Articles

The article analyzes the influence of mass culture on theatre experiments of Italian futurists. Mass culture is considered to be an opposition of elite or high culture because its production has a standard character, it is aimed at entertainment and it is commercial, while high culture is aimed at creating new esthetical experience and serves as a source for mass culture where it is reproduced in a reduced way. However, the study of Italian Futurist theatre of 1910–1920s reveals that it was mass culture that served as a source for the transformation of high culture and the creation of new language of theatre. In particular, Italian futurists turn to such forms of shows as variety theatre and music hall and borrow a number of their practices. In their theatre experiments they aim at changing the idea of theatre and separate it from literature as a different art genre. In order to do so they deny the dominating character of text in favour of other means of expression. Although Futurism as one of avant-garde movements, without doubt, belongs to high culture, it redefines the notion of public and turns to mass audiences trying to get them out of the state of passive perception by attacking their senses instead of their intellect. The avant-garde aims at transforming the world by means of art, and to solve this task it sometimes adopts the formal elements belonging to mass culture.

The article describes Japanese nourishment system as a subject of culturology. It investigates processes that are taking place in Japanese cultural tradition connected with innovation in Japanese food, penetration into the Japanese system of traditional nutrition of Western dishes and their impact on the food culture. Foreign words that are part of the Japanese language are recorded in a special alphabet called katakana. The same rule applies to the names of dishes. At the same time, there is an evident paradox: the dish can be very popular, becoming an integral part of the national cultural tradition, but at the same time its name will be written in the alphabet for foreign words, to emphasize its foreign origin. However, another process can be observed. Sometimes Japanese dishes themselves and their names combine both Japanese and Western traditions. However, many of the dishes that are served today in Japanese restaurants and in Japanese families have been borrowed from different cultures at different times. And the names of these dishes and the methods of their preparation underwent a certain adaptation, and today it is really difficult to imagine that until recently these seemingly truly Japanese dishes were not in the culinary culture of Japan. Yet the Japanese very carefully introduced changes to the methods of their preparation, and therefore, in many cases, the recipes remained close to the original. What was the only requirement for a recipe change? Seasonings, which are a kind of hallmark of Japanese cooking. What are the most important seasoning ingredients in the Japanese food system? Miso paste production and its role in nutrition and on the Japanese table.

The program of the lecture course is based on the interdisciplinary approach to research of traditional music that is regarded in connection with mythology, folklore, axiology and world view, ethnic historical memory, rituals, transformation practices, ethnic pedagogy, processes of ethnic-cultural identification of peoples through music in the modern world. This approach is based on years of experience reading a course of lectures on traditional music of the peoples of the world at the Department of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Moscow State University. Thematically the course is divided into three units. The first unit covers the theoretical foundations of the course and methodology of comparative music culture study. The set of lectures of the second unit is dedicated to traditional music of peoples of Russia, India, China, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Scotland, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, USA, Canada, American and African indigenous musical cultures and others. In lectures of the third unit the role of ethnic music in the modern world and the developing potential of musical ethnic instruments in actual cultural, pedagogical and art-therapy practices are considered. Throughout the text, traditional music of peoples of the world is delineated in a unifying culture study perspective, from autochthonous traditions to modern ethnic culture.

This article will analyze the concept of “French identity” in the theory of French researchers. Then we will consider the reflection of its main “pillars” in modern advertising. The concepts of different researchers differ from each other. The article deals with the theories of F. Braudel, R. Debray and P. Veil. Among the most important factors of French identity are: the French language and culture, a positive assessment of the French revolution, the principle of equality, respect for history and the past, a preference for words rather than images, and a cautious attitude to absolute happiness. They say that advertising is “a cultural weapon of economic domination and an economic weapon of cultural domination”. The ad appeals to all French people, so it would be interesting to see how it reflects the appeal to French identity. This is the purpose of this article. Modern advertising creates a new mythology. It not only reflects what is deep in the subconscious of the nation, but also creates its own new culture, drawing material not always from the native soil. The influence of not just globalization, but specifically American culture in this area is not in doubt: this is the culture of smiles, and the preference for a visual series of informative, and some iconic elements of mass culture (music, movies). However, you can feel the spirit of France in other things that are not always obvious: themes, symbols, sound design. The conclusion is also drawn in the article about new trends in modern advertising that bring to the forefront such human values as altruism and concern for the world around us.

