Socio-historical Reality Research Articles

Художня реалізація радянських ідеологем у повісті Олександри Свекли «Надломлені серцем»

The article attempts to analyse the novel «Brokenhearted» in terms of its ideological, thematic, figurative and stylistic dominants in the context of social realism. Social realism as a style was primarily created for political, non-artistic needs, such as the construction of people of the new era, for which art became a tool. That is why in the work of many authors of the period we can observe the development of themes and techniques that meet the objectives of the ruling party. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examine the elements of Oleksandra Svekla’s textual creation as those that show a strong influence of the ideas of the Soviet era, but are mastered and transformed. The study examines the rejection of the past as a characteristic temporal category for socialist realism works, the separation of private and collective spaces. An attempt is made to describe the types of characters in the story as part of the textual element of a socialist realist work. It is revealed the author’s modelling of the inherent canonical image of the «new man», which is realised through the characters of the Soviet Pantheon of heroes: the warrior hero, the worker hero, the party member hero. Through the image of a new woman, Iryna, who is the centre of the whole story, the author describes the idea of female emancipation, which is realised not only through the rejection of marriage, highly paid female labour, and the desire to raise a child on her own, but also at the plot level: the protagonist’s journey, which is an important part of personality formation. The study revealed a spontaneous ideologisation of the semiosphere. That is, in our opinion, Oleksandra Svekla consciously/unconsciously reproduced ideology in connection with her own political position and an attempt to describe the socio-historical reality.

Технологический потенциал социального проектирования: к вопросу о природе общественно-исторической динамики

The article explores the possibility of a consistent view of the boundaries of arbitrary interference in the objec-tive processes of social development. The materialistic understanding of history, which denies subjective and, moreover, transcendental factors, includes the theory of the revolutionary transformation of society. The change of formations does not occur before the necessary conditions and prerequisites ripen. Meanwhile, revolutions (“locomotives of history”) and, in general, the “living creativity of the masses” are understood as legitimate mechanisms of development. The future is inevitable, but it requires a lot of directed efforts. The automatism of what is happening is always open to arbitrary action. Being defines consciousness, but it never “comes true” without it. The text suggests a direction of thinking that equalizes their rights to the socio-historical reality. From a certain angle, the following considerations can be deemed a general theoretical and partly methodological preface to the next actualization of well-known subjects, including the role of the individual in history.

On Affect, Violence, Vulnerability, and Community: Jenisjoplin

Jenisjoplin (2017) by Uxue Alberdi is an unsettling and formally innovative novel, as it recalls—through the account by its protagonist Nagore Vargas, nicknamed Jenisjoplin—the convulsive socio-historical reality of the last four decades in the Basque Country. This article offers a contextualization of Alberdi’s novel in the landscape of contemporary Basque authors and bases its analysis on theories connected with the affective turn. It is within that theoretical framework that such notions as violence experienced at the social level in ETA and post-ETA times, illness and vulnerability, and the possibility of individual and social reconstruction are explored. The narrative discourse in Jenisjoplin intertwines the social and political scenario of violence with the subjective experiences of the protagonist, which focus on family, friends, lovers, and illness, but also with frequent analytical and critical reflections on the nature of the Basque community and on the fight for national independence, the medical diagnosis and treatment for AIDS, and the struggle for a society where social justice will eventually prevail. Contributions by Mari Jose Olaziregi, Sara Ahmed, Laurent Berlant, Judith Butler, Susan Sontag, and Roberto Esposito, among others, form the theoretical backdrop for the analysis of the novel.

Paulus, der „Sklave Christi Jesu“ (Gal 1,10; Röm 1,1; Phil 1,1), im Lichte des römischen Rechts

AbstractIn Gal 1:10, Rom 1:1, and Phil 1:1 Paul refers to himself as δοῦλος Χριστοῦ (Ἰησοῦ). This self-designation is open to interpretation. What is the function of this claim of roles, which is slightly varied syntagmatically in the three passages mentioned, i.e., tends to be linguistically flexible on Paul's part and thus adapted to the context in each case? The present contribution is intended to expand the interpretive framework with an aspect that has been rather neglected in previous Pauline research, when it invokes the interpretive context of Roman law. For it is Roman law that is of particular interest for the self-definition as a slave. In Roman legal discourse, which finds universal application through the ius gentium as the ‘law of all men' (Gaius 1.1), i.e. also application to non-Romans or the peregrinus, the scope of action for slaves in relation to their ‘masters' is also conceptually determined by taking into account the ‘human characteristic of the slave'. Within the interpretive framework of ancient Roman law, therefore, those lines of meaning in Pauline self-fashioning as δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ that reveal self-designation in subordination to Christ as enabling ambition, zeal, honour, and success are particularly revealing. These aspects include (1) the Pauline description of status and the legitimation and exposition of his (2) relationship to the “Lord”, the description of (3) his areas of work and responsibilities, and his (4) socio-economic living conditions and lifestyle. Thus, against the background of ancient Roman law, which primarily focused on its pragmatisation rather than problematising the socio-historical reality of slaves or the moral-philosophical attitude toward slavery, certain aspects of Paul's understanding of himself and his apostolate can be more sharply defined.

