Illusory World Research Articles

The Cultural Paradox of All-Male Performance: (Dis)Figuring the Third Beauty in the Studio Life’s Twelfth Night

The aim of this article is to explore the ambiguous and unstable boundaries of gender images depicted in Studio Life’s Twelfth Night (2011) where male actors perform female characters similar to the practice on the Shakespearean stage. As Akira Uno, one of the influential illustrators of Japanese shōjo manga, participated in designing the stage set, costumes, and make-up of the characters, the production presents the effect of “the third beauty.” This is characterised by both masculine and feminine attributes while simultaneously being neither masculine nor feminine. This unique feature reflects the position of women in modern Japanese society, where representations of female gender and sexuality are often marginalised and oppressed under the male-dominated social atmosphere. Consequently, the image of female gender has been rigidly fixed and stereotyped according to traditional norms. In this setting, the effeminate and beautiful boys in an exotic place become surrogates for females, who can freely explore their gender and sexual identity within the illusory world, where both homoerotic and heterosexual relationships are explored. Studio Life’s Twelfth Night reflects this illusion by adapting the styles of shōjo manga, but the production seldom offers critical insights or questions on gender issues, especially in the context of the realities faced by Japanese women in daily life. This article examines descriptions of female characters performed by male actors and interviews with the director, Kurata Jun. The main focus is on how the artists perceive and express the concept of gender in relation to Japanese social conditions, demonstrated through their physical portrayals and gestures in all-male casting.

ИЗ ИСТОРИИ СОВЕТСКОЙ ПСИХОЛОГИИ РЕЛИГИИ: К.К. ПЛАТОНОВ О ФЕНОМЕНЕ ВЕРЫ

The article reconstructs and critically analyzes the ideas about faith expressed by one of the key Soviet psychologists of religion, K.K. Platonov (1906–1984). It is told that initially the scientist interpreted faith as belief in the supernatural (later he changed his opinion), and considered it as a special religious feeling that creates an illusion of cognition and reality of what is created by fantasy. He defined the psychological nature of faith on the basis of the opposition between faith and knowledge, behind which he antagonized religion and science. Openly speaking from atheistic and Marxist positions, K.K. Platonov argued that (religious) faith is harmful and leads a person into the world of illusion. As non-religious analogs of faith, he proposed to call similar states “conviction”, “confidence”, “trust” and argued that all of them are absolutely different psychological phenomena. In this article, the author proves the opposite and argues that contrasting faith and knowledge within psychology is inapplicable. It is argued that K.K. Platonov’s ideas about faith reflect the conceptual apparatus, the peculiarities of scientific thinking and the ethos of Soviet science in the 1960–1980s. Despite the scientist’s engagement in the tasks of anti-religious propaganda, the author believes that K.K. Platonov’s lack of objectivity is partially compensated by his cognitive attitude to the phenomenon of faith. The author emphasizes the contribution of the scientist who introduced the concept of faith into the thesaurus of Soviet psychology and stimulated further studies of the phenomenon

Arctic cinema: from horror through dramas and thrillers To Action movies and fiction (Part I)

The article considers a number of genres of Arctic films in the world cinema. Among them, some of the most common are horror films (horror), thrillers (part I), dramas, science fiction and action films (part II). The socio-political climate of the times determined the evolution of genres and influenced their semantic content and structure. Their formation and production flow has a calendar milestone. In the second half of the twentieth century, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, a cold war began between two blocs of states with different socio-economic systems led by the USSR and the USA. It was she who strengthened the militaristic role of the Arctic not only in the military-industrial sphere, but also in the cinematographic one. Hollywood, as part of the political and ideological machine of the United States, immediately responded with its films. The screen was politicized in the general range of Cold War sentiments. Conducting atomic tests, the appearance of the atomic bomb in the USA in 1945 and in the USSR in 1949, “flying saucers” from space, noted in 1947, brought to life horror films, science fiction and drama. The heroes of the films were monsters that descended to earth from outer space or rose from the depths of the ocean, all kinds of mechanical and biological monsters awakened by nuclear tests. In parallel, western cinema constructed models of anti-Soviet orientation. The purpose of the films was to amuse and captivate the viewer into an illusory world and at the same time, to shock, amaze, terrify and excite him with scientific or pseudoscientific fiction. This goal remains the main one for most fantastic horror and thrillers. Some of them preached violence, cruelty, conflict, degradation of the human personality. Aggressiveness, programmed in the person himself, is increasingly, manifested in Arctic thrillers and action film.

