Texts

INTERPRETATION METAMORPHOSES OF THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE

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Richard Sennett has analyzed the period from 1750 up to the contemporary time, when the dominance of the culture of intimacy has transformed the political categories into psychological ones. The rise of the culture of intimacy had brought about the downfall of social theatrics, which has in turn caused the disappearance of public life. The family has transcended from a “particular, not-public” area into a haven, a world of its own, with a more stern moral code than the public sphere. Politicians have started to present their character to the public, as well as their feelings and the power of personal convictions. Here the theory of Hannah Arendt is analyzed from the horizon of so-called theatrical dimension of the public sphere and agonistic politics, through which the nature of worldliness is discussed. Some authors have criticized the mixing of internal and external areas (Hannah Arendt and Richard Sennett) while others (such as Peter Sloterdijk) have shown that there are consensuses which precede the separation of the internal and the external.

MARCUSE’S CRITIQUE OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE AND ART

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According to Marcuse, contemporary culture is becoming one-dimensional. This means that we are witnessing an abolishment of differences between various cultural strata where everyone becomes a consumer of such (contemporary) art. However, the differences among real economic strata of society remain large. For these reasons Marcuse determinates modern society as irrational. When discussing the question of culture, Marcuse is discussing it in its broader sense where culture incorporates politics, education, art, religion and philosophy. Art, philosophy and religion serve as means to maintain the existing social order, according to Marcuse, where an individual is free to think but only within the confinements of patterns previously set out by society. As a consequence, education is set out to prepare an individual to manage within the confinements set up by the existing free market and it is focused primarily on positive science while leaving the question of social changes aside. As a consequence, an individual is less and less interested in political developments. Thus, Marcuse emphasizes that the criticism of the existing culture must be based on real social and economic processes, approaching the view of German idealism but also the view later expressed by Marx in his criticism of contemporary culture.

AESTHETIC PHENOMENON AND ART: A MARCUSE’S CONCEIVEMENT

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Analyzing complete works author attempts to demonstrate Marcuse’s conceivement of aesthetic phenomena and art with the emphasis on the relation of art and revolution. In the article attention is firstly drawn to Marcuse’s doctoral dissertation. This text has significance in that Marcuse already here discerns a periphery subject (artist) as a subject of liberation. Author then offers a detailed examination of orphic-narcissistic civilization. That is the origin of aesthetic-sensuous revolution within framework of Freud’s theory. A status of art in capitalistic and in a version of socialistic society is then examined. While in the capitalistic society art is banalised by mass consumption in the socialist society art is instrumentally used for glorification and preservation of political order. Finally, author analyses qualitative change into society of aesthetic ethos which is rendered possible by sensitive cooperation of art and technology. Author’s intention is to offer critical, coherent and contextually situated interpretation of Marcuse’s art and aesthetic revolution.

THE MASK ARCHETYPE

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Masking as a phenomenon is not only anthropological since identical mimicries in nature point to a universal life principle which also confirms itself in the social, cultural and spiritual reality of humans. In addition to its own meaning, a mask gains another meaning in this reality, as an archetypal expression of human desire to achieve greater eminence in the known world but also to push the existing limits. Masking has become a manner for exploring the possibility of being someone else or someone different in the process of asserting one’s identity, where both a man and his shadow can be expressed. Reality of the virtual world proves that hiding behind a number or a password provides the necessary safety from aggression but also enables the masked aggressor to express their dark side, causing damage or harm to others.

CULTURAL FACTORS OF KAROSHI AND KARO-JISATSU

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In this paper, cultural factors of overwork death in Japan are examined. The frequency of karoshi (death from overwork) and karo-jisatsu (suicide from overwork) tends to increase. Although these phenomena are somewhat present in other countries, they are the most frequent in Japan, which, for the purpose of explanation, imposes a need for examining its specificities. In literature, these phenomena are most often explained by economic factors. Although the cultural specificities of Japan may also represent important factors of these phenomena, their significance is not recognized. Therefore, some characteristics of the Japanese culture which may be important for overwork death are examined. In this sense, maintaining harmonious relationships with others (within the company) and loyalty (to the company) represent some of the key values of the Japanese (work) culture.

CULTURE AND CRIME

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The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated by analysing two topics: the first is the influence of culture on determining the circle of incriminated behaviour as well as the way in which society reacts to crime; the second relates to the effect of certain cultural factors on the genesis of criminal behavior. In this paper, the author analyses the most important contributions of European social thought from the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, to the Chicago School and its followers and, finally, the British cultural criminology. When it comes to the applicability of the above-mentioned criminological schools to the case of Serbia, it is a real detriment that the tectonic changes that have taken place over the past 100 years (two unsuccessful attempts to create a multinational and multireligious society: both in the Second World War and in the civil war in which Yugoslavia was dissolved; intensive industrialization and urbanization that in the middle of the 20th century led to mass migration from the village to the city; the departure of workers into developed countries and their problems of adapting to a different culture; the collapse of the socialist model and the transformation into capitalism through “robbery privatization” which has led to an alarming stratification of the society…) almost failed to encourage scientists to examine how the related changes in the sphere of culture reflected on the state of crime. The latest wave of refugees from the Near and Middle East who went through the territory of the Republic of Serbia (some of them remaining here permanently) opens up new opportunities for such studies; the same is true for the cultural adaptation of tens of thousands of refugees from the territory of the former Yugoslavia and internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija; here we need to mention the subculture of young people, football hooligans, cultural patterns of the so-called ’turbo folk’ and other youth subcultures. Criminologists in Serbia have, therefore, a multitude of possible subjects of research they should explore.

DURKHEIM’S USE OF THE TERM CULTURE

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Using the method of content analysis, in our work we offered a concise insight into the use of the term “culture” in the work of Emile Durkheim. Bearing in mind that the heritage of enlightenment can be perceived in Durkheim’s work, but indirectly the traditions of Romanticism as well, we consider the issue of using this term an important one. The specter of meanings associated with the notion of “culture” makes it suitable for use as a kind of indicator. Much like the Rorschach stains, very different meanings can be loaded into it. Findings show that Durkheim did not use the word “culture” very often, considering the volume of his work. He most often connected it with the scientific, intellectual, logical, etc. We paid special attention to his most important works (The Division of Labor in Society, Rules of Sociological Method, Suicide and the Elementary Forms of the Religious Life). Other works are covered by a quantitative analysis of the use of the word “culture” in which we tried to find the most frequent attributes that appear alongside the aforementioned term. The analysis covers most of Durkheim’s opus published during and after his life.

CULTURE AND REVOLUTION

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