A Comparative Analysis of Consumption: Evidence from a Cultural Goods Market

This study uniquely employs a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) technique to account for complex relationships in consumption. The fsQCA technique assumes that relationships are based on a set–subset relationship. This assumption is fundamental when decision-makers are affected by information asymmetry and are, thus, required to jointly evaluate the credibility and reliability of a range of external signals. This issue also affects consumers in markets for cultural goods, where the quality of products is not known with certainty in advance of the purchase decision. Our study uses fsQCA to establish the effect of different quality signals on consumption in the US market for video game software. Our results show that reviews from professional critics alongside brand extension and multi-platform release strategies act as signals of product quality and, therefore, lead to high sales performance.

Digitization and Pre-Purchase Information: The Causal and Welfare Impacts of Reviews and Crowd Ratings

Digitization has led to many new creative products, straining the capacity of professional critics and consumers. Yet, the digitization of retailing has also delivered new crowd-based sources of pre-purchase information. We compare the relative impacts of professional critics and crowd-based Amazon star ratings on consumer welfare in book publishing. Using various fixed effects and discontinuity-based empirical strategies, we estimate their causal impacts on sales. We use these causal estimates to calibrate a structural demand model. The aggregate effect of star ratings on consumer surplus is, in our baseline estimates, more than ten times the effect of traditional review outlets. (JEL D83, L15, L81, L82)

NIKOLAI ERDMAN: CZECH TRANSLATIONS AND STAGE INTERPRETATIONS

Введение. Представлено восприятие Николая Эрдмана и его драматургических произведений в бывшей Чехословакии и современной Чешской Республике. Исследование сосредоточивается в первую очередь на интерпретации пьес драматурга в чешских переводах и на чешских сценах. Материал и методы. Материалом исследования послужили архивные материалы, программы спектаклей, записи постановок, критические отзывы в периодике, дневники и воспоминания переводчиков, а также публикации о движении малых театров-студий, изданные до 1989 г. Материалы проанализированы с точки зрения переводоведения, театроведения и восприятия постановок зрителями и профессиональными критиками. Результаты и обсуждение. Сатирическая комедия Эрдмана «Самоубийца» была дважды переведена на чешский язык известными чешскими переводчиками Яном Забраной (1967) и Аленой Моравковой (1985). В 1971 г. в бывшей Чехословакии на сцене сатирического театра «Вечерний Брно» была поставлена пьеса «Мандат», а постановка «Самоубийцы» состоялась в 1987 г. Выход в печать в 1985 г. чешского перевода этой пьесы, выполненного Аленой Моравковой, на три года опередил советскую публикацию оригинала. Исследование также отражает самые значимые чешские постановки пьес Эрдмана до и после Бархатной революции. Заключение. Анализ переводов и сценических интерпретаций доказывает, что и восемьдесят лет спустя сатирические произведения Н. Эрдмана являются актуальными произведениями, глубокое гуманистическое и философское содержание которых находит отклик у современного зрителя. Как и до 1989 г., когда пьесы ставились в так называемых малых театрах-студиях, и в современности наибольший интерес к пьесам Эрдмана проявляют небольшие сцены, студенческие коллективы и любительские театры. Важно отметить, что темы, подчеркиваемые в сценических интерпретациях чешскими постановщиками до и после Бархатной революции, принципиально отличаются. Introduction. This paper aims to present the perception of Nikolai Erdman and his plays in the former Czechoslovakia and the modern Czech Republic. The article primarily focuses on the interpretation of Erdman’s plays in Czech translations and on Czech stages. Materials and methods. The research was based on the study of archival sources, such as programs for theatre productions, recordings of performances, critical responses in periodicals, translators’ diaries and memoirs, as well as post-1989 publications on the small theatre movement, etc. Theatre productions and their reception by the public and professional critics were analysed. The materials were also subjected to translational analysis. Results and discussion. Erdman’s satirical comedy The Suicide has been translated into Czech twice by renowned Czech translators Jan Zábrana (1967) and Alena Morávková (1985). In 1971, The Mandate was staged at the satirical theatre Večerní Brno (Evening Brno), which was the first production of Erdman’s plays in the former Czechoslovakia. The Suicide was staged in 1987. The publication of the Czech translation of The Suicide created by Alena Morávková in 1985 was three years ahead of the Soviet publication of the original play. The paper also reflects significant productions of Erdman’s plays at the E. F. Burian Theatre or Studio Ypsilon. Modern Czech stage productions of The Mandate (last performed in 2009) and, first of all, The Suicide (last performed in 2019) are also reflected in the paper. Conclusion. An analysis of the plays’ translations and stage versions proves that even eighty years after their creation, the satirical works of Nikolai Erdman are still relevant thanks to their deep humanistic and philosophical content that resonates with the modern audience. Both before and after 1989, Erdman’s plays were staged in so-called small (studio) theatres. Even today, the interest to Erdman’s plays arises in small theatres, student companies and amateur theatres. However, the themes that Czech directors emphasize in their contemporary productions are fundamentally different from what was targeted before the Velvet revolution.