Exhibit and Conference Reviews

Since the establishment of women's history as an academic research and educational field in the 1960s–1970s in the Western context—a field contesting traditional historical narratives (political, diplomatic, institutional) that located women on the periphery of historical processes—efforts have concentrated on the discovery and analysis of neglected facts of the past, the historical representation of gender interdependence, and the reconstruction of a credible male–female sociohistorical reality. Since the 1990s, in the context of changed political, social, and cultural realities, interest in the problems of the “second sex,”1 its experiences and representations, and its role in historical events has intensified and gained greater public visibility in the east as well. Interpreted as a significant tool for drawing a comprehensive picture of women's past in Europe, scholarship on women's history in Eastern and Southeastern Europe has focused on various aspects of women's emancipation in the modern era, the relationships among power, gender, identity, modernization, nationalism, and national formation, women's role in the processes of cultural and civilizational construction, and their place in the context of traditionally established intellectual hierarchies. Conducting a productive dialogue between history and social anthropology, filling numerous gaps in historical memory (regarding traditionally marginalized social groups such as women), feminist studies in the region have produced collections of documents and primary sources, innovative publications, and monographs, all sharing the belief that women have their own history subject to complex analysis.

Applied Psychology Researchers’ Reflections on Conducting Indigenous People’s Psychological Studies in the Philippines

Abstract: Situated against the backdrop of the Clark Special Economic Zone is the Clarkfield Aytas (also spelled as Aeta) who inspired the researchers at the Applied Psychology Program of the University of the Philippines in Pampanga to engage in Indigenous Peoples (IP) research. The condition of the Clarkfield Aytas somewhat parallels the experiences of the world’s IP whose diminishing domain forces them to adapt to a way of life that is different from theirs and assume identities that had never been created before in their culture. Studying the Aytas’ life conditions and other psychological variables detached from the bigger context of being a part of the ecosystem in which they exist in interdependence and the nation-state’s sociohistorical reality only partially describes their condition. Similarly, not responding to their need for greater community participation and empowerment may deem our psychology irrelevant and useless in advancing social justice and inclusive progress. How can psychology contribute to IP studies? Multidisciplinary research approaches in critical theories, the Sikolohiyang Pilipino, and community psychology may be utilized to come up with useful methodologies. Challenges remain for researchers in doing research with the Filipino Indigenous communities: to examine their own paradigms/worldviews and pedagogical orientation and seek to answer the question as to whether their psychology truly helps uplift the living conditions of a special population of Filipinos, the Indigenous People.

Онтологическата база на историята в теорията на Асен Игнатов

This article aims to point out Ignatov's heuristic approach in revealing the ontological status of history, the metaphysical factors and conditions for it to be as it is, as well as the specific position of man as an individual among these essential circumstances forming socio-historical reality and her history.Ignatov indicates these initial circumstances as material, spiritual and ideal, placed in a time-space discourse, and in relations with each other. The essence of history as such, and the history of social communities, is revealed through the oppositions individual/common, nature/history, spirit/history, man/genus, which, as interrelationships, reveal changes in social existence at a deeper ontological level.

Science, Myth-Making and Mythologeme in the Formation of the Picture of Socio-Historical Reality

The article discusses the problem of forming a picture of historical reality in the context of the implementation of scientific in non-scientific ways of organizing it. Myth and science differ as qualitatively different stages of information objectification, mythmaking sets the irrational, and science sets the rational components of the picture of the world. Historical science represents a system of knowledge about the content, laws, principles and drivers of social evolution. The specificity of the picture of sociohistorical reality lies in the organic synthesis of rationally based knowledge and complexes of representations formulated at the level of phenomenological reflection, abductive interpretation, rules of formal consistency and other institutions that do not have the resources of objective verification. The mythologeme of the picture of social history is the result of a projection on the image of a historical event of the priorities of the culture of social reproduction and the imperatives of epistemological procedures for organizing historical knowledge.

