Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article offers a culturological analysis of Perm wooden sculpture as a unique phenomenon that emerged at the intersection of Christian tradition and the pagan heritage of the Ural Finno-Ugric peoples. The primary focus is on examining this phenomenon through the prism of key culturological concepts. M. M. Bakhtin’s concept of the dialogue of cultures is employed to explore Perm plastic art as a polyphonic phenomenon, in which the interaction between ‘one’s own’ and ‘the other’s’ word gives rise to new meanings. Yu. M. Lotman’s semiotic approach allows the Urals to be interpreted as a distinct semiosphere, where the emergence of a new artistic language was a response to the semiotic ‘explosion’ and ‘untranslatability’ of different cultural codes; this is clearly demonstrated by the sculpture’s compromise form of a ‘carved icon’. E. S. Markaryan’s theory is used to consider Perm wooden sculpture as a socio-adaptive mechanism that ensured the integration of a multi-ethnic population into a single cultural space through a compromise between official doctrine and archaic consciousness. Finally, the article draws on theories of syncretism and ‘folk religiosity’ to analyze the utilitarian–magical attitude towards sculptures — expressed in the practices of gifting and dressing them — which testifies to the deep interweaving of Christian and pagan elements in folk piety. It is concluded that Perm sculpture represents a complex cultural text that requires an interdisciplinary approach to reveal its uniqueness as a product of cultural genesis on the periphery of the empire.
Author: Anna A. Suvorova
Institution: Herzen University
Language: English
Subfield: General Arts and Humanities
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7214701928