Abstract: The object of the research is the phenomenon of parascience. The subject of the research is parascience as a cultural and historical phenomenon and subculture. The author of the article examines such aspects of the topic as the relationship between science and parascience from the point of view of their cultural and historical development as well as modern environment. The author also develops her own philosophical and cultural definition of parascience as a subculture that has evolved from marginality to antisystematicity. Special attention is paid to the aspect of the author's substantiation of essential features of parascientific destructive forms that try to look like science as well as the main characteristics of the parascientific subcultural complex. The author of the research bases her research of the cultural and historical phenomenology of parascience on the multi-disciplinary approach and philosophical-methodological concepts of culture taking into account chronotopos characteristics of an active concrete-historical individual involved in specific subcultural communities and groups. The main research method used by the author is a classical dialectical method. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author focuses on the philosophical and theoretical problem of cultural and historical phenomenology of parascience because, first of all, solution of this problem can be found at the intersection of classical and non-classical methodological paradigms of knowledge based on ontological and epistemological grounds. According to the author, in order to solve the problem it is necessary to establish a philosophical and cultural concept of parascience as a subcultural formation in different cultural and historical knowledge systems. As the main conclusion of the research, the author offers her own philosophical and culturological definition of parascience as a subculture in terms of specifics of the parascientific discourse. 

Keywords: marginality, borderline, parascientific subculture complex, mimicry, destructive formations, parascientific discourse, rationalism, science, subculture, culture

Abstract: The subject of the research is the relationship between phenomenal manifestations of  transcendental will and gender. The author of the article provides the analysis of the concept of will in Kant's and Schopenhauer's works with the focus on the elements allowing to present will as an integral unit of the two modes, rational and irrational. The core of gender is the strategy of life as the balance of the two types of activity of personal identity – internal (development) and external (self-affirmation). The author of the article describes common features of these two modes, on the one hand, and associated life strategies, on the other hand. The definition of 'life strategy' is based on Hegel's dialectics of processes of objectivization (self-affirmation) and subjectivization (development). The author also offers a new approach to the definition of the concept of 'gender' not as a set of social roles of sex but a style, i.e. way of achieving super-goals that reflect this or that life strategy (in other words, gender is the answer to the question 'how' but not 'what'). The carried-out analysis of typical features of life strategies and will modes regarding their coincidence allows to prove that Kant was right relating rational will to the male strategy and irrational will to the female strategy. For the reason that the will shows the modes in each person, it is appropriate to say that there are both male and female beginnings in any man/woman, however, their balance is different. This circumstance allows to view the theory of Carl Jung as the method of a more detailed description of each will modes in a man. In the future the approach relating will modes to genders may allow to understand the mechanism of the mutual transition of will modes and features of time-space existence as well as preferences and connotations of axiological space and male/female lifeworlds. 

Keywords: rational will, irrational will, will to knowledge, will to action, will to life, will to power, gender, strategies of life, anthropology of will, metaphysics of will

Abstract: The subject of the research is the scientific grounds for the interdisciplinary research of ethnocultural symbolics of Kabardians and Balkarians as the basis of perception as well as issues of ethnogenesis, artistic creativity, rituals and other phenomena in the region.  The author of the article examines such aspects of the topic as the philosophical, aesthetical and cultural analysis and research of literary sources in order to describe artistic and aesthetic grounds of syncretism in the spiritual culture of Kabarians and Balkarians based on their folklore. The research is based on the enthonational concept of folklore as a carrier of spiritual ethnic values and traditions and certain view of life as one of the elements that ensure the continuity of culture and preservation of the basic fundamental national values. The methodological basis of the research includes the elements of the systems and dialectical approaches to studying ethnocultural symbolics of the Kabardino-Balkar Region. Such approach to the analysis of contradictory and perceptible nature of symbol has made the research integral. The main conclusions of the research is that ethnocultural symbolics either preserves the substantial unity of Idea and Item or implicates the image that predetermines the presence of a certain semantic meaning that, in their turn, collectively create insaparable elements of a symbol. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author develops a systems approach that may be useful for further research of ethnocultural symbolics and genesis of the graphic symbol - family signs (tamgas) as an aspect of spiritual and material culture of Kabardians and Balkarians. 

