Abstracts of RSACS XLII International Conference “Creative Communication: American Culture as Communication System” December 7-10, 2016

 

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December 7, Wednesday

5 pm                           Opening Plenary session                                                       room 232

Keynote speaker:

Svetlana Sigida, Doctor of Art

Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory

Cooperative Creativity in the Art of Opera in the late 20-early 21-st Centures: the Minimalists Composers Ph.  Glass and J. Adams with Theater Directors R. Wilson and P.Sellars (exemplified in “Einstein on the Beach”,”Nixon in China” and “Doctor Atomic”)

 

6.30 pm – 8 pm          Tea and pirozhki                                                                   room 217

 

Section 1. Journalism

Coordinator Prof. Irina Arkhangelskaya (Nizhny Novgorod, aib@sandy.ru)

8 December 8, Thursday 6.30 pm – 8.00 pm  room 103

  1. Irina Arkhangelskaya,

Higher School of Economics -Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Online Version of USA Today as a Communication platform with Electorate during the US 2016 Presidential Campaign

The dynamics of developing main themes and communication character of candidates with voters in the online version of USA Today (September – November 2016) during the US 2016 presidential campaign are considered in the report.

The analysis of politicians’ agendas (economic issues, taxes, migration problems, international relations) is based on 100 materials (news, analytical reviews, commentaries, interviews, sociological polls). Special attention is paid to the contexts in which names of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are mentioned.

One of the most popular US papers USA Today is «mainstream» mass medium. It forms opinions of average Americans and plays an important role in communications between political elites and electorate.

During the presidential campaign, the resource journalists did all their best to stay neutral. The elections results have been unexpected for the newspaper’s editorial board, as seen in commentaries and analytics.

  1. Nikolai Zykov

MSU Journalism Department, Lomonosov State University, Russia

American Culture in Multimedia Format in the Voice of America Coverage

 American culture has always been and remains one of the most important ones for a leading American international broadcaster. One of its main tasks is to promote American culture in the world. This is the same in the present transition from radio to Internet broadcasting. In recent years the emphasis is on video, as it allows, for example, to quickly cover news, Hollywood news, cultural events and more. Traditions were established in the Russian edition of radio era and continue today.

  1. Tatiana Biryukova

Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Origin of Hypertext Journalism: a case study of the FEED magazine)

 The 1990s was a time not only of dot.com boom, it was also a time of hypertext theory boom.  Branching nonlinear text with hyperlinks, which initially has been described by Ted Nelson, seemed to be more appropriate for the computer era then a linear text.  It is no wonder that hypertext theory had an impact on journalistic theory:  in the 1990s there were plenty of theoretical articles, which acclaimed a range of advantages of hypertext over print journalism.  The turning point for the development of hypertext journalism was the creation in New York in 1995 of one of the first online magazine – FEED.  The authors of FEED put into practice many Internet-specific features, which were described by hypertext theorists. Experiments with the interface, hyperlinks and forms of narrative have been here in the foreground.  But the results of these five-year experiments with nonlinear texts now allow to look very differently on the hypertext itself as well as on its possibilities for journalism.

Section 2. American Culture of the 18th-19th Centuries

Coordinator Prof. Elvira Osipova (Saint-Petersburg, elvira.osipova@mail.ru)

December 8, Thursday 6.30 pm – 8.00 pm, room 217

  1. Irina Khruleva

Department of History

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Debating Religious Issues in Colonial American Newspapers during the Great Awakening of the 1730s-1750s

 The First Great Awakening was a powerful religious movement that swept across all British colonies in North America and coincided with the Enlightenment. It had a profound effect on all aspects of colonial life, greatly affecting religion, politics, and ideology. The Great Awakening laid the foundation of a future American nation. Unprecedented interest in religion led to the increase of colonial printed production – not only theological treatises, but colonial newspapers that published information about religious rallies, fierce discussions among “old” and “new lights”, sermons of itinerants and their opponents, diaries of believers who experienced “rebirth” to a new godly life. Religious texts dominated colonial newspapers in 1730-50s and were republished in newspapers of New England, Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia thus creating  unique channels of communication and information exchange.