The Graphical Epistemology of Comics via Jeff Lemire's Gideon Falls

Abstract This article reflects on formal aspects of comics, and on how they inherently undermine a mimetically oriented realism, by drawing on the example of Jeff Lemire's Gideon Falls. Due to its pictorial architecture and narrative structure of drawn panels, the comics medium exhibits the procedures through which it unfurls representational competencies. The message of comics images is that what is depicted is not authentic, but an invention. Comics rely on an illusory world when, aesthetically, they remain a perpetually visible imitation. The concept of ‘graphicality’ is developing ideas about an epistemology of comics. As comics are essentially characterised by iconographical representation, their epistemological level must also be addressed in terms of images. Hence, the graphic basis of the medium must contain an independent media knowledge.

ILLUSION AND REALITY: THE PROBLEM OF INVOLVING THE VIEWER IN THE ARTISTIC SPACE

The article shows the evolution of the “exit” of the illusory world from the plane of a wall or painting into real space. One of the most important problems of fine art is the creation of a new world on the plane of a painting or wall. From the point of view of classical art, the pictorial world should be identified with the present as plausibly as possible. For this purpose, direct and light-air perspectives are traditionally used. In addition, the illusory space is filled with certain symbols and signs that create the effect of recognition and acceptance by the viewer of the depicted world. Physically, a person will never be able to overcome the plane of the picture. However, modernism and postmodernism provided art with new artistic techniques and expressive means. Due to the fact that any object can be considered an artistic object, and a person is a creator, the illusory space expands not only figuratively, but also literally. In addition to traditional, modern art uses new psychological techniques and digital technologies, due to which the line between the depicted and the real worlds is finally erased. The authors analyze how the world of fine art begins to claim the role of the present, and a person instead of a spectator becomes a participant.

The role of TV series in the life of young people

This scientific article examines the influence of TV series on the youth audience. The main objective is to evaluate the subjective experience and effects of TV series on young people. The study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods, including secondary analysis of sociological survey data from a representative all-Russian sample (VTsIOM survey, N = 1,600 people, DataTile research, N = 1,085 people) and a series of six focus groups with informants aged 16 to 35. The research reveals viewer preferences and the frequency of TV series consumption among the youth audience. It was found that young people predominantly watch foreign TV series in the sitcom/comedy, detective, and drama genres, which significantly impacts their leisure practices, alters their attitudes towards sports (with an interest in chess and hockey), influences investment activities, aids in language learning, and enhances certain professional skills. The focus groups indicate that informants are aware of the romanticization of bad habits portrayed in TV series, but they do not perceive the depiction of cruelty as dangerous. However, they negatively evaluate long-term "immersion in the illusory world" of TV series as a potential psychological dependence. Based on the subjective attitudes towards TV series, the authors acknowledge both the positive and negative impacts on the lifestyle, views, and value orientations of young people.

Illusory Space in Exemplo 11 of Conde Lucanor

Magic and necromancy play an essential dramatic role in exemplo 11 of Don Juan Manuel’s celebrated Conde Lucanor. Within magic, scholars have mostly focused on the role that tiempo mágico or magical time plays in the dramatic economy of the story, overlooking the equally important aspect of space within the magical illusion. The representation of space is vague, imprecise, and often contradictory. This study looks at the spaces that divide the real world from the illusory world, arguing that the underground spaces, which Manueline scholarship has accepted as factual, exist only in the Dean of Santiago’s imagination. The magical subterranean loci, this paper concludes, are employed to evoke the local myths of Hercules’s cave and the traditional stories about a family of Ylláns who allegedly practiced necromancy in Toledo, not to represent them as real.

The Photographic Image as an Aesthetic Phenomenon.

