich in Byzantine dodecasyllable which is the metrical title of the work and twelve poems written in same meter, one of each Labour of Hercules. The latter texts were treated up to now as one and single poem. Nevertheless, it would be better to handle them as twelve different and single poems.

Illustration of alcohol use in classical Farsi-Dari (Persian) literature

Alcohol has been known to people of Central Asia for millennia, and in line with local mythology, wine was used as an anaesthetic for the Caesarean birth of the mythical hero Rostam. In classical Farsi-Dari (Persian) literature, the term alcohol and/or wine is used in two different contexts; firstly, as an allegory; referring to a ‘divine wine’ and as a source of spiritual intoxication bringing the consumer closer to his Creator. This school of thoughts is symbolised by Rumi and Sufi poets; secondly, as a source of physical intoxication, bringing the drinker happiness and the ability to forget about everyday concerns. This school of opinions is represented by Khayyam and Manuchehri. From a religious point of view, alcohol is described as “the mother of all evil”. Nevertheless, there are also a lot of those, who praise wine for its hypnotic properties describing it as ‘a remedy for sleepless nights’, or for its anxiolytic characteristics, ‘taking away worries and bringing peace to one’s mind’; and notably for its antidepressant effects declaring ‘there is nothing better than wine to banish sadness’. The aim of this paper is to review Persian literature of Central Asia and neighbouring regions between the 10th and 14th centuries with the focus on alcohol and its illustration in the works of influential authors of the period, including Rudaki, Manuchehri, Khayyam, Rumi, Hafez, etc.

THE LEGEND OF VLADIMIR AND COSARA IN RAZGOVOR UGODNI NARODA SLOVINSKOGA AND IN ITS LATIN TRANSLATION

is article investigates the legend of Duklian prince Ioan Vladimir and Theodora Kosara – the daughter of Bulgarian king Samuil in the book Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskoga by the Dalmatian writer Andrija Kačić Miošić, as well as in the Latin translation of the book, made by Emerik Pavić. The historical situation on the Balkans during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries provoked the growing native writers’ interest towards the past. Many South Slavic authors searched for examples of heroism and greatness of the Slavsin written documents and oral legends. They strived to emphasize the linguistic and cultural affinity between them and included common characters, folklore and legendary motifsin their literary works. The real historical facts and the heroic myths about the might and the unification of the Slavic ethnos in “Pisma od kralja Vladimira” and in the other parts of “Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskoga” inspired the southern Slavicpeoples and gave them hope that they might be free and powerful again as they had been formerly. The extensive translation in Latin popularized the Bulgarian history and folklore, not only among Slavic, but also among other European nations. The legend of Duklian prince Ioan Vladimir and the Bulgarian princess Theodora Kosara went beyond the times it was created, described and printed.

Out of the (B)earth canal: the mythic journey in Murakami Haruki

From the start of his writing career Murakami Haruki has sent his hero on underground quests. While all, or nearly all, of his heroes accomplish their most immediate missions in the Underworld, however, few return to the everyday world truly fulfilled. This essay explores the Murakami quest in terms of myth and sacred ritual, paying special attention to ritual initiation as a form of symbolic death and rebirth. It focuses chiefly on the 2017 novel Kishidanchō-Goroshi (translated 2018 as Killing Commendatore), but also explores other Murakami fiction written since the year 2000 such as Umibe no Kafuka (2002; Kafka On the Shore) and 1Q84 (2009–10; 1Q84), in which the author began to experiment with heroes who possess sacred qualities, yet need to awaken to and accept these qualities, as well as the responsibilities that accompany them. Such heroes, I argue, possess the potential to be successfully initiated into the mysteries of the Underworld, and thus not only to succeed in their missions underground, but to achieve the rebirth and reconstitution offered the triumphant mythic hero. As a wider theme, the essay argues that, in this modern age of rationalism, fiction centered on the theme of the mythic hero is one of the venues in which the sacred and the mythical remain a living reality, offering readers an opportunity to connect with the mythic roots of their archaic past.