Keywords: ethno-cultural symbolism, folklore, ethnography, ornament, spiritual culture of the Kabardino-Balkar Region, tamga, graphic symbol, tradition, solar signs, musical symbols

Abstract: A retrospective view on the development of the theatre infrastructure in today's theatre life of our capital has allowed the researcher to suggest an initial hyphothesis that the theatre remains viable and interesting for the audience only if its infrastructure is constantly developing. Consequently, the object of the present research is today's theatre life of Moscow while the subject of the research is the theatre infrastructure and all its elements. In his research Mozgovoy summarizes materials on the matter and attempts to provide a scientific substantiation of the term 'theatre infrastructure' as well as to show its role in todya's theatre life of Moscow. Theoretical concepts and practical recommendations contained in the research can be used during lectures on the management of the scenic art and everyday activity of theatre organisations, in particular, developing the theatre marketing policy. The results can be also used in the practice of administrative authorities working in the field of culture. The main research method is based on the interdisciplinary approach to solving the aforesaid tasks and systemic search for the proof of the above hypothesis which made the author to appeal to researches and findings in the spheres of cultural studies, social studies, theatre history, economics and marketing. The methodological basis of the research includes publications and researches of leading economists, sociologists and theatre experts raising topics associated with the aforesaid hypothesis and analyzing the problems relating to the theatre infrastructure. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author appeals to the problem of developing the theatre infrastructure in termsm of the socio-cultural process. 1. The term 'theatre infrastructure' is defined by practical experience, derives from economics, follows systemic 'requirements' and has its own conceptual characteristics related to specific features of the theatre business. 2. The theatre infrastructure is a constantly renovating and developing substance which development directly depends on the status of the theatre life and free functioning of the theatre system and which contents depend on the theatre process in general providing that all elements of the system are stable. 3. The theatre infrastructure is determined by a range of interrelated and coordinated elements that constitute the theatre life. 4. Development of the theatre infrastructure directly depends on the development of the theatre business and historically has been regulated by two forces, self-organisation and government. 

Keywords: marketing, theatre studies, sociology of art, theatre history, theatre reform, organisation, management, infrastructure, theatre, art

Abstract: For many years Britain has been associated with tea. In spite of being a national symbol of the UK, tea has always been an imported drink, therefore it has been strongly connected to the culture of the country of its origin. The process of tea assimilation in Britain took a long time. It was during the Victorian Era of British history when Eastern (Chinese) allusions were removed from a process of tea consumption. National painting played a significant role in the evolution of tea image. It shaped «visual codes» of British tea and proliferated the image of tea as a symbol of contemporary life. The subject of the research is the 'tea plots' in English genre painting of the middle and the second half of the XIXth century. Their increasing popularity and commonness in the aforesaid period allow to view art as an important instrument of the 'civilizational adoption' of tea by the British culture. Through creating a recognizable visual image of the English tea party with all its social, genre and gender peculiarities, pieces of artwork participated in the process of turning the imported product into the national symbol of the country. The analysis of paintings offered by the author of the article involves not only studying peculiarities of the world of objects depicted therein, historically and culturally determined details of the tea party and etiquette but also defining national stereotypes, norms and values behind them. The author appeals to pictorial sources which allows to extend the basis of the research and study the visual codes, visual stereotypes and visual attitudes to everyday life. Despite the fact that national gastronomical practices have recently attracted many scientists, this topic is studied for the first time in Russian historiography.  

