Formation of the image of antiquity in the collective memory: Reception. Communication. Commemoration

Abstract

© Serials Publications. The relevance of the investigated problem is caused by the formation of interdisciplinary methodological approaches to the study of the representation of the historical heritage in modern society during the last decades. The article is focused on the study of theoretical and applied aspects of the creation of the antiquity image in the social memory. The leading approach to the study of this issue has become a sociocultural approach towards the reception of antiquity, that reflected itself in the actual connotations of this concept in the interdisciplinary humanities. The theoretical aspects of reception of antiquity as a communicative practice are studied. Communicative practice allows to combine individual perception and collective memory and create an image of the past corresponding to the contemporary social and cultural challenges. The proof of the great heuristic potential of the concept "reception of antiquity" has become the main result of the article. Wherein the author comes to a conclusion that in the XXth - the beginning of the XXIst century was formed a steady trend when a wide range of people of intellectual occupation involved in adaptation of rational knowledge in the interests of the mass consumer dominate among the actors of the reception of antiquity, which makes the reception of antiquity a communicative practice. Views of sociologist M.Halbwachs and historian J.Assmann are particularly considered. Their essence is that the individual in the process of communication leaves his share in the memory of a social group, forms the collective images of the past, which are conventional in nature. An important tool for the study of the reception of antiquity as the commemorative practice has become the conception of "memory space" of P.Nora. Egyptian Alexandria is investigated with the help of this conception as a "memory space" for the European intellectuals and artists of the XIX-XX centuries. It is shown how different combinations of individual and social experiences of the authors form their own, original image of antiquity demanded by society. Matters of the article may be useful for writing generalizing works on the problems of modern social reality construction with the help of the historical past, as well as for further researches on reception of antiquity issues.