The article is devoted to the study of the creative principles of the Russian opera director Boris Alexandrovich Pokrovsky, which he developed in the Chamber Musical Theater. The main content of the article is an analysis of the directorial concept of B.A. Pokrovsky. This issue has not been thoroughly investigated and requires further research. The relevance of the article is due to the processes occurring in the modern musical theater as a cultural phenomenon and is related to the functioning, social representation, stylistic and dramatic features of the genre. The fundamental changes taking place in the methodology of the stage interpretation of the classical and modern opera composition are a reflection of the powerful transformations of the value foundations of culture. In this regard, the scientific study of the unique creative method of Boris Pokrovsky as a cultural phenomenon can serve as a basis for identifying specific mechanisms for translating axiological characteristics of culture into artistic principles and synthesizing traditional and innovative interpretations of the director. Boris Pokrovsky was an outstanding stage director. He is best known as the stage director of the Bolshoi Theatre between 1943 and 1982 and as the founder of the Chamber Music Theater in Moscow. He put on stage many rare and even unknown operas. The phenomenon of the theatre is still a mystery to the theatre critics and art historians, whereas the methods of the director lend themselves to analysis and are disclosed in the article.

The paper belongs to a series of articles with a focus on mental models, as construed and actualized in discourse and embodied in texts. Identity is treated as a type of the above-mentioned mental models. Supporting the constructivist stance on identity (in R. Brubaker and F. Cooper’s terms), the author postulates that identity is fragmented, multiple and fluid, being molded and interpreted in discourse, and a function of various historical and sociocultural factors. Using “Quichotte”, a 2019 novel by S. Rushdie, who represents postcolonial literature, the author argues that constructivist stance on identity is a rightful and fruitful approach to exploring identity construction through the prism of fictional texts, the latter seen as results of discursive activity. The purpose of the study is to analyze the writer’s essentially multilevel reflection on multicultural identity in the novel within the novel, taking into account the perspectives of different characters, and describe the means of multicultural identity construction. The conclusion is made that the constructivist approach to understanding identity does not hinder a researcher’s examination of the ways human self-understandings crystallize in texts.

The article discusses the characteristic features and categories of the short story genre and the levels of translation analysis of such texts from the point of view of theoretical understanding of various aspects of literary translation. The purpose of our study is to consider the existing approaches to the translation analysis of the literary text as a whole, to correlate them with the format of the short story genre, and to justify the need for developing a translation strategy for this genre. The research is based on the data extracted from the analysis of 42 short stories by a German writer Wolfgang Borchert, the translation of which into Russian is currently being done by the authors of this article. The categories selected as relevant for the translation process are the categories of chronotope, dynamics, and narrator. The chronotope reproduces the spatio-temporal picture of the world and organizes the composition of the work. The dynamics is associated with both the generation and perception of the content of the text. The examined components include the components of the text dynamics such as the plot movement and statics, neutrality and expression of the style of speech, the economy and redundancy of language tools, the pragmatics of direct and indirect speech. The narrator is a mediator between the author and the reader, the fictional creator of the fictitious world of a work of art. One of the main tasks of the translation analysis of an original text is to identify these categories and their means of expression, and find means for their parallel deployment in the translation text.

The article deals with one of the most complicated aspects of the theory of artistic translation, i.e. recreation of the speech portrayal of a literary character in another language and within a different culture underlying it. The material under analysis is Mikhail Bulgakov’s landmark novel The Master and Margarita and two of its widely acknowledged translations produced by Michael Glenny (1967) and Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (1997). The text of the novel abounds with lexical diminutives of all kinds, which enabled us to put forward a hypothesis that diminutives underlie and inform the complex multilayer system of the characters of the novel and their speech portrayals. Thus, diminutiveness is viewed as a linguistically relevant personal index. The research has shown that within the framework of the novel, expressive diminutives possess a large indexical capacity to identify and typify the characters as ‘us’ and ‘them’ as well as provide a rich source of humour and comic relief for those characters who, like Woland’s entourage or the narrator himself, are good at changing masks and voices when confronted with ‘them’. Due to the asymmetry of the Russian and English morphological systems, consistent recreation of the characters’ speech portrayals based on lexical diminutives, does not seem possible in translation, which does not preclude, however, occasionally finding excellent translation solutions.