Keywords: house, bourgeois, national symbol, genre, everyday practices, fine arts, visual codes, Victorian Era, English tea party, tea

Abstract: In the article the author attempts to identify mythological implications that determine perception of particular films produced by various directors in different time periods. These implications have a strong influence on public consciousness but this impact does not comprehended. Among other things the content of mass reception of cinema includes out-of-cinematic manifestations of collective unconscious. Mental projections of images - archetypes which came into existence in different periods of cultural history and connected with utopian visions, myths, and religious symbols are becoming actual in it. Noteworthy that projections on the city precede the projections of collective unconscious on the cinema; the latter are transferred on the cinema later on. Finally, the cinema in principal makes a colossal intertextuality in which cultural history is reflected both in its axial and pre-axial aspects. The subject under analysis of the present article is the projections that become realistic already at early stages of the history of film. In his research of the perception of early cinematography (mostly Russian) Khrenov has applied methodologies of such psychological schools as psychoanaysis and analytical psychology as well as crowd psychology as it was introduced by Gustave Le Bon and Serge Moscovici. The main conclusions of the research are the following: a) the audience of the early cinematography had the layers of urban population that preserved folklore stereotypes in their minds; b) perception of the city occurs in accordance with the folklore stereotype of perceiving the city as a holiday; c) the aura produced by the public consciousness on the city is defined by the attitude of public on the cinema. The author's contribution to the research of cinema perception is his analysis of cinema as a city myth. According to the author, early cinematographic plots reproduce motives of the holiday myth. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author defines specific archetypes that become actual in the process of cinema perception. 

Keywords: city, myth, folklore, reception, archetype, holiday, utopia, liminality, rite, cinematography

Abstract: Based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s literary heritage (both narrative and dramaturgical), the author of the article explores the problem of the screen adaptation of literary works. The author interprets screen adaptation as a “translation” of a given artwork between the two different art languages. This means that an interpretation of any literary source for screen purposes (both for the cinema and for TV) is a creative action that stands closer to a philosophical and cultural analysis that to a work of a copyist or an illustrator. The author also argues that interpretation of the classics may be also understood as a “dialogue of cultures” (using M. M. Bakhtin’s term); in this case – a dialogue between the print (book) culture and the screen (audio and visual) culture. Analyzing the problems of screen interpretation of Mikhail Bulgakov's works, the author bases her research on historical-comparative and interdisciplinary methods combining art history and cultural analysis with the method of the philological analysis of texts. The importance and novelty of the topic are caused not only by the growing role of screen (audio visual) culture as the phenomenon of the information epoch but also the increasing academic interest in the screen interpetation of literary works. 'Screen culture' is a broad term. It covers all screen forms of creativity: cinema, television, video, computer technologies, Internet, network art, etc. This is what makes the problem of the screen interpretation (film adaptation) of literary works (epic, poetic and dramaturgical) so important. Screen adaptation is nothing else but a 'translation' of an artwork from one art language to another. Analyzing the works of screen culture (films by A. Alov and V. Naumov, V. Basov and L. Gaidai, V. Bortko and Yu. Kara, S. Snezhkin, A. Efros etc.) that were based on the M. A. Bulgakov’s literary heritage, the author comes to the conclusion that the interpreter’s task is extraordinary difficult: using audio and visual images, he or she has to transmit not just the content, but the original idea, the “soul” of the literary work, at the same time bringing it closer to the contemporary perception of the artwork.

Keywords: political satire, tragicomedy, tragifarce, magic realism, macroworld of Mikhail Bulgakov, screen culture, screen adaptation, interpretation of the classics, dialogue of cultures, phantasmagoria

Abstract: This article is devoted to one of the important problems of instrumentation which is not yet explored – the problem of saxophone interpretation. It also reflects the basic scientific result of the master’s thesis under the same title. Based on the analysis of numerous works of composers living in different countries and different epochs as well as academic literature on the theory and practice of instrumentation, the author of the article discovers methods, peculiarities and trends in using a family of saxophone instruments in symphony orchestra compositions. The research was conducted based on the analysis of music scores of both applied and autonomous nature. The research covered only music pieces that had one or more saxophone parts. In the course of analyzing music scores, the author has traced back and defined peculiarities, methods and trends of orchestra saxophone interpretation typical for both the composer's individual style and the style of a particular culture-historical epoch. As a result of the research, the author has integrated data on interpretations of saxophone as an ochestra instrument. The author has also described how saxophone became famous in different countries and genres of music. Being used in French opera initially, by the beginning of the 20th century saxophone became famous with the composers from other countries and genres of music. In the process of the research the author has also defined peculiarities, methods and trends in the interpretation of saxophone as a symphony orchestra instrument. 