The subject of the study is the analysis of the preservation and creation of an image in the art of photography. The invention of photography and the creation of a technical image is considered the second turning point in human culture. An image is an imagination, an illusion, it is a reflection of the sensory world. The object of the study is the specificity and evolution of attitudes towards the concept of an image in photography as an aesthetic phenomenon. The language of fine art, as an earlier phenomenon, had a significant impact on the creation of a photographic image, but the role of photography in changing the language of fine art is also noted. The purpose of this work is to identify the features of the formation of photographic thinking, in the analysis of its evolution. As a methodological basis of the study, the formal-stylistic method of cognition, the method of sensory cognition and historical and cultural analysis are used. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the analysis of the role of imagination, illusion, magic in creating a photographic image. Causal relationships do not work here - the image of the acts as an intermediary between the world and man. Both the photographer and the subject are the directors of the creation of the image, and the game becomes part of its creation. The image is what the director-photographer wants to see, and how the subject feels. However, the freedom of the photographer is limited by the quality of the equipment, which makes it necessary to improve the technical means of the camera more and more. Creating an image is the implementation of the technical capabilities that are embedded in the camera. The image of photography is the subjective vision of the master, the transformation of the real world into the world of illusion.

Apollonian and Dionysian Forces in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

The objective of this research is to study evil nature of men which is portrayed through the British school children in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The study further examines how it is important to balance Dionysian and Apollonian drive in order to maintain harmony in the society. Two driving forces of human being are identified by Nietzsche’s terms Apollonian and Dionysian. The two concepts defined by Nietzsche have been used as theoretical tools to analyze the text. Jack ignores Apollonian drive because of his mob mentality. He does not like argument and reason made by Ralph and Piggy. He tries to arouse Dionysian drive in school children in order to collect force against Ralph. Irrational part of Jack’s heart subverts the positive part of British school children’s society. Dionysian drive transforms his heart into emotionless stuff. He kills his own friends. He enjoys gathering boys and misguiding them in the world of illusion. Golding describes the story of a tragic color through the portrayal of the evil in human nature. Two groups of British school going children represent two sides of heart or two parts of the society. The novel argues that proper harmony between two sides or groups leads society to proper direction.

Smith and Smitherson’s Theatre of the Absurd

Smith and Smitherson’s Theatre of the Absurd

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.

INTERIOR MISE-EN SCENE IN ASIAN HORROR FILM’S SETTINGS

Interior design is a process of conditioning a specific atmosphere, which relates to the concept of 'staging space.' As interior design is inherently designed to create an illusory world, the 'illusive, simulative' space can be used interchangeably with the real-imagined space of interior design and cinema. This article will examine three horror films to focus on how interior mise-en-scene is used to create a horror atmosphere. The films A Mother's Love, Tatami, and POB embodied semantic meanings into their spatial settings, serving as a projection of the characters; psyche, and story plots. A rhetorical visual method is used to interpret the relationship between spatial language, camera angle, character, and story plot. The research discovers that spatial language is an instrument of terror, as repeated patterns of liminal space, backlighting lights, and dream scene metaphors enhance the properties and camera angles to elicit an emotion of horror.

'The World of Illusion Is at My Door': Why Panetti v. Quarterman Is a Legal Mirage

'The World of Illusion Is at My Door': Why Panetti v. Quarterman Is a Legal Mirage

Симуляция науки и симулякры культуры: иллюзорные представления о славянском язычестве в современной российской гуманитаристике

Modern scientific literature is full of the terms “simulacrum”, “fake”, “post-truth”, “hyperreality”, again and again explaining to us what an illusory world we live in. This world, the artistic quintessence of which was the fantastic dystopia “The Matrix”, is frightening. Fortunately, there is the science that is de­signed to expose myths and explain to us what the world around us really is. But what if science itself begins to produce massively fake knowledge? This is ex­actly what happens in Russian science when it comes to the philosophical under­standing of Slavic paganism. The article provides numerous examples of how modern scientific publications reflect outdated, unreliable, often obviously fan­tastic information about it, often going back to the repeatedly exposed fake – “The Book of Veles”, which no longer enjoys authority even among neo-pagans. The mythological phantoms generated by it become not only the elements of mass consciousness, but also the material for various scientific reconstructions. So there is a fusion of science and pseudoscience. The reason for this is the insti­tutional problems of Russian science: excessive stimulation of publication activ­ity, the abundance of scientific publications that publish weak works, and the de­valuation of the concept of “scientific reputation”.

