Khrenov, N. A. Formation of Humanities Knowledge in Russia: Situation in Esthetics in the Context of Changing Cultural Types

Abstract: The article is devoted to the revival of esthetics at the end of 1950th. The background for such a revival was rehabilitation of avant-garde in art at the beginning of the 20th century not only in the Soviet Union but also all over the world. It was particularly expressed in the spirits of the ‘thaw’ epoch. Esthetics was aimed at overcoming dehumanization. Discussions of this topic (which played an important role for western existentialism) involved early works of Karl Marx which touched upon the issue of ‘estrangement’. Renovating esthetics demonstrated an expansion of the utilitarian into the sphere of esthetics which contradicted to the idea of William Morris about estrangement of culture from society. In such a situation esthetics of early epochs in history became very topical.

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