Traditions of classical literature in the film “Brother” by Alexei Balabanov

Alexei Balabanov’s film “Brother” is an integral part of modern Russian culture. An analysis of the audience’s reception of the film suggests that “Brother” is not just a mass action movie. A close look reveals that Balabanov’s film combines elements of pop-culture product and intellectual cinema. The article for the first time offers a holistic analysis of the film “Brother”. Balabanov uses a complex system of repetitions at the level of a phrase, visual image, situation. This allows the author to build a complicated system of motifs that are associated with some literary traditions of classical literature. We are talking primarily about the tradition of the Petersburg text and about a complex of themes and plots that go back to romanticism. The angle from which one should look at the film is indicated by the introduction of an important character named Hoffmann, who warns the protagonist that the city is a terrible force. Motive analysis and intertextual analysis leads to the following conclusions. The plot of “Brother” can be read as a story about a young man Danila, who betrays his ideal (love of music), unable to withstand the temptation of money and power, and pays for this: he turns into his evil doppelganger — his brother Victor. The plot, seemingly tied to a specific socio-historical reality, turns into a potentially eternal plot about a confused romantic hero who changes his ideals after falling into the mythologized space of St Petersburg that fools him.

Soviet man: the experience of understanding the socio-historical reality

The article makes an attempt to comprehend appearance of the phenomenon of Soviet man in the historical arena, the specifics of its functioning at various stages of the formation and development of Soviet society. It is shown that the consciousness and activity of the Soviet person developed gradually, within the framework of overcoming objective and subjective contradictory circumstances. Particular attention is paid to the Soviet person as a decisive link in the emergence and existence of a social contract as the basis of Soviet society. A brief critical analysis of anti-Soviet concepts is being implemented. A search is being made for an answer to the question why the phenomenon of the Soviet man continues to live in the minds and hearts of Russians three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mitigating the Strife between Atheists and Islamists in the Arab World: Dissolving Supremacy of Principles within Socio-Historical Reality

Western New Atheism is witnessing a resurgence in the Arab world which has provoked a strong Islamic counter-atheism reaction. The present essay seeks to: 1—briefly describe the cultural resurgence of both opposing camps, 2—illuminate a philosophical Qur’ānic approach to atheism, 3—present a peculiar defense of atheism by Muḥammad li-Mzūghī utilizing classical Arab-Islamic scholasticism and literature, 4—examine an attempt to counter atheism by utilizing modern philosophy as articulated by ʻAbd al-Jalīl al-Kūr, 5—expand the theoretical debate by highlighting the current social magnitude of the atheistic-Islamic strife, 6—reveal an inner camp schism between the higher and lower intellectual levels of both Islamic and atheistic camps, an inner camp rivalry, and a cross camp alliance, and finally, 7—propose some epistemic solutions that can reduce the magnitude of this socio-cosmological debate.

From Russian Theurgical Aesthetics to the Utopian Theurgy of Beauty and Art in the Russian Diaspora Philosophy

The paper is devoted to the analysis of theurgic aesthetics in relation to the concept of utopia that initiates a different understanding of the philosophy of the Russian diaspora representatives through the prism of utopian theurgy of beauty and art. Introducing the idea of utopian theurgy of beauty and art the authors emphasize its meaningful, axiological component. The authors interpret the utopian theurgy of beauty and art in the Russian diaspora philosophy of the first third of the 20th century as an aesthetically mystical experience of the imperfection of human earthly existence that causes a gap with socio-historical reality with direct co-existence of the creative individual with God who is considered to be the true Beauty, the cosmic Harmony, and the universal Love. The meaning of the utopian theurgy of beauty and art is in achieving the goal of possible union with the deity, as well as in affirming persons actions as a co-creator of the world process. The utopian theurgy of beauty and art of an optimistic nature, associated with the light of hope directed to the transformation of earthly existence is reflected in N.S. Arsenyev's idea of spiritual joy achievable in the mystical experience of "longing for Beauty in God"; in B.P. Vysheslavtsev's reflections about the artistic and creative embodiment of eros as thirst, the birth of the God-Man in beauty, as well as in I.A. Ilyin's philosophy, in which, despite disappointments in social changes, the faith in art as the Mystery, as "a service and a joy" always following sacred traditions is preserved. The aesthetic and pessimistic foundations of utopian theurgy are realized in the aesthetic views of V.V. Weidle, according to which art has lost its orientation to high objective spirituality; in S.L. Frank's idea of unrealized Beauty as a dream of the ultimate transformation of the world that is opposed by the bitter reality of the split of being; as well as in the philosophy of N.A. Berdyaev, who postulates the tragedy of earthly existence caused by the unattainability of the full realization of the cosmic Beauty that considers as the goal of the world process. N.O. Lossky's metaphysics, intuitionism and value system are of particular importance, as the utopian theurgy of beauty and art consists in the following: there always remains a share of the absolute truth in art that is the world of illusions and artists imagination; the absolute value of beauty universally valid for all substantial personalities is affirmed.

