Nikolaj Plotnikov

Ruhr University Bochum | RUB · Seminar für Slavistik (Lotman-Institut)

Nikolai Zhinkin’s review of Ernst Cassirer is so far the earliest document of the discussion in Russia about Cassirer’s conception of myth and his theory of symbolic forms. The text is published from Zhinkin’s archive. Zhinkin here notes a reorientation of Neo-Kantianism that reveals its hidden relativism and stands as a symptom of its downfall.

In this second article, I look at the history of the creation of the “Encyclopedia of Artistic Terminology” within the State Academy of the Artistic Sciences. I analyze various versions of the encyclopedia’s conception proposed by Wassily Kandinsky and Gustav Shpet and also at the theoretical bases for these conceptions. I then show how the work on...

In this first of two articles, I look at the project for the “Encyclopedia of Artistic Terminology” in connection with the idea of a synthesis of the “artistic sciences” as the principal task of the State Academy of Artistic Sciences (GAKhN, 1921–1930) in Moscow. The most important feature of the Academy was the unity of its epistemological concept...

The signatories of the Zeit appeal entitled "A Ceasefire Now!" misjudge the nature of Putin's internal regime and foreign policy doctrine, and propose the opposite of the measures needed to deter the Kremlin: namely, heavy weapons delivered to Ukraine now and maximum sanctions on Russia. Krytyka. https://krytyka.com/en/articles/heavy-weapons-now

Ответ экспертов по Восточной Европе на открытое письмо немецких интеллектуалов "Перемирие сейчас!", опубликованное в "Zeit Online" 29 июня 2022. Украинская правда. https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/columns/2022/07/25/7360003/

Übersetzen beschränkt sich nicht auf die professionelle Praxis der Übersetzer und Dolmetscher, sondern steht für jede Art des Austauschs nicht nur zwischen Sprachen, sondern auch zwischen Kulturen. Das Erstaunliche beim Übersetzen ist, dass man versucht, etwas aus einer Sprache in eine andere bzw. aus einer Kultur in eine andere zu transportieren,...

This contribution analyses the importance of the State Academy of the Study of Arts (GAKhN) in the appropriation of Hegel's aesthetics in Russia. In immediate connection to this discussion at the GAKhN is Gustav Špet’s conception of the ontology of art. This concept represents an attempt of a non-metaphysical interpretation of Hegel’s aesthetics. T...

Form und Wirkung: Phänomenologische und empirische Kunstwissenschaft in der Sowjetunion der 1920er Jahre

The basic concepts ‘person’ (Person), I/self (Ich) and ‘subject’ (Subjekt) structuring the Russian discourse of personhood (Personalität) developed during the philosophical discussions of the 1820s–1840s. The development occurred in the course of an intense reception of German Idealism and Romanticism. Characteristic of this process is that the mod...

L’analyse comparative du sens et du statut de la représentation de la personne humaine [ličnost’] entre l’histoire de la culture russe et celle d’Europe occidentale montre de façon frappante que les interprétations du rôle de l’idée de personne entrent en confrontation et même en conflit. D’une part, depuis l’époque de Hegel et du marquis de Custin...

The basic tendencies in the conceptual history of the ‘subject’ within Russian intellectual history are presented. This backgrounds a closer analysis of S. Trubetskoj’s concept of ‘conciliar consciousness’, including the problems and aporiae connected with it. It will be shown that and how this conception depends on assumptions from prekantian meta...

The state and the individual are understood in Russia as opposites. This antagonistic idea is frequently traced back to a Byzantine tradition. It is in fact, however, the legacy of a specific reception of western theories of the state and concepts of personality. With their help, unlimited state power - which can form society (understood as tabula...

The restoration of "forgotten" (i.e., formerly prohibited) names to the bosom of our culture is a natural and necessary accompaniment of the political freedom beginning to make its way in our country. Free and continuous creativity is being reunited with the reader, the listener, and the participant, who had been tragically alienated from it. Our h...