«Культура Духа» vs «Культура Разума»: Интеллектуалы и Власть в Британии и России в эпоху Перемен (XVII–XVIII вв.) |
"Culture of the Spirit" vs "Culture of
the Reason": Intellectuals and Power in Britain and Russia in the
Transition Era (XVII-XVIII centuries)
It is currently recognized that social and economic
change of the Modernity proved to be disconnected from the impulses of
spiritual development on the background of the general secularization of the
Western consciousness. Modernization has brought functional laws of economics
and state, as well as science and technology, in action; in the 20th century
these laws have melted into a single system of “supervision and punishment”,
totalitarian towards individual human being. “Transition Era" was the time
for a decisive break between the "ancient" and the “modern” - the time of loss, according to G.W.F.Hegel,
"by the spirit of its own self”. The intellectuals began to voice this
dramatic gap between spirit and mind, they became the "designers" of
the modern cultural/national/Imperial identity that makes us come back to their
heritage in search of alternatives for the "unfinished project of
Modernity". Studying mental mapping and cognitive-rhetorical practices and
mechanisms of impact of the intellectuals on power and society in Britain and
Russia in the 17th-18th centuries will allow to focus both on the spiritual
component of the Russian intellectual culture and to overcome the dominant
absolutization of British political and legal models. Comparative historical
approach will help identify the peculiarities of formation of civil society in
Britain and Russia in "Transition Era” from the “Age of Spirit” to the
“Age of Reason”.
This project aims at addressing a pressing objective
for modern Russian society: to identify the mechanisms for the formation of the
civil position among various groups of intellectuals, and the emergence of
approval strategies for complex ideas in society, as well as their influence on
adoption of power solutions. To achieve this
objective, project participants are planning, for the first time in world
historiography, to conduct a comparative historical study of the formation of
cultural/national/Imperial identity in Britain and Russia in the era of the
systemic crisis of the 17th-18th centuries on the basis of a wide range of
sources both from Russian and British archives.
Research
Plan:
2019.
·
Study
of the practices of intellectuals in Britain and Russia in the XVII – XVIII
centuries in the context of the formation of national and imperial identities.
·
Comparative
analysis of the role and place of intellectuals in the formation of national
and Imperial identities in Britain and Russia of the 17th and the 18th
centuries.
·
Systematic
analysis of Russian and English-language literature, describing various aspects
of the conceptualization of “Britishness” and “Russianness” in a situation of
spiritual crisis in the “Transition Era”; we also plan bringing heterogeneous
historiographic material to a common denominator.
·
As
early as in autumn 2019 we expect to hold a seminar, inviting the leading
experts on the central theme of the project with subsequent publication of the
seminar proceedings in the following edition of the Almanac of World History of
the 16th-20th centuries, “Imagines Mundi”, “Intellectual history” Series
(2020).
·
Three
original sources will be prepared for the publication: “Statir” (partially, 2
printer’s sheets); “Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe” by D. Defoe
(partially, 3 printer’s sheets); “Opyt povestvovaniya o Rossii” [“Exercise in
Russian History”] by I.P. Elagin (partially, totaling 3 printer’s sheets).
·
Preparation
and publication of articles on the project’s topic.
·
Participation
of the research team in current conferences and seminars on the subject of the
project.
SUPERVISING THE
RESEARCH
The research supervision of the project is
being conducted by Dr. Lorina REPINA - Head
of the Russian Society for Intellectual History, Corresponding Member of
the Russian Academy of Sciences. The grant applicant is the Ural Federal
University. A scientific team was established on the basis of the Ural
Institute of Humanities of Ural Federal University, consisting of specialists
in the history and culture of Russia and Britain of the XVII - XVIII centuries:
Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Quaestio
Rossica” L.S. Soboleva (the chair of Russian and Foreign literature), Head of
the Ural branch of the Russian Society
for Intellectual History V.V. Vysokova (Chair of Modern and Contemporary
History), K.A. Sozinova (Chair of Foreign Regional Studies), T.A. Kosykh (Chair
of Oriental Studies) and beginning researchers – T.S. Sidorkina (graduate
student of the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History) and A.V. Nesterova
(undergraduate student of the Chair of Russian and Foreign literature).
The project's chief administrator is Dr.
Veronika Vysokova (Ural Federal University).
Current information
An international
seminar “Intellectuals and Power in Britain and Russia in the Transition Era
(XVII-XVIII centuries)” is planned to be held on the basis of the Ural Federal
University in September 2019. Issues for discussion: TEXT in CONTEXT: new and
traditional sources in the Transition Era, social and political discussions of
the XVII-XVIII centuries, intellectuals who changed the course of history, etc.