THE IMPERIAL CULTURE AND VISUALITY
Iuliia Gudova
Mrs., Ural Federal University, Russia, jgudova@mail.ru
Abstract
Imperial culture is a difficult ethnosociocultural phenomenon. Imperial culture exists in the multi-ethnic character of the states when one ethnos assumes the right for domination over other ethnoses and implementation of administrative and managerial functions at all levels of the organization of the state institutional and investment and communication system. Imperial ambitions of such states surely lead to the fact that the dominating social subjects use culture as a way of legitimization and glorification of the imperial power.
One of the most important elements of imperial culture is art. Imperial culture used to exploiting art in two of his functions: designing and representation of social reality. Daniela Bleichmar has offered a concept of "a visual epistemology" for the description of the functioning of visual arts in the system of the imperial culture. It is "the way of the knowledge based on visuality, affecting observation and representation". The visual epistemology acts as a part and a prerequisite of imperial system which has a long history of representation in graphic forms of communication for the solution of the administrative purposes. "The visual empire" by Daniela Bleichmar connects natural history, visual culture, and management of the empire. An important element of a visual epistemology is the cultural geography and cultural anthropology which are also created by graphics and picturesque means.
In my opinion, it is possible to give a painting of imperial France as a representative example of the visual practice of a cultural imperialism. At the end of XVIII - the beginning of the 19th centuries in the art of the French Empire the academism was dominated and this style was entirely subordinated to problems of a demonstration of the empire, imperial ambitions, and aspirations, for example, in painting. Visual practices of the Russian Empire gives for as a lot of striking examples of an imperial images construction. Visual images of the Empire were created by means of engravings, arts, and crafts, theatrical sceneries, posters, sculptures, architectural complexes, etc. By means of these artifacts, residents of the empire could gain an impression about imperial norms, values, characters, ruling elite, about the remote regions of the country, etc. By means of images of landscapes of the nature of regions and home portraits of residents of the empire, the ruling Centre extended the influence on the periphery and consolidated the people of the empire.
In contemporary culture, imperial visuality develops using traditional arts and new media means. Traditional means include sculptural monuments to the most important figures of imperial history - Ivan the Terrible (Moscow), Vladimir the Great (Moscow), Alexander III (Yalta, Crimea) and others. The media for creating an imperial visual anthropology include movies and television series, animated films on subjects from the history of the empire. They give a modern idea of the history of the formation of the empire, its founders, heroes, major historical events and significant dates. Values and norms that regulate the daily life of imperial life are shown on the examples from the life of the heroes of films. In this way, cinematic visuals carry an imperial myth and contribute to its consolidation in the minds of the audience.
On numerous examples of works in a various visual and cinematography genres, we see how imperial culture designs an imperial image, forms imperial consciousness and then represents them on other territories as within the country, and beyond her limits.
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