  1. Yelena Volkova

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies.

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

New England Colonial Literature: Genre Specifics and Practical Purpose

(second half of the 17th and the beginning of  the 18th centuries)

 The report is devoted to unique genres of New England colonial literature: Puritan histories, captive narratives and the works that combine theological and scientific approaches. Each genre mentioned above had a practical purpose, influencing public opinion and forming cultural and religious identity. In the period under review Puritan sermons, pamphlets and colonial press were the main tools for waging ideological controversies. Sermons were designed to be presented on an important day not only in terms of religion, but also in terms of social and political life of the colonies. Captive narratives had a great impact on relations between colonists and Indians. And when the Newtonian worldview emerged Puritan ministers tried to demonstrate the lack of contradictions between God’s word and new science.

  1. Olga Panova

Philological Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

American Abolitionist Periodicals as a Means of Interracial Cultural Communication

Due to the myth-making typical for the biased attitude of the militant African American studies to the cultural history, we are accustomed to think of the African American voice as being excluded, silenced, and, finally, non-existent in the discursive world of the American nation. At the core of this problem is the question of authority: usually one talks of the white dictatorship in American culture, repression and negation of the Black cultural identity as being mandatory in the USA before 1920-ies. Unbiased analysis of the abolitionist press as well as examination of the communities formed by the periodicals, shows that it was not the case. On the contrary, their activity was aimed at interaction between Black and white audience; they encouraged endeavor to mutual understanding, vested African American voice with a special authority and provided space for it to be an indispensable part of the national cultural context.

 

  1. Elvira Ph. Osipova,

Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Frank Norris, Jack London, Ayn Rand: Reverberation of Ideas

Frank Norris was influenced by the ideas of Joseph Le Conte, Herbert Spenser, John Fiske and to some extent, ideas of Nietzsche. They found expression in his Naturalisitc novels McTeague, Vandover and the Brute, A Man’s Woman. The ideas of Social Darwinism served also as the philosophic underpinning of his most famous novel The Octopus. Norris’ younger contemporary, Jack London continued to develop ideas which were very influential in the 1880s-1890s. His work betrays pronounced similarities of motifs and themes with those of Norris’ fiction (the theme of a strong personality, the motif of the “abysmal brute”, the de-Romantization of Nature, and the key concept of Spenser’s philosophy – the survival of the fittest). The anti-Romantic tradition of both Norris and London, was revived in the 1940s-1950s, in the work of Ayn Rand, who created her own brand of Social Darwinism. Interestingly, she did not acknowledge her debt to previous proponents of these ideas, which fact may serve as an example of indirect creative communication.

Section 3. Literature and Culture of the 20th -21st Centuries

Coordinator Prof. Natalia Vysotska (Kiyev, literatavysotska@gmail.com),

December 8, Thursday, 10.00 am – 3.00 pm, room 217

  1. Natalia Vysotska,

Kiev National Linguistic University, Ukraine

Shakespeare’s Dialogue with America: Zigzags of Communicative Paradigms

Approaching Shakespeare in global context as an international or planetary author has lately become one of the trendiest aspects in Shakespeare studies. The reception of the Bard’s legacy in diverse national cultures may be treated from a variety of perspectives. On the one hand, it is, doubtless, a fact of a certain culture located at a specific point on its time axis and throwing light at preceding and following stages in its development. On the other, transformations attending Shakespeare in his historical, geographic, cultural, and linguistic “wanderings” make it possible to uncover in his texts nuances and meanings previously escaping the readers’ notice. According to the editor of the representative anthology Shakespeare in America (2013), the prominent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, «the history of Shakespeare in America is also a history of America itself». Tracing the interactions between the two worlds compatible in terms of their scopes – Shakespeare’s artistic universe and American civilization – academics and critics emphasize variegated modes of their multidimensional dialogue through centuries over which Shakespeare «had been regarded as a central part of American identity» (Andrew Dickson, 2016). While at the early stages high-flown rapture and cerebral pronouncements of Founding Fathers and (later) Transcendentalists were more than balanced by Shakespeare’s ubiquitous presence in “lowbrow” culture, further on, as convincingly showed by Lawrence Levine, the emergence of cultural hierarchy in America was inextricable from monopolization of the Swan of Avon by the “highbrow”. It is arguable that nowadays both elitist and popular culture in the USA appropriate Shakespeare, each with its own ends in view. This paper will be focusing on some specific forms of such appropriation.

