scholarly journals Contemporary “Postapocalypse” as a Form of Eschatological Myth Represented in the «S.T.A.L.K.E.R.» Computer Game

2014 ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
Aleksey I. Pozharov

Discusses the phenomenon of “postapocalypse” or a modern form of the eschatological myth representation in mass culture. The author analyses the structure of the myth implemented in the computer game and argues that contemporary culture endlessly reproducing different scenarios of the last day of the Universe is not able to answer what a changed world is to become after passing through a series of apocalyptic catastrophes.

Author(s):  
Maria Sibirnaya

Nowadays the influence comprehension of the mass media as one of the most significant factors affecting contemporary culture, acquires the special significance. All kinds of new information receiving by media channels obtain the stereotyped, frequently repeatedly cultural and axiological orientations, which become fixed in people's consciousness. Skillful manipulation of information makes the power of suggestion from mass media practically unlimited. Therefore, the public opinion is created by the mass media. Being so closely intertwined with the mass media, the modern mass culture is coming through all elements of people's lives. Moreover, it appears in the literary works, which reflect the influence of the mass media on the consciousness, mentality, point of view and decisions of the literature characters, using their set example in the literature. Odessian playwright Aleksander Mardan presents his characters in the context of the events, which entails new circumstances both due to the characters decisions and out of more extensive economic and political changes. One may notice the presence of mass media in the form of music, information broadcasts and press almost in all Mardan's play. One may track out the influence on the character’s consciousness and reveal the difference between the official version and what happened in the real life. Using the performance tool, there is the action in the play showing the influence of the stereotypes implicated by the mass media. The performance reveals not only the stereotypes affection influencing the mentality of the characters, but also the viewers whose interpretation of the play’s direction is not always critical enough. Therefore, the question about the relationship between the society and mass media, about the level of freedom in mass media from the society and concerning the influence exerted by mass media on the modern culture and the human's consciousness is repeatedly presented in Alexander Mardаn’s plays.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mădălina Nicolaescu

Abstract The paper discusses recent Romanian Shakespeare productions of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Bucharest. It argues that global mass culture, in the form of TV sitcoms and musicals, YouTube clips and computer games, is re-circulated on Romanian stages with the result of re-mediating the older forms of Romanian Shakespeare performances. The paper interrogates the popular character of the new type of productions, which are largely unpolitical and motivated by commercial reasons. The last part of the paper presents a radical deconstruction of Shakespeare’s text in the form of a computer game, which, however, re-introduces the political orientation of older, pre- 1989 performances.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-140
Author(s):  
S. V. Storozhuk ◽  
◽  
I. M. Hoian ◽  

The article shows that the modern mass interest in the occult is conditioned, on the one hand, by the world crisis, the lack of stable and reliable foundations for self-determination and human orientation in the world, and on the other – by the formation of impersonal man and the establishment of mass society. The lack of a stable worldview, universal values, ideals and social standards, and, at the same time, unwillingness to pose and solve complex socio-cultural problems, is the main reason why modern (postmodern) people choose occult ideals and norms that do not require deep reflection, however, they provide them with a sense of belonging to the universe. Most of them are offered by the modern mass culture industry. Although its products are of great concern to traditional Christian values and virtues, we have no reason to give them an unequivocally negative assessment at the moment, at least given that they offer models of The article shows that the modern mass interest in the occult is conditioned, on the one hand, by the world crisis, the lack of stable and reliable foundations for self-determination and human orientation in the world, and on the other – by the formation of impersonal man and the establishment of mass society. The lack of a stable worldview, universal values, ideals and social standards, and, at the same time, unwillingness to pose and solve complex socio-cultural problems, is the main reason why modern (postmodern) people choose occult ideals and norms that do not require deep reflection, however, they provide them with a sense of belonging to the universe. Most of them are offered by the modern mass culture industry. Although its products are of great concern to traditional Christian values and virtues, we have no reason to give them an unequivocally negative assessment at the moment, at least given that they offer models of The article shows that the modern mass interest in the occult is conditioned, on the one hand, by the world crisis, the lack of stable and reliable foundations for self-determination and human orientation in the world, and on the other – by the formation of impersonal man and the establishment of mass society. The lack of a stable worldview, universal values, ideals and social standards, and, at the same time, unwillingness to pose and solve complex socio-cultural problems, is the main reason why modern (postmodern) people choose occult ideals and norms that do not require deep reflection, however, they provide them with a sense of belonging to the universe. Most of them are offered by the modern mass culture industry. Although its products are of great concern to traditional Christian values and virtues, we have no reason to give them an unequivocally negative assessment at the moment, at least given that they offer models of social relations that due to testing by various occult organizations, may receive a public request, or be rejected.


2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-338
Author(s):  
Lawrence Chua

In 1926, the remains of Siam's last absolute monarch were cremated on Bangkok's royal parade grounds, Sanam Luang, in a highly decorated ceremonial pyre known as the phra merumat or phra men. Modeled on Mount Meru, the center of the Vedic and Buddhist cosmos, ephemeral structures like this drew on the Traiphum phra ruang, a fourteenth-century text that elaborated the hierarchical structure of the universe and the exalted place of royalty within it. After the overthrow of the absolute monarchy in 1932, the sanctity of Sanam Luang was challenged when a controversial crematorium for commoners who died defending Siam's nascent constitution was built in the area once reserved for royalty. Together, the two crematoria played an important role in representing new forms of national belonging in the twentieth century that were consistent with older conceptions of social hierarchy. In A Tale of Two Crematoria: Funeral Architecture and the Politics of Representation in Mid-Twentieth-Century Bangkok, Lawrence Chua examines literary, pictorial, and architectural representations of the monumental crematoria from which powerful, meritorious people were historically dispatched to the upper echelons of the cosmos. As seen in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century temple murals and literature, the phra men was historically depicted as a space in which diverse social groups were brought together but hierarchically segregated. By the twentieth century, the above-noted crematoria for king and commoners—although radically different in appearance and ideology—could be understood as complementary structures that allowed older spatial and political approaches not only to survive but also to flourish in an era of turbulent social upheaval. Key to this continuity was the deployment of new modes of architectural representation such as the plan and section. Associated with Siam's nascent architectural profession and the rational representation of space, these tools depicted a modern form of political community and premodern social hierarchy while underscoring the shared fate of citizens and the state.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-28
Author(s):  
Heri Kuswanto ◽  
Ricy Fatkhurrokhman ◽  
Khoirul Anam

