December 4, Wednesday, 6 pm  Room 233

Plenary Opening Session

1. Professor Yassen Zassoursky

RSACS President, President of Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Welcome speech

2. Professor.Andrew Wiget

Albuquerque University, USA

Moby-Dick: Melville on Demons, Demagogues and Democracy

3. Professor Pavel Balditsyn

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Way and the Fate of Chinese Immigrants in the USA in Images of the Chinese-American Literature

The object of the address is to comprehend the secret of Chinese immigrants’ success in the USA. Immigration is often tragic, Chinese immigration at the beginning was a double tragedy. It meant to lose their native names and relatives, their own ancient language and culture. They were humiliated and despised in America, depicted as aliens and “The Yellow Peril” and forbidden the country for long sixty years. But in some decades after the abolition of the infamous Exclusion act Asian immigrants were called “The Model Minority”.

What is the explanation of such an achievement? Chinese immigrants in the USA kept true to their traditional rules and values: “golden mean”, “to live in harmony with others”, “harmony but not sameness”, “to seek common ground while reserving differences”. One more slogan was: “The weak shall conquer”. They need to submit in circumstances of assimilation. At the same time Chinese migrants desired to become real Americans and to take principles of personal freedom and equality of all people, self-reliance and individualism, justice and democracy. Their strategy was to gain two homelands – China and America and to get twofold pride and patriotism. It was not a simple task. There were many losses and deaths, but love prevailed. Love to both countries and cultures. This way put a total overturn of traditional gender and generation roles of China, a hyphenated discourse and poetics of Chinese-American literature which use paradoxes and oxymorons, like that: “We are Americans now, we live in the tundra / Of the logical, a sea of cities, a wood of cars”.

Round Table Discussion “Bicentennial of Herman Melville”

Coordinators Dr. Louisa Bashmakova (Krasnodar, Russia) and  Dr. Andrew Wiget (Albuquerque, USA)

1.Andrew Wiget

Albuquerque University, USA

Moby-Dick: Melville on Demons, Demagogues and Democracy

Most readers who manage to finish reading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick conclude perhaps that  the essence of the story is the obsessive hunt by a mad captain Ahab who seeks revenge on a particular white whale who had bit off his leg.  In my experience, modern readers are either puzzled, annoyed, frustrated or defeated by the book. They want to get on with the chase, for which they have been made to wait 35 chapters until “The Quarterdeck” scene, when the manic plan is revealed, after which the climactic confrontation is postponed by another 98 chapters, which scatter among the narrative many chapters of exposition describing the business and technical aspects of whaling, whose only purpose seems to be to add length and not substance to the book.  Such a reading reflects at best an unprepared reader, at worst a juvenile one. It is my purpose to argue precisely for the value of Moby-Dick as a literary masterpiece that, while addressing the concerns of  Melville’s age, also speaks directly to the most urgent questions of our time:  not only the present war on nature, that takes many forms from climate change to the extinction of species, but more importantly to the dangerous political relations that make such a war possible. 

Two broad historical trends must frame any reading of Moby-Dick.  First, between 1820 and 1850 the new United States of America expanded westward  across the continent to its western shores, and thence to the furthest reaches of the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic.  During the same period, the population multiplied three times in 30 years, much of it through a massive increase in immigration.  The second was the growth of industrial capitalism, which by the end of the century would make the United States the most industrialized nation on earth.  These two trends sustained the rise of American imperialism, which was driven by violence against Nature, the successful destruction which validated America’s Manifest Destiny, in what Richard Slotkin so aptly called, “regeneration through violence.”

The anxieties and contradictions of antebellum America, which would eventually erupt in Civil War, were very close to Melville, who had the early sympathies of a Jacksonian Democrat.  He brought these anxieties and contradictions aboard the ship called Pequod, aptly named after the bloodiest seventeenth-century Puritan massacre of Indians. Any reading of the novel which overlooks these matters and prefers to “cut to the chase”, is both sterile and  juvenile.  For Melville, the voyage of the Pequod  in Moby-Dick is the sailing forth of the United States, burdened by the nightmares of its past, enchanted by its vision of the future, and struggling all the while to understand what kind of leader is required to make democracy just and humane on the one hand and profitable on the other.

2. Alla Nikulina

Akmulla Bashkir State Pedagogical University, Ufa, Russia

Herman Melville as a Pioneer of the U.S. Philosophical Novel

 Although the American mind was never inclined to abstract theorizing, the philosophical novel as a genre appeared in the U.S. national literature at an early stage of its development. H. Melville’s ‘Moby-Dick’ can be classified as a philosophical novel due to its deep consideration of the reality based on metaphysical theories, which are investigated and promoted by the author at all levels of the artistic whole. Western and Russian literary critics made several attempts to single out the dominant concept, connecting it to the philosophy of Spinoza, Emerson, Schelling, Schopenhauer, and even Wittgenstein, whose discoveries, according to K. Evans, Melville anticipated by a century. Anyway, we cannot fail to see Melville’s desire to rely upon well-established philosophical concepts in his investigation of the essence of the world, but we notice, first, that the writer centers his attention on the human rather than the universal, i.e. on practical and ethical consequences of accepting a certain abstract worldview. Besides, realizing the limits of ready-made concepts, Melville strives to reshape them in order to create his own original system. Characteristically, the later development of the genre in the American literature will be dominated by a similar approach, with the emphasis on pragmatic values, synthesis of various philosophic traditions and individual intellectual search.

3. Kirill Ignatov

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Herman Melville in a University Course of US literature: From Screen to Novel

Herman Melville is one of the most popular 19th-century authors among university students in the course of US literature, since the exciting plot of his novels does not limit the text to adventure escapism, which imposes ‘age restrictions’ on, for example, some works of J.F. Cooper or Mark Twain. On the contrary, Melville’s novels due to their multi-layered nature offer opportunities for a variety of readings and a plethora of interpretations. This is reflected in the history of adaptations of the main works of Melville: Moby Dick, Bartleby, Billy Bud, Benito Cereno and others. The popularity of Melville’s works among filmmakers can be used in teaching US literature to encourage students to work independently with the text of the novel. The talk presents approaches based on the principle of indirect goal-setting, which can be used in the US Literature course to stimulate close reading of the novel, independent extracurricular work of students, and collective creativity. The novel ‘Moby Dick’ and its various adaptations are used to illustrate the approaches: from Millard Webb’s silent tape Sea Beast (1926) through the classic British version of John Huston Moby Dick (1956) to Trey Stokes’s modernized version in the form of action movie Moby Dick (2010).

4. Louiza Bashmakova

Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia

An April the 1st Showboat on Mississippi: on H. Melville’s Genre Singularity in Confidence-Man

The object of this discourse is Melville’s deep rootedness in genres and forms of American folk and popular culture. The writer’s art of high comedy attracts special attention, with an accent on analysis of Melville’s technique of burlesque, travesty, and grotesque. Principles of comparative literature studies are suggested as the base for analogies with the poetic ideas of Melville’s great predecessors – Cervantes, Shakespeare, Molière, Goethe.

5. Vladislav Alekseenko

Altai State Pedagogical University, Linguistic Institute, Barnaul, Russia

The Conceptual System of the World in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, or The Whale

Nowadays conceptual study of images in the literary text is important to reveal the author’s idea. In Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, or The Whale it is manifested in the selection of concepts reflected in the writer’s work, in his individual works and in the selection of expressive and visual means. In linguistics, the Conceptual System of the world (CS) is understood as a reflected reality through the prism of concepts formed on the basis of human perceptions of the real world. A unit of the CS is a concept – the content of the concept in the distraction from the language form of its expression, which function is to fix and actualize the conceptual, emotional, associative, verbal, culturological and other content of the objects of reality, included in the CS structure. The mechanism of CS construction and the role of language in these processes were discovered by Rolandas Pavilionis, analyzing the conceptual system of the world from a logical and philosophical point of view. The conceptual system is characterized by the following properties: order of introduction of concepts; continuity of conceptual system construction; continuity of conceptual system. The language means of CS creation are: nominal language means; grammar means of language; figurative means; discursive means; phonosemantics of language. CS with components included in it can be explicated in various ways: as logical and verified tables and diagrams; frames and concepts. The analysis of Herman Melville’s work allows us to speak about the special importance of such basic concepts as «challenge» and «revenge» for the writer. The method of semantic expansion allows us to identify the semantic field of the “challenge” concept, including such units as «struggle», «test», «dare», «dispute», «face», «confrontation», «summon», «try», while the “revenge” concept includes lexical representations of the concepts of «vengeance», «retribution», «vindictiveness», «avenge». Moby Dick is understood as something that can be very desirable, or a goal that must be achieved: the author makes it clear that the captain Ahab intends to pursue the whale across all seas around the world. Other key concepts of the novel are «human obsession» and «destiny», based on the idea of revenge and persecution of inevitable death. Besides, the entire novel is filled with biblical imagery: the artistic form of the work and the biblical names of the characters emphasize the philosophical concepts. Interpretable as forms of public consciousness, they form the CS of the entire work.

6. Anna Doolina

Philological Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

«What my own astonished eyes saw…»: The Unreliable Narrator in H. Melville’s Short Stories

H. Melville’s short stories bring to the fore the problem of an unreliable narrator. The narrators in the short stories are often sick. The style and rhetoric of the narrative in the short stories depend directly on the narrator’s temper, and the narrative strategy of each of the stories is determined by their “clinical records”. It forms the second level of the story – about the development of the narrator’s obsessive state. Before meeting face-to-face with the striking phenomenon, the narrators find themselves already endowed with unusual sensitivity due to their physical deterioration (the narrator of The Piazza travels to the mountains after a serious disease, the narrator of the story Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! is also sick). Then, in contact with the object described, the narrators are so strongly influenced that they are no longer able to think clearly, they are “blinded”, become obsessed with what they once saw or heard, their narrative is invaded by long intrusive series of enumerations and repetitions. For example, the formula “I prefer not to” becomes contagious in Bartleby; in Poor Man’s Pudding and Rich Man’s Crumbs the narrator is exposed to the phrases of the poor. Thus, the repetitive phrases of the narrators, undergoing a semantic transformation, form the composition of Melville’s short stories and are in most cases associated with the images and theme of the disease, making the narrators of the short stories unreliable.

Round Table Discussion “Imprints: Image of America and Image of Russia”

Coordinator Professor Yassen Zassoursky (Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)

1. Elena Sidorova

Turgenev Orel State University, Russia

The Russian Emigration through the Prism of American Historiography (Pragmatic Aspect)

 Pragmatic strategies and tactics, applied in fiction, media, scientific and institutional discourse, continue to interest scientists and scholars despite a considerable amount of researches devoted to the pragmatic aspect of communication. In historiography, as a rule, the facts, the statistical data concerning various historical events are reflected; however, this genre is replete with evaluative judgments, emotives, expressive and affective-evaluative lexical units and constructions when it comes to the events tragic for different peoples and nationalities. Such events, of course, include emigration of the population of the Russian Empire to the United States of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We are interested in the attitude of American historiographers to this phenomenon. “In the pre-war period a series of studies that characterized and analyzed the flow of “old” and “new” immigration was released by English-speaking authors (G. Abbott, M. and JT. Barnes, R. Edwards, X. Fairchild, R. Mayo-Smith, V. Shriver, R. Ward), they touched upon the following problems: the causes of emigration, the specifics of ethnic and social composition, employment, living standards and, in part, the impact of immigration on socio-economic and political development of the country and American society”. One of the main strategies of American historians, who wrote about Russian emigration to America, was the desire to evoke empathy and sympathy in relation to the emigrants who had to face unbearable and intolerable living conditions at home, which, alas, didn’t get much better (in most cases) when they moved to the USA. For example, Jerome Davis’s book The Russian Immigrant begins with a dedication: “To the Russian workingmen whose unstinted toil helps to maintain the basic industrial mechanism of America, but who for the most part are by this very service kept out of reach of the warm, friendly heart of our people”. This introduction, which precedes his scientific work, adjusts to a certain perception of the information contained in it, namely actualizes the reader’s complex of mixed emotions of pity, compassion, sympathy, grief, sadness, sorrow. According to J. Commons, in 1881 the number of immigrants from Russia reached 10, 000, in 1893 it was 42 000, and in 1906, 216, 000. John Commons calls Russian peasant “perhaps the most oppressed of the peasants of Europe”, achieving the impact on the reader by means of an evaluative judgment. In general, in the examples, taken from a number of American historiographers’ works on immigration, it can be seen that strategies and tactics of attracting attention and manifesting emotions of sympathy for the suffering and difficulties of the forced immigrants, of admiration for the resilience and strength of spirit of these people, as well as gratitude for the enrichment of American culture, art, the rise of the economy, etc. are used quite consciously for the purpose of increasing the pragmatic potential of texts and the level of involvement in the discussion on the phenomenon of Russian immigration.

2. Irwin Weil

Northwestern University, Evanston, USA

Russian Immigration and Music in the USA

In spreading interest and enthusiasm in the USA for music from around the world, Russian immigrants have played an enormous role. I would like to tell you something about their very interesting and moving work.

