Abstract: The author of the present research article disproves of Fedyor Dostoevsky’s evaluation of Pushkin’s poem ‘Egyptian Nights’ shared by Dostoevsky in his ‘speech on Pushkin’ on June 8, 1880. Pushkin’s call for humanism is the main value for Dostoevsky but Pushkin’s personal ideology is the main ideological opponent of Dostoevsky. So when praising Pushkin for his humanity Dostoevsky destroys the grounds of Pushkin’s ideology. His interpretation of ‘Egyptian Nights’ is an attempt of the ideologist of Pochvennichestvo to destroy ‘personality’ in order to clear a space for ‘God’ and ‘people’ as grounds of the Russian culture and thereby using Pushkin’s ‘Egyptian Nights’ for proving the idea of Narodnichestvo and religiosity as the grounds of Dostoevsky’s own concept of humanity. From this point of view Dostoevsky’s ‘speech on Pushkin’ is objectively ‘anti-Pushkin’. The researcher applies the comparative socio-cultural analysis of Pushkin’s poem ‘Egyptian Nights’ and Dostoevsky’s comments on it. The analysis is carried out from the point of view of values that are dominating for the author and Dostoevsky. For the first time in studies of Dostoevsky the researcher proves the failure of Dostoevsky’s point of view on Pushkin’s series of ‘Egyptian Nights’. Therefore the conclusion about Dostoevsky’s misinterpretation of the meaning of ‘Egyptian Nights’ can be considered to have been proved. This allows to progress in our understanding of the speech on Pushkin as an objectively anti-Pushkin speech.

Keywords: Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Egyptian Nights, Speech on Pushkin, love, death, sex, poet, poetry, the purpose of poetry.

Abstract: The article touches upon one of the most topical issues in the methodology of art history. The absolute priority given in the history research to the linear principle which genesis goes back to the age of Enlightenment has made art historians to pay more attention to certain periods while leaving other periods without adequate interpretations. This, above all, refers to the period of the archaic ancient art, medieval art and Byzantine art. In the latter case art is perceived as declining and not demonstrating complete or definite artwork as it seemed. This is the reason why those periods in art history were rarely studied. As the science that was formed in the age of Enlightenment, esthetics took the exclusive Renaissance art as the starting point in the art development. The same situation had continued until historians discovered the alternative principle in the historical process, in particular, the cyclic principle the present article is devoted to. Even though the interest towards that principle already developed in the 19th century, most efficiently the principle was used in woks by the Russian scientist Pitirim Sorokin who started his academic career as a social scientist. The author of the article emphasizes the important role of Pitirim Sorokin’s major work on social and cultural dynamics in the development of the cultural science. The article shows how the Russian scientist gradually proceeded to the discovery and substantiation of the cyclic principle, how Sorokin applied the aforesaid principle to his historical research of art in his work on social and cultural dynamics has become so famous today and, most importantly, how the principle can be used to eliminate the unexplored facts (so called ‘white spots’) in art studies. In addition, Pitirim Sorokin’ work that is unparalleled anywhere in the world science allows to solve some difficulties that may arise in modern art studies. Meanwhile, when the work was first published, it was not understood or appraised as it deserved. However, the modern situation in the development of the cultural science makes Pitirim Sorokin’s work highly important.

Keywords: Cultural dynamics, cultural history, art history, crisis of culture, linear principle, cyclic principle, short periods of time, long periods of time, sensual culture, rational culture.

Abstract: The two approaches can be distinguished to discussing Plato’s ‘Symposium’. According to the first approach, in Socrates’ speech Plato shared his point of view of love (eros). According to the second approach, each participant of the symposium makes his own contribution to the development of the definition of love. The author of the present article keeps to the second approach and tries to show that in his ‘Symposium’ Plato presented his concept of love (eros) dialectically, i.e. as a part of the development of different or differently expressed ideas. Plato’s views on love are described on the basis of, first of all, analytical comparison of different definitions of love offered in different speeches and discovery of conceptual similarities and secondly, a potential comparison of the contents of ‘Symposium’ with Aristotle’s teaching about philia and New Testament teaching about agape that view love as one’s attitude towards the other compared to one’s attitude to himself and one’s attitude to supreme forces. Plato’s concept of love includes both the program of self-improvement in love and the ideal of human relations (which Socrates did not touch upon in his speech). The latter is clearly shown in Alcibiades’ speech who came back to the question about relations between lovers following Socrates’ erotosophia and showed what the best of such relations could be. From the point of view of the discourse, Alcibiades’ speech was the converging point between Socrates’ speech and speeches of other participants of the dispute. Alcibiades’ speech provided for the intellectual synthesis as the framework for developing Plato’s concept of love (eros).