Wojna na słowa z polityką i historią w tle – językowe aspekty słynnego sporu o Słowian

The article is devoted to the linguistic analysis of the polemics conducted in the press by Józef Kostrzewski and Bolko von Richthofen in the interwar period. The scientific subject – the ethnogenesis of the Slavs – turned into a sharp political polemic. The set of analysed texts is an example of a discourse – a tangle of texts, thematically related, standing with each other and with the discourse in a complex relationship. The texts refer to each other through numerous quotations, paraphrases, references in the text and footnotes. Their analysis provided information about the image of us – Poles (Slavs) vs. they – Germans (Germani), we – Polish scientists vs. they – German researchers existing then, as well as information on language strategies used to create a specific image of oneself and the opponent. Since the controversy was conducted in public, it also affected the public perception of the discussed issue, while the socio-historical reality of the time also had an impact on the course of the debate. The closer the Second World War approached, the more heated the dispute became, and the more scientists moved away from the scientific problem and entered into sharp political polemics.

The Tragedy of a Man Who Cursed: On Leonardo Padura's The Novel of My Life (2002)

This article explores how in The Novel of My Life Heredia’s tragedy -that is forced exile- stems from a dynamics between colonialism and culture in Cuba. At the same time, this dynamics reveals the transatlantic concatenations between the imperial politics of Spain and the colonial character of nineteenth-century Cuba. Heredia’s tragedy, I argue, is depicted in Padura’s novel as a consequence of a socio-historical reality in which Heredia’s enlightened, or liberal, ideas about politics and independence where rather “misplaced ideas” in the Cuba of the 1820s. In other words, some of these European liberal ideas became “misplaced ideas” when they were displaced first to the Spanish context, and subsequently to the colonial context in Cuba. The incongruences between the political structures and culture of the Spanish dynastic state and enlightened European ideas reflected themselves on colonial Cuba.

The Concept of “Prophetic” Socialism by Max Scheler

The article analyzes the conceptual foundations of “prophetic” socialism by Max Scheler (1874–1928). The main principles of a new political and ideological doctrine at that time, designed to become, according to the plan of its creator, an “antidote” to Marxism, are considered. The author analyzes Scheler's argumentation, directed, on the one hand, against socialism in the Marxist interpretation, and on the other, at proving the legitimacy of using the terms “Christian socialism” and “Christian prophetic socialism”. Scheler opposes socialism, first of all, to individualism, which he interprets in social and moral-philosophical senses, and only secondarily to liberalism and capitalism. Socialism and individualism, which now appear as antagonistic tendencies of sociocultural development, are for him two equally necessary and interrelated essential principles of the social being of a person, understood as a spiritual-bodily social being. Individualistic tendencies, according to Scheler, prevailed over socialist tendencies in the West in modern times, therefore socialism in its Marxist interpretation turned out to be so in demand in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the destruction of private property is contrary to Christianity. “Forced communism” does not bring with it heaven on earth, but catastrophe and cultural degradation, he foreshadows. Based on the teachings of the Church Fathers and starting from the Catholic social doctrine, Scheler offers his vision of an ideal society in the form of a “personal community” (Personengemeinschaft), corresponding to the true destiny of a person. In it, the individual and social principles are in harmony and interdependent development. Scheler opposes the “prophetic” method of comprehending socio-historical reality, applied proceeding from the Christian solidarism ideal, to the materialistic understanding of history. He points to three advantages of his methodology: it takes into account human freedom, the uniqueness of a historical event, combines all types and methods of human cognition, without absolutizing the scientific form of knowledge. The author reveals the deep content of Scheler's definition of Marxism as “the protest ideology of oppressed classes”, drawing on the analysis of the “sociological doctrine of idols” of the late Scheler. In it, he reveals the pre-reflexive prerequisites for the formation of class ideologies. The author points to the essential kinship of the class prejudices about which the German philosopher wrote, and the national-mental prejudices of the political elites of the leading Western countries. In conclusion, he raises the question of how relevant the problems raised in Scheler's article are today in the context of modern Russian realities.