Keywords: French composers, family of saxophones, composer, symphony orchestra, works, element of the orchestral texture, orchestra, saxophone solo, saxophone interpretation, saxophone

Abstract: The subject of the research is the ethological aspects of Charles Drawin's theory of kinesics and their role in the art criticism of Heinrich Wölfflin, Aby Warburg and Ernst Gombrich. Special attention is paid to the analysis of applying kinesics as a non-verbal universal in the history of art. The researcher describes communicative and aesthetic functions of kinesics in art in relation to the mechanism of empathy based on the imitation function of the figurative language of graphic arts. Limanskaya analyzes views of Heinrich Wölfflin, Aby Warburg and Ernst Gombrich on the role of kinesics in relation to their views on the role of kinesics in the development of the emotional memory. Based on that, she traces back the connection between kinesics and collective unconscious as well as cultural archetype. The methodological basis of the research is based on the analysis of the role of sensualist ideas in the devlopment of evolutionary, psycnoanalytical, semiotic methods of studying the history and theory of art. The scientific novelty of the research is casued by the fact that the author studies the role of kinesics in the development of the figurative language of graphic arts. For the first time in the academic literature the author of the present article traces back the influence of sensualism, evolutionism and psychoanalysis on art studies of the 19th - 20th centuries as well as describes a number of parallels between ethology and art studies in relation to the communicative function of kinesics as a non-verbal universal of the figurative language in graphic arts. 

Keywords: artistic image, collective unconscious, visual topos, cultural-historical archetype, kinesics, empathy, style, anthropomorphism, personification, imitation

Abstract: The object of the research is the pre-history of the development of Sino-European painting style at the court of Qing dynasty. The subject of the research is the social, historical and cultural background of the new style. Being the foreigners and the conquerors, the Manchu dynasty of Qing was less limited by Chinese canons in art and more susceptible to European influence. However, even during the previous epoch elements of Western influence were manifested in graphic arts including paintings which are also analyzed by the author of the article. The research methods include general scientific methods as well as specific scientific methods and principles such as the comparative principle, historical principles, system-oriented analysis, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction; sociological, art history and semiotic approaches to analysis of visual artworks.The main conclusions of the research is that Manchurians who had conquered China rather fast became 'Chinese' in the area of art. There had already been a background for the development of the Sino-European style in paintings during Ming dynasty. Conquerors, ironically, created the conditions for the emergence of the new Chinese court graphic arts during Qing dynasty. The novelty of the research is provided by the following statement: when two cultures meet, progressive development of graphic arts of high artistic value is possible even in a conquered country, as it happened in this case, despite the fact that until recently paintings of Sino-European style had been considered as 'non-Chinese' and not possessing the authentic aesthetic features by many of fine art experts and had remained understudied. 

Keywords: linear perspective, oil painting, landscape painting, narrative painting, funeral portrait, chinoiserie, realism, Qing epoch, court painting

Abstract: The subject of the research is numerous ready-mades of a famous French Dadaist Marcel Duchamp. In his research Petrov onsiders the origin of a new art form (readymade) in line with innovative trends of the early XXth century when all the known substantial bases of culture were carelessly denied. There were many reasons for that: dramatic changes in the public consciousness, permissibility of literally all sins, "transition" to the full freedom of thought and freedom of expression, and, of course, overall instability of the historical situation which included an abundance of revolutions, wars, changes of territories and political experimentations. The author of the article presents a comprehensive approach to the phenomenon studied (ready-mades of Duchamp) where their genesis, perception and prolonged action become especially important topics. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that there are no researches of the aesthetic fetures and anti-aesthetic provocations of Duchamp's ready-mades in culture and cultural studies. The author of the article raises a naturally-determined question about the aesthetic significance of such experiments (as examples the author analyzes such famous ready-mades as "Fountain," "Bicycle Wheel", and "Bottle Rack") and describes their role in the development of the twentieth century art in general and postmodernism in particular.