Bookstagram‘as ir lietuvių literatūros laukas

In the time of the Internet and social networks, unconventional actors have an opportunity to establish themselves in the field of literature and influence it. Bookstagramers are literary field agents who work alongside professional/academic literary critique and dispose of the symbolic capital gained in virtuality. In reality, bookstagramers play a critical discourse role: they shape fashion (of reading or the relevance of a particular genre of literature), they might influence (and are influencing) a community of professional critics, creating a specific literary culture that reflects social network logic, and so on. The purpose of this article is to look at how Lithuanian bookstagramers evaluate literary works by posting on the social network Instagram (the intentions of these evaluations and their possible impact on the addressee). With the help of media and communication theories, the perspective of literary sociology, the critique of the reader’s response, applying the survey method, we delve into the empirical material (bookstagramers survey data). The research revealed the sociological picture of a Lithuanian bookstagramer, the intentions of writing about books on Instagram, and the specifics of the information published. In some cases, this study confirms the more general socio-cultural and psychological aspects previously known (women are more interested in culture, read more books, seek to communicate, make connections). A closer look at the respondents’ responses creates the preconditions for seeing the reality and virtuality of non-professional literary reflections in a particular society, where speaking is paramount. This discourse, driven by Instagram’s logic of architecture and social networking in general, does not lead to a broader discussion, deeper reflections on the works, as it is more reminiscent of brief impressionist speeches about a book read, sometimes inserting excursions about other personal hobbies (not necessarily related to reading). For this reason, it is not appropriate to apply the title of criticism to such recordings, but they should be considered a part of the discourse of Lithuanian literary criticism.

The Problem of Scientific Approach to Studying Genealogy of the Muralist Sculptor, People's Artist of Russia V. M. Klykov

The famous Soviet and Russian sculptor V. M. Klykov (1939-2006), winner of state prizes of the RSFSR and the USSR, People's Artist of Russia, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, was an ambiguous figure in the eyes of his contemporaries. His caught the attention not only of professional critics, but also of ordinary people. Many publications and memoirs dedicated to the sculptor had been published during his lifetime. However, V. M. Klykov himself gave contradictory information on the history of his family in his interviews. At the same time, a complete and objective assessment of his life and work and his role in art is impossible without studying his social origin and family history, which determined the relevance of this work. Until now, the history of the Klykov family has been reconstructed from stories and memoirs of those who knew him personally. The study has also been hampered by the fact that there are misconceptions about V. M. Klykov’s ancestors that often spring from desire to create a certain image that fits the worldview of the famous sculptor. The purpose of the study has been to identify and analyze the documentary sources on the subject: archival materials, documents from the museum collection and periodicals. The fonds of the State Archive of the Kursk Region (GAKO) have provided most sources. However, destruction of the archives during the Civil War and the Nazi occupation resulted in a lack of documents and photographs from the early 20th century. Some information has been found in databases available on the Internet. A number of documents are being introduced into scientific use for the first time. The study is based on the key principles of historicism, consistency, and objectivity, which allows the author to avoid mythologization of the sculptor. Comparative analysis of the identified sources has allowed the author to trace V. M. Klykov’s genealogy up to the mid-19th century, to identify the names of his ancestors, to note the family’s difficult fate through the pivots of Russian history, to determine V. M. Klykov’s ancestors and to explore their biographies, achievements, and social status. Several representatives of the Klykov family have been identified, who showed themselves worthily in the military service of the Fatherland. In addition, the author has refuted the tale of the sculptor's grandfather ‘s de-kulakization and persecution by the Soviet power. The author concludes that peasant origin and environment in which the sculptor grew up left an imprint on his worldview, and therefore, on the theme of his monumental creativity and ideas that he defended in public life.