Perhaps the most powerful among them was Sergei Koussevitsky, who, in the years before the October Revolution had created a travelling orchestra, which performed in many different Russian Cities so that a widely scattered population could appreciate good music, well performed. When, a few years after the Revolution, he emigrated to America, he became conductor of the prestigious Boston Symphony Orchestra, which had a history unusual in the USA at that time.

He not only popularized traditional and contemporary Russian Music among a wide audience of American listeners – made much more numerous by later radio transmission and phonograph recording, but he inspired younger American musicians to become conductors and players in their own right.

Among his protegees perhaps was the most famous conductor and composer, also from a family of Russian immigrants. His name became well known around the world, it was Leonard Bernstein, who not only conducted classical music for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra but also composted popular musical comedies for wide audiences across the UDA. Perhaps the most famous was “West Side Story”, which brought Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to star crossed lovers in New York’s residential West Side.

He was also responsible for another Russian Immigrant Composer, Igor Stravinsky, getting the possibility to return to his native Russia which had become the USSR, whose official propaganda had condemned Stravinsky for his revolutionary ideas about the forms of music. Although the official Soviet critics had condemned Bernstein’s defense of Stravinsky, as a result of Bernstein’s public words, the revolutionary composer was able to return to the USSR for what turned into a triumphal set of Moscow and Leningrad Concerts.

Koussevitsky was also instrumental for the work of Dmitrii Shostakovich,  whom I met and helped in the USA.

3. Demir Aytac

Istanbul, Turkey

Seeing the Image of Russia through the Eyes of an American Scholar: my meetings with professor Irwin Weil

There was a 20 year period in the second half of the 19th century remarkable in that five novels universally considered classics, widely read for generations and no doubt to be read by generations to come were written in these 2 decades.The following were all published between 1860 and 1880 as if competing with each other for readers The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenin, War and Peace and Fathers and Sons. These novels show that literature is an art form that makes us human and my love for these novels grows day by day.

My desire to educate myself and to be able to understand these works of art better lead me to contact people I consider authorities in this field. I corresponded with these experts and attended various workshops and conferences. Prof Irwın Weil is one of the world’s most important academic authorities on Russian Language and Literature. I had wanted to meet Prof Irwın Weil face to face for a long time. At long last a trip I had planned to the USA in 2018 offered me the opportunity I needed. I shall discuss the  lessons of this encounter and how I saw the Image of Russia though his eyes.

4. Siroosh Voskanyan

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Linguocultural methods of creating the image of Russia in the American media

The paper deals with the ways of creating the image of Russia in media texts, in particular in broadsheet American newspapers ‘The New York Times’ and ‘The Washington Post’ from 2017 to 2019 by means of linguo-cultural methods. By studying characteristics of linguistic means, certain concepts, stereotypes, socio-political, historical and cultural distinctive features creating the image of our country are singled out.

Though the language of a media text in broadsheet newspapers most often has invariable linguo-stylistic features, in the articles of these newspapers the choice and organization of linguistic means depend on the thematic focus. Articles on politics, international relations, the economy and military power of Russia are mostly negative and full of emotionally colored and stylistically connotative linguistic means, which create an image of an uncompromising country that interferes with the affairs of other countries, including the affairs of the United States. The image of Russia as an aggressive country is also created with the help of complex morpho-syntactic combinations and ideologically oriented vocabulary. On the other hand, articles about culture and lifestyle in Russia are either neutral or positive, so the linguistic means are most often invariable and clichéd.

Thus, Russia is portrayed as an adversary when the geopolitical interests of the two countries are taken into account; however, Russia is also portrayed as a partner when the articles focus on the culture of this country, so there is no heterogeneity in terms of the language and style.

5. Elena Ivanova

Russian University of Friendship (RUDN), Moscow, Russia

Anthropology of Time and Space In Russian and American Rock Songs: Stereotypical Points and Cultural Commonalities

For this study 10 Russian and 10 American texts of the rock songs were taken. Then, a text of each song was revised in the context of anthropology of time and space. After that, all images, metaphors, etc. were carefully studied. Russian and American “indicators” of time and space were compared. A goal of this study was to find (if any) cultural commonalities and stereotypical points. Briefly, the results of the study are in each Russian and American rock song we can find indicators of anthropology of time and/or space. Besides, the common characteristics of the Russian and American texts of the rock songs are metaphors related to anthropology of time and/or space. However, if we use the terminology of doctors George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Metaphors We Live By), Russians and Americans live by different metaphors.

6. Elena Barsukova

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Russian Anthroponyms in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History

The paper is devoted to the representation of Russian anthroponyms in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History edited by Bonnie G. Smith. In the study, a dictionary or an encyclopedia is considered to be an instrument of registering and projecting a certain image of a country. The present research focuses on the image of Russia (created through the choice and presentation of Russian anthroponyms) in the material under consideration. In the course of the research 38 proper names (among the 1250 entries of the Encyclopedia) were identified and classified. The corresponding definitions and references were analyzed. The findings of the study contribute to the understanding of Americans’ background knowledge on Russia and its key figures. Keywords: imagology, anthroponym, the image of Russia, entry, dictionary macrostructure, background knowledge.

7. Anna Izvolenskaya

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Over the Abyss Between the Cultures: on the Russian Translations of J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye

 J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is considered one of the landmark novels in American literature. It marked the world’s transition from post-War trauma to the new ideals of freedom as perceived by then emerging existentialist philosophy, Holden Caulfield being its “keynote speaker” for American culture. The Soviet reader responded to Holden’s voice, “cocky, insecure, reckless and afraid, filled with jaded longing and innocent wisdom”, in part due to its sentimental streak, says writer Maya Kucherskaya. Translated by Rita Rait-Kovaleva more than 50 years ago, Holden Caulfield’s voice still resonates with so many Russian-speaking readers. The debate Salinger’s work continues to ignite, is vividly illustrated by four more Russian translations produced in the past 20 years. In each new version Holden’s voice sounds different mainly because of different approaches to conveying stylistically marked language. However, the problem of the novel’s translation goes well beyond rendering outdated slang expressions and realia (e.g. “hamburger” turned “kotleta”, which is “meat patty” in Russian). Although initial public reception earned this novel the reputation of a teenager rebellion book, Holden Caulfield is rarely seen as a person overwhelmed by profound sadness. It is to this aspect of the protagonist’s emotional state that we will turn in this paper in the context of linguistic and cognitive analysis.

8. Tatyana Belova

Philological Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Image of Russia and Image of America in V. Nabokov´s novels (Mashenka, Glory, The Luzhin Defence, Pnin, Lolita )

 The image of Russia in Nabokov’s novels is the image of a harmonious world that disappeared once and for all. Its contemporary state it is represented in consciousness of his emigrant heroes of “Pnin” as “the kingdom of shadows”. Only Russian culture like a priceless beautiful Greek Amphora is left as its artefact. His American novels give the reader a culturological cut of American life in the late 1940-ies and middle 1950-ies. With its cult on consumption, the predominance of advertising, philistism, and the pseudoerudition of the academic staff at universities and the colleges of the USA where a system of grants is shown as just pumping money out of numerous funds.

9. Dmitry Babich

Agency «Russia Today», Moscow, Russia

Vladimir Nabokov as an Immigrant Writer: reasons for misunderstandings with Edmund Wilson and left-leaning American intellectuals

Nabokov’s personal and writing trajectory in the US is generally typical for an immigrant writer. He came to the US with a positive attitude to his new motherland and he did not accept the stereotypical prejudices against the “commercial republic”. Nabokov tried to find his slot in the American literary scene – and often stumbled upon a misunderstanding in this quest.

Nabokov chooses for himself the way of a modernist, an experimenting writer. He deliberately avoids direct political statements during his stay in the US, except some generally negative appraisals of the Soviet period in Russia. This puts Nabokov on a collision course with a part of leftist American intellectuals, who were interested in Russia primarily for political reasons and who connected some of their hopes for change in the world with the Soviet experiment.

The backbone of Nabokov’s artistic posture is his radical aestheticism. Starting from the novel Invitation to the Beheading, Nabokov was inclined to present evil as a bad form of theatre, surreal and ultimately non-existent, while the physically feeble “good” ultimately cracks up to be art itself.

This inclination of Nabokov generally fits the literary trend in the United States, where the 1960s are characterized by the ascent of modernism inclined writers, from Thomas Pynchon and John Bart to Kurt Vonnegut.

10. Marina Litavrina

History Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Image of America in the Texts by Russian Immigrant Actors

The paper focuses on collisions of cultural communication and adaptation of Russian actors, the USA visitors and immigrants, of the first quarter of the XX century. The author, who is a specialist in exile studies, concentrates on Russian actors’ American mythology and examines the reasons for rare successful self-implementation. The paper is based on published and non-published materials (diaries, reminiscences, correspondence) from Russian and American holdings and archive collections.

11. T. S. Yuryeva

St. Petersburg State University, Russia

Grisha Bruskin and Ilya Kabakov: Ways of Russian Contemporary Art Inclusion in the United States in 1977- 2019. Virulence of cultures

The theoretical fields of research Russian immigrants abroad are relevant for the development of contemporary Russian art. The paper examines the interpenetration of cultural immigration in Russian and American art, transnational cultural contacts, the special role of artists in affirming human content based on moral choice and spiritual freedom. The USA has done everything possible to support the work of great artists, whom the Soviet Russia let go with incredible ease: Mstislav Rastropovich, Iosif Brodsky, Ernst Neizvestny and many others.

It is over the past decades that the achievements of compatriots abroad have become a powerful, intellectually rich phenomenon of incorporating Russian culture into the global cultural trends. Nevertheless, inner compromises and inescapable love for the special, domestic properties of Russian life survived and kept influencing their art. Unforgettable meetings with many famous artists attest to that.

“The only thing I really believe in, that gives me support in life is the language. If I had to create God for myself, the one who reigns supreme, it would be the Russian language”, remarked Iosif Brodsky, who lived in the USA for 25 years, taught and wrote freely in English.

Ilya Kabakov, speaking about the time of his formation, testified that life in Russia taught him and other artists to work “for themselves” in complete isolation.

Artists coming to the USA had to master the clear rules of the life — to work 24 hours a day. Making yourself known is a problem requiring sacrifice. Talented Ilya Kabakov and Grisha Bruskin won thanks to their enormous creative energy, understanding that spirituality requires development, search, and not conservation.

The paper will trace how was created a formula in which hyperbolic sacralization brought all power discourses to absurdity. On the example of the E. Bulatov’s, I. Kabakov’s, G. Bruskin’s, L. Sokov’s art, one can see how Soviet symbols could be used against themselves, and what it meant to soar above the Soviet myth. Their communication is the immigration of American art to Russian partly. In recent decades «rebels» have become classics. Western culture was enriched with Russian and vs.

12. Elena Apenko

St.Petersburg State University, Russia

Image of Russia in A.Randall’s Novel Pushkin and the Queen of Spades

In her novel “Pushkin and the Queen of Spades” (2004) Alice Randall uses many themes and methods most typical for contemporary American prose. Ethnic relations are at the center of the novel, the narration is arranged as an autobiography that presents essential evolution of the narrator’s attitude not to the past but to the present. “Russian motives” appear in the tale and serve to its peculiarity.

The protagonist of the novel, Windsor Armstrong, is a professor of literature at Vanderbilt University. She teaches Russian literature, and Alexander Pushkin is her favorite. Pushkin’s theme is delivered in the novel in a way that may seem strange for a Russian reader though it is quite traditional for contemporary American cultural context: A. Pushkin is presented as an “Afro-Russian”, and the problem of his ethnic identification turns to be crucially important for the heroes. Some of the texts of Russian poet are also interpreted from that perspective, quite unusual for a Russian reader.

Second, contemporary Russia and Russians are also in the focus of the author’s attention. In order to widen the exploration of the problems of interracial and intercultural relations she introduces into the novel a young immigrant from Russia. The protagonist’s recollections of St Petersburg are of special interest: they combine the author’s personal impression of the city with clichés of American mass consciousness.

13. Alexey Matveyev

Independent Consultant, Moscow, Russia

 Peculiarities of Business Communication in America and Russia:

From Counteraction to Interaction

Intercultural competence has become the key professional quality necessary for effective intercultural interaction in the context of globalization, internationalization of the economy, largescale immigration and international labor mobility. Its significance increases even further during a decline in trust between countries and international business partners. A higher level of intercultural competence helps to establish communication with diverse people, increases the ability to persuade and to exhibit tolerance to cultural norms and religious preferences of people from different cultures. Those skilled in intercultural competence are able to achieve the desired outcome by means of “soft” or “smart” power. Researchers have used different approaches to compare cultures: individualism and collectivism, monoactive, polyactive and reactive cultures, a system of basic human values (independence, achievement, power, respect for traditions, conformity), cultural metaphors (American football, French wine, Russian ballet) and others. The lifestyles of Americans and Russians, their cultural traits and established stereotypical images explain the main differences in perception intercultural competence. This report will attempt to explain the fundamental concepts of business communication in America and Russia, their similarities and differences and the importance of intercultural competence for mutual understanding and effective interaction. This presentation will be of interest to those in academia who study cultures and business communication in America and Russia, business analysts, diplomats, employees of embassies, international companies, media and news agencies and to all who participate in international cooperation, cultural exchange, education, science, business and sports

14. Tamara Iakova

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University,  Russian Federation

Russian Theater in The Socio-Cultural Space of The United States

The report represents the results of a study of the Russian theaters activities in the United States in the 2010s. The Google Internet audience research (based on Google Trends empirical data) showed a fairly high level of interest by the US population of some States to the topic «Russian theater». The main reason is a significant proportion of Russian-speaking immigrants living in the country (according to various sources – nowadays there are from 4 to 7 million Russian-speaking citizens of the United States). The greatest interest to the topic is shown in the following States: California, New York, Connecticut and Texas, where there is a significant number of Russian-language theaters. Results of rank statistical data analysis by regions can form an idea about the potential impact of the Russian theater not only on immigrants but on other groups of Americans interested in Russian culture, Russian language or Russian literature.

