Image in culture: the Silver Age as a “place of memory”

Abstract

The article considers the relationship between the concepts “biographical type”, “cultural memory”, “place of memory” to prove that they are useful for the image analysis. The image, created by a culture in the unity of its individual and collective creative origins, in the process of formation of cultural and historical discourse of the epoch becomes both a means of creating cultural meanings and a means of their translation. Based on the analysis of memories of the Silver Age the process of formation of the image of the epoch as a place of memory is presented. The authors examine the texts that became milestones for the formation of the image of the Silver Age and conclude that the concept of “Silver Age” emerged in the process of self-definition of culture through memoir texts. Embodying the key mythologemes of the epoch, the image of the Silver Age becomes a way of self-identi­fi­cation of the generation. The article considers the image of Aleksandr A. Blok as a “spokesman of the epoch”. The individual image re­ceives a special meaning and place in the cul­tural memory due to the memoirs of con­tempo­raries. Using the concept of “bio­graphical legend” introduced by B.V. Toma­shev­sky, the authors argue that Blok, as a personified image of the Silver Age, appears in memoirs not by chance. Broadcast in different periods of culture, Blok’s image, like the image of the Silver Age, becomes a place of cultural memory.