Exploring the Irony in Japanese Popular Culture. A Cross-Cultural and Linguistic Analysis.

The present study addresses the status and use of irony in Japanese popular culture by closely examining its’ cultural variations on a corpus consisting of ironic utterances and situations from three popular culture media: Japanese drama, anime, and manga. While it is likely that Western popular culture abounds in ironic aesthetics and standpoints, the concept of “irony” faces cultural reconstruction within Japanese culture and society, a fact easily reflected in national media and cinematographic productions. In such cases, the cultural and linguistic distance between Japanese and English, and the striking difference, which exists between these two geographical and cultural contexts, increase the challenge interposed by the understanding and interpreting of irony. Moreover, on a conversational level, ironizing one’s communication partner is considered socially unacceptable and penalised accordingly. It stands against the much-expected politeness and traditional Japanese concepts such as “honne” and “tatemae,” which, if preserved, can create harmony in communication. In conclusion, the ambiguous definition of irony, together with the negative perception and reluctance of Japanese people towards its usage, has contributed to frequently branding irony strictly as a Western phenomenon. However, as the present research attempts to demonstrate, the usage of irony in Japanese popular culture embraces multifarious approaches, and it extends to reach the borders of semantics.

The Place of Notions «Fault» and «Sin» in the Worldview of the Ancient Slavs (The Experience of Historical-Cultural Reconstruction of Ideas Based on the Linguistic Data)

В статье рассматриваются особенности восприятия категорий «вины» и «греха» в контексте мировоззрения славян дохристианской эпохи. Лингвистическая реконструкция, привлечение диалектных данных, религиоведческий анализ близких понятий позволяют сделать вывод о том, что первоначальное использование лексемы «вина», скорее всего, осмыслялось в правовом ключе и было связано с восстановлением порядка и возмещением причинённого ущерба. В статье установлена архаическая связь категории греха как нравственной ошибки с идеей кривизны и промаха, которая обнаруживает себя при сопоставлении данных славянских и балтийских языков, а также в типологическом анализе схожих моделей переноса значений в ряде древних языков. Автор указывает на наличие архаического восприятия этих двух важнейших для религиозного миросозерцания категорий, в том числе, и в современной народной жизни. Кроме того, в статье утверждается, что, благодаря переводческой и - шире - созидательной, «инженерной» лингвистической деятельности святых равноапостольных братьев Кирилла и Мефодия, традиционные для славянского языка понятия «грех» и «вина» получили более глубокое осмысление и были обогащены религиозным содержанием. Данное обстоятельство служит одним из примеров, демонстрирующих специфику русской православной религиозности. The article covers the perception peculiarities of the categories of «guilt» and «sin» in the context of the Slavs’ worldview in the pre-Christian era. Linguistic reconstruction, the use of dialectal data, and religious studies analysis of similar concepts allow to conclude that the initial use of the lexeme «guilt» most likely had a legal interpretation and was associated with the restoring of order and compensation for the damage caused. The article identifies an archaic connection between the category of «sin» as a moral mistake and the idea of «curvature» and «blunder», which reveals itself when comparing data from the Slavic and Baltic languages, as well as in the typological analysis of similar models of meaning transfer in several ancient languages. The author points out the presence of an archaic perception of these two, most important for the religious outlook, categories, including in modern folklife. In addition, the article claims that thanks to the translator’s and, more broadly, creative «engineer’s» linguistic activity of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles brothers Cyril and Methodius, the concepts of «sin» and «guilt», traditional for the Slavic language, received a deeper understanding and were saturated with religious content. This fact serves as one of the examples that demonstrates the specifics of Russian Orthodox religiosity.

Theology and Visual Culture in Early Modern Calvinism

Recent scholarship on the arts and the Reformation has come to focus more broadly on the cultural reconstruction the Reformation made necessary and the resulting material and visual culture. Calvin’s challenge in Geneva was not about what the Reformation had left behind but what would replace that medieval world. Key for Calvin was the experience of worship: the oral performance of the sermon, the singing of Psalms and partaking the sacraments, as a dramatic call enabled by the Holy Spirit summoning worshippers to a vision of God and God’s presence in the world. The regular communal worship and the preached drama of sin and salvation constituted the aesthetic-dramatic mirror (Turner) of the emerging Protestant imagination. This encouraged a mutual caring for the needy but also carried deep aesthetic implications. In the Netherlands this imagination is evident in the placement of textualized images in churches, and in landscape paintings and portraits, and, in France, it stimulated Huguenot architects to recover classical orders in the service of restoring to the earth its Edenic beauty.