  1. Lyudmyla Kazakova

Southwestern State University, Kursk, Russia

Dialogue across a Century: Phenomenon of Inter- and Cross-cultural Communication in the novels by J. Joyce and J. Heller

Intertextuality is examined as a result of the narrative interaction with the semiotic cultural environment, thus becoming a form of cross-cultural interaction on the example of intertextual ties between James Joyce’s novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man (1916 ) and Portrait of an artist as an old man (2000) by Joseph Heller.

  1. Kirill Ignatov

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies.

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Poets and Presidents in the USA: the historical context and philological intertext of inaugural poems

 Starting with Robert Frost in 1961, five times US presidents have invited renowned poets to participate in their inauguration ceremonies. On the one hand, it was a symbolic gesture of recognizing in such manner the importance of literature and, in a wider sense, arts. On the other, the poets took this opportunity to express their vision of America’s past and present, as well as their hopes for its future. The talk outlines historical circumstances of the occasions and examines intertextual references in each of the inaugural poems. The analysis reveals both the themes that are determined by political and social situation in the country at the time and stable cultural values.

  1. Alla K. Nikulina

M.Akmullah Bashkir State Pedagogical University, Ufa, Russia

Bridging of Ideological Gaps in Thornton Wilder’s The Eighth Day

Thornton Wilder’s novel The Eighth Day (1967) presents the result of his life-long philosophical search. The book is a wide-scale epic in which different, and often opposing, views are set against one another, to be finally weaved into a single tapestry – in the plot as well as in the ideological pattern of the novel. The plot brings together the American characters of various ethnic origin, religious beliefs and world outlook; they are sometimes unable to understand each other’s point but the sum of their voices and opinions helps create the figure in the tapestry, the single meaningful universe. In addition to this, the novel demonstrates the author’s attempt to find a balance between various influences and infatuations he experienced at different periods of his life. The central idea of the novel comes from the author’s desire to bridge the gap between the religious dogmatism of his early writings and the philosophical skepticism of his later works, a passion for classical antiquity and an interest in modern society, Kierkegaard’s irrational zest and Goethe’s guarded rationalism, the spiritual optimism of American transcendentalism and the Christian cult of suffering, the existentialist worldview and the Platonic absolute truth. It makes the novel a truly American example of the way to overcome ideological differences and find a unity in diversity

  1. Yelena Makarova

Department of Journalism, Advertisement and Public relations

Vladimir State University, Russia

Miscommunication in Sh. Anderson’s Winesburg. Ohio

 In the book of short stories Winesburg. Ohio (1919) Sh. Anderson creates a new type of character – grotesque people who live in Winesburg, a mythical Middle Western small town. Grotesqueness means distortion of personality, characters in the book lose ties between each other and can not establish new ones. Everyone in Winesburg is fatally alone in one’s own sealed world. They can say nothing meaningful that would change the whole situation; they fail to find it. Characters are introverts and cannot hear anyone else. Therefore all uttered words in Winesburg are just routine ritual phrases without any meaning. We take a notice of the parallel between A. Chekhov’s plays and Anderson’s book. The research examines lack of communication between grotesque people in all spheres of their life, particularly in family relations, between friends and lovers. Self-isolation of the inhabitants of Winesburg indirectly causes miscommunication between the town and the rest of the world.

  1. Louisa P. Bashmakova

Krasnodar, Russia

Poetics of Communication and George Santayana’s Literary Self-Identifying in The Last Puritan. A Memoir in the Form of a Novel

 George Santayana’s novel The Last Puritan. A Memoir in the Form of a Novel, 1935) is scrutinized with an accent on the writer’s art of communicating. Special importance is bestowed at analyzing the novel’s Puritan discourse to reveal the writer’s estimation of the Puritan age in American culture and elucidate his conception of the Puritan character. Santayana’s poetics of communication, the principles, and forms this writer applies while exchanging his own views with other attitudes to the Puritan heritage are correlated to the author’s literary self-identification; several forms of the author’s self-representation – as a memoirist, a biographer, a novelist, a philosopher, a psychologist, a historian of culture – are observed in their reciprocal relations.

