Kamoza, T. M. The Discourse of the Cultural Trauma: Methodological Potential of a New Approach to Studying Philosophy of the Epoch of the Imperial Modernization of Russia

Abstract: The article is devoted to the phenomenon of cultural trauma as a reflection of the collective identity crisis experiencing by the society under the conditions of its modernization ‘transit’ to the industrial stage of development. Overcoming of the social crisis and restoration of the previous identity or acquiring a new identity are shown as a unique traumatic process that has its own logic of development and affects, first of all, the central system of values and the institutional system of society. According to the author, without the analysis of the socio-cultural trauma it would be impossible to develop relevant ‘coping strategies’, i.e. particular patterns used by the society to overcome this trauma. Speaking of the methods used in the present research, it is necessary to note that in addition to Edward Shils’ concept of ‘center and periphery’, for the first time in academic literature the author analyzes Piotr Sztompka’s concept of cultural trauma as one of the methodological bases for studying socio-cultural dynamics of modernization in general and imperial modernization of Russia in particular. According to the author, analysis of Russian philosophical and philosophical-legal heritage of the second half of the XIXth –beginning of the XXth centuries (involving the following ‘immigrants’ decades as well) will allow to see efforts of Russian philosophers to ‘see, understand and present’ to the society the cultural traumas experienced by them, ‘coping strategies’ of dealing with these traumas including active (‘cultural –creative’) and passive (‘ritualistic’) strategies. Even though those efforts did not play the essential role in society’s understanding of ongoing social transformations, today they allow us to better understand the ‘hidden flows’ of the socio-cultural development of the imperial modernization of Russia.

Keywords: