ISSN: 1550-7521
ISSN: 1550-7521
Olesina EP* and Stukalova OV
Doctor of Education, “Institute of Art Education and Cultural Studies”, Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution, 119121, Pogodinskaya Str. 8, Building 1, Moscow, Russia
Received date: March 19, 2016; Accepted date: March 29, 2016; Published date: April 10, 2016
Copyright: © 2016 Olesina EP, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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The article is devoted to the impact of modern information society through the artistic perception. Authors, who are the professors of Moscow universities, conclude that the interest in literature among young people is quite considerable. At the same time, it is important to note that the main area in which young writers tend to be recognized is the Internet. The main feature of modern social and cultural situation is creation of the global Internet space, providing effective virtual interaction of people, satisfaction of their needs for access to global information resources and services. Revolution in obtaining and storing information has changed the culture and art. Information society is a society in which the popular culture dominates as complex and ambivalent phenomenon. The Internet in modern society is not just a way to communicate, but the center of new culture’s development. The World Wide Web increasingly involves artistic environment, including literary environment. But the loss of skills in-depth perception of the literary text is a very serious psychological problem. Postmodern ideas influence on the gradual loss of the ability to act. Modern students who are accustomed “to live” in a computer, find themselves in a quandary when they are placed in a situation where they have to act, but not talk about action and not to play a computer game, and set realistic goals. The authors show that it is the problem the modern "creative reader" development, they mean the reader, who can take an active readership’s position when the reader can enjoy reading, can give the own interpretation of the text. In the process of education’s modernization, it is important to remember that post-modernism is the reality of social and cultural situation. In this context it is necessary to change the approach to pedagogical work with information and communication technologies.
The popular culture; Modern creative reader; Global information resources; Neterature; E-book; Interactive books; Postmodern
The main feature of modern social and cultural situation is creation of the global Internet space, providing effective virtual interaction of people, satisfaction of their needs for access to global information resources and services. Revolution in obtaining and storing information has revolutionized the culture and art. Information society is a society in which the popular culture is dominated as complex and ambivalent phenomenon. Popular culture is aimed at gratification the requirements and tastes of mass man, i.e., consumer. Signs of mass culture are the average, commonplace, focus on commercial success. Through the creation of images, uniting people on the basis of their same type of experience, such personality is formed, as becomes a "product of series production".
The aim of popular culture is gratification of the requirements and tastes of “consumer”. Signs of “mass culture” are the average, commonplace, focus on commercial success. Through the creation of images, uniting people on the basis of their same type of experience, such type of personality is developed, as becomes a "product of series production" [1]. Revolution in obtaining and storing information has revolutionized the culture and art. Information society is a society in which the popular culture dominates as complex and ambivalent phenomenon. The Internet in modern society is not just a way to communicate, but the center of new culture’s development. Implosion of aesthetic perception, according to Jean Baudrillard, turns the real world into the virtual simulacrum. As a result activity is reduced, the criticality of artistic perception weakens, the projects are related to the transparency of the boundaries between the real and alternative worlds spring up [2].
The modern culture creates an entirely new artistic environment (virtual reality), the manner of perception (intertextuality) and way of relating to it (interactivity). Arisen primarily as a visual culture, postmodernism in art, architecture, cinema, advertising focused not on reflection, but on the simulation of reality through experimentation with artificial reality - videos, computer games [3]. These principles work with the second reality, those cultural signs that covered the world of "shell of words" gradually seeped into other areas. Dual focus of postmodern art, which is addressed to mass and highbrow audience determines its quality such as hybrid, which is based on double coding, and all the codes appear in the product as equal [4]. This principle is reflected in the multi-level organization the art work’s structure. The very language it expresses the idea of pluralism and commitment which unites a variety of authors. Postmodern art brings the irrational, unconscious things to the surface, reveals the dominant social impulses of the collective unconscious.