  1. Olga Lubimskaya

Department of Foreign Literature

Tyumen State University, Russia

Pause as a Nonverbal Means of Communication in J.D. Salinger’s Works

In his writings, Salinger is concentrated on the inner existence and search for «genuine conversation». This quest determines his over-sensitivity to a «Word», the world of sounds and different means of paralipsis. Salinger’s protagonist pays special attention to the pause as a kind of silence. The presence or absence of a silent pause exposes attitude of Salinger’s character to the world and his interlocutor. «The genuineness» of conversation is revealed through longitude and characteristics of a pause in the dialogue. The communicative role of a pause helps in defining the typological images in Salinger’s artistic system. While positive characters use pauses intuitively or consciously, negative characters totally ignore any breaks and pauses in speech.

The analysis of the pause communicative value in Salinger’s artistic world allows us to reveal some peculiarities of his poetics of silence.

  1. Irina Kudriavtseva

Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus

Politeness as an Element of Interpersonal Communication in the Works of Peter Taylor

 The short stories and novels of Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Peter Taylor (1917–1994) feature characters who come from a privileged Southern background and view politeness as a cultural norm in business and personal interaction. This is expressed through polite manners and a particular choice of syntactic structures and lexical items, modal constructions, polite addresses, compliments, questions etc. But as Taylor demonstrates, linguistic etiquette may also serve to mask a lack of interest, emotional coldness, and unwillingness to solve problems or to have a meaningful conversation. The paper examines sociocultural, psychological and linguistic aspects of politeness as a communication strategy in inter-gender and intergenerational communication as represented in Taylor’s stories A Long Fourth, Cookie, First Heat and others and in the novel A Summons to Memphis.

  1. Yuri Stulov

Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus

Parody or provocation: Alice Randall’s Novel The Wind Done Gone

 The paper will discuss the scandalous novel The Wind Done Gone by the contemporary African American writer Alice Randall that was sued as the plot refers to M. Mitchell’s famous novel Gone with the Wind. However, close reading of the book also shows certain intersections with M. Walker’s classic neo-slave narrative Jubilee. The question is: was Randall’s novel “an unauthorized parody” as the book cover says or was it a conscious provocation on the part of the writer? Or it may have been an act of creative communication – reworking of the plot and characters of the above-mentioned books from the point of view of reconsidering the existing stereotypes.

  1. Pavel Silaev

Smolensk State University, Russia
Metatext in John Green’s Novel The Fault in Our Stars as a Reflection of Communication between a Modern American Writer and his/her Teenage Reader

 Metatextuality in John Green’s novel The Fault In Our Stars (a novel within a novel An Imperial Affliction) has different forms of insertion (epigraph, quoting, retelling, allusions) and plays an important plot-connecting role: it makes a significant growth of implicative and modal potential of the whole text. The reader’s communication with this work enriches itself as some quotations from An Imperial Affliction refer to other earlier Green’s works, and that partially turns this metatextuality into intertextuality. The dialogue of these two novels becomes stronger due to their easily recognizable similar artistic techniques.

Gradually, An Imperial Affliction starts to have a great impact on the main novel plot development: it becomes its main driving force. This causes the appearance of his author Peter Van Houten as one of the major characters in the second part of the book. We observe peculiar intertextual connections in the endings of the novels and their certain relations with Shakespeare’s plays as well as the title The Fault In Our Stars (a paraphrased quotation from the play Julius Caesar). Besides, transformation of this metatextual novel writer’s idealized image and revealing his real character traits reflects peculiarities and consequences of interactive relationships between a modern American writer and his/her teenage reader, whose appreciation of life values matures in such interaction.