Russian theatre is very important for the Russian-speaking Diaspora, first of all, as a source of historical and cultural memory preservation, as a way of maintaining the Russian language and cultural traditions, as a mechanism of translation and interpretation of Russian identity’s mental attitudes for the generations of Russiam immigrants grown up in America. The most important conclusions of the study: the Russian-language theater contributes to the rapprochement of former compatriots living in the United States, provides an opportunity to realize their creative potential; preserves and reproduces the value priorities of Russians (as a people and a nation) and the uniqueness of their cultural and historical experience. Russian theater repertoire analysis has shown that most of the performances are based on Russian classics (the sample included 20 theater groups from different States), which reproduces the most important characteristics of the Russian people ethno-cultural identity and contributes to their actualization and formation of value priorities in the mental field of Russian-speaking communities.

15. Aniset Gabriel Kochofa

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Eurasian Organization of Economic Cooperation

Republic of Benin

Image of Modern Russia as Seen through the Eyes of an International Graduate of a Russian University

Section 1. American Journalism and Culture

Coordinator Dr. Andrey Ruskin (Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)

1. Nikolai Zykov

Journalism Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Coverage of the Russian-speaking Immigration in the Programs of the Voice of America

The topic of immigration has been and remains one of the main topics in the programs of the oldest international radio station in the United States. It is about the deep relationship of American culture with the cultures of Russian-speaking countries of the former Soviet Union, where immigrants came from. Many programs are devoted to the participation of immigrants in the political, economic, and cultural life of the United States. These programs were regular and were remembered by listeners for a long time.

2. Vladimir Pavlov

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Institute of International Research MGIMO

Origins and Peculiarities of Contemporary U.S. Strategic Culture: Case-studies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump

Determinants of each nation’s identity are a key factor in shaping its foreign policy. For a number of reasons, this identity is of fundamental importance for U.S. foreign policy behavior. The strategic culture of the U.S. is the result of the influence of geographical and natural factors, national mentality and specificity of historical development. Messianism served as a basis of foreign policy vision; it originated in the period well before the U.S. independence. Hence follows a belief in the universalism of American values and the positive role of American power. Results of state-building were regarded as something extraordinary – something that has a status of superiority to the political systems of the Old World. Due to the influence of these factors and the emphasis on democratic values, American society has emerged as a deeply ideologized community not always tolerant of opposing views. And because Americans initially viewed themselves as the ‘chosen ones’, with their inherent innocence and blessings, they have a sense of responsibility for spreading the ‘gifts of freedom’. Moreover, foreign policy is one of the bases of the U.S. national experience since Independence. Isolationism in traditional, ‘hard’ understanding is just one of the myths designed to uphold the status of ‘innocence’ in the self-perception of Americans. With a certain degree of generalization, one can argue that these factors determined foreign policy thinking of all three presidential Administrations of the early 21st century. The case of George W. Bush is built on the trust towards one’s own beliefs, religiousness and perception of the missionary role of the United States, and ‘cult’ of the concept of democracy. With regard to long-term goals, in a broad sense it is difficult to clearly distinguish W. Bush’s priorities from a position of, for example, Bill Clinton: like most candidates for the position of the President of the United States after World War II his views were Wilsonian. With Barack Obama coming into office a synthesis of Republican foreign policy goals with methods of the Democrats has taken place. History confirms that Obama largely adhered to the well-established American foreign policy canon. The President accepted the idea of complexity of the world and existence of a ‘greater evil’ in it, but this was not regarded as a reason for inaction. At the same time, most of Obama’s major decisions were more of a ‘moderate line’ gravitating closer to the center of the political spectrum. Although it is believed that Donald Trump does not conform to ‘true American idea’, there are probably only two significant discrepancies: (1) Trump is convinced that the United States received insufficient ‘compensation’ for maintaining peace and protecting its allies; and (2) the U.S. national security is not directly dependent on maintaining the international economic regime. Otherwise, the President shares an idea of the United States grandeur, the importance of clearly defining allies and opponents; at the heart of his vision are the primacy of economy and pragmatism. Trump is also by no means an isolationist. Thus, the historical origins of the U.S. strategic culture still continue to have a sizeable influence on the foreign policy of the States.

3. Andrey Ruskin

Journalism Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

US Presidential Elections Teledebates in 2019: major characteristics of organization and content

There was an intensification of political activity of candidates in 2019 from the Democratic Party in connection with the early preparation for the presidential elections in 2020. This was influenced by the results of the previous presidential election when Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton lost to the Republican candidate Donald Trump. Disagreement with this election result, as well as many other factors, influenced the strengthening of the Democrats’ political activity, who from day to day have only strengthened their campaign. In the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats were lucky to win a majority in the House of Representatives. Since then, the campaign for the 2020 elections has reached a new level. By the summer of 2019, 43 politicians had expressed their desire to take part in the forthcoming elections. But by June 2019, the first televised debate, 23 candidates had participated in the campaign. Based on polls and campaign fund-raising data, the Democratic national committee (DNC) allowed 20 candidates to participate in the first debate, which were distributed over two days by drawing lots. Thus, the debates were broadcast two nights in a live-format. The same practice continued during the second debate in July 2019. However, by the third debate in September 2019, only ten candidates were allowed to participate, who were leading in several national polls and managed to raise significant funds for their campaigns. A similar order of access to debates remained until the end of 2019 (the period of the beginning of primary elections and party meetings (caucuses). The televised debates generated high audience interest, with more than 10 million viewers watching each round of the show. That pointed to the saving request for such public-political television programs with elements of entertainment. Tracking candidates’ participation in debates (their statements and remarks) revealed a list of key issues and topics, which could be relevant for the 2020 elections. The debates have become a mechanism for selecting the main contenders for the presidency from the Democratic Party.

4. Nadezhda Shvedova

Institute of USA and Canada Studies, Moscow, Russia

Republican Administration of D. Trump and Problems of Immigration

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the US capital immediately after the inauguration of Republican President D. Trump in 2016 to join the protest. The problems of ending violence against women, the environment, migration and immigration, as well as the protection of the rights of workers, people with disabilities, immigrants and LGBT people pushed people to the streets (and not only in Washington). The new president, however, issues a decree; the form of migration, which he called as “chain migration”, has become more complicated. “Chain migration is a disaster, and very unfair to our country,” said Trump. This form applies to immigrants sponsored by family members. D. Trump’s rhetoric focuses on unauthorized immigration. But he also cut back on legal immigration. His US entry ban for citizens of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia is still in force and has been upheld by the Supreme Court. He almost doubled the average waiting time for those who apply for green cards, work visas, citizenship and other benefits; reduced the refugee acceptance limit to a historic low of 18,000, compared with 110,000 (2016). In October 2019, Republican D. Trump signed a document that restricted legal immigration. The decree applies to all immigrants applying for visas at consulates abroad with the intention of permanently residing in the United States. Under the new rules, immigrants who do not have health insurance and cannot afford to pay medical expenses will not be able to move to the United States for permanent residence. (According to forecasts, this step may prevent approximately 375,000 immigrants per year). Obviously, only well-off people will be able to meet the new requirements

5. Egor Toropov

Philosophy Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Ideology of Conservatism in the US Political Philosophy

A wide public discussion of foreign and domestic policy of the current US administration, the actual revival and implementation of many of the ideas of the conservative trend in American political philosophy prompts us to look at the history of the development of American conservatism and analyze it, identify the origins, consider the directions and varieties of conservative ideology in US political philosophy.

Starting from the traditionalist trend in American conservatism and ending with modern libertarian, neoconservative and paleoconservative ones, conservatism as a framed political ideology was born in political thought of The United States not so long ago – in the early 50’s of the XX century, with the publication of the book The Conservative Mind by a “father of modern American conservatism” Russell Kirk in 1953. Throughout his lifetime, Kirk wrote 32 monographs in which he studied, among other things, “American National Cultural Tradition”.

Literally in an instant on historical scales, in several years, conservatism was able to firmly establish itself in the political philosophy and in the political arena of the United States. At the same time, already in the late 1950s, the first discrepancies between various representatives of American conservatism have become apparent, which resulted in the formation of various trends and branches in the philosophy of American conservatism.

Over time, the departure from Kirk’s traditionalist conservatism became more and more explicit, which predetermined the whole diversity of the conservative direction in the US political philosophy – neoconservatives, paleoconservatives, traditionalist conservatives and even libertarians identify themselves as conservatives. The ideology of American conservatism in all its branches and varieties is represented by The Republican Party – one of the two leading parties, which currently controls in the great extent the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government in the United States.

6. Petr Trofimov

Philosophy Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Role of the Migration Agenda in the Discourse of the ALT-RIGHT Movement

America is traditionally considered a country of immigrants. For last several centuries millions of people from all over the world have been finding a new home in the United States. The irreversible process of globalization, the geopolitical chaos in some regions and the economic problem of «NORTH-SOUTH» only reinforce this trend. The current migration process is different from what it was a century ago. Today the main stream of immigrants has a different cultural code. In 2019, in the United States, in addition to legal migrants, there are 15 million illegal immigrants. Donald Trump claims that the official number is greatly underestimated, their real number is twice as much. The migration issue has become key to America. This is clearly demonstrated by the anti-immigration agenda of the president. It became, from the point of view of some experts, the determining factor in the victory in the elections in 2016. The attitude to the present status of immigration is reflected not only in the actions of President Trump, but also in the practices and discourse of the political movement, which is called “ALT-RIGHT”. Usually they are considered the marginal wing of Donald Trump’s supporters and are called the core of his voters. In fact, they are a branched and heterogeneous movement. There is no party hierarchy and no single leader. The proponents of their ideology are such provocative intellectuals as Steve Bannon, Milo Yannopulus, Ben Shapiro and Jared Taylor. Alt-Rights have their own information network, which consists of several ideological horns – Breitbart News and American Renaissance, a large number of unrelated forums and several YouTube channels. The purpose of this report is detect the main points of Alt-Wright discourse on the migration issue and to demonstrate how their discourse reacted on policy of Trump.

7. Anna Paisova,

Journalism Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Aspects of the Spanish-Language Press in the USA

According to the United States Census, in 2018, more than 18% (59 millions) of all citizens in the country were “of Hispanic or Latino origin”. Among first-generation immigrants, as shown by a Pew Research, only 23% speak English fluently, and generally do not use this language in home communication. Therefore, it seems logical their desire to get information from the media in the native language. The most popular newspapers are La Opinion (92000 copies, Los Angeles), El Nuevo Herald (71000 copies, Miami), Hoy (62 000 copies, Brownsville), El Diario (55000 copies, New York). The press audience is more than 52% consists of Mexicans and immigrants from Central America, 5% Colombians, 4.75% Puerto Ricans, 35% South Americans, etc. The major part of Hispanic media in the United States are published both in print and in digital formats and distributed mainly for free and exist through advertising income. Press in Spanish language in the United States shows positive dynamics, although it constantly meets with criticisms about the quality of the frequently used language – spanglish. Other problems are related with poor quality content, insufficient attention to data verification, old formats comparing with new standards of growing Internet and success of social networks, lack of financial resources. At the same time, mass media in Spanish pin the USA rovide multilevel information support to the Hispanic community and create space for promoting political programs in the Hispanic segment of the American electorate.

8. Olga Fayzullina

Kazan Federal University, Russia

Image of an Immigrant in H. S. Thompson’s Gonzo Texts

In the days of post-truth, fake news, manipulation of the minds of target audience in all possible ways, the activities of the American journalist Hunter Stockton Thompson (1937-2005) are revealing, relevant and interesting to study. An interdisciplinary approach must be taken to analyze this journalist’s media texts. Hunter Thompson, in our opinion, is not just the pioneer of Gonzo Journalism, but also one of the main founders of such current journalism trends as journalistic blogging, storytelling, narrative journalism, literary journalism.

Gonzo Journalism is an individual style of the author: hyperbolizing negative traits of reality, ridiculing ongoing situations by creating absurd plot twists and images, using obscene vocabulary. H. Thompson’s gonzo journalism is a belletristic еpatage, synthesizing real and unreal, nonfiction and fiction. The issue of immigration is reflected in his gonzotexts. We have chosen 2 media works as the research material: “Kingdom of Fear. Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century” (2003), “Hey Rube. Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness. Modern History from the ESPN.com Sports Desk” (2004). The author creates the vivid haunting image of immigrants based on his journalistic experience, expressing his own subjective point of view.