Thus, the Internet in modern society is not just a way to communicate, but also the center of the new culture development, which features were investigated in the works of Lyotard JF, Delёz J, Gattari F, Lakan J et al. as well as in the works of cultural studies of Man’kovskaya N, Bychkov V, Rozin V, Ahiezer A, Flier A [5]. Unlimited possibilities of cyberspace allow for huge numbers of people to be not only consumers of any artistic production, but also the creators of their own works, that develop the new artistic canons and ideals, to interact and meditate.
Postmodernism effects on the process of acquiring knowledge. According to postmodernism’s theory, the world is the text where the main thing is the exchange of information, which can be extracted quickly enough, but it is impersonal and not verified. In addition, the construction of "simulacrum" and holding "deconstruction" is the main content of the postmodern text [6]. This is very evident in the gradual replacement of real communication online communication is a problem that causes concern not only teachers, but also psychologists, sociologists and psychologists. In the space of the Internet there is a replacement of active work by life illusion. So, the issue of Internet addiction is quite acute. The virtual communication is a phenomenon of filling life, when there is an illusion of social activity. Now there are new terms, such as Internet narcissism, and there was the phenomenon of facebook-depression. There are studies that prove that the Internet changes the development of higher mental functions. In particular, the Internet affects such processes as attention, intellection, perception and memory. In the era of postmodernism it is changing the very type of communication between people [2]. The mastering of speed information flow, understanding of the world as a space of games can cause destruction in mind. The danger lies in the fact that culture of theoretical knowledge rapidly degraded. Influence of postmodern concepts with their negativity to respect to traditions of classical humanities impact on the loss of susceptibility of modern youth to complex theoretical texts. Students, for example, сan formulate problems and concepts with more big difficulties [7]. Modern young people are more competent in information technologies, in reality, but they are becoming less and less knowledgeable.
This loss of skills of in-depth perception of the literary text is a very serious psychological problem associated with the mass extinction of the youth artistic and creative imagination, unlearning creativity and independent thinking, loss of speech practice both orally and in writing.
Influence of postmodern ideas is seen in a gradual loss of the ability to act. Modern students who are accustomed “to live” in a computer, find themselves in a quandary when they are placed in a situation where they have to act, not talk about action and not to play a computer game, and set realistic goals, interact with others students, send them real ideas, reformulate goals and design action, etc. Scientists have also noted the danger of inertia, the perception of inferiority, which are features of modern youth too.
Generally it is connected with the new type of communication. There were interviewed of 250 students of Moscow State Pedagogical university. Our pedagogical observations confirm that only 34% of future teachers regularly read Russian classic literature; 66% of them prefer only mass genres (love and criminal stories, etc.). In this case, the loss of skills of the literary text’s in-depth perception is a very serious psychological problems associated with the mass extinction of the youth artistic and creative imagination, unlearning creative research and independent thinking, loss of speech practice, both orally and in writing. Scientists have interpreted this discovery as symptoms of the human face distortion as the beginning of the person dehumanization.
In terms of interest’s reduction to creative reading the loss of artistic images’ perception during 3-year period at high school decreases in 3 times, the level of creative imagination – in 2 times, including the parameters of originality - in 3 times, integrity – in 4 times, spatial and temporal functions-in 2 times. In these circumstances, the creative imagination transforms into a mechanical memory. The extinction of the creative imagination is accompanied by profound disturbances in sensory and mental health problems: feelings of loneliness, anxiety, fear, aggression are increasing; as well as autism, there are frustrations, as a whole - a negative-depressive attitude.
Scientists have also noted the danger of inertia of modern youth’ perception, , which is expressed in choice of reading and reading assessments, and in the life ideals, which are influenced by many factors [8]. Nowadays network literature has more and more important significance in the process of acquiring literary reading. By "neterature" in the broad sense of the word refers to "the entire volume of literary texts are available on the web, regardless of their form of presentation (text, hypertext, hypermedia) and a method of writing (individual authorship, collective authorship, creating text using the software)" (Dolgopolov).
Neterature’s fans predict the complete disappearance of the literature in the classical sense. The most important feature is the great attention to ordinary people.
Analysis of the development of literature in the Internet space is based on the study of materials of leading Russian experts in the subject [9-11].
