Riddles in Jin Ping Mei

Jin Ping Mei cihua 金瓶梅詞話 (Plum in the Golden Vase) displays an unprecedented interest in breaking apart and reassembling the components of words. This essay asks where the Cihua edition's fascination with character manipulation (a procedure the author refers to as chaibai daozi 拆白道字) comes from and how it relates to literary riddles that precede and follow this landmark sixteenth-century novel. Jin Ping Mei cihua enlarges the presentation and associations of riddles in fiction through its engagement with contemporaneous theatrical literature and the entertainment culture of the brothel. Later commentators, notably Zhang Zhupo 張竹坡 (1670–1698), reorganize the game sequences within which bouts of character manipulation are embedded for the purposes of narrative prolepsis and character development, advocating an approach to reading enigmas as portents that influenced late imperial novelists. In doing so, however, they efface the Cihua's unruly celebration of contingency, the novel's seductive insinuation that it might be written otherwise.

Early Cinema, Process Films, and Screen Advertising

This chapter explores what early process films can tell us about advertising and the transformation of screen cultures. Starting with a detailed historical study of an exemplary process film, the chapter addresses a number of conceptual issues that resonate with takes on screen advertising suggested in the present book. A particular focus lies on screen advertising’s entanglement with entertainment culture, education, visual culture, and commodity culture. Questions of genre and aesthetics, in particular the colour aesthetics of process films in early cinema as well as their colonialist ideology, are also addressed. The chapter argues that screen advertising, despite its often-acknowledged ephemeral nature, is an utterly robust or persistent phenomenon – persistent in regard to the objects, screens, and practices of screen advertising.

CHARIOT RACING AS THE ENTERTAINMENT FORM OF ANCIENT ROME EVENTS IN THE CULTURAL STUDIES DIMENSION

The purpose of the article is the introduction into the cultural discourse of analytically processed and summarized information on the genesis and evolution of chariot racing as the form of entertainment events in ancient Rome, their functional features, specific features of mass events of Antiquity in the context of entertainment culture of Rome. The methodological basis consisted of the methods of critical analysis of cultural, historical, and literary sources, specific and historical analysis, and interdisciplinary synthesis, induction, and deduction. The problematic and chronological, system and structural, comparative, descriptive methods and methods of social and phenomenological analysis were applied from specific and scientific methods. Scientific novelty. The article analyzes the genesis and evolution of chariot racing as a form of events in the context of entertainment culture in ancient Rome. Based on the ancient literary reflection, through the prism of works of culturologists, philosophers, historians, poets, writers of the ancient Rome Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, annals of Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Cassius Dio, ethic works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, letters of Gaius Pliny the Younger, poetry pages of Publius Ovidius Naso, epigrams of Marcus Valerius Martialis and others. The author revealed the essence and content of chariot racing as an entertainment form of events in ancient Rome, statistics, and specific features of entertainment events and instruments of ruling the Roman emperors. The author describes the moral aspects of chariot racing in the context of the entertainment culture of antiquity. Conclusions. The place of entertainment culture of Antiquity in the system of cultural knowledge and cultural tradition of their social universe is revealed. The transformations of chariot racing as a social and humanitarian experience of ancient society, the political instrument of government in Rome are explored. The role of entertainment of Antiquity for modern cultural practices is established.

Barrel Organ and Organ- Grinder in Russian Fiction of the 1840s

In the 1840s, barrel organ and organ grinders became a core part of the city’s folk entertainment culture as mentioned in essayistic and memoir literature. However, the references are scarce and there are no detailed descriptions existing. To study this phenomenon of folk culture, the author turns to fictional texts: Dead Souls by N.V. Gogol, “Shtoss” by M. Yu. Lermontov, “Katerina-Hurdy-Gurdy” by I.P. Myatlev, and “Savvushka” by I.T. Kokorev. The article analyzes the chain of ideas that each of these authors associates with the barrel organ and organ-grinders. In general, these views correlate with the views reflected in non-literary sources. I.T. Kokorev develops the story of the street artist in the most detailed way which may be explained by his interests in essay writing, closeness to the so-called “natural school” (a 19 th century literary trend), and personal experience.

Locked Out: Regional Restrictions in Digital Entertainment Culture, Evan Elkins (2019)

Review of: Locked Out: Regional Restrictions in Digital Entertainment Culture, Evan Elkins (2019)New York: New York University Press, 221 pp.,ISBN 978-1-47987-387-6, p/bk, US$29.00

Maslenitsa in the Historiography of Socio-Cultural Activities

The article is devoted to the consideration of "Maslenitsa" in the historiography of social and cultural activities. It is noted that "Maslenitsa" as a national holiday appeared before the baptism of Russia. The author emphasizes that the study of the historiography of the holiday is of undoubted interest, both for scientists and practitioners of the leisure sphere, since such research is conducted for the first time. The purpose of the research is to reveal how historians, ethnographers, and folklorists studied Maslenitsa in various periods of Russian history. The author's task was to show the structure of Maslenitsa, the organization of its holding and numerous leisure forms of its holding, as well as to show through numerous studies how each day of Maslenitsa was celebrated. Methods. Various sources (monographs, articles, dissertations) that reveal the content and conduct of Maslenitsa in various historical periods are used in the study. The article provides a historiographical analysis of the national holiday "Maslenitsa". The author points out that at present the historiography of social and cultural activities, as a branch of pedagogical science, has become an independent section of research on a par with the history and theory of social and cultural activities. It is emphasized that the study of forms of holiday and entertainment culture in the history of socio-cultural activities is one of the directions of historiography in socio-cultural activities. Historiography of socio-cultural activity in its scientific development makes the first independent steps. The scientific novelty of this research is undeniable. Based on the fundamental historiographical material, the author shows the emergence of the "Maslenitsa", its structure, organization and conduct. In the article each day of the holiday and entertainment ways for its conduct are defined. Keywords: Maslenitsa, historiography, sociocultural activities, meeting, zaigryshi, lakomka, shirokij Chetverg, mother-in-law’s evening, sister in law’s gatherings, Sorry and Forgive day, holiday, holiday and entertainment culture, leisure.

What does frustration, serendipity and uncertainties of global media and communication means? Some versions from Latvia and Estonia

In a short novel by contemporary Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin “White square” (2018), the moderator of the show with the same title gets killed during the show in which four guests express their visions of present society. Everyone can follow the killing on-line, having voted shortly before for the most entertaining guest. After having received an injection of a new chemical formula which is supposed to entertain the audience, the four participants get wild and destroy the whole show enjoyed by the audience. A new moderator is being engaged to let the show go on... This rather gothic plot shows another part of the reality – the memories of the director of the show about someone, a person unknown to the reader, who has been killed to start the bloody entertainment. The ring, made of the skin of this unknown person gets lost and lands in a realm beyond the on-line entertainment culture: poor workers, their uneducated wives and alcoholics, who still inhabit the off-line everyday life of low wages, heavy physical jobs and simple joys ignored by blood thirsty audience, voting and selling advertisement time for higher prices. Both groups, digital media users and poor underpaid blue collars are in contemporary Europe and the USA targets for populist messages in media.