Forms and varieties of culture: folk, mass and elite culture; youth subculture

Today, there are a number of classifications of types and forms of culture, which should be briefly discussed.

The broadest understanding of culture implies that everything created by the hands and intellect of mankind (as opposed to the creations of nature) can be attributed to culture. Hence the division into material and spiritual culture, although it is rather arbitrary. The first includes the technical equipment of human economic activity, household items, clothing, any items that do not carry an additional semantic or value load, but perform a certain function. At the same time, today a person's clothing is not only designed to protect against the cold, but has many additional semantic loads - style, compliance with fashion trends, colors allow you to get a lot of additional information about addictions and lifestyle.

Thus, material culture is what is preserved in things, and spiritual culture is what accumulates, accumulates, stores and transmits the experience developed by previous generations. Spiritual production is the production of consciousness in a special social form, carried out by specialized groups of people professionally engaged in skilled mental labor. The main difference from material production lies in the general nature of consumption - spiritual values ​​do not decrease in proportion to the number of people, but are the property of all mankind.

Sometimes scientists distinguish the following elements of spiritual culture: works of monumental art (sculpture, architecture), theatrical art, fine arts (painting, graphics), music, various forms of social consciousness (ideological theories, philosophical, aesthetic, moral and other knowledge, scientific concepts and hypotheses), socio-psychological phenomena (public opinion, ideals, values, customs). More details about spirituality and the spiritual world of man will be discussed below.

According to another classification, directions are distinguished in which non-material human activity is realized: art, science, religion, morality. Here it is also difficult to speak of a strict separation of one from the other. So, the icon is both a shrine for believers and a work of art for many others, including non-religious people. There is an ethics of scientific work, which is based on activities for the benefit of man and based on humane principles. Therefore, medical experiments on people are prohibited, and fascist experiments on prisoners of concentration camps still remain one of the shameful pages in the history of mankind and science.

In human society, researchers distinguish several forms of culture. At all times, society has clearly distinguished elite, a high culture accessible to a select few - fine arts, classical music and literature, and folk culture, including fairy tales, folklore, songs and myths. The products of each of these cultures were intended for a specific audience, and this tradition was rarely broken.

Today, both elite and folk cultures have retained their admirers. We go to chamber concerts of classical music, attend screenings of low-budget films, and sometimes, together with friends, we go to small theaters for original performances. These are works of elite culture, the special quality of which is the complexity of visual means, language, the need for special preparation of the listener, the viewer for their perception. Folk culture is preserved and developed in the modern world. Many artists use folk motifs in their work. For example, the musicians of the popular rock band "Yu-Tu" rely in their work on the old Irish folklore. Russian musicians and artists also treat folk traditions and folklore with care. With the advent of the mass media (radio, press, television, records, tape recorders), the distinction between high and popular culture was erased.

Consider the main forms of culture in more detail.

Elite(in translation from French “the best, the chosen one”) or high culture is aimed at a narrow group of people versed in art, includes classical works, as well as the latest trends known to a narrow circle of knowledgeable people. In a certain sense, this is the culture of the so-called chosen ones, people with high education, spiritual aristocracy, self-sufficiency in values. Critics of this trend say that here art exists only for art, although it should be oriented towards a person, it closes in its small little world and in fact does not benefit humanity. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the circles of the Russian metropolitan intelligentsia, decadence became very popular as a trend that proclaimed a complete break with the surrounding reality, the opposition of art to real life. At the same time, there is a constant search for a new one, a creative understanding of ideals, values ​​and meanings, aesthetic freedom and commercial independence of creativity are assumed, the complexity and diversity of forms of artistic exploration of the world are reflected.

Folk or national culture presupposes the absence of personalized authorship, is created by the entire people. This includes myths, legends, dances, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs, proverbs, sayings, symbols, rituals, rituals and canons. Elements of folk culture can be individual (retelling of a legend), collective (performing a song) and mass (carnival processions). These works reflect the unique experience and specific character of a particular people (ethnos), everyday ideas, stereotypes of social behavior, cultural standards, moral norms, religious and aesthetic canons. Folk culture exists mainly in oral form, is characterized by homogeneity and traditionalism, based on people's ideas about themselves and the world around them. It can exist in 2 main forms - popular (describes modern life, customs, songs, dances) and folklore (referring to the past and its key points).

Bulk culture focuses primarily on commercial success and mass demand, satisfying any requirements of the masses of the population, and its products are hits that often live a very short creative life and are quickly forgotten, being forced out by a new stream of pop culture, and the momentary needs and demands of people become the guiding force of development. Naturally, at the same time, the works are focused on average standards and a typical consumer.

In our age of globalization with a tendency towards standardization (practically the traditional set of every major city in the world is a McDonald's restaurant, the same packaging of powders, toothpastes and products in stores, street and television advertisements similar to each other, often differing only in the language of the accompanying picture), culture is rapidly losing its individuality and exclusivity. It is increasingly focused on the brightness of external manifestations and entertainment, accustoms to lightweight interpretations of cultural ideals, simple solutions, actively uses the media, fashion and advertising. Assimilation of mass culture products does not require special training and education, figuratively speaking, it saturates the stomach, is easily and quickly digested, but does not contribute to spiritual growth.

The functioning of mass culture is determined by the phenomenon of consumption, and not by the need for spiritual development, self-improvement. The mass displaces the individual, and the herd and uniformity become guidelines for development. Modern literature, cinema, journalism are often focused on criminal, economic, political, love stories, but do not raise the so-called "eternal questions". The dominance of the products of the so-called mass culture today is one of the greatest dangers for the formation of spirituality.

Among the specific features of mass culture, the following can be distinguished: primitivization of relations between people; entertainment, amusingness, sentimentality; naturalistic savoring of scenes of violence and sex; the cult of success (mainly financial, material), a strong personality and a thirst for possession of things; the cult of mediocrity, the conventionality of primitive symbolism.

Mass culture practically unrelated to religious or class differences. Mass media and popular culture are inseparable from each other. A culture becomes "mass" when its products are standardized and distributed to the general public. A distinctive feature of the works of mass culture is their focus on commercial profit, satisfaction of mass demand. Today, we encounter mass culture almost every day. These are numerous series that are on television, talk shows, satirical concerts, variety performances. All that is literally brought down on us by the media.

We often hear the news: at the same time, in many countries of the world, a new blockbuster is coming out to cinema screens, a film on the production of which huge sums of millions and tens of millions of dollars were spent, a film saturated with computer special effects, in which all the roles are played by superstars. This is a typical product of modern mass culture. Popular all over the world artists, such as Madonna, often come to our country now. Her performance - the show - is also a product of mass culture. The epithet "mass" is by no means synonymous with "bad". It can be a very high-quality product of mass culture, solid, or maybe mediocre. As, however, and the product of any other culture.

It is important to understand that in the modern world it is increasingly rare to find a product of any one form of culture in its pure form. Most often, this is a mixture of cultural styles and genres. Folk works can be performed on modern musical instruments, acquire modern arrangements. Works of high classical art are also being transformed. It is only important that each work of culture serve the purposes of the spiritual enrichment of people, the development of the human personality.

In the modern world, scientists identify another form of culture - screen(culture created and transmitted by computer). An example of such a culture is computer games and virtual reality, which are so popular today among people of different ages.

In addition, in all societies there are many subgroups with their own specific cultural values ​​and traditions. The system of norms and values ​​that distinguishes a group from the rest of society is called subculture. One of the most common subcultures in the modern world is the youth subculture, which is distinguished by its language (slang) and behavior. A representative of such a subculture, seeing someone in fashionable clothes, will certainly say: “What an outfit!” He calls his parents "ancestors", and if something goes wrong, he will express himself: "It's all out of the box." Representatives of different subcultures understand each other well, but not everyone understands them. At the sight of a punk with pink or green hair or a shaved skin, a respectable middle-aged man in the street can only be indignant and notice that the world is going to hell and the end of the world should be expected soon.

Speaking about culture, we always turned to the person. But it is impossible to limit culture to an individual. Culture is addressed to him as a member of a certain community, a collective. Culture in many ways forms the collective, connects people with their departed ancestors, imposes certain obligations on them, and sets standards of behavior. Striving for absolute freedom, people sometimes rebel against established institutions, against culture. Having been imbued with revolutionary pathos, some people throw off the coating of culture. What then remains of the "reasonable man"? A primitive savage, a barbarian, but not liberated, but, on the contrary, shackled in the chains of his darkness. Rebelling against culture, a person thereby opposes everything that has been accumulated over the centuries, against himself, against his humanity and spirituality, loses his human appearance.

Spiritual culture plays an important role in the life of society, acting as a means of accumulation, storage and transfer of experience accumulated by people.
The ongoing transition in Russia from a totalitarian to a democratic state is accompanied by a deep crisis that has engulfed almost all spheres of public life. Its manifestations can also be observed in the field of spiritual culture (a change in spiritual values; a decrease in the general cultural level of the population; a low level of state funding for cultural and scientific centers; a weakness in the legal framework that would be designed to regulate cultural processes).

National culture. The community of a nation, a people is expressed in a special national culture. National culture is the values, norms and patterns of behavior that characterize the human community in a particular country, state. The symbols include: the national flag and coat of arms, clothing, sacred objects and places, common holidays and rituals; to beliefs: God or deities, sacred books, mythology, legendary heroes, commandments and prohibitions, special cult actions and priests; to values: moral attitudes, ideas about good and evil, attitude towards friendship and love; to norms: laws and traditions; to patterns of behavior: fashion, rules, stable turns of speech, games.

In most countries of the world, different national cultures interact. At the same time, there are various models of cohabitation. In some states, newcomers abandon their former ideas and views, accepting the attitudes that prevail in a given country (assimilation); in others, ethnic groups mix with each other and create a new type of common culture; thirdly, each group retains its own culture, and they coexist with each other. This or that option is chosen taking into account historical features, and it is impossible to say which one is better and which one is worse.

An important part of national culture is national self-consciousness - a set of views, assessments, opinions and attitudes that express the content, level and characteristics of the ideas of community members about their history, current state, and development prospects. In addition, each nation or people has its own folklore, songs and dances, art crafts. Consciously or unconsciously, they rely on folk art, express national values ​​and ideals. We can also talk about a special national mentality - a mindset, stereotypes and mindsets. The national culture is the most important heritage of our ancestors, therefore its preservation and development is not only the duty of the state, but also the business of every member of society.

Folk culture consists of two types - popular and folklore. Popular culture describes today's life, customs, songs, dances of the people, and folk culture describes its past. Legends, fairy tales and other genres of folklore were created in the past, today they exist as a historical heritage. Some of this heritage is being performed today, which means that in addition to historical legends, it is constantly replenished with new formations, for example, modern urban folklore.