The Gothic Cathedral as a Theological and Aesthetic Project

The Gothic cathedral is above all a great theological project in which both architecture, engineering and aesthetics are subordinated to one thought: to show the mysteries of faith, its depth and metaphysical beauty through material features. Moreover, the art of Gothic cathedrals had other functions and purposes than contemporary sacred art. It was not designed as an artificial, illusory world, it was not a form of escape from the ordinary. For a man of the Middle Ages, the cathedral was real in that it defined the most important things. It was not contractual, but stemmed from timeless premises; it was not an illusion aimed at escaping the truth, but defined is very core.

The Sufferings of the Biblical Job as an Icon of Postmodernity: The ‘loneliness’ of God and the human being in a consumerist paradise

This article explores ways in which the attitudes of the biblical Job may enrich postmodernist philosophy by addressing some of its inherent problems. The discussion focuses in particular on the biblical Book of Job that can serve as an example of confronting suffering as a dramatic implication of human life that denies the sense of happiness. In an attempt to suppress this fear, the postmodern human contests, in various ways, the truth of their ontic frailty and the fragility of their constructed “happiness”. The questions that the biblical Job posed to God with a distinct air of resentment and regret seem at first sight to be meaningless as they are thrown into the void of a terrifying Universe. The critique offered here comes out of a Christian philosophical and theological base which posits that belief in the sacrum, transcendence, God and the hope of eternal life are key elements in a meaning system that fosters mental health and human happiness. In the postmodern system of meaning, individuals may no longer question the existence of God for the sake of human freedom, nor seek evidence of God’s non-existence, but simply live as if God does not exist. From a Christian perspective, it appears that non-belief in a transcendent spiritual dimension can inline people in postmodern society to feel that they live in an atmosphere of existential anxiety. Similarly, a Christian critique would consider that it is the postmodernist view of fluidity in all aspects of human life that leads to uncertainty and suffering, a causal consequence that people may not advert to. In this way, confronted with many postmodern phenomena, they may unknowingly live in a world of illusion. The Christian critique would also see it is as necessary and important to address constructively the challenges raised by cultural postmodernity. For this reason, the article will reflect on the realism of human suffering, the forgetting and rejection of God, as well as transcendence.

About the Chinese Book “The Book of Poetry”

“The Shi Jing’’(‘‘The Book of Poetry”） is one of the first poems in the world, including Chinese poems, from the 11th century BC to the 6th century BC. During this period, about 3 000 verses appeared, of which 305 poems were selected by Confucius. Poetic texts in “The Shi Jing’are divided into three categories: regional songs, odes, hymns. The composition of the poems uses such techniques as Fu, Bi and Xing. These poems constitute the creative source (source) of Chinese poetry. “Fu”，“Bi” and “Xing” are important artistic features of “The Shi Jing”. “Fu”” - direct narration, parallelism. “Bi” is a metaphor, comparison. “Sin” means “stimulation”， it first speaks about others, then about what the poet wants to express. Fu and Bi are the most basic techniques of expression, and Xing is a relatively unique technique in “The Shi Jing”， even in Chinese poetry in general. “The Shi Jing” is an excellent starting point for Chinese literature, which has already reached a very high artistic level from the very beginning. "The Shi Jing” affects almost all aspects of the early social life of ancient China, such as sacrifice, banquet, labor, war, love, marriage, corvee, animals, plants, oppression and resistance, manners and customs, even astronomical phenomena, etc. It became historical value for the study of that society. The overwhelming majority of the poems in “The Shi Jing”reflect the reality, everyday life and everyday experience. There is almost no illusory and supernatural mythical world in it. As the first collection of poetry in China, “The Shi Jing” laid the foundation for the lyrical and realistic tradition of Chinese literature. “The Shi Jing” also has a huge impact on the genre structure and linguistic art of Chinese literature, etc., which is a role model for writers of later generations. “The Shi Jing”has already been translated into the languages of the countries of the world. “The Shi Jing”has been influencing Chinese poetics; it has become the source of the classical realistic tradition and literature in China. Lively description is essential for historical, anthropological and sociological research. We expect that as the cultural ties between China and Russia deepen, as well as the popularization and spread of Chinese-Russian translations, more and more Russian people will read “The Shi Jing”， study “The Shi Jing”， the Russian translation of “The Shi Jing” will improve and play its role as the original classic of Chinese literature. “The Shi Jing”is a book that cannot be read or translated forever. Keywords: “The Shi Jing” （“The Book of Poetry” )， regional songs, odes, hymns, artistic features, Chinese unique cultural value