Integration of Historical Images–Reconstructions into the Infrastructure of the Recreated Fortification Complexes (On the Example of the Abalak Field Festival)

Цель исследования – выявление потенциала интеграции исторических образов-реконструкций в инфраструктуру воссозданного объекта оборонного зодчества на примере фестиваля «Абалакское поле» (Тюменская область). Привлечены фактографические данные и фотоматериалы,выявленные в сети Интернет, результаты научных изысканий историков архитектуры, культурологов и искусствоведов, связанные с проблематикой исторической реконструкции объектов архитектуры и архитектурно-исторической среды. Исследована инфраструктура комплекса «Абалакская крепость», выделены ее локусы (компоненты), определены исторические образы-реконструкции, связанные с каждым из них, выявлены пути интеграции этих образов в архитектурную среду воссозданной крепости. Установлено, что локусы инфраструктуры, формы историко-культурной реконструкции, использованные в них, и образы-реконструкции, интегрированные в фестивальное действо, образуют три сферы, от оптимального сочетания которых зависит успех фестиваля реконструкции. The aim of the study is to identify the potential for the integration of historical images–reconstructions into the infrastructure of a recreated object of defense architecture using the example of the Abalak Field Festival (Tyumen Oblast). This festival has been held in the vicinity of Tobolsk since 2009 and annually attracts up to 20 thousand participants fond of historical reconstruction. The author involved factual data and photographic materials found on the Internet, the results of scientific research by architectural historians, cultural experts and art historians related to the problems of historical reconstruction of architectural objects and the architectural and historical environment. The use of an integrative-infrastructural approach has been substantiated; it involves the application of methods of visual-figurative analysis of photo and video documents. Through this analysis, associative information is extracted from visual sources, which then serves as one of the resources for obtaining innovative theoretical results. The study of the infrastructure of the Abalak Fortress complex made it possible to identify its loci, that is, the components of the infrastructure of the reconstructed fortification complex focused on individual fragments of historical memory and its actualization. On the basis of these loci, by the method of visual-figurative analysis, the historical images–reconstructions associated with them were determined and the ways of their integration into the architectural environment of the reconstructed fortress were identified. It has been established that the infrastructure loci, the forms of historical and cultural reconstruction distributed over them, and the images–reconstructions included in the festival action form three spheres; and the success of the festival of historical reconstruction depends on their optimal combination. The following components of the infrastructure of the Abalak Fortress have been identified: a space for guard; a space for dwelling, celebrations and feasts; a tiltyard (place for fights); a space for fairs, craft workshops; a space for recreation and entertainment. The algorithm of the sequence of images–reconstructions associated with the Abalak Fortress is determined. These images, integrated into six loci, generally characterize the architectural ensemble of the fortress, give visitors, tourists, participants in festivals of historical reconstruction a visual and figurative understanding of the past in its various manifestations, help to assimilate folk traditions and recreate them in various forms in any historical territories.

"We do not live for material things:" indigenous culture and food security in Brazil, the case of the Cinta Vermelha-Jundiba village

This project is based on a qualitative analysis of the opinions of key actors involved in the construction of the indigenous village Cinta Vennelha-Jundiba (CVJ) in Brazil. The CVJ village represents a unique case in Brazil: for the first time in history, an indigenous group from different ethnic backgrounds got together and bought their own land. The research question that guided the analysis is in the context of the creation of the CVJ village: Does food play a role related to cultural reinvention and ethnic reconstruction? The purpose of this project is to explore how food has the communicative function of a bridging mechanism between the Pankararu and the Pataxo cultures in the CVJ village. The conclusions of the analysis show that the interaction between the CVJ's inhabitants is characterized by profound cultural reconstruction and ethnic reinvention, and food production and consumption are key factors in these processes.

"We do not live for material things:" indigenous culture and food security in Brazil, the case of the Cinta Vermelha-Jundiba village

This project is based on a qualitative analysis of the opinions of key actors involved in the construction of the indigenous village Cinta Vennelha-Jundiba (CVJ) in Brazil. The CVJ village represents a unique case in Brazil: for the first time in history, an indigenous group from different ethnic backgrounds got together and bought their own land. The research question that guided the analysis is in the context of the creation of the CVJ village: Does food play a role related to cultural reinvention and ethnic reconstruction? The purpose of this project is to explore how food has the communicative function of a bridging mechanism between the Pankararu and the Pataxo cultures in the CVJ village. The conclusions of the analysis show that the interaction between the CVJ's inhabitants is characterized by profound cultural reconstruction and ethnic reinvention, and food production and consumption are key factors in these processes.

Generational and Geographic Effects on Collective Memory of the USSR

This study examines memory of the Soviet Union and political opinions in modern Russia through qualitative, semi-structured interviews across generations in two Russian cities. The study aims to explore the differences in memory and meaning of the Soviet Union across generation and geography, and to connect those differences to political dispositions in modern Russia. Respondents were asked about their impressions of the Soviet Union and modern-day Russia, and responses were coded for emergent themes and trends. The research finds that youth bifurcate along geographic lines; respondents in St. Petersburg were more likely to reject Soviet ideals than their counterparts in Yoshkar-Ola. The former also tended to prefer liberalism and globalization, while the latter expressed greater nationalism. Older respondents showed no distinct geographic trend, but gave more nuanced assessments of the Soviet Union due to the power of personal memory over cultural reconstruction. In younger respondents, these findings indicate that living in a cosmopolitan metropolis may condition interpretations of the Soviet past and influence contemporary political identity toward globalization. Youths living in smaller cities have less interaction with other global cities and therefore may have more conservative perceptions of the Soviet Union and Russia.