  1. A.V. Strukova

Kazan Federal University (KFU), Russia

National Symbols of Popular Culture in Michael Chabon’s novels Wonder Boys (1995) and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000)

 Michael Chabon is a modern American writer, the Pulitzer Prize winner. His fiction lingers on the border between popular (lowbrow) and serious (highbrow) literature. Chabon intentionally plays with many national symbols in order to create in his books an image of the USA in the second half of the 20th c. Wonder Boys (1995) and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000) provide the most vivid examples of the way he uses symbols and stereotypes of popular culture. His Wonder Boys may be considered a version of university novel. One of the key symbols in the book is Marilyn Monroe’s jacket preserved in a character’s collection. It was one of the author’s first references to physical symbols of popular culture. In The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay they also play a very important part both for the plot development and for the characters’ delineation. The plot of Chabon’s most famous book is built around comic strips. His characters are the creators of famous comic strips, and everything that happened to them looks like a drawn story divided into separate frames.

Section 4. Ethnic Components of American Culture

Coordinators Dr Oksana Danchevskaya (Moscow, odanchevskaya@gmail.com) and Dr. Andrew Wiget  (Andrew.Wiget@gmail.com ),

December 9, Friday, 4.30 pm – 8.00 pm, room 102

  1. Oksana Danchevskaya

Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia

Eschatological Motifs in Native American Mythology

 Eschatological myths reflect not only the idea of the end of the world but also moral values and regulatives of their creators, thus also performing an educational function: one of the main objectives of these myths is to explain moral principles through the illustration of the opposite behavior and its consequences.

In the mythology of North American Indians the eschatological topic is not covered in great detail, but the comparison of the myths of various tribes reveals interesting patterns and allows to draw parallels with those of other nations.

  1. Inna Konrad

Moscow State University of Education (MPSU), Russia

Shaman and His Practices and Attributes on Nierikas Huichol (based on Potrero de la Palmita Village, Nayarit state, Mexico)

 The Huichols – one of the native peoples of Mexico – has attracted researchers’ attention for a long time. One of the most interesting examples of their ethnic art is the so-called “nierki” – pictures made of thread, glued on a wooden surface with wax, which depict scenes from everyday life and mythology.

While studying the material collected in the village of Potrero de la Palmita (Nayarit State, Mexico) in 2016, we devided the nieriks into three types: 1) the ones expressing the creative ideas of amateur artists; 2) the ones created on the basis of shamanic visions and dreams; 3) offerings to the gods and spirits. The image of the Shaman, his\her practice and attributes are popular subjects and motives of paintings by amateur artists. While creating this image the authors resort to: 1) the plausibility of the image (attention to detail of costume, attributes, etc.); 2) conventions. Shamanic practice 1) can be presented as a transmission ceremony or another action; 2) is woven into a story on everyday topics. Shamanic attributes are presented: 1) in the actual nieriks on shamans; 2) on souvenirs – paintings of thread performing the function of representation of the people’s traditional culture.

 3. Konstantin Romanov,

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies.

The Indian Act of 1876 in the light of Federal government – Aboriginal relations (cultural aspects).

The Indian Act, 1876 still is the principal statute that regulates the relations between the federal government of Canada and First Nations. Besides, it administers Indian status. In this regard, the statute is a source of disputes. This presentation analyses some cultural issues related to the Indian Act.

  1. Taras Varkhotov

Department of Philosophy

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Concerning Methodology of Cultural Typology Analysis:

The USA as a Nonlocal Culture

The report focuses on the typology of cultures in connection with the special phenomenon of non-local cultures, most clearly represented now by the culture of United States. I raise the problem of cultural boundaries and identities, consider the mechanisms of producing the cultural differences. I suggest the hypothesis of cultural identity ensemble organization today and embeddedness (in accordance with the model of “nesting dolls”) of cultures. It leads to the complications in the system “friend or foe” and other means of making “horizontal” differences. The classical model of cultural identity is gradually replaced by a complex assemblage of local and non-local components, in which the latter uses the first as a resource and have almost unlimited potentials for producing eclectic wholes, which are absorbing differences produced by the classical culture-reproducing institutions (language, religion, etc.).