Keywords: Love (eros), Plato, Symposium, philosophy of love, love (philia), love (agape), definitions of love, love and blessing, perfection, communication.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of a very important problem, the so-called ‘open form’ which is expressed in incomplete works written by authors of the past and modern age including post-modernism when the open form became the main principle of text creation. The other problem is the relation between different layers of the literary basis of a music piece. Based on the example of the opera (Puccini’s ‘Turandot’ in our case), the author of the present article shows that in the operatic work as a new creation that has emergent properties, it is impossible to separate the initial literary text which could have been viewed independently from the final result – music scores without the loss of the integrity of the operatic work. In his research the author has used the semantic analysis of literary texts, in particular, librettos; comparative analysis of various literary works and artworks that constitute the discursive basis of the opera under discussion and the critical – analytical analysis of sources. The research has an interdisciplinary nature and applies the art historical, literary and musicological approaches that view the operatic work as the part of the cultural environment. By studying Pucchini’s opera ‘Turandot’, the researcher distinguishes between an indeliberately unfinished work and a work created according to the non finito principle when a composition is deliberately incomplete. The researcher shows that the above mentioned technique had the esthetic grounds created in the middle of the 20th century and was used mostly in avantgardism and post-modernism.

Keywords: Art, opera, music, drama, music scores, libretto, art form, genre, finale, interpretation.

Abstract: The subject under research is the esthetic education as an important factor in formation of esthetic views and the system of values of a modern human. At the present time esthetic education is experiencing a crisis caused by the transformation of value orientations in a modern society and fragmentation of the cultural environment under the influence of both post-modernistic tendencies and global IT development. The need for esthetic education of a person of the 21st century is uncontroversial. The authors of the present research share their views and solutions of the problem. In their research they have used such approaches as the analysis of sources, diachronic approach to analyzing various systems of esthetic education, the philosophical and cultural approach to a number of cultural practices of modern times. The article is written in a form of a dialogue which allows to express different points of view on the problem of esthetic education and the role of esthetic views in the system of values of a modern human. Dialogue is an important form of a philosophical discourse allowing not only to compare different points of view but also to invite all those who are interested into the discussion and create the polylogue space for the discussion. The authors offer to create a new model of esthetic education that would combine both traditional approaches and cultural practices that have been popular among youth but haven’t acquired the institutional status.

Keywords: Esthetics, esthetic education, dialogue, emotion, perception, artistic education, empathy, information society, esthetic category.

Abstract: The author of the present article offers a new philosophical concept of music based on his own experience in methodology, cultural research and humanitarian studies. V. Rozin outlines the following problems to be solved: to explain the strong influence of music on human and different interpretations of music, irreducibility of music to the technique and sound and the dilemma bout whether music is a language or a system of symbols. The researcher introduces his hypothesis that music, on one hand, is a form of life that solve the personality problems and on the other hand, the artistic reality. V. Rozin also discusses the main features of artistic reality including the textual nature, the unity of experiencing and constructing events of the artistic reality and the role of the personality of an artist. In the last part of the article the researcher substantiates the initial hypothesis on the nature of music, compares music with other art forms and shows that classical music has been formed as a form of life allowing a new European personality to achieve the main tasks of existence. The researcher offers a definition of music culture as an important feature of music. In the course of the development of his music concept, the researcher has used humanitarian methodology, comparative analysis of different forms of art, case analysis, genetic arguments, the method of problematisation and construction of ideal objects. As a result, V. Rozin manages to create a new philosophical concept of music, to solve a number of problems related to music and, as he hopes, to partly solve the mystery of music. An important aspect of this mystery is that by listening to music, a human solves his existential problems in the form of music temporality and activity that includes reading and artistic understanding of a musical material form.

Keywords: Music, event, problem, personality, sound, set of sounds, word, life, understanding, reality.