The authors of folk creations are often unknown. Myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs and dances belong to the highest creations of folk culture. They cannot be attributed to an elitist culture just because they were created by anonymous folk creators. Its subject is the whole people, the functioning of folk culture is inseparable from the work and life of people. Its authors are often anonymous, works usually exist in a variety of versions, are passed orally from generation to generation.

In this regard, we can talk about folk art (folk songs, fairy tales, legends), folk medicine (medicinal herbs, conspiracies), folk pedagogy, etc. In terms of performance, elements of folk culture can be individual (reciting a legend), group (performing a dance or song ), mass (carnival processions). The audience of popular culture is always the majority of society. This was the case in traditional and industrial society, but the situation in post-industrial society is changing.

Elite culture inherent in the privileged strata of society, or consider themselves as such. It is distinguished by comparative depth and complexity, and sometimes by the sophistication of forms. Elite culture was historically formed in those social groups that had favorable conditions for familiarization with culture, a special cultural status.

An elite (high) culture is created by a privileged part of society, or by its order, by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is "art for art's sake". High culture, such as the painting of Picasso or the music of Bach, is difficult to understand for an unprepared person.

The circle of consumers of elite culture is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary critics, regular visitors to museums and exhibitions, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians. As a rule, high culture is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. In the case when the level of education of the population increases, the circle of consumers of high culture expands significantly.

Mass culture does not express the refined tastes or spiritual quests of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century. This is the time of the dissemination of the media (radio, print, television). Through them, it became accessible to representatives of all social strata - a "necessary" culture. Mass culture can be ethnic or national. Pop music is a vivid example of it. Mass culture is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.

Mass culture has less artistic value than elite or folk culture. But it has the largest and widest audience, since it satisfies the "momentary" needs of people, promptly responding to any new event in public life. Therefore, its samples, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete and go out of fashion.

This does not happen with works of elite and folk culture. High culture denotes the passions and habits of the ruling elite, while mass culture denotes the passions of the "bottom". The same types of art can belong to high and popular culture. Classical music is an example of high culture, and popular music is an example of mass culture. The situation is similar with the fine arts: Picasso's paintings represent high culture, and popular prints represent mass culture.

The same thing happens with concrete works of art. Bach's organ music belongs to high culture. But if it is used as musical accompaniment in figure skating, it is automatically included in the category of mass culture. At the same time, she does not lose her belonging to a high culture. Numerous orchestrations of Bach's works in the style of light music, jazz, or rock do not compromise the very high level of the author's work.

Mass culture is a complex social and cultural phenomenon characteristic of modern society. It became possible due to the high level of development of communication and information systems and high urbanization. At the same time, mass culture is characterized by a high degree of alienation of individuals, the loss of individuality. Hence the "idiocy of the masses", due to the manipulation and imposition of behavioral clichés through the channels of mass communications.

All this deprives a person of freedom and disfigures his spiritual world. In the environment of the functioning of mass culture, it is difficult to carry out the true socialization of the individual. Here, everything is replaced by standard consumption patterns that are imposed by mass culture. It offers averaged models of human inclusion in social mechanisms. A vicious circle is created: alienation > abandonment in the world > illusions of belonging to the mass consciousness > models of average socialization > consumption of samples of mass culture > "new" alienation.

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Elite (high) and folk (lower) culture. Authorship and anonymity, innovation and tradition. Mass culture as a phenomenon of the twentieth century. Prerequisites for the emergence of mass culture. Modern forms of mass culture, its mechanisms and principles. Culturological concepts of mass society: apologetic (T. Parsons, L. White) and socio-critical (F. Nietzsche, J. Ortega y Gasset, T. Adorno, M. McLuhan. E. Fromm). Mass culture as a parody of high culture (D. Macdonald). Forms of mass culture: mass art, mass media, mass social mythology, mass political movements, "industry of childhood". The need for a mass spectacle as an anthropological reality. Mass and crowd, mass and elite.

elite culture. Elite culture: depth, sophistication, refinement, narrow specialization, creativity, uniqueness, originality, disunity, individualism, misunderstanding and unwillingness to hear another. Image problem. The ideology of "art for art's sake". Elite culture and classical art. Kitsch as a loss of taste and as mass art for the elite.

Elite , or high, culture is created by a privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators. As a rule, elite culture is ahead of the level of its perception by an average educated person. The motto of the elite culture is "Art for Art's sake". A typical manifestation of aesthetic isolationism, the concept of "pure art" is the activity of the artistic association "World of Art".

elite culture.

The subculture of privileged groups about-va, characterized by a fundamental closeness, spiritual aristocracy and value-semantic self-sufficiency. Appealing to a select minority of his subjects, who, as a rule, are both its creators and addressees (in any case, the circle of both almost coincides), E.K. consciously and consistently opposes the culture of the majority, or mass culture in a broad sense (in all its historical and typological varieties - folklore, folk culture, official culture of a particular estate or class, the state as a whole, the cultural industry of technocratic. about -va 20th century, etc.). Moreover, E.k. needs a constant context of mass culture, since it is based on the mechanism of repulsion from the values ​​and norms accepted in mass culture, on the destruction of the prevailing stereotypes and patterns of mass culture (including their parody, ridicule, irony, grotesque, controversy, criticism, refutation), on demonstrative self-isolation in general, national culture. In this regard, E.k. - a characteristically marginal phenomenon within the framework of any history. or national type of culture and always - secondary, derivative in relation to the culture of the majority.