  1. I. M. Udler

Chelyabinsk State University, Russia

Theme of Intercultural Communication in the African English and African American Journalism of the Eighteenth Century: The Ethnic Aspect

In the African English and African American eighteenth-century narratives of B. Hammon (1760), J. A. U. Gronniosaw (1772), J. Marrant (1785), O. Cugoano (1787), O. Equiano (1789) a significant place is taken by the theme of intercultural communication with its concept of “own–strange”. “The trope of the Talking/Non-Talking Book” (H. L. Gates) became the sign of “strange”, causing fear and admiration Western culture, opposed to the sign of African culture – the gold chain. It was the voluntary refusal of “own” culture in favor of “strange” one, the transition from ‘own”, oral tradition to “strange”, written tradition. The theme of literacy connected with the subject of adoption of the Christian faith, spiritual salvation. In the process of continuous search for identity the authors, without giving up the acquired Western culture, come back on the other, enriched level to their African cultural heritage, reestablish communication with “own” culture as an integral part of the world civilization and culture, denounce slavery and glorify freedom.

  1. Dmitry N. Vorobyev

History Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Harlem Renaissance and its Perception by White America

This presentation is planned to consider the attitude of the white America to the era of the Harlem Renaissance – the period of prosperity of the African-American culture. The author pays special attention on the reasons for which the Harlem Renaissance became a response to a sociocultural challenge of the time. The presentation highlights the connection between the American cultural elite and the African-American intellectuals and artists, as well as the influence of the Harlem Renaissance on the country’s culture.

 

  1. Lyubov Pervushina

Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus

Émigré Writers in the Process of Communication with US Culture and Literature: Peculiarities of Creative Writing by Dojna Galich Barr and Charles Simic

The last decades of the 20th – the beginning of the XXIst century are characterized by strong national, ethnic and spiritual movements, the attention to linguistic diversity, and the revival of cultural values in the multinational multicultural American society. In contemporary American culture which is affected by new powerful waves of immigrants, the creative activity of Slavic émigré writers is of special interest since it reveals the process of adaptation, socialization, assimilation, acculturation as well as changing consciousness and world perception of a personality. On the example of Dojna Galich Barr (1932 – 2010) and Charles Simic (1938) – two well-known and influential émigré writers in the USA – the cross cultural interconnections between the Old and the New World are shown, different models of accepting the dominant American culture are represented, and different approaches to social, cultural and national construction of identity and subjectivity of a personality are determined.

  1. Ruslan Dokhov

Geography Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Emergence and Spatial Dynamics of Immigrant Areas of US Agglomerations during the Last Half-century 

The analysis of the spatial and social dynamics of immigrant areas is presented on the example of five large US cities of different types. The “life cycle” of the immigrant district is considered, the main features of the different stages are distinguished. The patterns of transformation of areas in immigrant ones, the creation of support facilities and the immigrants settlement dynamics are shown.

Section 5. Gender Aspects of American Culture

Coordinators Dr. Nadezhda Shvedova n.shvedova2015@yandex.ru and Dr. Larisa Mikhaylova  larmih@gmail.com

December 9, Friday, 11.00 am – 1.00 pm,  room. 217

 1. Larissa V. Baibakova

History Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Jane Addams on Ways of Cultural Adaptation of the European Immigrants to the American Way of Life (on educational activities of the “Hull House” settlement)

 This presentation considers the views of the prominent social activist J. Addams, who, guided in the progressive era by the cornerstone concept “democracy as a way of life”, found that it had to be applied not only to all native Americans but also immigrants whose total number between 1891 and 1920 exceeded 18 million people. While many Americans demanded the introduction of tough anti-immigration restrictions, Addams established in 1889 the first charity board “Hull House” for European immigrants, thus becoming the pioneer of the broad settlement movement throughout the country. She tried to create for its inhabitants appropriate conditions for effective adaptation and subsequent assimilation taking into account the diversity of ethnic and cultural differences that would contribute to their further smoothly and painless integration into the American society. Making “Hull House” a unique educational community center for the European immigrants, the activist laid down the foundations for intercultural dialogue in a multicultural environment. Her educational experiences can serve as one of the first examples of a kind of multiculturalist practice aimed at creating a tolerant society without sharp social conflicts.