Russian neterature has begun its existence in RuNet in 1994-1995. In November 1994, there was a "Library of Maxim Moshkov" - the first full-text Russian electronic library. In the same year there was a first network literary contest "Tenёta" (it was also known as "Art Tenёta" and "Tenёta-Runet"). However, despite this official date of birth is considered to be Russian neterature in October 10, 1995, when the it was started the Roman Leybov’s hypertext project with a laconic name "Roman"(“novel”). The experiment consisted of the following: Leibov has wrote the first chapter of "Roman" and continued to invite everyone for writing. Every person could attach the own part to any place of the text, so "Roman" gradually acquired as rather complicated non-linear structure. In a year of active collective work project consisted of more than 100 pieces connected by a network of reciprocal links.
Why neterature so quickly gained independence in the culture, and today claims to be a special place in the literary process? Of course, it is new, original flow, which is interesting, first of all, for young people. But, in our opinion, the main thing is that neterature meets time and trends: dynamic, citation, intertextuality, interactivity, virtuality. Actually, neterature’s product fully complies with artistic features of postmodern aesthetic [12].
It seems to be clear that neterature is literature in the global network. But a closer look reveals that the Russians understand the term "neterature" also means a completely different form of the creativity.
E-book is a traditional literary work, a new form of technology, the text of the novel, story, poem, etc. It remains both in hard copy and electronically.
The debate about the advantages of paper or electronic books is usually limited by a discussion of the convenience or inconvenience format.
At first glance, the e-book is a winner as a compact thing and the keeper of the entire library. But the situation is more complicated in reality...
Physiologists prove that the device allows the human eye to perceive and process information from the recording sheet better than the screen. Paper does not tremble as the screen does (although the modern reader screen flicker is minimized), it does not require adjustment of contrast and brightness, has no toolbar, and application windows to distract the reader's attention [13].
The human mind has such a feature as a visual, kinesthetic memory, the memory of smells that affects the individual emotional sphere and contributes to the artistic image’s creation.
When we read a paper book, we unconsciously memorize the location of the data, titles and illustrations on the page, it helps to remember where this or that idea in this work. The important points for the text’s perception are the kinesthetic cues such as smoothness of the paper, the weight of the book (the glossy pages of the album art, or a children's book with three-dimensional images). Many people emphasize the importance smell of ink and even the smell of the dusty pages of old books. All this factors together create an aesthetic feeling of belonging book to art. Ergonomics of paper book allows creating something that it is impossible (at least as long as possible) in electronicform as aesthetic integrity: the text of the work, decorating books, paper, font, illustrations are common artistic and aesthetic product.
It is interesting that on an unconscious level the artwork becomes the subject, not only the meaning, but the real friend. The book acquires as fact of personal life. Alina K (22) noticed that when she was sad, she likes to reread "Neznajka" (Know-nothing) by N.Nosov, and it is "very important to read exactly the book that she has read when she was a child, with a spot of tea and scratched cover. So the book says more than the text, because it reminds certain events of childhood.
To identify the relevance of any neterature’s genre we conducted a survey of young people of 14-22 years (seniors and students). There were interviewed of 378 Moscow students.
Many young people (87%) said that they read electronic books, reference books and literary news, even when it is not clear whether this book is in demand again or not. But if they want to re-read a favorite book, they read the copy of it that was in their hands for the first time (the old, tattered and so on).
Anne Mangen (University of Stavanger, Norway) said that reading the e-book is reflected in the emotional perception of art works. So as a result of the study it was found that the "iPad users is substantially less empathized literary heroes and memorize the details of the text worse than those who read from the sheet" [12].
We can conclude that reading educational and scientific information is more convenient on electronic media, but reading fiction - on a paper book.
Literature in Network is a virtual view of literary creation. Nowadays there are many specialized sites, which can be divided into two types: a) literary portals (Rulinet.Ru, Stih.Ru, Proza.Ru and others); b) the literary journals and associations (free placement sites without works as a combination of affordable and elite, for example, "Russian rhyme", "Litsovet", "Notes on the Cuff").