As the antipode of mass culture, many culturologists consider elite culture. The producer and consumer of elite culture is the highest privileged stratum of society - the elite (from the French elite - the best, selective, chosen). However, in philosophy and cultural studies, the understanding of elites as a special stratum of society endowed with specific spiritual abilities. There is an elite in every social class. The elite is the part of society most capable of spiritual activity, endowed with high moral and aesthetic inclinations. It is she who ensures social progress, therefore art should be oriented towards meeting her needs and needs. The main elements of the elitist concept of culture are already contained in the philosophical writings of A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche.

In his seminal work"The World as Will and Representation" A. Schopenhauer sociologically divides humanity into two parts: "people of genius"(that is, capable of aesthetic contemplation and artistic and creative activity) and "people of benefit"(i.e., focused only on purely practical, utilitarian activities).

In cultural concepts F. Nietzsche, formulated by him in his well-known works, the elitist concept manifests itself in the idea of ​​the “superman”. This "superman", having a privileged position in society, is endowed, according to F. Nietzsche, with a unique aesthetic susceptibility.

Art does not necessarily have to be popular, that is, it does not have to be universally understandable, universal. New art, on the contrary, should alienate people from real life.

Culturological theories that oppose mass and elite cultures to each other are a reaction to the processes that have developed in art. A typical manifestation of elite culture is the theory and practice of "pure art" or "art for art's sake", which has found its embodiment in a number of trends in Russian and Western European artistic culture. So, for example, in Russia at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the ideas of elite culture were actively developed and implemented by the artistic association"World of Art". The leaders of the "World of Art" were the editor of the magazine of the same name S. P. Diaghilev and the talented artist A. N. Benois. Diaghilev directly and openly declared the "self-endeavour" and "self-usefulness" of art, at the same time considering "truth in art." Focusing on the human personality, the leaders of "world of art" in the spirit of the elite cultural concepts of K. Leontiev and F. Nietzsche came to the absolutization of the personality of the creator. It was considered strictly necessary to have a special author's vision of reality in any pictorial and musical work.

This culture fundamentally appeals only to the elite. It does not strive to be understood by everyone: it is closed, hermetic, accessible only to outstanding people. Among the masses, the favorite is such art, in the center of attention of which is a person and his passions.

For a long time, the features of elite culture were considered "on the contrary", the starting point was mass culture. The unification and triviality of the latter is opposed by the elite culture with originality and individuality in search of new artistic solutions; simplicity and accessibility - closedness and encryption of cultural codes; a minimum of visual means - the widest range of means of expression, etc.

But the main difference between elite culture and mass culture is that elite culture is truly creative: it is here that new cultural forms are created and ways of further development are determined. The famous "Ulysses" by J. Joyce, the works of G. Hesse and H. L. Borges, the French "new novel"; paintings by P. Picasso, K. Malevich, V. Kandinsky; films by A. Tarkovsky, A. Sokurov, J. Jarmusch, P. Greenway; the music of J. Cage and E. Denisov is an example of this.

In the elite component of culture, there is an approbation of what, after years, will become a public classic, and possibly move into the category of trivial art (to which researchers include the so-called "pop classics" - "Dance of the Little Swans" by P. Tchaikovsky, "The Seasons "A. Vivaldi, for example, or some other overly replicated work of art). Time erases the boundaries between mass and elite cultures. What is new in art, which today is the lot of a few, in a century will be understood by a much larger number of recipients, and even later may become a commonplace in culture.

Unlike the elite folk culture created by anonymous creators with no professional training. Folk culture is also called amateur (but not by level, but by origin), or collective. In terms of their execution, elements of folk culture can be individual (retelling of a legend), group (singing a song, dancing), mass (carnival processions). Another name for folk culture is folklore. It is always localized, as it is connected with the traditions of the given area, and democratic, since everyone who wishes participates in its creation.

Mass culture does not express the refined tastes of the aristocracy or the spiritual quest of the people. Its greatest scope begins in the middle of the 20th century, when the mass media penetrated most countries. The mechanism of distribution of mass culture is directly related to the market. Its products are intended for consumption by the masses. This art is for everyone, and it must take into account their tastes and needs. Anyone who pays can order their own "music".

Mass culture can be international and national. As a rule, it has less artistic value than the elite or folk. But unlike elite culture, mass culture has a larger audience, and in comparison with popular culture, it is always authorial. It is designed to satisfy the momentary needs of people, reacts to any new event and seeks to reflect it.

The serial nature of its products has a number of specific features:
primitivization of relations between people;
entertainment, amusingness, sentimentality;
naturalistic savoring of violence and sex;
a cult of success, a strong personality, a thirst for possession of things;
the cult of mediocrity, the conventionality of primitive symbolism.

The presented specific features are due to the fact that mass culture is based on archetypes. (From the Greek Arche - beginning and typos - image; in the analytical psychology of K. Jung, an unconscious form of perception of the fundamental structures of everyday life: love, violence, happiness, labor, etc.). These archetypes include the unconscious interest of all people in eroticism and violence. And this interest is the basis for the success of mass culture and its works. Nevertheless, samples of mass culture quickly lose their relevance, go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of folk and elite culture.

ChapterIII. Culture folk, elite and mass

Substantial- essential, basic (from lat. substantia essence), functional(from lat. function activity, departure), activity.