  1. G. S. Lapshina

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Role of Museums’ Culture in the System of Gender Communications on the East Coast

Today, more and more women are actively involved in social and cultural life, participate in politics and substantially affect it. But does society always evaluate it adequately? Museums play a significant role in the development of communication links within the system of the US gender policy, and specifically two original exhibitions created in the East: National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC) and the United States Army Women’s Museum (Fort Lee). The former displays artistic achievements of female artists throughout the history of the world and the latter is dedicated to preserving the history of women in the US army.

  1. Nadezda Shvedova

The Institute for The U.S. and Canadian Studies,
Russian Academy of Sciences (ISKRAN)

Moscow, Russia

Gender Projections of the USA Presidential Election

 A gender perspective in the United States presidential election campaign in 2016 has been significant in terms of explicit and implicit in it, forming the new features of the political culture in the country.

Comprehending the American model of democracy, it is important to understand the presidential election in 2016 what is it about? What election is about? Obviously, we are talking about long-term trends – the changes in the country. If electing the Black Democrat President Barack Obama twice is the beginning of change, the current stage means a requirement for further development.

The USA adjusted internal course of development of democracy in the country, expanding the range of subjects of the political process in an effort to limit the concentration of political power on one side. Women and Millennials, colored Americans – new players coming to the fore. They represent a different worldview which needs to be careful researched.

  1. Tatyana Kamarovskaya

Maxim Tank Belarus State Pedagogical University, Minsk, Belarus

Feminine Identity Development in M. Atwood’s Novel A Cat’s Eye (1988)

 Atwood:approaches Feminist problems in many novels The Handmaid’s Tale, The Robberbride, A Cat’s Eye. In the last one, the writer turns to bullying at school influencing the budding feminine identity of one of the characters very destructively. There are two heroines in the novel- the victim Elaine and the torturer Cordelia, and in the course of the novel, they imperceptibly change places. M. Atwood creates a psychologically exact picture of the development of their personalities by showing and analyzing the minute changes in their thoughts and attitudes.

  1. Darya Khukhreva

Institute of USA and Canada Studies, Moscow, Russia

Gender Aspect of Political Communication in the US Media

 One of the most important phenomena of modern political communication is mediatization of policy when the basic functions of the media policy are: to inform the public and the organization of the discursive communication, which is intended to harmonize the views of different interest groups, to clarify the purpose and the consequences of decisions, as well as focus on different aspects of problems.

The state administration more evident demonstrates the inequality between men and women.

In addition, the limited participation of women in administrative structures that accept key political decisions and decide on resource allocations, often negatively affects the political, economic and social opportunities for women.

Due to the constant media attention, public consciousness is starting to learn that because of the special social and psychological experience, women leaders demonstrate a new non-invasive type of the leadership.

  1. Shvedova D.V.

Institute of USA and Canada Studies,

Moscow, Russia

Modern Trends in Marital Status in the USA

 “When families are strong – and America is strong ” – once said the current real candidate of the Democratic Party for president, Hillary R. Clinton. Explicit recognition of high social importance of the family institution in the United States. However, there are many publications, which state, “In a very rationalized modern society permeated by market ideology, family and home are forced out to the periphery, becoming marginal form.”

The dominance of the traditional nuclear family in the 50-th of the twentieth century has contributed to the contemporary women’s movement, which has been strongly resisted the long domination of men, as well as the elimination of women from the labor market. The women’s movement in the United States considered the traditional nuclear family in a very negative light, not without reason, considering this type of family relations discriminate against women.

Today, most researchers share the views of the women’s movement in favor of an equitable form of the family and the real economic independence for women. From this perspective, a departure from the traditional nuclear family is regarded as progress and is not seen as a negative phenomenon. “We protect and cherish in their hearts the idea cherished family, and we separate from this ideal practice”, – explains this paradox Hochschild, an American researcher. Family increasingly resembles a business partnership between two adults: the number of joint bank accounts decreases, the number of marriage contracts is increasing. What Americans now see the family, and what, in their opinion, the role of women and men in the modern family?

 

Section 6. Fantastic in American Arts

Coordinator Dr. Larisa Mikhaylova ( larmih@gmail.com),

December 10, Saturday, 10.00 am – 1.00 pm , room 103.