Keywords: surrealism, synthesis of arts, post-modernism, ready-made, epatage in art, aesthetics, innovation, subject, dadaism, Marcel Duchamp

Abstract: In the article the author shares his observations on the performance studio "Heptahor". Along with the strong impression from what he saw, he raises three issues relating to the perception and understanding of the genre of musical movement. It is hypothesized that the audience in this case met with a new kind of art. Further, the hypothesis explained and justified. The main themes are: explanation of features of musical movement, creation of a new art form, analysis of the musical reality that is emerging in the genre of musical movement, role of comprehension and interpretation of music played to the musical movement. As a result of the study the author proves his hypothesis. In his study Rozin introduces the ideas of humanitarian and hermeneutical approaches and offers his own interpretations of the plastic performances 'The Birth of the Sun' after Igor Stravinsky's ballet 'The Rite of Spring' and 'Apollo's Principle' after Igor Stravinsky's ballet 'Apollon Musaget'. In general, the author continues to develop his humanitarian methodology. As a result of the research the author has been ablel to demonstrate that it was indeed a new art form, to describe features of the musical movement as a new art form, how  a new art form and reality have been developed within the framework of the musical movement and what intellectual and spiritual grounds supported that development. 

Keywords: ballet, work, interpretation, personality, aesthetics, performance, movement, music, dance, musical movement

Abstract: The object of the research is the opera writing by Rimsky-Korsakov through revealing fantasy female characters in the fairy opera tales "Sadko", "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "Kashchei Immortal", "The Golden Cockerel", and "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh". Man's understanding of the beautiful had always gone hand in hand with art which, in its turn, is one of the finest manifestations of the society's culture as well as an inexhaustible topic for research. In this paper Krapiva investigates the best traditions of Russian opera and imaginative realm of "Beautiful Lady" in the works of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The author describes common features of idealized images of beautiful ladies in creative works created by poets and philosophers and how these images are shown in the composer's fairy plots. The methodological basis of the research includes the materialistic theory of knowledge. In the course of the research the author has also used general research methods such as analysis, synthesis, historical-artistic, comparative and systems-structural analysis. The author concludes that analysis of the image of "Beautiful Lady" embodied in the fabulous female characters in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera  allows performers (singers and actresses) to come to a better understanding of the vocal part and is necessary for the realization of bright beautiful female characters in opera.

Keywords: World Art, music, art, vocal understanding, female characters, fairytale opera, Russian opera, Rimsky-Korsakov, the image of Beautiful Lady, imaginative sphere

Abstract: The subject of this article is the possibility and objectivity of the systems approach applied to the identification of the ontological essence of the phenomenon of mass culture that is understood by the author primarily as a form of the historical development of fundamental culture, systemic modification of the whole fixing the way to connect its separate structures with each other as well as the coherence of cultural systems depending on their functions and purposes in the movement of culture across space and time taking into account the relationship with other systems (people, society, nature). In this regard, the main scientific and theoretical basis of the article includes cultural and philosophic views of the famous Russian scientist M.S. Kagan expressed in his fundamental work "Philosophy of Culture" (1996). Noteworthy that activity grounds of culture relate to its iconic apperception and all of its space relates to the global semantic structure of subjects, objects, outcomes, processes, institutions that are also in one way or another reflected in a significant number of researches (for example, the interpretation of culture by E.A. Baller, V.P. Vizgin, V.E. Davidovich, Yu.À. Zhdanov, V.J. Kelle, Yu.M. Lotman, M.K. Mamardashvili, E.S. Markarian, A.A. Pilipenko, I.G. Yakovenko, etc.). This creates a syncretical research organum designated not just to identify the fact of culture itself but also to reveal the structural semantic grounds that define its multi-dimensional existences. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that on the basis of the unity of the world of culture, the author attempts her own gnoseological construction and logical analysis, in particular, develops the model of culture, defines algorithms of its actions from the standpoint of the production of cultural values within three components of the system (institutional, procedural, and productive), and describes the specificity of cultural consumption as a way of desobjectivation of cultural "goods" expressed in cultural patterns and artifacts. 

Keywords: components of culture, cultural consumption, cultural production, theory of culture, culture and cultures, forms of culture, system of culture, systems approach, mass culture, culture