H.S. Thompson’s work is not journalistic in its traditional sense, however, having these ambiguous impressions that remain after reading these media texts, to deny the journalistic constituent part in his work is also false. The basis of the journalist’s material is always current events in the USA and the world; the publicist’s focus is mainly on the socio-political and cultural issues of the country. The techniques used by H. Thompson are very effective and complex. That is why he skillfully manipulates the minds of his target audience. Therefore, the detailed analysis of these methods in the media text is necessary for their application at the present stage of journalism development.

9. Yu Xinjun

Journalism Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia/China

The Study of New Mainland Chinese Immigrations after 1965

The mainland immigration after 1965, influenced by the new immigration policy of the United States, China’s domestic situation and the international environment. Many new changes have taken place at that time. Compared with the old immigrants, the new immigrants have significantly improved their education level, living standard and income. Socially, the new immigrants began to have more contact with the white society, politically, the new immigrants gradually participated in American politics.

As of 2017, there were 21,419,200 Asian-Americans, according to the federal census bureau. The largest number of them are Chinese, more than 5.08 million.

The majority of mainland Chinese immigrants live in California and New York, accounting for 31 percent of all mainland Chinese immigrants living in California and 20 percent of all mainland Chinese immigrants living in New York.

 According to a study by the University of Maryland scholars, Chinese Americans have the largest number of jobs in three major areas. First, in the management and occupational fields (53.4%.), in the field of sales and office clerks (20.8%), in the service sector ( 15.4%).

At present, there are four major Chinese newspapers in the United States: World Journal, Sing Tao Daily, Ming Pao, and The China Press. TV and radio stations like VOA, Radio Free Asia, KMRB, KTSF and so on.

10. Svetlana Shamparova

Arzamas branch of Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University, Russia

The Image of Russia in Modern American Mass Media

As information wars find constant nourishment in new world conflicts, the image of a country participating in it is constantly being supplemented. For example, the recent Syrian and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts have once again added new characteristics to the image of Russia. The aim of the study is to identify and reveal the media image of Russia reflected in the Western media discourse.

The study is based on the works of following authors: Eli Avraham and Eran Kettera on the image of countries in the international media space, University of Chicago professor Gaylord Donnelly, editor of Critical Investigation William John Thomas Mitchell about ideas and imagery, associated concepts, images and perceptions; as well as on earlier author’s studies about the formation of Russia’s image in the American media.

The underlying concept is but a “media image” of the country – “a set of emotional and rational representations based on information obtained from the media”. We studied various media sources, which are talking about Russia, such as Forbes, Bloomberg, The National Interest, and what image of the country they create in the public consciousness.

Analyzing the modern American media, we can conclude that Russia is represented as a threat to the West rather than an ally. The space race, technological war, sanctions are a typical context, the protagonist of which is Russia. To quote the American Internet portal The Nation “the Gap between the Russian and American media got wider.” And if this gap prevents the formation of an adequate image of the country, then the achievement of a productive dialogue between the two cultures is seen as very difficult.

11. Svetlana Kanashina

MGIMO, Russia

The Image of Immigration In American Media Discourse (the case of internet memes)

The immigration problem is very important in modern American media discourse. The interest to immigration is provoked by social, cultural and political transformations in American society today, among which one should mention D. Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric, restrictions for immigrants, plans to massively deport illegal migrants. It is interesting and relevant to analyze the image of immigration in American internet memes, because the genre of internet memes suggests freedom of speech, original presentation of information and disregard of political correctness. Thus, it is internet memes that reflect the true opinion of Americans about the present-day immigration problem.      The image of immigration in American internet memes unfolds in several dimensions. Firstly, the most numerous group consists of memes that mock at Trump’s anti-immigration policy, namely his promise to build a wall on the Mexican border, deport illegal migrants, stop illegal immigration. In these memes one can see comic effect based on the grotesque representation of D. Trump and his hard-hitting statements.

The second group comprises memes devoted to the indigenous Indian population of North America. In these memes the word immigrant refers to all the settlers from Europe who populated North America. In addition, the authors of these memes ironically view the appeals to stop illegal immigration and point out that all the people except indigenous Indians are immigrants in fact. The third group consists of memes, in which the problem of immigration is portrayed in a humorous way. Some authors of memes laugh at the importance, which is attached to the immigration problem today, and they highlight the fact that the problem of immigration in the USA is exaggerated. One can also come across memes with non-politically correct messages, declaring the superiority of Americans over immigrants. Besides, there are memes in which different ethnic groups, immigrating to the USA, are represented in a comic way. These ethic groups are Mexicans and Asian people.  To sum up, immigration problem is presented in a humorous manner in internet memes, which is motivated by the entertaining character of memes. The diversity of memes devoted to immigration reflects the pluralism of opinion in American society and the immediacy of this problem

Section 3. Contemporary American Literature and Culture

Coordinator Professor Elena Kornilova (Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)

1.Alina Amvrosova

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

“War is the Health of the State”: the “Young Americans” and their vision of nation and culture during the WWI

The first World War split American society. If the most of Americans politicians and intellectuals headed by Theodore Roosevelt promoted the rapid entry into the war on the side of the Triple Entente, the other part of the society, radicals, and pacifists, defended principles of the isolationism from the European affairs, indicated to the crisis and acute social and political issues. It was the time when cultural pluralism emerged as a new concept of American nation. That involved re-evaluation of various ethnic groups in the USA (first of all, immigrants from Europe) as the components of American nation, instead of refusal to integrate immigrants into American society based on “Americanization”. American publicists Horace Kallen and Randolph Bourne were the authors of this concept. Bourne, as Van Wyck Brooks, Waldo Frank and James Oppenheim were cultural critics and entered the group, named by the researcher C.N. Blake “The Young Americans” or also called in American historiography as “The Young Intellectuals”.

Present research is aimed to demonstrate, which connection existed between cultural pluralism, pacifism and criticism of the culture in the works by “The Young Americans”, how intense V.W. Brooks and W. Frank shared these ideas and how this was exposed through the prism of their critics of American society. In the result, it became clear that the concept of cultural pluralism would not have been constructed without ardent pacifism and criticism of American values, made by Bourne. Brooks and Frank also supported such ideas that can be seen in their works. The war and constant contacts with European intellectuals and their culture influenced the vision of the future of American nation in the framework of a multiethnic society, without complete assimilation of immigrants.

2. Alexandra Filippenko

Institute of USA and Canada Studies, Moscow, Russia

Immigrant Portrait in the American Culture of the Restrictionist Period

There is no doubt that immigrants have always influenced American culture, even in the especially restrictive period of American history (1917-1965). Beginning with the triumph of the musical Melting Pot by Israel Zangville (the story of Romeo and Juliet was moved to the U.S., where children of Russian immigrants (from Jewish and Cossack families) fall in love. Most prominent Broadway composers were children of immigrants – George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rogers, Leonard Bernstein and others. A third of all Tony awards in the choreography category in 1947-1977 went to children of Russian immigrants. Under Jim Crow, African-American jazz became popular and trendy among white Americans due to white musicians who incorporated jazz improvisations into their works – Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, both from immigrant families. White Christmas, God Bless America, musical symbols of the United States were written by Irving Berlin, born in the Russian Empire. Born in the Russian Empire, the Vonskolaser brothers founded the Warner Brothers film studio. The American acting school is built on the Mikhail Chekhov system, who himself immigrated to the United States. Hollywood was traditionally open to immigrants. Between 1920 and 1970, more than half of film directors who received two (or more) Oscar awards were first or second generation immigrants. The contribution of immigrants to science and technology is enormous, just to name a few names: Albert Einstein, Joseph Pulitzer, Madeleine Albright, Steve Jobs (Apple) Sergei Brin (Google), Ian Kum (Whatsapp), Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post). 33 of the 85 Nobel Prize winners in the United States have been immigrants or refugees since 2000. Between 1917 and 1965, when it was very difficult to officially immigrate to the United States, the image of a “good immigrant” was created by musicians, performers, film directors, science and technology geniuses. When American society was ready to accept more immigrants, the Beatles’ “American invasion” began and a year later, after their triumphant tour of the United States, the Immigration and Citizenship Act of 1965 was passed, ending the period of restrictionism.

3. Marina Knyazeva

Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Contemporary Dialogue of Cultures: Polemics with Samuel Huntington

There are a number of objections to the work Clash of Civilizations by S. Huntington, which affirms the inevitability of civilizations conflict. This influential essay was created at the intersection of journalism, political science and cultural studies, and touches on one of the key issues, as it interprets the model of further relations between the regions of the world. S. Huntington expresses the thesis that the concept of “modernity” is identical to the concept of “Western (European) culture.” In my opinion, a significant clarification is required here, and most likely a refutation.

“Modernity” is a complex, multi-level phenomenon. The “modernity” of the present time, the end of the 20th – beginning of the 21st century, is formed by a combination of several style flows. It is formed by rows of mutually exclusive coordinates, fancifully combining technocratic and emotional, irrational elements – an oxymoron, in essence. Among these coordinates, on the one hand, are pragmatic characteristics: technologism, universality, uniformity, democracy and popular simplified picture of the world. On the other hand – elitism, aristocracy, as well as “new naturalness” – increased expressionism, which can be called “adrenalism”, irrationalism, as well as an active appeal to the archetypes and codes of civilizations of the ancient world – this can be described as neoarchaism and post-sauvage, as well as a setting to capture the flow of life, estimated momentarily. I designate this trend with the concept of “etching” or “selfization”: turning reality into etching, an image that allows you to make millions of prints, repetitions – this becomes a net of “modernity” – the self-mediation of everyday reality by the total mass of living people, a universal “selfie”.

These are two poles of “modernity” at the beginning of the 21st century – a unified office culture – and post-sauvage, neo-archaic. Both of these formations are rooted in the historical strata of civilizations in different regions of the world, uniting “European” and “non-European” cultures. They intertwine motives and models of Indian, Aztec, Inca cultures, Mayan culture, aborigines of Australia and New Zealand. Cultural codes of the West and East, Europe and Asia come into active interaction, including Japanese and Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese elements not to mention the impact of the Scandinavian and Baltic cultures, which, although geographically part of the European continent, essentially represent a special northwestern formation. It is impossible not to say about the growing influence on the global model of African codes and models. Thus, in fact, the present “modernity” is a special alloy of times and cultural regions, and often it is precisely the “non-European” cultures that are among the sources of new sociocultural phenomena. The “present” of the 21st century is not the product of a narrow selection of meanings, but the result of a centuries-old dialogue of cultures

4. Lyudmila Mastykina

Smolensk State University, Russia

The Concept of “Cultural Literacy” in the Works of E.D. Hirsch

In the second half of the twentieth century, the American scientist and teacher E. D. Hirsch focused on the need to create a dictionary that includes basic knowledge that all United States citizens should accumulate. E. D. Hirsch introduced the concept of “cultural literacy”, which formed the basis of this dictionary. The author emphasized that it is important for Americans to master the cultural heritage of their country and be aware of the significant achievements of the culture of other countries. “The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy” by E. D. Hirsch and co-authors Joseph F. Kett and James Trefil was first published in 1987, reprinted in 1993 and 2002, and released a special edition for children in 2004. The introduction explains the concept of “cultural literacy”, justifies the choice of materials for the dictionary entries, and details the methodologies used in the dictionary`s formation. “To be culturally literate is to possess the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world. Cultural literacy is meant to be shared by everyone” [E. D. Hirsch, 1993]. The contributors formulated a specific set of rules for selecting the vocabulary and topics to be included in the dictionary. Moreover, they decided to exclude specialized terminology and information known only to experts in certain fields of knowledge in favour of only including concepts; known to most educated Americans. The concepts included in the dictionary must be mentioned often in the press and be connected only with significant cultural and societal events throughout history. Using these guidelines, it is possible to create these types of dictionaries for citizens of other countries, as the formation of cultural literacy is an objective necessity in the modern world.

5. Irina Morozova

Russian State University of Humanities, Moscow, Russia

“Hyphenated identity” and the American Dream in Contemporary American literature

A significant number of very productive modern writers are first- or second-generation immigrants; they or their parents came to America with their own American Dream. Coming to terms with the immigrant experience in finding the American Dream, and the problems of “hyphenated identity” (Italian-American, Hispanic-American, Chinese-American, etc.) were major themes in the culture of the “salad bowl.” The theme of a rift between cultures, between the old and the new homes and their traditions, runs like a red thread through all the works of modern authors with a hyphenated identity. More often than not, this rift plays out in difficult relationships between parents and children – the first immigrant generation and their offspring, who have already managed to be assimilated into the American environment. Frustration of a young American combining two cultures within himself and traveling the path of positive evolution, can be considered central to the works of writers who described American immigrants and their problems of identity – ethnic, cultural and personal. How does one overcome the barrier between two cultures, how does a personality find its place when there are two voices within, what hopes and dreams does a person feel when he is forced, as de Crèvecœur wrote, “to abandon his former customs and values”? All these questions find answers in the works of modern American authors who traveled the difficult path of self-knowledge, incorporating clearly autobiographical elements as successful children of immigrant parents. No matter how difficult the process of self-identification for American immigrants, the American Dream remains a constant stimulus for development. As Amy Tan correctly notes in “The Hundred Secret Senses:” “Everyone must dream. We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming – well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate. Isn’t that true?”