К определению предмета социальной феноменологии

The article is devoted to the formation of the problem field of social phenomenology. The author analyzed the works of the phenomenological and socio-constructivist directions of research and identified a common conceptual core. The authors (T. Luckman, M. Merleau-Ponty, M. Eldred) distinguish a previously undifferentiated communicative horizon in the field of interaction. The communicative horizon belongs to the primordial sphere of the subject and is the result of the demarcation of the homogeneous world according to the criterion of ability to communicate. The line of demarcation is determined by the behavior of beings and does not necessarily cover only the zone of human embodiment. It was established that the communicative aspect and the aspect of asking about oneself as a human being are closely related. The mobility of the boundaries of the meanings of the world objects, the subjectivity of judgment, the possibility of correlating with the help of socio-historical reality comprise the aggregate subject matter of social phenomenology. The author concludes that due to the lack of unambiguous criteria for establishing the framework of the social world, one should resort to the description of the phenomenal plan of sociality, which can help to qualitatively distinguish the levels of social reality in the long term.

Álvaro Menen Desleal’s Speculative Planetary Imagination

Science fiction has long held a marginalized status within the Latin American literary canon. This is due to myriad assumptions: its supposed inferior quality, sensationalist content, and disconnect from socio-historical reality. In this article, I argue for the recuperation of Salvadoran author Álvaro Menen Desleal as a foundational writer of Central American speculative fiction. I explore why Menen Desleal turns to sci-fi - abstracting his fictive worlds to far-off futures or other planets - at a moment when the writing of contemporaries of the Committed Generation was increasingly politicized and realist. I argue that Menen Desleal’s speculative planetary imagination toggles between scaling up localized concerns and evading them altogether to play with “universal” categories. By thinking with the categories of the human or the planet from an ex-centric position, Menen Desleal playfully appropriates generic convention, only to disrupt it from within.

Hermit Hero in the Context of “New Prose” Social Realism by Maxim Gorky

It is proved that the works by Maxim Gorky are inseparable from the socio-historical reality of the early XX-th century. Maxim Gorky is a writer, whose work has evolved throughout his career. One of the values in the works by Maxim Gorky is the image of the hero - the hermit, presented in the "Tales of 1922-1924". The semantic space of the hermit hero image exists at the intersection of the semantic fields “social status”, “nature”, “hero image”, “love” and “service to people”.

"Is This Not the Τέκτων?": Revisiting Jesus’s Vocation in Mark 6:3

The term τέκτων in Mark 6:3 has received various interpretations, with "carpenter" and "woodworker" being the most prominent. However, a brief survey of the use of τέκτων in the LXX, Graeco-Roman, and early Jewish literature reveals that this term is more ambiguous than scholars have often argued and requires contextual clues for precise translation. Because of this, one must look to the socio-historical reality of a common Nazarene τέκτων in order to determine the best translation of τέκτων in Mark 6:3. Historical evidence, including recent archeological findings, indicates that a Nazarene τέκτων would have likely been expected to carry out a plethora of tasks in the vicinity of building and crafting. Thus, this article argues that the best translation for τέκτων in Mark 6:3 is "builder-craftsman."

Походження та функціонування антропонімів у романі Романа Іваничука «Четвертий вимір»)

The article reveals the functioning of anthroponyms in a historical novel, presents the etymological analysis of proper names, highlights the achievements in anthro-ponymic research of Ukrainian linguists. Such names have been known since the pre-Christian period, and in fi ction play a specifi c function – the creation of temporal and spatial background.Each literary and artistic anthroponym in the work must perform certain func-tions. R. Ivanychuk often chooses the names of the characters, determining the na-tionality, age, personality, appearance, and so on. The writer’s own names become a powerful expressive factor. Often they provide invaluable information in the text for the interpretation of the whole work, sometimes such that it is not expressed in other ways in the work. They express the text stylistically, color it.Anthroponymy in a literary text not only contains semantic information, but also expresses non-textual parameters of the author’s image, as the choice of anthroponyms for a writer is a manifestation of his literary individuality and artistic skill against the background of real socio-historical reality and his background knowledge.In the works of Roman Ivanychuk, anthroponyms are an eff ective method of ex-pressing the author’s point of view, which is one of the components of the structural and textual parameters of the author’s image.Nominative literary and artistic anthroponyms are the basis of artistic onomas-ticon. The presence of such onyms confi rms the authenticity of the characters and events. The main part of literary anthroponyms that perform a nominative function are names, surnames, drawn by the author from real life.