Pankevich Natalia
The article examines the possibilities of a meaningful revision of analytical and managerial approaches within the framework of the state policy aimed at ensuring social unity. Today, its implementation is often complicated by the potential of socio-demographic super-diversity and value pluralism accumulated by the majority of societies. The cumulative effect of these processes suggests the presence of deeply divided communities under the facades of the political unity of modern states. The article substantiates the thesis that the combined accumulation in the structure of society of minorities consolidated around social status and the growth of the political significance of minority value discourses only at first glance have common roots and are subject to diagnosis and social therapy by similar methods. The article analyzes the reasons of contemporary institutional preferences in favor of solving the problems of diversity consolidated around social status. It is established that they are predominantly related to the institutional specifics of the modern state. The political potential of decentralized value-motivated actors, their contribution to the social polarization, and the repertoire of political action are considered. An approach to the conceptualization of such actors as discursive coalitionsis proposed. The article explains why the state identity policy evades targeting the decentralized actors and suggests possible directions of replenishing the analytical arsenal for their identification, fixation of their requirements, and development of mechanisms for integrating deviant value discoursesinto the mainstream of unity policy. The article examines the judicial branch as a system directly predisposed to communication with decentralized public discourses, and shows possible ways of its institutional development as one of the central subjects of the state policy of social unity.
Keywords: policy of social unity, civil identity, national-state identity, decentralized value system, discursive coalition, discursive conflict, political values, constitutional patriotism, unity of legal space, judicial branch
Pavlov Alexander
For a long time, horror was an entertaining cinema genre. Since the late 1970s, critics and scholars have gradually started to examine it in terms of social and political content, often conveyed allegorically. Meanwhile, publications in English have prevailed in academic discourse, which is largely due to the long dominance of American horror. Film critics applied different methods of analysis – from Freudo-Marxism and gender studies to trauma studies and affect theory. Political analysis was often based on the thesis of the critic Robin Wood about the allegorical interpretation of monsters as the return of the repressed. However, in the 21st century, horror has changed significantly. New subgenres have emerged: “torture porn”, “found footage”, folk horror, post-horror, etc. Studios started to film a huge number of remakes, sequels of classical films in series format, etc. At the same time, researchers have continued to study horror as an allegory. Social and cultural consequences of September 11, 2001 became the main topic of the analysis. This trend kept going for more than fifteen years, but with Donald Trump’s coming to power the allegorical messages of the American horror have actually been replaced by direct political statements. Many horrors have begun to tell about current socio-political problems – racism, poverty, migration, etc. Scholars have to react to these changes, comprehending the transformation in the genre and correcting their views on allegorical reading as a method of analysis. The article describes an academic research transition to the understanding of “political horror” on the examples of the film “Get Out” (2017) and the franchise “The Purge” (2013 – to the present). It is concluded that this trend persists so far. However, despite the popularity of “political horror”, it is obvious that allegorical reading will remain an important tool for academic analysis of horror films.
Keywords: horror, social philosophy, practical philosophy, terror, Donald Trump, violence, fear, cinema studies, 9/11, remakes