As already emphasized in previous sections of the tutorial, culture is a man-made second, i.e. artificial nature (Hegel). First, natural, nature without man, lies outside culture and does not know it. The complex, multifaceted, multifaceted world of culture is " cultivated" , "nurtured" human habitat, created through various forms and methods of their activities and saturated with a variety of products (results) of this activity. Every culture on the planet embodies a specific set of ways of social practice, which always corresponds to the specific historical type of society. Culture exists in life, in history, in time and, therefore, in development only thanks to people.. This means that culture is a characteristic of human society, its people, past (history) and present. It is possible to study any culture, counting on success, only in organic unity with the corresponding type of society, the life and activities of people.

Subject

(creator, bearer, keeper) of culture and its structural differentiation

But not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance. First, culture, on the one hand, acts as a complex and interconnected integrity, and on the other hand, how the totality of many cultural elements that make up its structure (structure), a functioning organism. The whole set of elements of culture is usually divided into two "blocks": substantial And functional. The morphological study of these "blocks" that make up the structure of culture, according to scientists, involves several interrelated areas of research activity:

Morphology- (from the Greek. morphe- form, logos- concept, doctrine) - the science (doctrine) about the regularities of the structure, the processes of shaping phenomena, organisms in their development.

1) genetic – the birth and formation of cultural forms;

2) historical – dynamics of cultural forms and configurations in historical time scales;

3) microdynamic – the dynamics of contemporary cultural forms (within the lifetime of three generations);

4) structural-functional– principles and forms of organization of cultural objects and processes in accordance with the tasks of meeting the needs, interests and demands of members of society;

5) technological– distribution of cultural potential in the physical and socio-cultural space.

Subject(lat. subjectus ­– underlying visa, underlying) - the carrier of subject-practical activity and cognition (an individual or a social group), a source of activity directed at an object. An object(lat. objectum – subject) - something that opposes the subject and what the subject-practical and cognitive activity is aimed at.

Secondly, when studying the phenomenon of culture, the question inevitably arises about its subject, i.e. about who creates, stores, reproduces and transmits it in time and space. Thirdly, there is a problem object- what and how, how is created in the world of culture. In cultural studies, objects, mechanisms, methods of their creation, use, preservation of cultural achievements and experience are usually called " cultural text».

cultural text- this is not a text in the usual sense (i.e., a written, graphic text). Under cultural text understood: lifestyle, socio-normative, household, aesthetic, artistic and other ideas, practical skills, beliefs, knowledge, etc., as well as the objective environment (housing, tools, household utensils).

Thus, culture exists and develops as a living organism as long as man is active. He is the end and the means, the beginning and the result of its functioning. A person creates, transforms, preserves, distributes, consumes the material and spiritual products of culture. . But he does not create culture alone: ​​human life and activity are collective in nature and therefore involve interaction between the participants (creators) of the social process. Starting with the reproduction of the family and the upbringing of offspring, including all forms of joint action and ending with the game, a person acts in relationships with other people. Therefore, the main ("general") subject (creator) of culture, as well as history itself and all social life, is a people that creates, preserves, and multiplies the whole diversity of cultural values. But the people are not a faceless, frozen homogeneous mass, but a complex social formation with its own organization and hierarchical structure (gender and age, settlement, property, socio-professional-cultural, etc.). In it, in the course of the historical process, various social groups, layers, classes are formed, which, in turn, also act as subjects in the creation of diverse cultural phenomena that ultimately form eventually complex holistic system - culture.

The Structure of Culture: Substantial and Functional "Blocks"

"Block" substantive

"Block" functional

Sloboda- a suburban area.

Consideration of such a complex and diverse phenomenon as culture requires systematization, generalization of the material, its typology. The concept of "type" (from the Greek.typos- an imprint, a model for a group of phenomena) is used to designate a set of phenomena, processes, united on the basis of common features, properties, signs (criteria) of cultural phenomena. This is an ideal, abstract category, but in a generalized, schematized form it points to the essential, repetitive (typical) features of real cultures, abstracting from their specific features. The main condition for typologization is the unity of the criterion. For example, in terms of territorial affiliation, one can distinguish urban, rural, suburban cultural varieties; based on the way of transmitting cultural experience, skills, knowledge, we can talk about a specialized ( professional) and non-specialized ( unprofessional) culture, etc.

From the point the view of the carrier - the subject of culture, you can get different structural options.

By nationality, these are:

- ethnic,

- national,

- World culture;

according to the socio-cultural criterion:

- folk

- elite

- mass and many other variants of culture.

In the modern world, various types of culture function, coexist in parallel, having their carriers-subjects, their own cultural texts, and distinctive features. This makes the culture heterogeneous, diverse. In its complex structure, scientists identify and analyze, first of all, the main typological varieties:

- folk culture

- elite

- mass.

Each of them is characterized by its own characteristics (cultural texts, speakers, etc.) and differences. Thus, the following table indicates the differences in carriers that ultimately determine one or another type of culture, its specific features.

Folk culture, its subject and

distinctive features

Folk culture throughout the long history of mankind has been and remains the basis, the foundation of the entire diverse socio-cultural system, of every community on Earth, of world civilization as a whole. Folk culture (or traditional, unprofessional, folklore) is historically the first " basic» a typological variety of cultural activities of people. It is created by the people themselves and passed down from generation to generation in the process of joint life and activity through traditions, oral tradition and education. The people are its great creator, bearer and custodian: he is not only a force that creates all material values, he is the only, inexhaustible source of spiritual values, the first philosopher and poet in time, beauty and genius of creativity, who created all the great poems, all the tragedies of the earth and the greatest of them - the history of culture().