Blue Mountain and Blue Roses: An Exploration of the Feminine Psyche in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams, the remarkably outstanding American dramatist of the 1920s, through his plays, presents a marked concern for the identity crisis a woman faces. He projects the crisis arising out of the conflict between a woman’s own aspirations and the traditional role expectations. The Glass Menagerie (1945) depicts the life of two women- Amanda Wingfield and her daughter Laura Wingfield. Amanda is the typical Southern belle that suffered a reversal of economic and social fortune, who withdraws from reality into fantasy. Her daughter Laura, the physically and emotionally crippled heroine of the play is a self-less character who does not speak as much of others. She is extra-ordinarily sensitive and delicate; and her cripple isolates herself into her own illusory world with her own glass menagerie. This paper is an attempt to close study the women protagonists in this play and to reveal that they are a combination of a particular personality type. Williams seems to be interested in the personal and psychological aspects of his women. This paper tries to analyse the psyche of these women and prove that they seem to be more complex and complicated than portrayed in the work.

НЕ ДЕКОДОВАНА ТРАГЕДІЯ НАЦІЇ В ДРАМАТИЧНІЙ ПОЕМІ “КАССАНДРА” ЛЕСІ УКРАЇНКИ

The article highlights Lesya Ukrainka’s authorial interpretation of the ancient Greek plot of the Trojan War through the worldview of the soothsayer Cassandra, which foresaw the tragedy of her hometown, doomed to die by the Achaean invaders. In her dramatic poem, the author did not emphasize battle scenes, but psychological conflicts related to the problem of adequate vision and decoding of reality as it is, and not as it is thought or imagined, so the main character inevitably comes into conflict with others. characters who tend to be manipulated while living in an illusory world, unable to verify the information offered to them by the demagogue and pragmatist Helen, who paralyzes the trust of short-sighted Trojans. Parallels with the Ukrainian reality in which Lesya Ukraine lived and the beginning of the XXI century. – quite obvious. History has taught no one anything. However, the playwright did not fall into didactics and moralization, did not illustrate the past, as contemporaries believed, so she had to explain the essence of the dramatic poem, only showed a script-metaphor not so possible as an inevitable national tragedy, but Ukrainians will trust charming simulacra, not harsh. reality. She proposed a “drama of ideas” inherent in the “new drama”, a tense intellectual agon of the Priam House, developed the plot dynamics on the existential border, which is inherent in her dramatic poems, which failed then and current theaters, because they did not find, mistakenly fitting them into the genre category Lesendrama.

ВПЛИВ СОЦІАЛЬНИХ МЕРЕЖ НА ФОРМУВАННЯ ПОЛІТИЧНОГО НАРАТИВУ, ЩО ТРАНСФОРМУЄ ПОЛІТИЧНУ СВІДОМІСТЬ

The influence of social networks on the formation of the manipulative aspect of political narratives in the postmodern is investigated. With the development of Web 2.0 technologies, Internet users have been able to radically form alternative sources of information alongside the main political actors, to which only the media previously had a monopoly. Today, regular Internet users have access to a simple and affordable way to broadcast their own stories to a global audience. The formation of a political narrative is not only a means of changing the rules of the political game or political consciousness, but also the creation of a certain illusory world, changing the previously formed picture of the world. One of the main aspects in creating a political narrative is to take into account the peculiarities of the national character of the audience among which it is distributed, and the most powerful element determining its success is the appropriate emotional load.