6. Galina Kovalenko

Russian State Institute of Performing Arts

St.Petersburg, Russia

Evolution of Theatre Mainstream: David Hwang on Broadway

David Hwang, the descendant of Chinese, the American citizen in the first generation, is one of the leading American playwrights now. He moved forward at the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre of Joseph Papp. In 1988 he made a debut on Broadway by M. Butterfly at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and became one of the most famous American playwrights in the world.

One of his last plays The Yellow Face is included in “Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theatre” (2011)

Section 4. Ethnic Aspects of American Culture

Coordinator Associate Professor Oxana Danchevskaya (Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia)

1. Irina Khruleva, Anton Livshits

History Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Shaping of Boston’s Ethnical and Religious Structure

The author discusses the role of immigration in shaping ethnic and religious structure of Boston – the city that has always played a unique cultural role in American life. Boston’s “new immigrants’ of the late 20th – early 21st centuries are placed within a broader historical context. The main roots of “old immigration” from England (until the 1830s), Ireland, Italy, the Russian Empire are analyzed. During almost 400 years of its history, the city experienced periods of prosperity and decline, racial segregation and economic depression. Speaking about “new immigration” of the late 20th – early 21st centuries, the authors pay particular attention to its diversity and the impact of global economy, US foreign policy, mass media and new means of communication. A dramatically different situation was the result of new immigration legislation (Immigration Act, 1965).

2. Gulnara Musaeva

Volgograd State University, Russia

Muslim Communities in the United States: Cultural and Historical Development and Current Status

Muslim communities in the United States at the moment represent a cohesive organized structure with its unique way of life, set of traditional beliefs and customs. Despite the fact that the vast majority of adherents of Islam in the United States for the most part have fully adapted to multicultural American society and managed to assimilate, nevertheless, those who are far from their historical homeland continue to follow the canons of their original culture. It should be noted that the history of Muslims in the United States has more than 400 years. From the 1880s to 1914, several thousand Muslims immigrated to the United States from the former territories of the Ottoman Empire and the former Mughal Empire. For a sufficiently long period of Muslims’ stay in the United States, there was an even deeper diversification of the ethnic and religious structure of American society, which remains to this day. Important components of the culture of peoples professing Islam are attributes such as going to a mosque, celebrating religious and national holidays, and traditional clothing (although this trend is gradually declining in modern society). The vast majority of Muslims recognize the good of American culture, namely political and religious freedom, independence and business practice. In the United States, there are many different political and religious organizations that advocate cultural diversity in the United States and protect the rights of American Muslims. One of the largest Islamic organizations is the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Moreover, there are various Muslim comedy groups, rap groups, scout groups that play an important role in the representation of Islam in the United States. In connection with the recent reforms of the current president D. Trump, migration legislation has been tightened, restricting the entry into the country of citizens of certain states with a predominantly Muslim population. These events cause a lot of unrest in the society of the United States, mainly among American Muslims, many of whom share American values ​​and do not seek to destabilize the situation in the state. The early days of Donald Trump’s presidency were an alarming time for many Muslim Americans, according to a new Pew Research Center poll. Thus, the migration policy of the authorities poses new challenges to the American multicultural community, entailing certain consequences in the socio-cultural development of the country.

3. Gleb Alexandrov

RAS Institute of the USA and Canada

International Center of Anthropology, “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russia

The Intersection of Traditions: The Pow-Wow of the Pennsylvania Dutch

The New World, including the US, is home to many syncretic religions, cults and folklore traditions, which merge the beliefs and practices of indigenous and immigrant populations with elements of Christianity. Some of them (voodoo, santeria) are well-known and have long been an object of study. Others are much less “popular”. Among those is the pow-wow, the domestic magic and faith healing tradition of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Despite the name clearly derived from Native American culture, it is deeply rooted in Christianity (more so than most other syncretic traditions), but includes elements of European folk magic, some traces of European pagan beliefs, interpretations of the European esoteric tradition and some elements from other spiritual beliefs and practices. This presentation gives a general overview of this peculiar tradition, its key elements and symbols, and its role in the public and private life of the Pennsylvania Dutch today and in the past.

4. Alisa Zhukova

History Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Jewish People and Modern American Culture

The United States is a multinational state. Over the centuries, the New World has become a haven for many peoples who have sought here, among other things, refuge and comfort. A striking example of such a situation is the Jewish people. Since the 18th century, there has existed a Jewish community in America, whose representatives settled from the East Coast to the West for a short time. It is no secret that the Jewish people have experienced litigations of fate for about two thousand years, but in America their life was more comfortable than in the Old World. Why are Jews settled in the United States easier than anywhere else? The answer to this question is not easy to find. If you carefully look at the history of the Jewish people over the past 100-150 years, then almost every high-profile event and the fate of many Jewish and already Israeli celebrities is associated with America. In the 20th century, America gained the lead in dictating art trends: cinema from the 1920s to the late 1960s experienced the “Golden Age of Hollywood”, pushing European art to the background. Masterpieces of world cinema are mainly filmed overseas. Many will ask: what is the role of the Jewish people in this triumph of American culture? Is it possible to say that in the captions of any successful film shot in Hollywood, we will see the name of a descendant of Jewish immigrants? We would like to consider the contribution of stars of American show business of Jewish origin to the culture of the USA of the second half of the 20th century.

5. Yulia Sapozhnikova

Smolensk State University, Russia

Immigration and Search of Identity (Based on Junot Diaz’s Novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”)

Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the Pulitzer prize in 2008, tells the story of a Dominican-American family. In this regard, one of the main themes of the work is search of identity by the main character (and members of his family), which initially looks like an attempt to reject his true self and past and completely immerse himself in another world. So, Oscar, a very fat, and therefore deeply unhappy young man, plunges headlong into the world of fiction and comics, when he realizes that he does not correspond to the traditional image of Dominican men as real macho, and his attempts to win the love of the opposite sex lead at best to ridicule on their part. However, the writer shows the impossibility of escaping from oneself. Through a detailed description of the rule of the Dominican dictator Trujillo, whose despotism destroyed the family of Oscar’s mother, through constant references to “the fukú”, a family curse that allegedly haunts them, through a mixture of realistic and fantastic, through close attention to the head of the clan, who became a real matriarch and keeps everyone under constant control, the writer builds a family story that explains the reasons why the characters became exactly who they are. They appear as a result of the mixing of two cultures, two worlds. So, Oscar’s sister, trying to rebel against the authoritarian mother, leaves the house, but all the short life of the hero tries to take care of him and protect him from various troubles, demonstrating the same loyalty to family that was characteristic of her mother and great-aunt. The language of the novel, that is for the most part “Spanglish” (a mixture of English and Spanish), also enhances the effect of the perception of the characters as people that are simultaneously present in two worlds. The choice of this novel for the Pulitzer prize once again shows that in America there is an extraordinary increase in interest in the voices of immigrants, as they are able to open up new facets in both language and reality that help Americans understand each other better.

6. Marina Kuzina

Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia

Allusions to Literary Works from across the Globe as Ssed in Multicultural Novels by American Writers with Indian Roots

Multicultural novels by contemporary American bilingual authors from India manifest a fine balance between the exotic lexemes (denoting the geographical, ethnographical and sociopolitical realia) and allusions to European, North American and Russian texts, persons and phenomena. Dozens of allusions to literary works from Europe, North America and Russia are elicited from novels and short stories by the English-language authors (A. Desai, K. Desai, Ch.B. Divakaruni, J. Lahiri) from the former colonies of the British Empire. Evaluative and aesthetic functions of the analyzed intertextual elements prompt researchers of multicultural literature to regard them as obligatory and enhancing for the contemporary multicultural discourse.

7. Oksana Danchevskaya

Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia

Good and Evil in Native American Mythology

Good and evil have always been walking hand in hand across the planet. They both are essential for our understanding of the world, as without evil, we would never know what good is. All mankind shares most general perceptions about evil – basically that behaviour is listed in the Ten Commandments. But there are other things which vary from culture to culture, and some deeds may shock us if we are not prepared and the views of our own culture are different. Mythology is the foundation that shaped social norms, taboos, religious beliefs and the worldview of a people as a whole. Native American mythology is very diverse and provides many examples of what is considered good or bad by different tribes. Studying those examples is very important as it helps to understand the motifs and reasons for certain actions, as well as Native Americans themselves and their world outlook. American culture is made of many different cultures – first of all, those of immigrants. But Native Americans were the first inhabitants of the continent, and the picture of American culture will not be complete without understanding its Native American part. We will summarize the most prevailing perceptions by different tribes as reflected in their myths and will attempt to derive common criteria of good and evil for the indigenous people of North America.

8. Firdes Dimitrova

Voronezh State University, Russia

Making Unhomely a Home: Land and Spirit in Native American Life

One of the examples of influence of immigration on American culture can be seen in interaction between Native Americans and European settlers that turned to be very destructive for indigenous people of America. Contemporary American Indian writers (Silko, Erdrich, Momaday) investigating the impact and consequences of the conflict between the whites and Indians focus on clash in beliefs rather than biological difference between people. What really matters is the conflict of stories not blood. Mutually exclusive, conflicting identities makes it impossible to find a common ground. Moreover, a Native American never tries to assimilate to American society and those who do most often fail. Land and Spirit are very important for American Indians as they allow them to survive the white invasion and preserve their identity and culture.

9. Udler Irina

Chelyabinsk State University, Russia

Slave Narratives of the 18-19 centuries as a Significant Contribution of African Americans to the History and the Culture of the United States

The speeches of the fugitives from slavery at abolitionist meetings, their letters, articles in the press and more than six thousand slave narratives of the 18–19 centuries are invaluable evidence of the sacrifices and resistance to slavery. Modern historical science considers slave narratives as the documentary source of the slave-owning system in the United States. Slave narratives have become the most popular genre in abolitionist journalism, effectively influencing public opinion in the United States and Europe, contributing to the spread of abolitionist ideas. They are the archetype of all African American literature and journalism and have influenced the literature of the United States. The unique genre of slave narrative introduced new sounding archetypes of escape, road, literacy, freedom, and search for racial, national, religious, cultural, authorial, personal identity into the literature of the United States. This is the first prose genre in which the influence of the African American folklore music tradition was most fully manifested.

10. Yuri Stulov

Minsk State Linguistics University, Belarus

When Black Was Only Beginning to Symbolize Slavery: Dominion by Calvin Baker

Family saga, which takes a modest place in the corpus of African American literary texts, determines the genre peculiarities of the novel Dominion by Calvin Baker. In his work, the writer focuses on the historical experience of African Americans from the colonial times to today. The novel deals with an ordinary black man whose industry, courage and perseverance contribute to the formation of the young nation. Skin color is not the determinative in his life.

11. Dmitry Vorobyev

RAS Institute of the USA and Canada, Moscow, Russia

Sociocultural Influence of Marcus Garvey’s Ideology of Black Nationalism on the Formation of African American Identity

Since the abolition of slavery in the United States, the African American community had painfully sought to get closer to the goal of integration into American society. Many representatives of the Black intelligentsia believed that the complete assimilation of Black people in the Anglo-Saxon cultural milieu would eliminate interracial tension. However, such ideas met with stiff resistance from the white population of the country, especially in the South, that supported the principle of separation of the two races in all spheres of life. The impossibility of achieving rapid integration, as well as the wave of interracial clashes that followed the First World War, led to an increase in the influence of ideas of Black nationalism among African Americans. It is noteworthy that the main promoters of this ideology were black immigrants from the West Indies, the most influential of whom was a native of Jamaica, Marcus Garvey, who founded the movement “Back to Africa.” Despite the fact that immigrants from the Caribbean were the core of Garvey’s supporters, his ideas were also close to hundreds of thousands of black migrants from the rural South of the USA who moved to the North in search of a better life. Garvey, adhering to the principle of separation of the two races in America, stated that African Americans are part of a great Black nation. He saw the main objective of his movement in building an independent state in Africa, that could be the home for all the oppressed black masses. Garvey’s nationalism was based on the principles of self-help and racial pride, since the black population had to rely only on its own strength in its development. The sociocultural aspects of Garveyism concerned the popularization of Black history, the development of a special “Black” religion, the organization of numerous cultural events that propagated the successes of the Black race. Despite the fact that the goals set by Garvey were for the most part impossible, his ideology had a significant impact on consolidating the image of the “New Negro” among African Americans who no longer regarded themselves as stereotyped “alter ego” of white people. Breaking with the past, Black Americans realized their own cultural self-sufficiency, abandoning the goal of complete assimilation, that laid the foundation for the formation of a special African-American identity.

12. Anna Sebryuk

Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russia

The Role of Minstrel Shows in Spreading Racial Stereotypes and Their Negative Legacy in Modern American Culture

The given study is concerned with the negative legacy of blackface minstrel shows in modern American culture. Blackface is a form of theatrical make-up worn by a performer in minstrel shows as a caricature of the appearance of a black person. In recent years, the theme of blackface has again become a pressing issue in American society because of the scandals that have flared up around prominent instances of its use and the taboo of even mentioning it in public. First appearing in the 19 century, these popular entertainment performances existed for more than 150 years and became part of general American entertainment culture. Moreover, they played a considerable role in reinforcing and spreading stereotypes about the character and behavior of African Americans. This article reveals the main reasons why any visual and costumed parody of people with dark skin is considered socially unacceptable today. The author considers the problem of contemporary American gangsta rap being offensive to African American women through its use of minstrel show racial stereotypes. Furthermore, the author suggests that the representation of black women in American culture is always closely and inextricably linked with the history of racism and sexism in the U.S. Traditionally, black women were contrasted with the ideal images of white women. Despite the fact that well-known caricatures such as Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel have undergone significant changes due to social and political evolution in the United States, their negative legacy is still found not just in broader American society, but within the African American community itself. For instance, African American gangsta rap is often considered a platform for spreading and enhancing racist and sexist prejudices originated from minstrel shows.