Folk culture is a multifaceted, multifaceted phenomenon. It includes in its composition (content) a variety of achievements and accomplishments:

§ people's worldview and understanding of the world (ideas, meanings, ideas, knowledge about nature, about the world as a whole, about man, etc.), value orientations and aspirations;

§ way of life and way of life, applied empirical knowledge and skills in the sphere of material production;

The result of creativity acquires an independent existence and orientation towards the audience (consumers), which shares the creative attitudes of the authors and makes special demands on professionalism, skill level, unique author's style, figurative vision in art, original approaches and solutions in science and technology . This necessitates special training within the framework of artistic, aesthetic, scientific, technical, ethical, legal, political, etc. creativity. The author's originality, skill, talent is always a "piece goods". Creativity becomes authorial in all types of activity, including material production, but in artistic creativity: literature, painting, sculpture, music, etc., it is especially significant.

Esoteric (esoterikos- internal) secret, hidden.

Elite culture in the narrow sense sometimes understood as a subculture: fundamentally closed areas, directions, trends, focused on a narrow circle of connoisseurs and supporters with a pronounced orientation towards experiment, innovation. This is the result of the specialization of labor, the stratification of society. In this case, the elite culture is “sovereign”, sometimes opposed to the national culture, isolated from it to a certain extent. It manifests itself in intellectual (scientific, philosophical, religious, etc.) and especially artistic activity. The range of such trends in art is quite wide. : impressionism, abstractionism, futurism, cubism and other modernist movements, etc. It is characterized by relative closeness, esotericism, develops its own norms, ideals, language, sign systems. Despite their essential differences, there is reason to talk about the commonality of ideological and aesthetic positions:

§ the complexity of the language, the figurativeness of structures, innovativeness;

§ individualization and rigidity of the system of norms, values ​​accepted by this direction as mandatory for the "initiates";

§ the complication of the socio-cultural, sign-semantic system, its deliberately subjective character;

§ semantic closeness, isolation of the elite culture, its "sacralization" (sanctification), "esotericization".

Within this kind of elitist culture, especially its artistic trends, there was a contrast between academic traditionalism and avant-gardism (avant-gardism is a collective name for tendencies that denied realism, proclaimed the independence of art from reality, rebellion against traditions, their destruction, the relentless search for new ideas, technologies, meanings - in science, technology, art, etc.).

Spanish philosopher J. Ortega y Gasset substantiates the expediency of this kind of currents by the fact that art should alienate people from real life . The artist "sets the goal of defiantly deforming reality, breaking it, breaking the human aspect, dehumanizing it" . These goals are realized to some extent within the framework of modernist trends.

Prospects for elite areas may be different.

Ø First, their democratization is possible through inclusion in a wider socio-cultural context. An example is the convergence of Russian noble culture with folk culture, which gave the world original national art of the 19th century.

Ø Secondly, it is possible to close in a narrow circle of like-minded people on the basis of creative experiments, deepening into the world of subjective ideas, intuitive insights and, as a result, detachment from life realities, from a person, for example, surrealism (superrealism), suprematism, etc.

Elite culture is contradictory. It combines the search for something new and the desire to preserve what is already known. The protest against the absurdity of life results in opposition to the achievements of the past, but at the same time enriches the figurative and meaningful canvas, expands the range of expressive means, ideals, ideas, ideas, theories. .

Elite culture enters into different spheres of cultural practice, performing different functions (roles) in it: information and cognitive, replenishing the treasury of knowledge, technical achievements, artistic innovations; socialization, including a person in the world of culture; normative and regulatory, etc. But a special role belongs to cultural creativity, the functions of self-realization, self-actualization of the individual; in the field of aesthetic and demonstration - the presentation of samples of author's creativity to the general public. Authorship becomes a value, and the master seeks to capture and preserve his own name in his creation.

Mass culture, its subject and distinctive features

Mass culture is a product of the industrial and post-industrial era, associated with the formation of a mass society and mass production and consumption. Not only technology, but economic ( private property), the political and socio-cultural conditions of bourgeois society became the basis for its formation at the end of the 19th-20th centuries. It is a professional culture created by professionals for the masses. It is understood as a "mass-like" way of being culture in the conditions of a modern industrial society, a type of "cultural industry" that produces cultural products, often commercial, everyday on a large scale, designed for mass consumption, subordinated to it as its goal, which is distributed through channels, including technically advanced media and communications. Its appearance dates back to the end of the 19th century. in USA. The well-known American political scientist and public figure Z. Brzezinski spoke : if Rome gave the world law, England gave parliamentary activity, France gave culture and republican nationalism, then the modern USA gave the world the scientific and technological revolution and mass culture.

Prerequisites and conditions for the formation of mass culture

Ø Strengthening urbanization, scientific and technological progress.

Ø Population growth, its concentration in a relatively limited space - the way to the massization of society.

Ø The development of large-scale mechanized and automated, constantly improving production.

Ø The transformation of collectives of workers into an impersonal, passive, controlled mass.

Ø The emergence of a commercial type of "cultural industry" profit-oriented, commercial success.