Theatrical Dialogue in the Digital Age: From Director’s Theatre to the Theatre Onscreen

Thanks to its inherent nature, theatre has been better able than other artforms to resist the challenges presented by information and digital culture, which are based on the principle of reproduction. Since a theatrical text is created anew each time, an audience can enter into a real-time dialogue with a concrete group of players recreating an authorial concept. This is true even when, as in director’s theatre, a director’s interpretation is performed by different acting companies.Today, however, the hubris of theatre critics and enthusiasts, who value unmediated dialogue as a pre-condition of theatrical pragmatics, has collided with the novel theatrical practice of live broadcasting, which was preceded by the standalone genres of radio and television plays. As a performance art, theatre possesses characteristics of a virtual object, where the information about such an object exists only in the memories of audiences or professional critics. In becoming digitised, theatre loses its former character – the uniqueness of presence in a concrete theatrical here-and-now that can never be repeated – and acquires a new mode of existence within a movie theatre represented in Russia by the Theatre HD project, which translates the theatrical educational mission into the digital age by involving new participants in creative dialogue.

Introducing Life to “the Young, the Ignorant, and the Idle”: Eliza Haywood and Daniel Defoe as Popular Novelists

The remarkable commercial success of the novels of Daniel Defoe and Eliza Haywood in the first few decades of the eighteenth century testifies to a series of cultural phenomena that merit close critical attention. For instance, setting the overwhelming popularity of both writers during their lifetimes in contrast with the scant—though steadily growing—critical recognition accorded to Haywood in our time provides a succinct and vivid illustration of the vagaries of the literary canon. As can be guessed, the snakes and ladders in Defoe and Haywood’s game of fame had mostly to do with their gender, as well as with the genre of their most celebrated productions. Ironically, however, for good or evil, their contemporaries tended to put both writers together in the same basket. While professional critics belittled their talents in public—and perhaps envied them in private—the reading public seemed to have an insatiable appetite for their fictions. In short, Haywood and Defoe were fully-fledged popular novelists, with all the positive and negative connotations attached to this label. A key to gauging their place in the history of the novel lies, then, in the type of readers for whom they vied. This article reviews some of the correspondences between Haywood and Defoe—emphasizing their equality in terms of cultural relevance in their own time—with a view to complicate conventional assessments of Defoe as a star novelist and Haywood as a minor writer of amatory fiction, and to encourage reflection about literary practices then and now.