The article focuses on the evolution, some principles and methods of pronunciation norm regulation in German-speaking countries. The author is aiming to analyze briefly the main features of the codification norm of the literary language in pronouncing dictionaries in historical retrospective. Special attention is paid to the fixation of exaggerated articulation, when the basis of the German pronounciation norm was the speech of actors in Germany (Bühnensprache ‘stage speech’); the systematization and codification of the pronunciation of professional radio and television announcers; the regularization of various forms functioning due to the convergence of the literary language and the oral speech. The macro- and microstructure of some pronouncing dictionaries of the 20th century and current ones, the representation of different sound units, specifics of native and of foreign word pronunciation, changes in the transcription and in the system of labels etc. are described. The paper also raises the problem of dictionary codification and the reflection of standard pronounciation variants in the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, etc.). As a result of the study, the author comes to the conclusion regarding the changes in the methodology of norm systematization and the dynamics of trends in the lexicographic codification of pronunciation norms of the German language.

This article continues a series of publications devoted to the study of the scientific register of geography (Komarova, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020). The scientific language of geography comprises texts of different functional and stylistic orientation: stylistically marked popular science prose, neutral educational literature and scientific articles characterizes by idiomatically restricted language; each of them having figures of speech fullfiling different functions. In terminology metaphors are used as a nominative technique in many branches of geography. As a result of the analysis of geographical terms in Russian, English, French, German, Spanish I have identified semantic types of metaphorical terms with the following areas-sources: “man”, “parts of the human body”, “physiological features of man”, “human behavior”, “occupations, professions”, “animals, plants”, “clothing, household items, furniture”, “architecture, buildings, home details”, “devices, tools”, “mythical images”[Komarova, 2020]. In real scientific speech which in every way strives for clarity and accuracy we usually stop noticing metaphorical terms because they function as neutral words. Therefore, along with metaphorical terms scientists tend to use foreign borrowings which lack additional figurative meanings due to their isolation from the system of a given language. Thus, some borrowed geography terms in Russian are non-motivated, i.e. devoid of symbolic value, while their equivalents in foreign languages still retain their metaphoric nature and connotations; the conclusion is true for different languages. The article discusses and describes geographical terms confirming this statement.

The article is devoted to the study of linguistic means of poetization of the image of Paris in the non-fictional narrative of the XIX century. The manifestation of poetization in non-fictional narrative is examined and compared with the image of the capital of France created in the fiction genre. This study is based on the texts of essays, guidebooks, as well as historical works about Paris, created by publicists, journalists and historians of the 19th century. The assumption about a desire of the authors in non-fictional narrative to strengthen the aesthetic impact on the reader is made. This intention is realized with the help of language tools, including metaphors and allegories, and therefore it entails the creation or modification of fragments of the reader’s perception of the world. Three main ideas that characterize the perception of Paris through the prism of poetization are examined: Paris as the center of depravity, Paris as the center of the country and the world, Paris as a place of cultural memory. All these ideas are also reflected in fiction. References to historical memory made by the authors confirm the idea of the preservation of the image of the French capital that has been formed over centuries. It is concluded that there are similar means of metaphorization of the image of the city in fiction and non-fictional narrative. Another conclusion about the sublime style of the Paris discourse is made as well as the one about the strengthening of the stereotype of the capital of France in the examined texts.

The article discusses ergonyms and their types and functions in the food industry of the Buryat Republic. The main onomastic function of an ergonym, as of a proper name, is nominative-excretory, which, along with the individualization function, determines the range of services that are provided by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. The identification or informative function of ergonyms gives the consumer an idea of what is offered there and what quality the product is. The advertising function of ergonyms is inextricably linked with the informative function and is a market economy tool (IRISH PUB). The security function of the ergonym is associated with the image of the claimed brand and its status (CHURCHILL). The stimulating function positions this food company as a representative of a well-known company being in a certain sense a guarantee of high quality (KFC). The psychological or attractive function of ergonyms is aimed at creating confidence in the offered services that are already known as the consumer market (BURYATIA). Ergonyms in Russian reflect Russian culture and traditions (MASLENITSA, SAMOVAR), most food establishments with national cuisines are presented in Russian (CARAVAN-BASHI, SAMURAI). Ergonyms in foreign languages are addressed primarily to foreign tourists. Their choice is influenced by the affiliation of the given food enterprise to the international (SUBWAY) or the all-Russian food chains (ShashlykoFF). Ergonyms in the Buryat language appeal to the background knowledge of representatives of Buryat ethnic group, which have become common to people of other nationalities living in the Republic of Buryatia (ALTAN GEREL).

