culture

The Gnostic Trope in Contemporary Media Culture

The article applies the Gnostic trope as the most suitable tool for analyzing religious components of contemporary mass culture. Christopher Partridge’s theory of occulture serves as a methodological framework. The Gnostic trope includes the following elements: the idea that our world is a prison created for the torment of man; that it is controlled by the evil Creator of this world — the demiurge; that some exceptional persons, the Gnostics, are able to unravel the deceptive nature of reality and offer gnosis — a kind of extra‑rational experience.

The Benefits of the “Cultural Turn” in Slavic Studies for the Studies of the Russian Revolution

Among the huge amount of books and articles published at the Revolution’s Hundredth anniversary, the author focuses on several volumes translated from English into Russian: Yuri Slezkine’s “The House of Government”, Mark Steinberg’s “The Russian Revolution. 1905–1921”, and Martin Malia’s “History’s Locomotives.” Comparing the authors’ approaches the author draws conclusions about their scientific and political implications. The books reflect trends in the Slavic studies over the last decades.