Herald of
Culturology

Russian seasons in Great Britain. Paradoxes of cultural interaction

Krasavchenko T.N.

Abstract

Since the second half of the XIXth century one may talk of the ballet cult in Russia, while in the rest of Europe it was perceived not quite as an art. At the beginning of the XXth century while outlook and aesthetics in Europe change, and modernism step by step became the ideological mainstream, the radical reform of art, and ballet in particular, became necessary. The most powerful and bright its reformer is Serge Diaghilev, сharismatic person of a rare organizational gift and a striking aesthetic intuition, modernist and later avangardist, formed by Russian Silver Age, first of all by «The World of Art». Since 1909 he became an «exporter» of Russian art to the West. The paradox is that the modernist, avangardist Diaghilev and his troupe found recognition in Britain, which by its traditionalist, moderate, conservative cultural paradigm was an antipode to Russia, more than in other countries (even than in France). Diaghilev was «different», «an outsider» in the restrained Great Britain but nevertheless he with his troupe considerably filled in the «gaps» in British culture and did much for it; without them it might be different, probably, much poorer. Diaghilev became a part of a British foreign Pantheon.

Keywords

Russian ballet; English culture; cultural interaction; traditionalism; conservatism; modernism; avangardism; foreign Pantheon.

DOI: 10.31249/hoc/2019.01.03

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