The Rasulan tradition is synonymous with the coastal communities of Gunungkidul. This tradition is used as a means of worship and offerings to spirits, the spirits of the ancestors of the gods and the rulers of the universe. Considering that this tradition is related to the belief system, the people on the coast of Gunungkidul still believe in and carry out this tradition with full awareness, comfort and holiness. Until now, the authenticity of the apostolic tradition has been preserved, starting from the time and place of implementation, the uborampe, the rites and the arts. Even though they have adapted to Islam and contemporary culture, the majority of people on the coast of Gunungkidul still have mystical beliefs about the various rites and offerings that are in the apostolic procession. After researching using qualitative data-based field research then analyzed by descriptive analysis method using various theories, it can be concluded that the people on the coast of Gunungkidul still believe in the mystical values ​​that exist in the rites and uborampe of the apostolic tradition. These values, among others, are the value of worship of spirits and ancestral spirits, the value of asking for safety, rejecting danger, freedom from prayer, togetherness, religion, mutual assistance, mutual assistance and the value of giving thanks to God.


Author(s):  
E. Rashkovskii

The collision of “traditional” and “non-traditional” in the present day Russian religious landscape as well as in the present day world could not be interpreted as a kind of direct confrontation between Past and Present. This collision displays its global nature connected with subtle and complicated problems of revival of seemingly obsolete archaic ideas, habits and institutions in unique post-modern conditions of social life, economy, technology, mass culture and cross-cultural interplay. It seems to be valid either for interpretation of universal religious dynamics of modern and post-modern world (including Japan, India and Latin America), or for understanding and interpretation of the present day cultural, religious and legal realities in Russia including life and status of the Russian religious minorities. Many Russian domestic problems in the field of religious matters seem to be dependent not only on unique constellations of the present day universal and domestic history, but also on certain shortages of legal, philosophical and theological background of the Russian political class as well as (partly) of intelligentsia.


2019 ◽  
pp. 42-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Y. Kolesnikov

The article polemicizes about the state of Russian Postmodernist culture in general and the country’s Postmodernist literature, in particular. The author finds that contemporary culture exists at the intersection of two paradigms: a dwindling Postmodernism and a nascent Metamodernism, giving rise to new literary vectors and phenomena. Mass culture appropriates Postmodernist methods and techniques: irony, intertextuality, and play-mode rethinking of classical subjects and ideas. The author observes a transformation of Postmodernism into an assembly line for mass production and consumption. At the same time, Metamodernism inevitably becomes an alternative cultural paradigm. Analyzing the cultural situation, the author references works by the writer V. Pelevin (his novels Generation P, iPhuck 10), rapper poet Oxxxymiron (M. Fyodorov), and other prominent figures of modern Russian culture. The article’s major focus is on Postmodernist irony.


1974 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
V. A. Ambartsumian

Our Extraordinary General Assembly is devoted to the memory of one of the greatest men of science to the genial Polish astronomer - Nicolaus Copernicus. The main service of Copernicus which has made his name immortal was in finding the correct interpretation of the planetary motions we observe. Instead of geocentric notions, which proved unable to explain the accumulated bulk of empirical data on the apparent motions of planets he has put forward and advocated the notion of a solar system thus presenting the true picture of the part of the Universe we live in. The scientific revolution started by him was continued by Galileo and Kepler and was crowned with the great theoretical generalizations of Newton. As a result a foundation has been created for the most exact theories of motions in the solar system which were developed during the next centuries. These theories in their modern form give also the possibility to solve all the problems concerning the orbital motions of spaceships.At this stage we can not yet boast that in the study of nuclei of galaxies and their activity we have reached the level which existed in planetary astronomy even before the works of Newton. Only 15 years elapsed from the moment when the idea of activity of nuclei of galaxies was clearly formulated (Ambartsumian, 1958). During these years discoveries of the greatest importance have been made. New unexpected discoveries occur almost each year. These discoveries influence decisively our notions on the diversity of objects and phenomena in the distant space, but they are still insufficient for the construction of adequate theories. In order to penetrate into the very nature of nuclear phenomena we require new observations, new measurements and new data. And if some optimists imagine that the time has already ripen to build a general theory of these phenomena, the more cautious astronomers would like to consider a more or less satisfactory systematization of observational data concerning the activity of nuclei and the understanding of external physical processes accompanying it as a tremendous success.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Ewa Dryglas-Komorowska

Abstract The article shows the actuality of Tadeusz Różewicz’s poetic confession: “I’m looking for a teacher and a master” in the postmodern world, dominated by mass media and multimedia, the world not guided by authorities. A young man is surrounded by chaos of mass culture, popular culture and cyberculture and he needs a tutor – master, he needs a tutor – guide, who will carry him through the world of cultural values specific for 21st century, emphasizing educational chances and dangers. The tutor should also inform his pupil about the importance of tradition for shaping one’s personality. From this perspective the tutoring is one of the most important challenge standing before the contemporary cultural education.


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