13. Pavel Silaev

Smolensk State University, Russia

The Role of Characters’ Accents in Zadie Smith’s novel On Beauty

In Zadie Smith’s novel On Beauty (which was published in 2005 and won the Somerset Maugham Award and Orange Prize for Fiction) the American characters (most of them are immigrants) are part of the multicultural community, and the description of their accents plays a key role in creating their speech portraying. The accents become an important instrument that helps the writer to draw fully fledged characters’ portraits in readers’ imagination. They do not only reflect the characters’ national identity but help to understand their world-view, to appreciate their deeds and behaviour. According to the immigrants’ attitude to the presence of the accent in their speech the characters in the novel can be divided into two groups: those who tend to get rid of their accent and those who are eager to keep it. The first ones are guided by the desire to assimilate, to become part and parcel of the local community, they don’t want to stand out on the natives’ background and even feel ashamed of their accent in a way. The second ones, vice versa, are proud of their identity, they consider their accent as a link to their culture, as a way to keep their roots. The most interesting from a stylistic point of view are cases when Smith’s characters use their accents rather flexibly as a register of social manipulation: they can easily ‘twist’ from one accent to another in a state of fury or great elation, when they try to draw somebody’s attention away from their rude manner of communication, to soften the aggressiveness of the obscene words, when they try to become funny interlocutors and even when they try to imitate their musical idols’ speech. Thus the writer convincingly depicts how in the phonetics of modern American’s speech (most often an immigrant), its accent component, being a habitual constant parameter, turns into a peculiar cultural and social variable part, which like clothes can be ‘put on’ by the speakers to achieve their pragmatic goals in different types of communication.

14. Lyubov Pervushina

Minsk State Linguistics University, Belarus

Artistic Representation of Historical Memory in the Fiction by M. Slouka: Emigration, Identity, and Cultural Practice

The paper deals with the problem of cultural and historical memory in the fiction by Mark Slouka (b.1958) – a well-known American-born writer of Czech origin who belongs to the second generation of immigrants. The phenomenon of cultural and historical memory becomes the central notion in the collection of Slouka’s stories Lost Lake (1998). Slouka investigates into the life of Czech ethnic communities in American multicultural society, stresses the importance of a hybrid cultural identity through the processes of assimilation, individualization, social and language adaptation. The traces of cultural and historical memory of three generations of immigrants are represented through the system of images, symbols and archetypes as well as through the conceptual fields (emigration, acculturation, monolinguism and bilingualism). The Czech ethnic legacy is revealed through the cultural traditions of Czech neighborhoods, nostalgic feelings, family histories and some components of the characters’ Slavic identity. The autobiographical fiction by Slouka contributes to the multicultural American literature and raises important interconnected problems of exile, emigration, homeland, and diaspora.

15. Tatyana Voronchenko, Ekaterina Fedorova

Transbaikal State University, Chita, Russia

Multi-faceted Border in the Works of Mexican American Writers

The paper deals with the border phenomenon in the works of Mexican American writers of the 20-21^st centuries. This problem is associated with the study of the “borderlands authors” consciousness. The concept of the border appears in the texts of Chicano writers in different qualities: spatiotemporal, psychological, sociocultural (R. Vasquez Chicano, 1970, G. Anzaldua Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 1987, R. Grande The Distance Between Us, 2012, etc.).

Section 5. Gender Aspect of American Culture

Coordinators Senior Researcher Larisa Mikhaylova (Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State Department, Russia)  and Doctor Nadezhda Shvedova (Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of the USA and Canada)

1.Larisa Baibakova

History Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Social Adaptation of Russian Historians-emigrants’ Wives in the USA (1920-1930s)

This paper shows the daily life of the Russian scientific emigration to the United States through the prism of the fates of wives of three historians – M. I. Rostovtsev, G. V. Vernadsky and M. M. Karpovich. The author finds out the causes of emigration, different aspects of the process of adaptation to the conditions of life in the foreign country, the preservation of own identity in a forced separation from Russian culture. Special attention is paid to the analysis of their critical perception of American realities.

2. Zinaida Kartasheva

Moscow State Institute of Culture, Russia

American Decade of Valentina Konen and its Influence on Russian  Musicology

  Valentina Konen (1909-1991) –  the significant musicologist in Russia, the founder of domestic jazz musicology. In 1921-31 she lived with family in USA where she studied at High and Juilliard Schools and at University. This period built up her personality, the foundation of her education, breadth of mental outlook, what influenced later not only on her activities, but on the development of Russian musical-historical science. Her intellectual interests were very wide (from Middle Ages to jazz and rock music), and her scholarly approach were highly original. Despite the appalling conditions of life under Stalin, V.Konen persevered in her study of American music and especially jazz, this was a remarkably brave thing to do at this time. Her independent philosophy, her scholarly principles, and her contemporary way of thinking did more than establish Konen’s reputation as a musicologist: they enhanced the prestige of the musical-historical discipline in Russia and inspired many young Soviet and Russian musicologists to build on her example. Many of her original and valuable ideas were continued in works of young musicologists and not lost its actuality until this time.

3. Irina Kudriavtseva

Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus

Representation of Regional Differences and Migration Experience in The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow

In her novel The Dollmaker (1954) the American author Harriette Arnow demonstrates the significance of the regional component of American culture and the difficulties of social and psychological adaptation of labor migrants. Like many Southerners who sought work in the war-related industries in the North during World War II, Gertie Nevels and her five children leave a small farming community in the hills of Kentucky when Gertie’s husband Clovis obtains a job in a defense plant in Detroit. Their new environment in a wartime housing project in Detroit’s industrial zone is cosmopolitan, largely Catholic and often hostile to the “Appalachian hillbillies.” Besides, Gertie’s social role changes from a farmer to that of a housewife who completely depends on Clovis and his salary and has to learn to live on credit. Because of the abrupt change of her physical and sociocultural environment, Gertie undergoes an identity crisis, which is aggravated by the numerous difficulties, and misfortunes that the family encounters in Detroit. The Dollmaker, constructed round the dichotomies of North/South, city/country, nature/society, us/them, male/female, past/present and others, can be analyzed as a chronicle of an epoch, a study in the psychology of crisis, a female counterpart to John Steinbeck’s famous narrative of migration The Grapes of Wrath.

4. Larisa Mikhaylova

Journalism  Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Reading American Women-Plus (1990) by Zoya Boguslavskaya  Thirty Years After

 Interviews with American First Ladies, successful women of all walks of life in the book written during Perestroika by a Soviet author Zoya Boguslavskaya  in the end of 1980s served as an insightful and analytical view on the shifting social picture and women’s fight for equal opportunities. If upon publication the chapters about the famous women stood out as the most important, today the author’s observations of a more subtle nature and about multicultural characters come to the fore and resonate with the topics in the women’s news TV program The View dealing with the guarantees of equal opportunities.

5. Tatyana Kamarovskaya

Maxim Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University, Minsk, Belarus

The Polish Miss Marple in the Epoch of  Feminism: Sara Paretsky’s Novel  Burn Marks (1990)

Sara Paretsky is a well-known representative of the detective genre in the contemporary US literature. The action of the novel Burn Marks takes place in the 80-s, the novel is born by the second wave of feminism.

The character of the main heroine Victoria Warshawski is based on the destruction of gender stereotype. She has chosen the masculine profession of a private investigator dealing with economic crimes, but she doesn’t stop at investigating other crimes as well despite of the dangers this activity may get her in. Her personality is devoid of the feminine traits. Her mode of thinking is purely logical, masculine; she is very brave, good at sports, can get into closed buildings and out of them in case of necessity. She is not sentimental, very straightforward, and sometimes rude. She doesn’t keep the house, despises feminine occupations. She likes liquor and prefers whiskey. Her hobbies are also masculine. Work is the most important thing in her life and the way to self-identification.

The novel presents a feminist revision of the detective genre, a direct opposition to Agatha Christie’s novels with Miss Marple as the main heroine, feminine and tactful.

6. Gunel Jannatova

National Folklore Institute

Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan

Gender and Sexuality in the Context of South Asian American Literature

American literature is a melting pot of influences and ideas, and South Asian-American literature has progressively emerged alongside Jewish-American, Mexican-American and Chinese-American literature. Over the course of the past three decades, immigrants to the USA from South Asia have become increasingly active in the various domains of academia, including in the fields of literature and the arts. The aim of this paper is to explore the sexual interconnections and problems that have emerged in South Asian-American literature during this time period, specifically between South Asian people and their European-American partners.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid are taken as the basis of this research. As writers who come from the South Asian subcontinent, both authors’ main concerns center upon the experiences of immigrants to the US, as well as their protagonists’ romantic relationships with members of the opposite sex.

The Namesake portrays the struggles of a second-generation migrant named Gogol in America’s multicultural society. On the one hand, Gogol desires to be “an authentic American”, while on the other, his values are based on Hindu cultural norms that are different to those of his peers; these differences consequently create a number of problems with the white partners of the opposite sex that he encounters.

The second book under review, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was written following the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 and the subsequent rise in American Islamophobia. The main character of the book, Changez, comes from a middle-class Pakistani family and is a well-paid graduate of Princeton University. His sexual relationship with an American woman named Erica marks the beginning of his eventual abandonment of the United States.

In summary, this article aims to analyse sexuality and gender in the context of The Namesake and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, as well as to come to a deeper understanding of the importance of sexuality in South Asian culture and its impact on contemporary American literature.

7. Valentin Matvienko

RUDN University, Moscow, Russia

Queerbaiting in American Pop Culture: Fashion or Trend?

The paper studies the phenomenon of queerbaiting – using allusions to homosexuality in the media in order to draw attention to the product and increase its popularity. Queerbaiting appeared in 2010s, but today it has become one of the most common methods for promoting films, series and songs. For instance, in such shows as Supernatural, 100 or Sherlock there is an obvious subtext of LGBT relationships between characters. In April 2019, Ariana Grande with her friend Victoria Monet released the song Monopoly about bisexuality. Just a day after the release, Monopoly became the leader of iTunes. And if some researchers assess queerbaiting as a progress of tolerance, others consider it a negative fact, because in this case the LGBT audience is used for profit. Both of these approaches are analyzed in the paper.

8. Tatyana Bezrukova

Higher School of Economics Perm, Russia

The Gender of Authors and Their Heroes in American Literature of the Late 20th Century

 Being a factor of social life, a person’s gender influences the role reflected in speech behavior. The speech role includes the most characteristic role of the lexical and grammatical minimum, intonational tools, as well as speech techniques and speech stereotypes inherent to performers of a particular role. As there are certain stereotypes of behavior of men and women, so there are certain stereotypes in their language use. These stereotypes are also reflected in literature by the authors through the creative perception and presentation of their heroes.  The subject of the study was the status roles of men and women, taking into account their nationality (Americans), characterized from the standpoint of the speech manifestation of these roles in the texts of fiction by American authors (men and women) of the late 20th century. Research hypothesis: the gender of the author is an essential factor in the creative reproduction of the speech of characters, and there is a certain perception of genders in the speech of each other.  An attempt is made to present a model of a gendered speech portrait of the Americans status role and to reveal the dependence degree of it on the gender of the author.

9. Marina Knyazeva

Journalism Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Galya Gallywood: A Russian Reporter in Hollywood

Galina Galkina, a graduate of the Journalism Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University, a successful journalist of the Soviet and post-Soviet times, worked as a correspondent for Kommersant Publishing House, Trud newspapers, etc. For family reasons, in the mid-1990s she emigrated to America and there she also successfully took place as a journalist. Now her specialization has been the coverage of Hollywood life events. The first thing that Galina Galkina came into contact with in America was the Russian mafia, then the corporate communities, but she worked hard to maintain her professional level and status. All these years, she has covered Hollywood for popular publications – the magazines Elle and Snob, the newspapers Trud, Kommersant, etc. Galina did not break relations with the profession and the professional environment in Russia and became one of the leading observers and reporters about the life of Hollywood. Based on the materials of her Hollywood interviews and reports, a book was published. Every year, she keeps track of events on the “Red carpet” and all the Hollywood premieres, delivering first-hand information to the Russian reader. This is how her Internet nickname Galya Gallywood has developed, acting to this day. Galina seeks to illuminate not only the outer, but also the internal, working reality of the life of the acting characters in the world of modern American cinema.

10. Nadezhda Azhgihina

Journalism Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Russian Women Writers and Journalists in the USA

Russian writers in the US already created a rather vivid community directing their activities both at Russian and at American audiences.  Sone new generation authors, started after the collapse of the USSR, experience writing in both languages ( Polina Barskova, Matvey Yankelevich etc), and present new cultural phenomenon.  At the same time, many Russian language authors focus on traditional Russian publications Novy Zhurnal, Novoye Russkoe Slovo (Alexander Genuis, Marina Temkin, Alexandra Sviridova). Women’s writing in Russian in the US  reflects both American and Russian trends in the re-thinking of gender roles and discussions on gender.  It contributes at the same time into general International intellectuals debates on hot issues.
The paper will focus on Russian language publications and reviews in American media.

