Khrenov N.A. Cinema as an Intertext: From the Myth of the City as the Festive Revelry to the Images of Apocalypse

Abstract: In his article Khrenov attempts to define mythological subtexts that define how particular movies and films created in different periods are perceived by the audience. According to the author, these subtexts have a strong influence on mass consciousness of public, however, public is usually unaware of them. Among other things the content of mass reception includes out-of-cinematographic manifestations of collective unconscious. Mental projections of archetypic images which came into existence in different periods of cultural history and connected with utopian visions, myths, and religious symbols are coming to the fore. Noteworthy that projections on the city are precede the projections of collective unconscious on the cinema; they are transferred into the cinema later on. Finally, the cinema in principal makes a colossal intertext in which cultural history is reflected both in its axial and pre-axial aspects. The scope of analysis comes down to the projections which become realistic already at early stages of cinematography history. To define mythological, folklore and archetypical subtexts of cinematography reception, the author of the article has used methodology of such academic disciplines as receptive esthetics, cultural semiotics, sociology of art, crowd psychology, psychoanalysis and analytical psychology. The main conclusions of the research are the following: a) the structure of the audience of early cinematograph was made up mostly of urban social groups which had folklore stereotypes in their consciousness; b) the city was perceived in accordance with the folklore stereotype of the festive revelry; c) the folklore aura around the city projected by the yesterday's peasant- migrant defines many things including how cinematography is perceived by mass audience. The author's contribution to the topic of cinematography reception is the cinematography perception in terms of the myth of the city that existed in the nonindustrial culture. The  novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author of the article describes specific archetypes including religious archetypes that exist in the mind of the audience (recipients) and became evident in the process of cinematography perception in the 1900 - 1910s. 

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