Karpov, A. O. The Faces of Renaissance: Dispositive Strategies, Psychotechnics and Semiosis

Abstract: The article describes the history of formation of Renaissance symbolic fields based on Michel Foucault dispositive conceptualization and original theory of epistemogenesis developed by the author. The author outlines dispositive strategies, psychotechnics and semiotic processes connecting Renaissance creators and ‘ordinary’ people. The author also describes the system of dispositive transformations as a result of changes in the internal contents of the ‘renovation’ symbol during X–XVI centuries. Acting as an epistemic item endowed with a semantically complicated cultural implant, the ‘renovation’ symbol brings to life a heterogeneous series of dispositives which, in their turn, create psychocultural phenomena known as ‘Renaissance’, ‘Reformation’, ‘humanism’ and ‘social utopia’. Based on the two parts of the ‘renasci’ symbol, the author discusses their differentiations in spiritual practices at the late Middle Ages which result in division of the ‘renovation’ dispositive into ‘renaissance’ and ‘reformation’. It is shown that historical processes are most likely to happen via dispositive genesis but not cultural shift. A series of dispositive transformations describes the psychocultural movement of the Renaissance epoch and explains why it happened that way but not another.

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