Section 6.  Fantastic in the Arts

Coordinator Senior Researcher Larisa Mikhaylova (Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State Department, Russia)

1. Aliya Khalil Ahmadova

Azerbaijan University of Languages, Baku, Azerbaijan

Cross-cultural Dialogues in Richard Powers’ Eco-fiction The Overstory

Contemporary literature has an amorphous nature. Studying and investigating advanced literary strategies in modern times, put light on the differences based on non-stability in text structures. One of the numerous literary innovations of the 21st century is the rebirth of Eco-literature. This research project aims to study Eco-fiction and its narrative strategies in the contemporary American literature. From this viewpoint, Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory (2018) deals with life experiences of nine environmentalists, whose love of nature conjoins their unrelated life stories around the eco practical affairs. Powers constructs the model of diverse community in America. All of his characters who come together for the protection of nature are different in origin – American-Norwegian, Chinese-Muslim-American, Indian American and others. On the one hand, Powers gives place to cross-cultural dialogues of his multicultural characters in the novel, dealing with their family trees, cultural roots, ancestors, and how they became Americans. In this sense, the author portrays America as home of cultural diversity. On the other hand, Powers’ novel touches upon occult mysteries of nature, ways of trees communication and an important mission of living nature in human life. At this point, the paper attempts to define the philosophical approaches of Richard Powers’ Eco-fiction, which underpins this study with narrative materials. The objective of the paper is to define Eco-fictional narrative strategies in American literature by means of this novel. The author tries to visualize invisible aspects of the Earth through bio-cultural approaches, showing the existence of “overstory” within our stories. Research findings indicate that in The Overstory Richard Powers deals with metaphysical aspects of environmentalism in human life. His Eco-fiction is mediated for creating an environmental awareness through the life of trees.

2. Larisa Mikhaylova

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State Department, Russia

Alternate Reality for Immigrants and Presidents Today: SF Series Graves (2016-2017), Designated Survivor (2016-2019), Madam Secretary (2014-)

Despite the definite anti-immigrant policy of the real present American president Trump, this unfriendly political climate stimulated the appearance of several science fiction TV projects in the alternative history genre depicting a different attitude to conducting politics in the country.

In Graves, which started in 2016 when the dangers of uncivil and outwardly hostile to immigrants Trump’s rhetoric became obvious to progressively-minded people, the central character is a former two term Republican president (a cross between Reagan and George W. Bush) lauded by conservatives for his regressive, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-environment – basically anti anything good, policies which have wreaked havoc on the country. He is .played by Nick Nolte, doing the best work in his career, according to many critics said, as he managed to express in a persuading and touching way Graves’ epiphany when twenty years out of office he realizes what a genuinely horrible president he was. Wracked with regret and on a constant verge of a nervous breakdown, he embarks on an odyssey of redemption all to the consternation of his respectable Republican wife, played by Sela Ward. His Don Quixote-like journey includes greeting Mexican immigrants at his residence and standing with Native Americans against building a highway of his name through their lands. Series logo reads: “Ex-president. New terms”.

Comedic aspect completely disappears in alternate realities of Designated Survivor and Madam Secretary, which indirectly but in a very pronounced way juxtapose actions of patriotic and conscientious persons who are placed at the crucial executive post in the USA with those perpetrated today by Trump administration. Both series are also permeated with allusions to House of Cards on the aspects of checks and balances and to West Wing on information policies and responsibility of the public servants to the society. 

3. Anastasia Kalyan

Journalism Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Multicultural Image of Spider-Man in the 21st Century

The study examines the multicultural image of Spider-Man. One of the main aspects of the study is the influence of ethnic minorities in the United States on the image of the superhero. Traditionally, Spider-Man is a white teenager who has become a hero. Today, however, a superhero can be not only a simple teenager, but also a representative of ethnic minorities, as the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) demonstrates.  This shows the influence of racial groups on American culture and society.

4. Yulia Khoroshevskaya

Rostov State Transport University, Russia

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee as a phenomenon of Asian American literature

The ethnic diversity of Asian American writers gives the reader the opportunity to get acquainted with the worldview of Asian immigrants and their descendants.Yoon Ha Lee – is a Korean born American writer. His first novel, Ninefox Gambit (2016), initiates the “Machineries of Empire” series and is an original synthesis of mathematics, Space Opera and Asian cultural heritage

Section 7. Canadian Dimension of American Culture

Coordinator Dr. Konstantin Romanov (Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)

1. Konstantin Romanov

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Major Landmarks of American Immigration to Canada: Causes and Consequences

Active exchange of populations between colonies started in the early times of colonization of North America and the French-British rivalry for its territories. Migrations never stopped upon the creation of the USA and the Dominion of Canada: they proceeded with different levels of intensity. While the Canadian migration to the USA is well-studied, the south-north migration attracts considerably less scholarly attention. The study of the causes and social, economic and political consequences of different waves of these migrations may shed light on some important aspects of state and social development of both countries.

2. Valery Terin

MGIMO, Moscow, Russia

Marshall McLuhan on Canada as Cultural Counter-Environment to the United States

The presenter argues that to understand McLuhan’s musings properly, it is necessary to know his way of reasoning as that which should be conscientiously primary in the age of global communications. Moreover, that approach allows us, as a result, to reveal comprehensively the global interrelations networks, which are increasingly meaningful for the cultural developments of both Canada and the United States.

McLuhan transforms the literary analytical techniques into quite a different kind of understanding to grasp reality with regard to the principle of simultaneity as governing in the “electric age.

Following thus his technique of comprehensive analysis, M. McLuhan adopted the term “massage” to denote the effect of each communication medium on the human sensorium as a whole, taking inventory of the “effects” of numerous media in terms of how they “massage” the sensorium.

Marshall McLuhan shows the major cultural relationships between Canada and the U.S.A. correspondingly:

“As the U.S.A. becomes a world environment through its resources, technology, and enterprises, Canada takes on the function of making that world environment perceptible to those who occupy it.” (The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects Paperback by Marshall McLuhan (Author), Quentin Fiore (Author), Jerome Agel (Collaborator). 1967). To add a more recent source, according to columnist Margaret Wente, who also regards Canada’s role as that of a counter-environment, “Americans have been turning more Canadian.” (See http://tinyurl.com/oj475x6)

A question also arises as to how long Canada will actually continue to be a favorable counter-environment to the U.S.A.

3. Marina Pereverzeva

Russian State Social University, Moscow Russia

Historical Сontribution of Immigrant Composers to Canadian Music Culture

The National Composer School of Canada reached its height in the second half of the 20th century, gaining “musical independence” later than other countries because the self-determination of this relatively young state in the world community took place in the first half of the century, but the most favorable conditions for the development of art, when Canadian music could enter the world music scene, developed in its second half. Like the United States, Canada is a country of immigrants whose role in developing the country’s musical culture is undeniable. After World War II, O. Moravec, I. Anhalt, T. Kenins, R. Johnston, O. Joachim, and W. Kazemets immigrated to Canada, becoming major composers of the country. Since the 1960s M. Forsit, D. Healy, R. Riesling, Y. Wilson and many other composers who have become famous in Canada and abroad wrote the music and taught at the largest universities. Learning about certain traditions that came to the New World from all over the world, Canadian music has acquired an identity, manifested in characteristic stylistic trends, genre preferences, compositional solutions, a kind of assessment and rethinking of the world artistic heritage. By learning new stylistic idioms, the authors sought to give their works a unique Canadian character. Some considered it is a nordic-restrained line of feelings and “cold” sound, while others considered it is more important for the public to adopt modern musical language and thus promote the creation and performance of works by Canadian composers. Canadians, giving their own assessment of certain fenomena, selectively learned the world heritage with a clear orientation towards Baroque and Classical-Romantic traditions. Hence, in Canadian music there is such clarity and clearness of design, emotional stability, moderation of artistic means, compactness of thought presentation, rigour of form.

4. Natalia Karelina

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Indigenous tourism in Canada

  The subject of the research is the development of Indigenous tourism in Canada as one of the ways to preserve and develop the cultural heritage of its Indigenous peoples. Indigenous tourism in Canada – all tourism businesses majority owned, operated and / or controlled by First Nations, Métis or Inuit peoples that can demonstrate a connection and responsibility to the local Aboriginal community and traditional territory where the operation resides. Research period: the 1980s – to the present. The author pays special attention not only to the economic indicators of the tourism but also to the main Aboriginal activities suggested, Aboriginal businesses, the principles of their work and perspectives of their future development based on sustainable development and aimed at preserving their cultural traditions and languages. The results of the research show a permanent increase in Indigenous tourism in Canada, a growing interest of both tourists and Aboriginal peoples. The main reasons for this development are the tourists desire to get new cultural experiences and knowledge and the aim of Aboriginal peoples to improve their socio-economic situation and support their development following traditional ways. That is why every year the number of Aboriginal workers employed and revenue-generating activities are increasing. Such an experience can be used for the development of small Indigenous peoples in Russia’s regions.

Presentation of a new monograph

E. E. Grigorieva, A. L. Demchuk, P. S. Shulga

PROVINCES AND TERRITORIES OF CANADA

The book presents a comprehensive description of the ten provinces and three territories of modern Canada, including a brief history of formation and features of the historical development of each region of the country, a detailed description of geography, climate, natural resources, population structure (including ethnic composition), economy sectors (mining and manufacturing, energy, transport, agriculture, export and import specifics), the system of government, political institutions and processes, scientific and educational sphere (universities and other educational institutions, research centers), places of interest and culture.

The extensive statistical data, maps and photographs available in the publication, as well as information about the most famous people of each province and territory (outstanding pioneers and travelers, statesmen and public figures, scientists and inventors, writers and artists, athletes and actors who have brought fame and glory not only to their province and territory, but also to the entire Canada, who have contributed to the world scientific and cultural heritage) help to provide for more complete and vivid representation of the regions of Canada.

Section 8. Geography of the US and Spatial Aspects of American Culture

Coordinator Dr. Ruslan Dokhov (Geography Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)

1. Alexei Novikov

Habidatum, Moscow, Russia

The “footprints” and “shadows” of federalism on the American soil, or what makes federalism in the U.S. American?

The bizarre demarcation lines of the American states are nothing else but the “traces” of a powerful social process unfolding in the U.S. during the 19th century. Its direct result is the American federalism, which casts “shadows” and leaves “traces” in modern American society.

American federalism itself is a product of direct application of the European philosophy of “natural law” in setting up the US state system against the background of social conflicts between the East and the West and the North and the South.

Circumstances of its origin are the essence of its political construction — fear of direct democracy, public responsibility as a condition of equality, conflict as a fuel for progressive movement, compromise as an important public goal.

The almost impossible has happened: European aristocratic thinkers, political tribunes, frontiersmen and slave-owners have come to an agreement with each other and created a public goodwill project. The founding fathers of the United States, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, actively quoted Charles Montesquieu in The Federalist Papers and used his views in their political arguments.

The idea of equal status but legally separated functions of governments, which in Russia is often called with indignation “dual power”, has been put into practice and has become the basis of a well-established system of “checks and balances”, American political pragmatism, and ultimately a source of American political sanity.

The projection of this system of views on the territory gave at least a geometric “grid” of American states, a gridiron in American cities, a “melting pot” buzz metaphor and a “no taxation without representation” movement”. But not only…

Why would an American student paint the structure of American power not vertically (top-down: federation — states — districts — municipalities — citizens), but horizontally (all governments next to each other are on the same level, and above them a citizen who emits rays of power)? Isn’t it because federalism has become a “cultural code” that can be used to predict developments and answer to many questions?

As Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “the social order usually emerges as a consequence of an event, sometimes established by law, and most of it is a combination of these two circumstances. However, as soon as it is formed, it itself begins to generate most of the laws, customs and attitudes that determine the behavior of the nation.

2. Pavel Rachev

Geography Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Electoral geography of the US metropolitan areas: cultural regions or economic determinism?

Urban population in the United States grows and the urban-rural dichotomy fades into the background while «the core — suburbs» dichotomy taking its place. There are many important political events occur in continuously built-up urban areas today. At the same time, the electoral landscape of the United States is polarizing: political preferences and the views of urban residents are becoming more pronounced, and they are reflected on the map. If earlier it was possible to study the territorial distribution of people’s political views in the context of counties and even states, now this is not enough. The electoral geography of the United States dives lower — to the polling stations and voting precincts. Only through these optics we can see and analyze the features of political views territorial distribution of the population in US agglomerations. Political preferences of the US agglomerations residents are formed under the influence of a number of socio-economic and cultural factors, such as personal income, unemployment rate, the share of migrants, etc. Studying the distribution of these factors within 392 metropolitan areas in the USA will help to understand the essence of the political processes in the country. From the report, we can understand why people in San Francisco and in the other California agglomerations vote mainly for Democrats and in Oklahoma City — for Republicans? What are the “swing states” and why the struggle for votes in these states is most important for candidates? And which agglomerations caused the presidency of Donald Trump in 2016?