The article examines the questions of identity as a phenomenon, which has generalizing characteristics and which is connected with reconstruction based on individual fragments of more general cultural values. The identity phenomenon is connected with the phenomenon of tradition, which can be explained as a point of view of contemporaries on the cultural significance of the past (Pouillon J.). In order to study the dynamics of Provencal / Occitan identity the innovations of each period have been singled out – “milestones of identity”. This term implies identical references accumulating or replacing each other in the process of historical development. The examined material shows that in the history of South French identity there was a period of inertial fading and several periods of identical uplifts of various strengths. Over the centuries, the past was rethought, innovations occurred, and identity was reformatted. That is the reason why we consider each stage new, with its own differential characteristics - “milestones” of identity. Among them there are: the culture of troubadours as a reference base (1); stigmatization of the Albiguian and religious wars (2); the cultural matrix of the “eternal” Provence, sacralization and “musification” of the past, the role of the creative person (felibrism) (3); demythologization of culture; rational justification of identity (Occitanism), the departure of the Occitan language from real communication and the development of a secondary, symbolic function (4); virtualization, “depersonification” of identity; distancing from the past (our time) (5). These and other “milestones” mark the path that the South French identity has traveled. They also denote the general vector of its development – confirmation of the rights in conditions of interaction with the dominant North French / French culture.

The article reveals the linguocultural and comparative aspects of ontological space in English and Russian. The ontological space is viewed as a form of physical existence: the object of the world in fairy-tales exists in a certain environment (land, water, air) and lives in a particular place with geological specifics (depression, plain, mountain, peninsula, island) located in a certain direction (north, south, west or east). The investigation focuses on the comparative study of ontological space having the systemic organization of the lexical semantic field in English and Russian folktales. The structural parts of the field – its nucleus and periphery zone – are singled out by means of the comparative analysis. Isomorphic and allomorphic features are pinpointed. The nucleus is shaped by the “Geographical space” in English folktales and “Geological space” in Russian ones. The periphery of the lexical-semantic field “Ontological Space” in English and Russian linguocultures is presented identically: lexemes of “Natural Habitat” constitute the periphery. Such conclusions reflect the attitude of the English and Russians to the phenomenon analyzed. The investigation reveals the specifities of the ‘ontological space’ verbalized by nouns in both languages. A wide range of nomination variety is revealed. Resource data confirm the theoretical conclusions formed. Quantitative results are highlighted. The analysis of non-related languages permits to distinguish cross-linguistic specifics and outlines typological generalizations. This kind of approach is capable of producing further results in studying the folktales’ space within the world of unreality.

This article is devoted to a review of academic topics and reports presented at the international interdisciplinary academic and practical conference “Language. Culture. Translation. Communication”, which took place on October 26–27, 2020 at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies of Lomonosov Moscow State University. During the conference a wide range of issues was discussed: the functioning of archetypical mythologemes in modern discourse, the representation of system-forming concepts in the linguistic picture of the world, the phenomenon of productivity in culture and language, methods of corpus linguistics in the study of a foreign language, consideration of the cognitive foundations of contact between two cultures, the manifestation of cross-modal iconicity in different types of discourse, communicative characteristics of the absurd. A wide coverage of the problems of studying intercultural communication, area and cultural studies was given in thematic sections, which took two days and became the most numerous in terms of the number of speakers. Questions of theory, history and methodology traditionally formed the basis of a heated sectional discussion. The participants shared their scientific research results in the field of modern linguistics, traditional and innovative approaches to the study of language problems. A separate sectional discussion was related to traditions and innovation in modern concepts of teaching foreign languages and Russian as a foreign language. The workshops allowed the participants to improve their competence in the use of information and communication technologies in teaching foreign languages.