In reality neterature has a number of contentious issues [10]. Firstly, the problem of the author. Many researchers believe that neterature is a refuge for scribblers. The lack of an authoritative review leads to a reduction of the literary material’s quality. "There are not many professional writers in modern Russia, I mean that writers who earn money by literary craft. But the quantity of amateur writers - is abysmal. It seems that the one of the most reading country becomes the country of writers" [10].
According to many authors, mostly the web works are absolutely non-professional. Probably the network literature is the shortest way to the reader. It is certainly true, but this path is very tortuous. It only seems to be simple: Turn on your computer, go to the Web and read, but a huge selection and the lack of guidelines prevents to find really interesting texts. During the survey we found that even among young people there is not so much network’s readers: "It's a pity to waste time", "I do not find anything interesting," "I do not like reading, I prefer writing my own texts" (the examples of notes). Only a quarter of respondents prefer reading literature in network.
Secondly, the problem is the presence of low-quality works. According to many authors, in the web the most of the works are graphomania indeed, although, no doubt, the reader can find very good texts. However, the search for good art works may take too much time.
Neterature creates its own cultural environment, based on the positions of mass culture. The product is considered good as it has received a large number of visitors’ votes [14]. But, unfortunately, in this environment, there is an "esprit de corps" of network writers, praising each other, so it is difficult to determine the true quality of the text.
Neterature can be considered as a kind of "psychotherapy” [8]. Actual feature of the Net literature is the complete destruction of the distance between author and reader, which imposes certain responsibilities on both parties. Of course, the network literature is very young, so it has a lot of low-quality material.
Litblog represents blogs, where authors expose to the reader the works, and in contrast to the traditional literature, accept criticism, the views of readers on-line mode in the form of comments, blog roll, guest posts, just "likes" and etc. The most important litblog function is dynamic communication. A striking example of this type of art is, for example, blogs of Mary Arbatova, Alex Exler's and many other famous writers [15]. Many of the participants in the survey conducted by the authors responded that they enter into discussion with the bloggers, but it turned out that most of blogs is not artistic and literary, but political and cultural. The reason for this is the lack of high artistic quality works in blogs, and therefore the lack of reader’s willingness to discuss with the writer.
Interactive Books (kiberatura) is most unusual for traditional readers. The main feature of this type of literature is that one book has several ways for the development of the plot, which comes to different endings depending on the choice of the reader-player.
Kiberatura fully meets the needs of modern society: interactivity, hypertextuality, playing the essence of culture as text, according to Derrida, this is not an object, but a card that has "its own road and invisible branch, underground way, etc.” [14]. Interactive books develop an entirely new active reader, the reader-participant in the events. Literature in its new form is no longer a passive mental activity and becomes an active dynamic process. The use of information technology creates a possible and varied hypertext. Forms of kiberature are mostly interactive games. A survey of young people shows that they consider kiberature as an experiment and a game. Network literature gives the possibility of collective work, where the author in the work, game, blog allows readers not only to express their opinions, but also actively participate in the creative process. In this case, a literary product is open and can constantly be changed.
All these aspects had be involved into contemporary educational process, in particular - with the development of texts, both artistic and scientific. Of course, complaints and statement of facts is not a productive way. Obviously, the problem of modern "creative reader" development is very complicated. In this process it is important to remember that post-modernism is a socio-cultural reality. In this context the teachers can change the approach to the pedagogical work with information and communication technologies. Certainly, the positive aspect of the postmodern conception is pluralism and multiculturalism, openness to different forms and types of literary texts.
There is no doubt that fiction can play an outstanding role in the creative development of active modern youth. The main feature of modern social and cultural situation is creation of the global Internet space, providing effective virtual interaction of people, satisfaction their needs in global information resources and services. Revolution in obtaining and storing information has changed the culture and art. Information society is a society in which the popular culture dominates as complex and ambivalent phenomenon. Popular culture’s auditory is consumer’s mass. So signs of mass culture focus on commercial success. Gradually personality becomes a "product of series production".
The authors acknowledge received support from research program Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Institute of Art Education and Cultural Studies of the Russian Academy of Education” for the years 2014, 2015. We are responsible for all errors as well as heavy style of the manuscript.
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