Gide et le mythe grec. Suivi de fragments du ‘Traité des Dioscures’ et autres textes inédits ed. by Patrick Pollard

MLR, .,   that mourning, like melancholia, might be an interminable process’ (p. ). is shi contributes to making Freud so central to the book’s reading of Proust, since Proustian mourning too, Elsner argues, is characterized by interminability. is is illustrated by the two main examples of the study (the narrator’s mourning over his grandmother and Albertine), both of which depict mourning as ‘an interminable process forever trapped between anticipation and belatedness’ (p. ). While the ‘distorted time-structure of mourning’ (p. ) is the subject of Chapter , Chapter  excavates the novel’s ‘topography of mourning’ (p. ). Drawing on Freud’s de- finition of the uncanny as ‘deriving from a shiing and thereby fluid distinction between imagination and reality’ (p. ), Elsner persuasively argues that when the seemingly familiar spaces of Balbec, Venice, and Paris are re-experienced in the wake of loss, they turn into uncanny ‘spaces of mourning as the narrator’s inner grief slowly invades the exterior reality in which [mourning] is experienced’ (p. ). e section on Paris centres on the wartime passage of Le Temps retrouvé, in which Proust explores mourning as a public and collective experience. In Elsner’s shrewd analysis of this passage, an examination of developments in mourning fashion during the First World War serves as a point of departure for discussing social and cultural aspects of mourning. e final chapter reads Proust’s drame du coucher as the primal scene of mourning in the novel and engages in dialogue with Melanie Klein and Jacques Lacan in order to bring out the ethical dilemmas inherent to the narrator’s first and subsequent attempts to translate loss into writing. Its lucid and nuanced discussion of the Proustian ethics of creation is part of what makes this book a valuable addition to the field of Proust studies and a pleasure to read. U  B S Y A Gide et le mythe grec. Suivi de fragments du ‘Traité des Dioscures’ et autres textes inédits. Ed. by P P. (Bibliothèque Gidienne, ) Paris: Classiques Garnier. .  pp. €. ISBN ––––. At the beginning of Gide’s long career was Le Traité du Narcisse (), and towards its close he wrote ésée (), a first-person account by the mythical hero himself. In between was a tragedy Philoctète (), a sotie entitled Le Prométhée mal enchaîné (), a dramatic reworking of Œdipe (), and a partially complete Proserpine, which mutated into a mélodrame called Perséphone (). Patrick Pollard signals several other projects that were considered at length but never came to fruition: a Sylla, a Midas, an Ajax, to name but three. Add to these the Considérations sur la mythologie grecque (), consisting of fragments of a planned Traité des Dioscures, and a meditation on Greek mythology entitled Un esprit non prévenu (), both of which Pollard presents with important manuscript variants; reading these alongside numerous manuscript musings and notes rich in insights published here for the first time, one begins to understand why Gide noted in his diary on  February : ‘La culture grecque est entrée comme composante de ma nature’ (Journal II: –, ed. by Martine Sagaert (Paris: Pléiade, ), p. ). Pollard underlines Gide’s insistence on the rational, psychological character of  Reviews myth—which put the writer at odds with theoreticians who argued for symbolic, ritual, or sociological readings. Surveying the field of classical scholarship and the sources Gide had at his disposal, Pollard points to reference works and academic studies while stressing also the ancient texts which treat of—and embroider on—the figures and narratives of the Greek myths. Another important factor was the rivalry, evident in their correspondence, with Gide’s literary confrères such as Paul Valéry, Marcel Drouin, Henry de Régnier, and especially Pierre Louÿs, whose variations on Greek myth no doubt spurred Gide’s own creative reworkings. As for Gide’s understanding of the myths, Pollard takes us through a series of readings articulated around themes that resonate through his œuvre. Hence, under the heading ‘L’amour impossible’ feature the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux, Narcissus, and Orpheus and Eurydice; while the household of King Minos—Pasiphaë, Ariadne, Phaedra, Androgeos, the Minotaur, Daedalus, and Icarus—exemplifies ‘la famille’. e gods Dionysus...