The migration of the population, the rapid change in media technologies, their wide distribution have led to a mixing of cultures, values, standards and ways of life. To adapt to a new, informational variety of culture, a special mechanism is developed, the ability of a mass, undifferentiated multitude to adapt to changing conditions is formed. This mechanism has become mass culture, which arises at a certain, fairly high stage of the development of society, especially the stage of information culture.

Marcuse G. (1– German-American philosopher, sociologist. Collaborated with the Russian Center at Harvard University, engaged in anti-fascist propaganda.

At present, the subject of mass culture is losing its integrity and breaks down into several components - creators, keepers, translators, consumers.

Among them:

a) the power structures of society;

b) commercial links;

d) show business elite;

e) consumers themselves, who not only consume, but also distribute mass culture.

Bell D. (Bell) (1919-) - American sociologist, specialist in the theory and history of social thought, political movements.

In the context of the complication of socio-cultural life, the differentiate all components of the phenomenon of mass culture. The subject-bearer of mass culture becomes fragmented, its components, artifacts ( artifact - artificially made). Professional creators resist the mass of consumers of the products offered, purposefully form this mass, a mass person, mass consciousness . They know their craft, the goals and requirements of customers, accept their conditions, focus on them, while they themselves can profess other values, for example, elite.

As a result, they create certain standards, models of characters who are successful in business, not constrained by moral standards in achieving commercial, career and other goals, unscrupulous thugs, supermen.

Masses (consumers) as an undifferentiated set do not have an organization, do not make decisions (D. Bell). This is a crowd that does not reason, but obeys. A mass person, averaged, impersonal, does not differ from thousands and millions of others, becomes a consumer of mass culture and an object of manipulation by professional creators and customers . Acquiring the features of a herd, unification, stereotype, he loses his individuality and personal responsibility and plunges into the offered, equally amorphous, undifferentiated products, assimilating the standards and values ​​offered to him. A person becomes not an end, but a means (a grain of sand) in the general mass of consumers.G. Marcuse calls him “one-dimensional man”, considering him a product of a one-dimensional society, which resulted in an increase in aggression, which was reflected in mass culture, where the aestheticization of terrible, terrible, super-violence, vice came to the fore.

Texts of mass production are focused on " mass man", the average man as his addressee, which leads to their simplification, averaging. Such, for example, are "pop" adaptations of classical musical works (for example, etc.), or the transformation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" into an entertaining detective story, and L. Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina" into a comic book. At the same time, there is a blurring of personal authorship (deindividualization), a primitivization of the language, figurative structure.

With the strengthening of the specialization of knowledge, the complication of creative activity, sign systems, not all achievements, values, meanings, ideas of the elite, and even folk culture are available to a wide audience. They are disseminated in a simplified form by mass culture. Thus, it provides a link between ordinary, everyday and specialized consciousness, becoming one of the means that contribute to the transfer of ideas, meanings necessary for the ruling elite.

At the same time, another very specific element for mass culture appears - intermediary communicator, using a powerful arsenal of technical means. These are managers, producers, etc. Without them, it is impossible to create works, organize exhibitions, shows, festivals, although, according to the French aesthetics of Sh. Lalo, “they only sell some and buy others, taking care of the immediate benefit » , as well as about the constant stimulation of the consumer. To do this, a purposeful formation of his tastes and requests takes place and a cult of various kinds of idols (“stars” of cinema, pop music, sports, etc.) is created, a cult of things, role models that are worshiped as gods or demigods.

Thus, mass culture finds its niche, becomes one of the mechanisms for the implementation of normative-regulatory, value-oriented, socialization functions. This allows mass culture to occupy its niche and become one of the mechanisms for controlling the masses, mass consciousness. It enables the mass person, by translating complex samples, norms into a language accessible to him, to adapt and navigate in a complex socio-cultural environment, to assimilate the standards, ideals, and ways of behavior offered to him. Here the achievement of commercial success and profit comes to the fore. This is what the “entertainment search” setting “works for”, creating the illusion of overcoming the feeling of loneliness in the conditions of socio-cultural alienation, the focus on escaping from reality ( escapism) through immersion in the ghostly world of cloudless happiness, material wealth, a variety of impressions and the availability of any consumer goods.

The goal in this case is to consume (consumerism) without spending much intellectual effort, therefore, the samples offered to man are simple, even primitive, easily perceived. So, "mass culture educates the consumer by killing the citizen".

This, in all likelihood, is the reason for the good adaptability of mass culture to rapidly changing socio-cultural conditions and the reasons for its vitality.

Literature

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Gromyko Russian village. M., 1991

Gromyko norms of behavior and forms of communication of Russian peasants of the 19th century. M., 1986.

Gurevich culture. M., 1994. Ch. 13.

Davydov and the Elite. M., 1966.

Vigilant and replicated. M., 1981.

Kozlova of the masses and the taste of intellectuals // Social sciences and modernity. 1994. No. 3.

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Kostin culture as a phenomenon of post-industrial society. M., 2003.

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By the nature of the creations, one can single out the culture represented in single samples And popular culture. The first form, according to the characteristic features of the creators, is divided into folk and elite culture. folk culture is a single work of most often anonymous authors. This form of culture includes myths, legends, tales, epics, songs, dances, and so on. Elite culture- a set of individual creations that are created by well-known representatives of the privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators. Here we are talking about creators who have a high level of education and are well known to an enlightened public. This culture includes fine arts, literature, classical music, etc.