  1. Larisa Mikhaylova

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Films through Russian and American Eyes

 The material for comparison is over 1800 answers each from the Russian Federation and from the USA to the internationally compiled questionnaire designed to measure more accurately the way these films are seen and categorized by the responders.

Comparison of Russian and American viewers’ reactions to the Hobbit films demonstrate both similarities (type of regrets considering the treatment by Peter Jackson of the original  J.R.R Tolkien’s material, perception of wider philosophical themes expressed in the films) and significant discrepancies  (more temperate evaluation of Jackson’s project in general, different attitude to the introduced character Tauriel etc.). Analysis of respondents’ answers to open questions will be presented.

  1. Boris Maximov

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Afterlife of Soul in Ambrose Bierce’s Short Stories

A large number of short stories of Bierce thematize a temporal disjunction, a gap between the physical existence of a man, being, in most cases, abruptly extinguished, and a longer lasting psychical life. For me, it would be useful to explore the (literary) settings and modes of that phenomenon, which Bierce, different to the contemporary Victorian Gothic in England, doesn’t reduce to ghostly encounters. Due to the main theme of the current conference, special emphasis will be put on the communication between the expiring soul and the Living.

  1. Yulia Khoroshevskaya

Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

The true and the false death in Neil Gaiman`s American Gods

 The theme of death, immortality and oblivion is a leitmotif of all Gaiman`s creation. The opposition of life and death defines the specifics of the artistic space and the poetry of his works. In American Gods Gaiman asks the question: to what extent are you alive? Whether you die or if you live really? The real death in his interpretation is oblivion. Any other its manifestation is reversible,  only fiction. The author proves this statement with the help of some ambiguously alive and dead characters, dying and reviving heroes.

  1. Dmitry Lebedev

Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

English Language Fantasy Illustrators

 The research is dedicated to several artists of XX-XXI centuries, who illustrated fantasy literature. Great masters like Frank Frazetta, Gregori Manchess, Mark Shultz, Alan Lee, John Howe, Ted Nasmith, Donato Giancola, Roger Garland, the brothers Hildebrandt are among such illustrators. Unfortunately, nowadays, art dedicated to the fantasy genre often is totally considered kitsch. The aim of the report is to vindicate the fact that among a huge number of unworthy fantasy illustrators, there are still gifted ones, who should not be neglected.

Round Table Discussion 

Imprints: Image of Russia and Image of America

Coordinator Professor Yasen Zassoursky

December 10, 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm ,  Room 103

 

  1. Irwin Weil

Northwestern University, Evanston, USA

From the Cincinnati Reds to the Moscow Reds: Creative Communication through Autobiography

 2. Ada Baskina

Moscow, Russia

American Patriotism

  1. Yuri Salnikov and Larisa Mikhaylova

Union of Cinematographers, Moscow, Russia

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Transpolar Flights of 1937 Role in Creating the Image of the Soviet Union in the USA

 4. Tatyana Belova

Department of Philology

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Mode and Effect of Spreading American Culture in the USSR (1960s – 1970s)

 

In those years American culture as a communication system turned out to be widely spread in Western Europe as well as in the USSR. First of all it concerned American literature, the humanities, the arts, etc. By that time, some Governmental agreements had been signed between the USSR and the USA on the exchange of scholars and post-graduates, as well as lecturers for university students. Thus, the real increase of creative communication took place. Books of many modern American authors (E.Hemingway, W.Faulkner, Harper Lee, J.D.Salinger, T.Capote,) were translated into Russian, actors of American theatres and ballet-dancers came to Moscow on tour, American exhibitions demonstrating “American way of life” took place, American films were brought to the USSR and colorful American magazines were widely spread. Thus during those years the new generation in the USSR was formed, partly oriented towards Western and American values.

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Round Table Discussion: 2016 Elections in the USA

Coordinator Professor Yassen Zassoursky

December 8, Thursday, 4.30-6 pm  room 103

Participants: Journalists, Historians, Politologists, Culturologists from Lomonosov Moscow State University and RAS Institute of the USA and Canada Studies