Аксиологические векторы смысложизненных стратегий человека и социума в поэзии казахских жырау

The article reveals the place of the poetry of medieval Kazakh storytellers-zhyrau in the system of world heroic poetry, which glorified the knightly ethos and glorified real and mythical heroes. It is shown that, in contrast to the ideal of the European knight, in the ethos of the steppe warrior-batyr, as he appears in the poetry of zhyrau, a harmonious combination of cultures of rivalry and coopera­tion, striving for personal superiority and free cooperation to achieve common goals is achieved. In the very origins of the oral mythopoetic culture of the Kaza­khs, in proverbs and sayings, legends and epics, there is a reflective and ideolog­ical beginning, which predetermines its free character, open to the world and other cultures, and at the same time self-depth, creative self-appeal. This distinc­tive feature of the traditional culture of the Kazakh people and its spiritual, moral, intellectual development, the formation of national identity is clearly manifested both in oral folk art and in the philosophical reflections of outstand­ing Kazakh thinkers throughout the centuries-old cultural history of the Great Steppe. The heroic epic becomes a moral-forming factor of life since it sets so­cially and spiritually sanctioned normative personality patterns, produces worthy of imitation integral models of behavior and lifestyle.

«НА КОНЯ, ПРОЛЕТАРИЙ». РУССКИЙ ВСАДНИК В МИЛИТАРИСТСКИХ МИФАХ О ВЛАСТИ

The consequences of the First World War had the most serious impact on the development of the national myth of power, where the image of the rider played a dominant role. After the October revolution, the development of the symbolic image of the Russian rider shifted to the sphere of revolutionary cult. Heroic myths about red riders embodied in artistic images of mass culture, understandable to the proletariat. The image of the Russian rider received the most stable connotations in the militaristic scenario: Russia's special historical path determined the originality of its national symbols. The main essential characteristic of the image of the Russian rider was his connection with the cycle "death-rebirth- immortality" due to the special mission of the hero as a defender of the Fatherland. The apotheosis of the development of the symbolic image was the triumphant departure of "Victory Marshal" G. K. Zhukov at the Parade on July 24, 1945. "It was the last day when the dead stood in columns next to the living", - wrote the biographer of "Victory Marshal". In 1950s the cavalry in the Soviet army was disbanded, the activities of military stud farms were stopped. However, the symbolic images of remote riders throwing their horses into a rapid attack remain clear to most of us even now.

Парадигма как этика смирения

An important element of the ethics of science is the professional code of scien­tific honesty transmitted by the scientific community. Basic research relies on the notion of gift-giving as a selfless ethical-cognitive relationship, one of the manifestations of which is scientific humility. The article establishes a link between the approach of virtue epistemology and ethical consequences from the concept of paradigm (T. Kuhn). Kuhn’s normative image of science suggests that the scientist assumes paradigmatic rules and limitations without any vio­lence. That is why paradigm represents a huge advantage for a “normal scientist” allowing her to solve only those particular puzzles that really interest her. Para­digm appears as a gift of a mythical revolutionary hero to the “normal” scientist. Scientific honesty forms a normative basis for basic research because scientists do not sell results to each other, do not extract income at the expense of the sci­entific community and therefore do not expect deception in the style of “bought cheaper, sold more expensive”. The primary meaning of the ethics of science is based on the selfless giving. Humility is the ability to accept the gift of knowl­edge and acknowledgement gratefully, to take on the duty of recognition and to be ready to pass on the same gift by inheritance.

Культурные универсалии: сакральное пространство в мифологии народов Сибири и Дальнего Востока

The paper presents an analysis of the ethnic characteristics of updating the spatial code (as a cultural universal) in Altai, Khanty and Koryak cultures. Three of these cultures are characterized by elements of both vertical and horizontal space structuring. Appealing to the heavenly Supreme Deity in traditional cultures is fraught with hopes for prosperity and protection. The balance of the world is set by the antithesis of opposing principles. In Altai and Koryak cultures, mythical hero hostile to humans inhabits the underground, lower world. For Khants, the vertical structuring of space is superimposed on the autochthonous tradition of horizontal division of the world. The center of this world is the Ob River. The “top” was at its source, in the south, the “bottom” – in the north. The “top” (i.e., the south) is considered to be the space of the “bright” gods, the “bottom” (i.e. the north) – “dark” (possessions of the deity of death and illnesses of Hin’ iki). The mythological heroes of the hostile world (lower / underground or lower / northern) appear to be active, with destructive power. Their attack on a person is fraught with disease or death. In the Altai, Khanty, Koryak cultures, the phenomenon of veneration of sacred places is manifested, which can be interpreted as one way of horizontal structuring of the world. The sacralization of a particular geographical space is associated with sacrifice rituals as a gift to a sacred place. The ritual of venerating sacred places, besides occasional necessity, is also timed to the calendar cycle.