Ballerina Sofia Fedorova II in the Russian Sculpture of the Silver Age (Stepan Erzia, Marina Ryndzyunskaya, Natalya Danko)

Цель статьи – культурологический и искусствоведческий анализ трех портретных изображений выдающейся балерины Серебряного века русской культуры Софьи Федоровой 2-й (1879–1963), созданных С.Д. Эрьзей, М.Д. Рындзюнской и Н.Я. Данько. Материалом исследования являются архивные документы, отечественная периодика 1910-х гг., отзывы критиков и воспоминания современников о балерине. На основе использования сравнительно-исторического, биографического и семиотического методов представлена характеристика личности и творчества Федоровой 2-й, реконструирована ее биография; прослежена история создания трех скульптур, выявлены их художественные особенности и смыслоSвоенаполнение. Автор заключает, что Н. Я. Данько и М.Д. Рындзюнская изображают «дневную» Федорову, главным в их работах является демонстрация красоты и выразительности движений балерины. С.Д. Эрьзя запечатлел «ночную» Федорову: сосредоточив внимание на лице артистки, он сумел в своей скульптуре отразить ее сложный внутренний мир. The main aim of the article is to present an art historical and cultural analysis of three portrait images of Sofia Fedorova II(1879–1963), the outstanding ballerina of the Silver Age of Russian culture, created by masters of Russian sculpture Stepan Erzia (portrait bust, 1915, marble), MarinaRyndzyunskaya (statue, 1916, marble) and Natalya Danko (figurine, 1921, porcelain). The research materials are previously unpublished documents from the archives of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Saransk, as well as articles from Russian periodicals of the 1910s; reviews of professional critics and memories about the ballerina. Based on the use of comparative historical, biographical, and semiotic methods, the article reconstructs Fedorova’s biography, considers various aspects of the reception of her personality and work by contemporaries: figures of literature (Vyacheslav Ivanov), theater (S. Giatsintova, E. Gogoleva, K. Stanislavsky, V. Telyakovsky), ballet (S. Grigoriev, B. Nizhinskaya), art critics and historians of ballet (Yu. Belyaev, P. Liven, S. Mamontov), other representatives of the humanitarian intelligentsia (S. Grigorov). Sofia Fedorova is known as an unsurpassed performer of characteristic dances in ballet and opera performances, as well as a ballerina who embodied the images of the innovative choreography of A.A. Gorsky and M.M. Fokin. Vyacheslav Ivanov claimed that the ballerina had “two faces”: the “daytime”, “galloping” Fedorova and the “nighttime” Fedorova, whose sphere was the “dark mysticism of the soul”. The author of the article traced the history of the creation of the three sculptures and revealed their artistic features and semantic content. The three sculptors created completely different sculptural images of Fedorova: a monumental marble figure (Ryndzyunskaya), an easel marble bust (Erzia), and a decorative porcelain figurine (Danko). According to the findings of the author of the study, Danko portrays Fedorova as “daytime” and “galloping” (nevertheless, she manages to create an ethereal image). Ryndzyunskaya also shows Fedorova as“daytime”, the sculptor is attracted by the ballerina’s grace, the beauty and expressiveness of her movement: portraying it, she focuses on purely plastic problems. Erzia is the only sculptor of the three who managed to see and capture the “nighttime” Fedorova. He is not interested in the ballerina’s dance, but in her complex deep inner world: he reflects the “dark mysticism” of her soul, conveys the state of tensity and anxiety that engulfed the woman, revealing not only signs of her incipient mental illness, but also her keen sense of the catastrophic state of the world (during World War I and the impending revolution).

Reading Pope's Homer in the 1720s: The Iliad Notes of Philip Doddridge

As a young minister in 1725, Philip Doddridge (1702–1751), later to become one of the most influential figures of eighteenth-century Dissent, embarked on a close reading of Homer's Iliad in Greek alongside Pope's English verse translation of 1715–20. As he read he recorded, in shorthand notes, detailed ‘remarks’ critically comparing the Greek and English texts as works of poetry, with a particular eye to the success or otherwise of Pope's version. The unique manuscript containing the remarks has in part survived, and is held by Dr Williams' Library, London. In this discussion, Doddridge is introduced and his remarks transcribed for the first time. They provide a contemporary reading of Pope's Iliad which in its depth and detail goes well beyond anything else available for private readers, as opposed to the professional critics and scholars whose extensive attacks and defences it elicited.