3. Sergey Sarkisyan

Geography Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

US Regional Political Cultures: An Analysis of Sustainability over the Past 100 Years

The research is based on the results of the presidential elections from 1912 to 2016 at the state level. It analyzes changes in the political agenda of parties, identifies historical and geographical patterns of voting (at the state level) in presidential elections, as well as modern features and trends of voting. According to the results of the presidential elections from 1912 to 2016, a hierarchical cluster analysis was made in the SPSS Statistics program. On the basis of which, 13 types of States were identified for their electoral support. Most of these types form districts. Maps are built according to the selected types. To assess the current situation, as well as to identify the key (fluctuating) states, the so-called “swing-states”, the research also analyzes the last five presidential elections. During the period from 1912 to 2016, the political situation and electoral sentiments of citizens in the United States have changed repeatedly. A key turning point was the 1960s, when the political agendas of the parties were almost reversed. For a long time, racial segregation was an important issue, but now the US has almost succeeded in defeating racism. Some states form types or districts with characteristic electoral features. For example, some types are characterized by a liberal agenda, while others, on the contrary, are very conservative. Many of these areas coincide with the districts allocated by L.V. Smirnyagin. One of the main conclusions of the study is that in addition to the growth of polarization of society on a small scale, described by B. Bishop in his work “the big sort”, now there is also an increase in polarization of society at the state level: in some states, Republicans are gaining more popularity, in others more vote for Democrats

4. Ruslan Dokhov

Geography Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Florida as a focus of regionalization: spatial structure, regional culture, external influences

Florida as a geographic region provides an amazing example of an exclave area on a contiguous and dense map of US complex regions. Throughout the 20th century, in the regionalization systems of a number of American geographers, Florida have not always been understood as a separate from the adjacent Deep South entity. The situation changed radically with the beginning of the rapid post-war development of Florida’s south. In just two decades, the high-tech clusters of the Space, the super concentration of new internal and external migrants on the Gold Coast, the all-American Treasure Coast “nursing home” have appeared. An amazing cultural and economic spatial mix has shaped from Miami and Key West in the south to Orlando in the north, so strikingly different from the northern part of the state (the organic extension of the cultures of the Deep South and the Gulf) in its ethnic, racial, political and economic conditions. The explosive population growth due to migration from the Northern states and Latin America led to the skewed demographic structure of the population and the extreme fragmentation of the internal ethnic geography of the Miami agglomeration. The internal structure of the “Coasts” sub regions (and not only them) continues to evolve, but the internal parts of the peninsula, which underwent a rapid agrarian transformation in the middle of the 20th century with the formation of a citrus growing agricultural area, continue to maintain “suppressed” Southerness, only being fragmentarily drawn into economic and cultural interactions with quickly “scattering” banks.

5. Ivan Alov

Geography Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Black Belt as a region of contemporary American society: the internal structure and diversity of images

The Black Belt has been attracting the interest of the researchers of the U.S. regions since the 19th century. Since that time the region and the American society on the whole has transformed greatly: The Civil War had ended, slavery had been abolished, agricultural production had been mechanized, the urbanization process had accelerated sharply and racial discrimination is becoming a thing of the past. The Black Belt name is still evoking certain territorial associations among researchers and Americans. Generally, the territory of the Black Belt is understood as an aggregate of rural, poor and predominantly African American counties of Southern states (between Virginia and Texas as a rule). However, there is still no consensus on the issue of delimitation of the region. Usually the Black Belt is perceived as something uniform, centerless and devoid of periphery. However, the region (as any other region of the U.S.) has a structure that determines its development. We can use quantitative methods of analysis because rich theoretical base of the Black Belt studies allows us to compose an exhaustive list of parameters with which we can identify its centers and periphery, as well as clearly delimitate it from other regions. The Black Belt is also of interest as a collection of vivid and recognizable images that distinguish it from other regions of the country. The most important of them are associated with regional culture — primarily music. It was here that one of the key musical genres of the 20th century was born — the blues, which gave rise to almost all the popular trends of modern music. Blues-specific images that reflect both the domestic and religious aspects of the region’s life allow us to better understand the culture of the Black Belt. The personalities of the musicians of this genre are also very characteristic, many of which transferred the mental images of the region far beyond its borders during the migration to the North-Eastern and Midwestern cities. In the framework of this report, we will try using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to delimit the Black Belt, identify the internal spatial logic of the region, describe the key mental images of local culture and their role in shaping the image of the region.

6. Dmitry Samitov

Russian Institute of Theatre Arts — GITIS, Moscow, Russia

US Geography and Regional Theaters: Problems of the Formation and Development of Nonprofit Theatres

Nonprofit regional theatres founded in the second half of the 20th century, including American Repertory Theatre from Boston, Goodman Theater from Chicago, Guthrie Theater from Minneapolis, Seattle Repertory Theater, Alley Theater from Houston and many others, determine their appearance on the US geographical map by political, artistic, organizational and economic reasons. A big role in promoting non-profit theaters belonged to the states and municipalities due to the decentralization of the country. Local authorities have played a significant role in supporting the diversity of artistic aspirations of nonprofit drama theatres. However, without the implementation of the national cultural policy of the United States of America, the development of regional theatres would be impossible. Despite their claims to exclusiveness, each of these theatres has common characteristics of all American nonprofit theatres as well as individual features which determine the way they function and earn income. Regional theaters, created throughout the country mainly in the 50s and 70s of the 20th century, have an individual artistic vision and carry out a long-term creative program within their region. The role of nonprofit repertoire theatres in the United States of America in various cities over the past few decades has not diminished, but has strengthened. The idea of a model of the repertoire theatre, traditional for Russia, changing in different regional companies, confirms its viability and vitality.

7. Polina Streltsova

Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism,

Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

Modern Processes of Formation of Manhattan’s Intraurban Vernacular Regions: Influence of realtors and developers

This study gives a new insight at the processes that construct the cultural landscape of US cities. The landscape of the city is daily “redrawn” by various actors. This process occurs, in particular, through the creation of new regions. In the classic sense, the vernacular region is a product of the consciousness of the local community, which arises endogenously. However, recently there has been an increasing tendency to design and create an image and portrait of the region from the outside through the work of realtors, developers and other parties concerned. The proportion of regions created in this way is small. The success and degree of implementation of real estate agent practices depends on local residents and how much the new brand can capture the local consciousness. A reproducible methodology has been created and tested for the identification and mapping of vernacular regions based on data from social networks. Using this method, a map of Manhattan’s vernacular regions was constructed. Seven Manhattan realtor vernacular regions were identified, maps of their distribution were constructed, and their analysis was carried out according to the genesis, stage of development and degree of manifestation in the urban landscape and public consciousness.

8. Daria Shubina

Graduate School of Urbanism, Higher School of Economics, Russia

«Smart city» or «Smartness» of the City: the effectiveness of use of urban innovations in the USA

The ‘smart city’ projects already exist in all parts of the world. The physical presence of technologies is not the key to make a city ‘smart’. Significantly more important – whether citizens use a technological solution or not. The paper raises questions about the utility of technology in solving urban problems. The term ‘smartness’ is proposed as the notion reflecting the possibility to implement urban innovations. The main purpose of the work is to identify the features of ‘smartness’ distribution in the metropolitan areas of the United States. We have established:

 1) Complementarity of the identified factors of ‘smartness’; 2) The concentration of high potential for the urban technologies introduction in the United States was found in the scientific centers of the country with the parallel development of innovative services; 3) The average level of correlations between the ‘smartness’ index and Florida’s ‘creativity’ index and GDP per capita was found. It is concluded that the high level of wellbeing and creativity of citizens affect the desired characteristic with the same force. 4) ‘Smartness’ types of metropolitan areas were allocated. Also, we found the regional distribution peculiarities in the United States; 5) Despite the fact that technology should theoretically negate the advantages, the greatest values of ‘smartness’ in the United States are very concentrated in space. This observation once again confirms the importance of geography in a post-industrial society

9. Alina Kuchieva, Mariana Karmova

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Russia

The Comparative Research of the Glocalisation of Densely and Sparsely Populated States of America in the Era of Digital Innovations

The processes of globalization and localization are internally interconnected. The movement from an “average” measure usually leads in two opposite directions at once — “macro” and “micro”. One of the pressing issues of the 21st century is whether the integration process will take place on the way to the world government or whether there will be a sharp separation of ethnic and religious groups, cultural traits? Glocalism is a strategy of combining global and local interests and orientations (in politics, economics, culture, etc.). At the ruling top of the United States, there is a growing understanding that the policy of pure globalism, i.e. the onset of pan-Americanism on the entire front, is facing increasing resistance in the world. However, one cannot return to the old protectionist model — the isolation of the United States. There is a need for a more flexible strategy of glocalism, which would implement the global interests of the U.S. taking into account the peculiarities of national cultures and political elites not only in all states of America, but in different countries of the whole world.

10. Alexei Prokofyev

Institute of Earth Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Russia

Spatial features of the assimilation of European ethnic groups in the United States in the late XX — early XXI centuries

The study examines the processes of assimilation of the six largest ethnic groups of European ancestry between 1980 and 2015 based on three indicators:

1. inter-ethnic marriages;
2. the dynamics of the number of group representatives; and
3. the use of the national language as a spoken at home.

Based on these indicators, state typologies were proposed according to the intensity of assimilation processes and the achieved level of assimilation for the considered ethnic groups. The indicators considered in the work can be conditionally divided into “dynamic” and “static” and based on their analysis, the types of territories can be distinguished by the nature of the assimilation processes course. «Dynamic» indicators consider the speed (intensity) of the ethnic assimilation process, and «static» — the result achieved by a certain time. Two dynamic indicators were chosen:

1. the dynamics of the number of ethnic group representatives and
2. the dynamics of the share of heterogeneous representatives from 1980 to 2015.

For each group, these indicators were ranked from the lowest to the highest. Then, for each ethnic group, four state groups were allocated based on the ranking, where each state, depending on the group, was assigned values from one to four. The unit was assigned to states with a low increase in the share of mixed representatives and a high growth of the ethnic group representatives number, which indicates a low rate of assimilation in the state for the reviewed period. The four corresponded to the states with a lowest representatives of the ethnic group growth rate (or negative, depending on the particular ethnic group) and the fastest growth of heterogeneous representatives in the period under review, which indicates active processes of assimilation. Another version of the state typology — in “statics” — reflects the level of assimilation of the ethnic groups in question in 2015. Three indicators were chosen here:

1. the proportion of heterogeneous representatives,
2. the proportion of people using the national language as a spoken at home, and
3. the proportion of all representative ethnic groups in the state population.

The indicators were also ranked for each group from maximum to minimum. As a result of typologies, it was revealed that in the states of the West of the country there is a low intensity, but at the same time, a high level of assimilation achieved. The South of the USA is characterized by a low level of assimilation by 2015 and its low intensity over the period under review. The states of the Midwest cannot be characterized unambiguously, as there are wide differences by divisions — in the West North Central states can be noted a rather high intensity of the process and a fairly high level of assimilation, but the East North Central states are more similar to the states of the region Northeast. The Northeast is characterized by a low level of assimilation of the European population and high intensity of assimilation from 1980 to 2015. These features characterize the incompleteness of the process of assimilation in the Northeastern states and the fact that the “melting pot” of America in this region still has a lot of work to do.

11. Alexei Borzov

Pedagogical Institute, The Brothers Stoletov State University of Vladimir, Russia

Acculturation of Eastern Christianity in the “Bible Belt”: Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Communities in Tennessee

Traditionally, Orthodox Christianity in the United States was the faith of the immigrants and their descendants settled mostly in the North-Eastern coast, as well as in some urban centers of the Midwest and the Western Coast. During the present half-century the Eastern Orthodox have been increasing their presence in other regions of the U.S., especially in the American South, where, historically, immigrants from Eastern Europe, Balkans and Middle East (the major source of Eastern Orthodox diaspora) were far less numerous. On the one hand, the religious landscape in Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, is still dominated by several Baptist and Methodist denominations. Significant influence has been retained by conservative Evangelical Protestantism. For instance, the headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention — a large and influential Protestant denomination distinguished by conservative social teaching and doctrine — is situated in Nashville, “the Buckle on the Bible Belt”. On the other hand, in Tennessee, Eastern Orthodoxy was present since the early 20th century due to small communities of Greek and Arab immigrants. Currently, Nashville is a home for several vibrant and expanding Eastern Orthodox, Coptic (Egyptian) Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox congregations. This is a good case to study the acculturation of Eastern Christianity in the religious, cultural, racial, even socio-political milieu of the unique region — the Southern United States. Eastern Orthodox congregations have a large share of converts. Therefore, Orthodoxy has adopted here some elements typical not only of the U.S. in general, but also of “Dixie”: from a more democratic character of the parish governance and the congregation’s relations with bishop, peaceful and profitable coexistence of people with sharply different political views inside the parish, to the performance of country music in the churchyard during religious holidays. At the same time, Orthodoxy itself exerts a certain degree of influence on the local communities. Here we can see the parish’s outreach to some “difficult” teenagers from the local public school or setting up of the intellectual space for the congregation’s communication with non-Orthodox residents. The case with Coptic and Ethiopian parishes is different because there are no converts there. Still, their religious, economic and even political presence is visible in Nashville.