Abstract: The subject under review is actionism as a phenomenon of post-modernistic culture and actionism in the heritage of an American composer John Cage. The author of the article describes the main forms of musical actionism including happening, instrumental theatre as a form of performance and multimedia. It is noted that actionism should be understood as a creative act that forms a new type of perception not typical for the previous ‘classical’ process of perceiving a piece of music. The new type of music perception was created in the middle of the 20th century and was caused by the desire of many composers to achieve the synthesis of arts. The article is based on the analytical method of analyzing the main forms of musical actionism. The researcher tries to draw our attention at peculiar properties of actionism in creative work of a particular composer. This is the first comprehensive research of Cage’s musical actionism in Russian art studies. The researcher proves that Cage’s synthesizing ideas combined with the principle of indeterminism is the central shapegenerating feature of Cage’s actions that mostly denies famous principles of musical art. According to the researcher, Cage’s actionism is an expression of his own inner world elated to Buddhism and the concept of the synthesis of arts rather than a challenge or an example of his deliberate epatage.

Keywords: Action, musical actionism, happening, performance, multimedia, instrumental theatre, synthesis of arts, John Cage, music forms, post-modernism.

Abstract: The article provides a review of music of the second half of the 20th century in the frame of the artistic culture and environment. The main peculiarity of that stage of development is the relation of music not only to various branches of art such as fine arts, literature, architecture, poetry, theatre, cinematograph but also to other branches of knowledge such as philosophy, esthetics, semiotics, linguistics, mathematics, physics, computer science and psychology. The author describes the two leading tendencies in music of the second half of the 20th century. One tendency relates to determinism, conditioned by the cause-and-effect relations and based on mathematics. The second tendency is based on indeterminism that views the chance and unpredictability as the esthetic ideal. This weakens the cause-and-effect relations, destroys the integrated composition and creates texts that are principally disconnected. The above mentioned tendencies are analyzed based on the example of a number of music pieces of the 20th century. The analysis is carried out taking into account these two tendencies. The two tendencies in music are associated with the two styles of composer’s thinking that are based on the two structural-semantic invariants. These are the informative thinking and synthesizing thinking. The first type is based on the combination of homogenous elements and has the following properties: - it is determined by the type of most-modern ‘scanning’ consciousness; - it was the result of the tendency towards determinism; - it is described with homogeneity that leads to programming of music; - it was born under the influence of exact sciences, in particular, mathematics; - it has the centralized nature due to the influence of centripetal tendencies. In the first case the prevalence of the rational beginning is caused by the properties of the artistic text oriented at exact sciences. The second type of thinking is based on the combination of heterogeneous properties and synthesizing texts involving interaction of various codes. It also has the following properties: - it is determined by the type of post-modernistic ‘articulatory’ consciousness; - it was the result of the tendency towards indeterminism; - it is described with heterogeneity and contrast music codes; - it has the decentralized nature due to the influence of centrifugal forces.

Keywords: Artistic culture, determinism, indeterminism, structural-semantic invariant, composer’s thinking, informative expression, synthesizing expression, musical semiotics, music of the 20th century, music.

Abstract: The article provides a review of the practice of designing art projects and exhibitions based on many years of Russian and foreign experience of the family creative team thaht included members of the Russian and German Unions of Architects and Artists Roman Firestein, Lyubov Zimonenko and Anna Zimonenko. The main sections of the article are richly illustrated and devoted to the description of the five major curator’s projects that played the most important role for the families of Firestein and Zimonenko. Those included the projects ‘Soviet Experience’, ‘Nostalgia for Russian Avant-Gardism and Constructivism’, ‘National Traditions’, ‘Family Album’ and ‘Architectural Graphics’. Being the participant of the creative process, the author of the article identifies and analyzes her own activity as a curator of art projects. The novelty and emotional style of the article reflect the author’s personal commitment to the described art practice and her devotion to developing creative family traditions and successful realization of her own ideas and concepts. The article will be of interest to art historians and culture experts as well as artists and specialists working in the sphere of art exhibitions.

Keywords: Art history, modern fine art, curator activity, art project, art exhibition, exhibition environment, spatial installation, historical-cultural contacts, Russia, Germany, Latvia, family creative traditions.