The Culture as System, the System of Culture: Aleksandr Bogdanov on Proletarian Culture and Proletarian Art

In my paper, I first focus on Aleksandr Bogdanov’s systems theoretical understanding of culture and highlight the tektological foundations of culture. In this part, I analyze his organizational account of culture and interpret his tektological approach as a theory of the social dimensions of culture...

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Main Author: Soboleva Maja
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2021-12-01
Series:Cultural Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/csj-2021-0016
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author Soboleva Maja
author_facet Soboleva Maja
author_sort Soboleva Maja
collection DOAJ
description In my paper, I first focus on Aleksandr Bogdanov’s systems theoretical understanding of culture and highlight the tektological foundations of culture. In this part, I analyze his organizational account of culture and interpret his tektological approach as a theory of the social dimensions of culture and the cultural dimensions of society. Second, I discuss the term ‘proletarian culture’, its definition and its role in Bogdanov’s theory of socialism. I argue that Bogdanov’s vision of a future socialist society is connected with establishing a socialist culture. He considers the proletariat a bearer of socialist ideology and deduces its unique political role from its unique position in the system of social knowledge. With his idea of proletarian culture, Bogdanov drafts a programme of proletarian evolution which challenges Lenin’s programme for proletarian revolution. My last step concerns Bogdanov’s account of proletarian art. I argue that, in order to understand Bogdanov’s concept of art properly, we should differentiate between the terms ‘culture’ and ‘art’. The category of culture appears to be a form of organization of a social group, and the category of art is a form of aesthetic self-understanding and self-expression of a social group. My analysis focuses on proletarian art as a form of the self-consciousness (ideology) of the working class.
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spelling doaj-art-7dcef491fbae4178b10a12c0d58662b12025-02-10T13:25:36ZengSciendoCultural Science1836-04162021-12-0113120021010.2478/csj-2021-0016The Culture as System, the System of Culture: Aleksandr Bogdanov on Proletarian Culture and Proletarian ArtSoboleva Maja0Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, GermanyIn my paper, I first focus on Aleksandr Bogdanov’s systems theoretical understanding of culture and highlight the tektological foundations of culture. In this part, I analyze his organizational account of culture and interpret his tektological approach as a theory of the social dimensions of culture and the cultural dimensions of society. Second, I discuss the term ‘proletarian culture’, its definition and its role in Bogdanov’s theory of socialism. I argue that Bogdanov’s vision of a future socialist society is connected with establishing a socialist culture. He considers the proletariat a bearer of socialist ideology and deduces its unique political role from its unique position in the system of social knowledge. With his idea of proletarian culture, Bogdanov drafts a programme of proletarian evolution which challenges Lenin’s programme for proletarian revolution. My last step concerns Bogdanov’s account of proletarian art. I argue that, in order to understand Bogdanov’s concept of art properly, we should differentiate between the terms ‘culture’ and ‘art’. The category of culture appears to be a form of organization of a social group, and the category of art is a form of aesthetic self-understanding and self-expression of a social group. My analysis focuses on proletarian art as a form of the self-consciousness (ideology) of the working class.https://doi.org/10.2478/csj-2021-0016aleksandr bogdanovorganizationtektologycultureartsystemproletarian
spellingShingle Soboleva Maja
The Culture as System, the System of Culture: Aleksandr Bogdanov on Proletarian Culture and Proletarian Art
Cultural Science
aleksandr bogdanov
organization
tektology
culture
art
system
proletarian
title The Culture as System, the System of Culture: Aleksandr Bogdanov on Proletarian Culture and Proletarian Art
title_full The Culture as System, the System of Culture: Aleksandr Bogdanov on Proletarian Culture and Proletarian Art
title_fullStr The Culture as System, the System of Culture: Aleksandr Bogdanov on Proletarian Culture and Proletarian Art
title_full_unstemmed The Culture as System, the System of Culture: Aleksandr Bogdanov on Proletarian Culture and Proletarian Art
title_short The Culture as System, the System of Culture: Aleksandr Bogdanov on Proletarian Culture and Proletarian Art
title_sort culture as system the system of culture aleksandr bogdanov on proletarian culture and proletarian art
topic aleksandr bogdanov
organization
tektology
culture
art
system
proletarian
url https://doi.org/10.2478/csj-2021-0016
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