Mass (public) culture represents products of spiritual production in the field of art, created in large editions, counting on the general public. The main thing for her is the entertainment of the widest masses of the population. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education. Its main feature is the simplicity of ideas and images: texts, movements, sounds, etc. Samples of this culture are aimed at the emotional sphere of a person. At the same time, popular culture often uses simplified examples of elite and folk culture (“remixes”). Mass culture averages the spiritual development of people.

Subculture- this is the culture of any social group: confessional, professional, corporate, etc. It, as a rule, does not deny the universal culture, but has specific features. Signs of a subculture are special rules of behavior, language, symbols. Each society has its own set of subcultures: youth, professional, ethnic, religious, dissident, etc.

Dominant culture- values, traditions, views, etc., shared only by a part of society. But this part has the ability to impose them on the whole of society, either because it constitutes the ethnic majority, or because it has a mechanism of coercion. A subculture that opposes the dominant culture is called a counterculture. The social basis of the counterculture is people who are alienated to a certain extent from the rest of society. The study of the counterculture allows us to understand the cultural dynamics, the formation and spread of new values.

The tendency to evaluate the culture of one's nation as good and correct, and another culture as strange and even immoral has been called "ethnocentrism". Many societies are ethnocentric. From the point of view of psychology, this phenomenon acts as a factor in the unity and stability of this society. However, ethnocentrism can be a source of intercultural conflicts. The extreme forms of manifestation of ethnocentrism are nationalism. The opposite is cultural relativism.

Elite culture

Elite, or high culture created by a privileged part, or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. High culture, such as the painting of Picasso or the music of Schnittke, is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary critics, frequenters of museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population grows, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “ art for art”.

Elite culture It is intended for a narrow circle of highly educated public and opposes both folk and mass culture. It is usually incomprehensible to the general public and requires good preparation for correct perception.

The avant-garde trends in music, painting, cinema, complex literature of a philosophical nature can be attributed to the elite culture. Often the creators of such a culture are perceived as inhabitants of the "ivory tower", fenced off by their art from real everyday life. As a rule, elite culture is non-commercial, although sometimes it can be financially successful and move into the category of mass culture.

Modern trends are such that mass culture penetrates into all areas of "high culture", mixing with it. At the same time, mass culture reduces the general cultural level of its consumers, but at the same time, it itself gradually rises to a higher cultural level. Unfortunately, the first process is still much more intense than the second.

folk culture

folk culture is recognized as a special form of culture. In contrast to the elite culture of the people, culture is created by anonymous creators who do not have professional training. The authors of folk creations are unknown. Folk culture is called amateur (not by level, but by origin) or collective. It includes myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs and dances. In terms of execution, elements of folk culture can be individual (retelling of a legend), group (performing a dance or song), mass (carnival processions). Folklore is another name for folk art, which is created by various segments of the population. Folklore is localized, that is, associated with the traditions of the given area, and democratic, since everyone participates in its creation. Anecdotes and urban legends can be attributed to modern manifestations of folk culture.

Mass culture

Mass or public does not express the refined tastes of the aristocracy or the spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when mass media(radio, print, television, records, tape recorders, video) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. Mass culture can be international and national. Popular and pop music is a vivid example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.

Popular culture is usually less artistic value than elitist or popular culture. But it has the widest audience. It satisfies the momentary needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, samples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete, go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of elite and folk culture. pop culture is a slang term for mass culture, and kitsch is a variation of it.

Subculture

The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs that guide the majority of members of society is called dominant culture. Since society breaks up into many groups (national, demographic, social, professional), each of them gradually forms its own culture, i.e., a system of values ​​and rules of conduct. Small cultures are called subcultures.

Subculture- part of a common culture, a system of values, traditions, customs inherent in a certain. They talk about the youth subculture, the subculture of the elderly, the subculture of national minorities, the professional subculture, the criminal subculture. The subculture differs from the dominant culture in language, outlook on life, behavior, hair, dress, customs. The differences can be very strong, but the subculture does not oppose the dominant culture. Drug addicts, the deaf and dumb, the homeless, alcoholics, athletes, and the lonely have their own culture. The children of the aristocrats or the middle class are very different in their behavior from the children of the lower class. They read different books, go to different schools, follow different ideals. Each generation and social group has its own cultural world.

Counterculture

Counterculture denotes a subculture that is not only different from the dominant culture, but opposes, is in conflict with the dominant values. The terrorist subculture opposes human culture, and the hippie youth movement in the 1960s. denied the dominant American values: hard work, material success, conformity, sexual restraint, political loyalty, rationalism.

Culture in Russia

The state of the spiritual life of modern Russia can be characterized as a transition from upholding the values ​​associated with attempts to build a communist society, to the search for a new meaning of social development. We have reached the next round of the historical dispute between Westernizers and Slavophiles.

The Russian Federation is a multinational country. Its development is due to the peculiarities of national cultures. The uniqueness of the spiritual life of Russia lies in the diversity of cultural traditions, religious beliefs, moral norms, aesthetic tastes, etc., which is associated with the specifics of the cultural heritage of different peoples.

At present, in the spiritual life of our country, there are conflicting trends. On the one hand, the mutual penetration of different cultures contributes to interethnic understanding and cooperation, on the other hand, the development of national cultures is accompanied by interethnic conflicts. The latter circumstance requires a balanced, tolerant attitude towards the culture of other communities.