Les guerriers dans la brume. Éléments d’archéologie sur la violence et ses acteurs à la fin de la Préhistoire au Japon

Among the many mythological figures, the warrior is an often noticed (and studied) one. Japanese mythology is no exception. Warlike mythical heroes such as Yamato Takeru are often presented as unsettling characters, often prone to uncontrollable outbursts of violence, and both bound by the duties of their service and very self-centered in the choices they make to accomplish them. This kind of untamed, frightening aspect of warlike heroes is often tempered with a “tuned down” tendency, in the more modern sense of the nation-state framework. The Japanese heroes, in this respect, are not treated differently than their European counterparts. In contrast to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, present-day archaeology no longer deals with the verification of the conformity of mythology with material and objective evidence of ancient societies. No one would see the interest in locating Yamato Takeru’s grave in Japan, no more than one would now consider that Heinrich Schliemann was making a valuable scientific point by “uncovering” the tomb of Agamemnon in 1876. Crucially, archaeology opens a window on the apparent realities of armed conflicts in ancient societies. The mist of ancient times when the myths of warlike heroes such as Yamato Takeru were fostered reveals the material reality of violence and its “specialists,” which allows us to grasp essential aspects of intrinsic and extrinsic elements of these societies.

Великая Отечественная война в современной русской детской литературе: в поисках альтернативы

In modern Russia, the Great Patriotic War remains an important element of official memorial policy and collective memory, mainly in the form of a heroic mythological narrative. But this heroic myth makes it difficult, and sometimes taboo, to express painful war experience. This article examines how the taboo traumatic experience (“alternative narrative”) is embodied in contemporary Russian literature for children and adolescents. This question is investigated on the basis of the reference to the texts of the novels “Cloud Regiment” (Oblachnyy polk) by E. Verkin (2012), “Traces” (Sledy) by E. Basova (2017) and “The t. g. Garden” (Sad imeni t. s.) by M. Boteva (2018). The author of the article considers these texts in the context of modern publishing repertoire of children’s literature, finds out what ideas about the Great Patriotic War the reader can get from these works and what artistic means this representation is formed with. Then, relying on several samples of the reader’s reception of selected works, the author makes some conclusions about the meaning of these examples of alternative narrative about the Great Patriotic War today. These books provide an example of how reading allows the reader to become a witness of the described events, thus illustrating the relationship between cultural memory and poetics. Keywords: Great Patriotic War in the Russian Children’s Literature, Eduard Verkin, Eugenia Basova, Maria Boteva, memory and trauma in literature, juvenile contemporary prose

Мифологизация истории в праздничных мероприятиях 1920-1930-х гг.

The article discusses techniques and methods used by the Soviet government to formulate the historical myth of the revolutionary movement in Russia and of the 1917 revolution. Holidays in Soviet Russia and later in the Soviet Union were not just days of relaxation. They served educational function, formed new spiritual values, instilled a sense of engagement with the events of 1917. As one of the ways to influence the mass consciousness, the festive events of the first decades of the Soviet power formed public opinion and influenced perception of historical and current events by the population. Popularization of the emerging official history of the new socialist state, which had begun in 1917, was especially effective during celebrations owing to their inherent emotional component. The use of historical plots in various dramatizations, mass actions, political processions, carnivals, and demonstrations of workers created an appearance of the new government’s legitimacy, contributed to the formation of the collective memory of the revolutionary days within the frameworks of their official interpretation. The article uses archival materials of the Department of Agitation and Propaganda of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.), which testify to the importance that the party authorities attached to the scenarios of the festive events. Memoirs of the direct participants in the events played their role in creating heroic myth of the revolution. An obligatory element of the celebration of the anniversaries was meetings with workers revolutionaries and witnesses of the revolutionary events that were arranged at the enterprises. Participation in these “evenings of remembrance” became a way of “self-identification” of an individual in new, socialist society, for speakers, as well as listeners. During these festive meetings, appearance of belonging, not only to the heroic past, but also to the epic present, was created. Specifics and ideological implications of the 1920s–30s memoirs contributed to the use of the “memorial boom” in the forming official narrative of the revolution.