Academic literature on the topic 'Dramatic of discourse'

Abstract This article explores dimensions of dramatic structure which the literary linguistic analysis of a play text can illuminate within an integrated model of dramatic significance. The play to be examined is John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, known for its lexical richness, denseness of dramatic expression and not least the structural creativity of its Hiberno-English, all of which provide an abundant fund of textual semiotics for the present drama-specific literary linguistic analysis. The dimensions of the play investigated are (i) those of its ‘constitution’, which linguistically comprises dialogue and stage directions, and characterisation, plot and setting as traditional constituents of dramatic structure in their own right; and (ii) those of its ‘realisation’ as literary work, staging production and theatre performance and the associated addressivity of materially the same play text at each of these levels. As such, it will be shown that the employment of, and further development of, a linguistic model of social semiotics (after Halliday 1978; Fairclough 2003) enables a unified account to be given of the dramatic meanings a play text expresses at these two levels of its internal construction and its external actualisation.

This investigation examines different speaking roles that lawyers may shift into, and depart from, in the monologic genre of the opening statement in three American trials, incorporating Goffman’s concept of Footing (1981) into an analysis of three high-profile trials. The findings reveal that lawyers take on three distinct discursive roles: The storyteller, the interlocutor, and the animator. In addition, indexical resources commonly associated with each role are explored which serve to contextualize such role shifts. In effect, the lawyers can subtly make the discourse argumentative and suggestive of inferences. Such discursive practices appear to stand in direct contradiction to the purpose of the opening statement.

Abstract Pronominal modes of address are an instance of the kind of structural incompatibility between languages which presents a considerable challenge to the translator. Indeed, they have been described as an "impossibility of translation" (Lyons). The structural contrast between English and most other European languages with regard to this feature has significant implications for literary translations, since address behaviour encodes social relations and thus functions as an important signal of unfolding interpersonal dynamics in texts. This article explores the implications of divergent address systems in the translation of dramatic discourse, using examples from French-English and English-German translation to illustrate the problems involved. In the first case, the absence of differentiated second-person pronouns in modern English means that other signals have to be found to encode the social dynamics of the text. In Sartre's subtle exploration of shifting human relations in Huis Clos/In Camera we witness a constant switching between the "tu" and "vous" forms of address as the characters seek to establish their roles. Translation into English inevitably results in a loss of explicitness and the introduction of alternative indices of interpersonal relations. In translation from English into German, on the other hand, as an analysis of Pinter's The Caretaker/Der Hausmeister demonstrates, selection between the "du" and "Sie"-forms becomes necessary, and a further level of differentiation is added to those available in the original. Here, pronominal choice presupposes a careful analysis of the dynamics of the text, and results in an explicitation of the attitudinal nuances of the original. In both cases, the process of translation implies a re-encoding based on the translator's individual conception of the source texts. The issue under discussion thus emerges as an archetypal feature of literary translation, showing how the latter manipulates texts by opening up some interpretive possibilities and closing down others. Résumé Les pronoms appellatifs sont un exemple du type de l'incompatibilité structurelle entre les langues qui représente un défi considérable pour le traducteur. En fait, ces pronoms ont été décrits comme une "impossibilité de traduction" (Lyons). Le contraste structurelle entre l'anglais et la plupart des autres langues européennes vis-à-vis de cet aspect a des implications significatives pour la traduction littéraire, car la façon de s'adresser encode des relations sociales et fonctionne donc comme un signal important d'ouverture des dynamiques interpersonnelles dans les textes. Cet article explore les implications des systèmes divergents d'appellation dans la traduction du discours dramatique, en utilisant des exemples de traduction français-anglais et anglais-allemand pour illustrer les problèmes. Dans le premier cas, l'absence de pronoms de la seconde personne différenciés dans l'anglais moderne signifie que d'autres signaux doivent être trouvés pour encoder la dynamique sociale du texte. Dans l'exploration subtile de Sartre des glissements de relations humaines dans Huis Clos (en anglais In Camera), nous sommes les témoins d'un transfert constant entre les formes d'abord "tu" et "vous", alors que les personnages cherchent à définir leurs rôles. La traduction vers l'anglais résulte inévitablement en une perte d'explicité et l'introduction d'indices alternatifs pour les relations interpersonnelles. Dans la traduction de l'anglais vers l'allemand, telle que le démontre une analyse de The Caretaker de Pinter (en allemand Der Hausmeister), le choix entre les formes de tutoiement et de vouvoiement devient nécessaire, et un niveau ultérieur de différenciation s'ajoute à ceux disponibles dans l'original. Ici le choix pronominal présuppose une analyse soigneuse de la dynamique du texte, et se conclut par une explicitation des nuances d'aptitude de l'original. Dans les deux cas, le processus de traduction implique un ré-encodage basée sur la conception individuelle du traducteur des textes sources. Le point discuté apparaît donc comme une caractéristique de type archétypal de la traduction littéraire, indiquant comment cette dernière manipule les textes en les ouvrant à certaines possibilités d'interprétation et en les fermant à d'autres.

The use of semiotic methods and concepts in analytical studies of opera has not yet produced the results that the variety of communicative levels in musical theatre might lead us to expect. If, to repeat a frequently cited formulation by Pierluigi Petrobelli, ‘various systems work together in opera, each according to its nature and laws, and the result of the combination is much greater than the sum of the individual forces’, it seems likely that the difficulty of applying this principle may in fact be directly related to the multiplicity of ‘systems’ involved. Only theoretical enquiries that go beyond differentiating expressive levels can hope to arrive at a more satisfactory concept of this ‘system of systems’, and thus apply it in a useful way. The problem is of course too vast to be developed here; however, because the following reading of Aida involves such theoretical considerations, it may be useful to make explicit some basic difficulties involving polytextuality in opera.

This thesis is a theoretical and philosophical discussion of the nature of poetic discourse, with a subsequent discussion of pedagogic practice arising from the views expressed, whose effectiveness is illustrated by a subjective selection of protocols. The central claim is that the peculiar nature of poetic discourse is inherently dramatic, since it internalizes 'voices'. Therefore, to achieve a total experience of poetry the reader needs to engage his own schemata in their body/thought entirety. This implies that he has not to limit himself to the 'sounding' of the 'voices' he achieves in the text just within his 'inward ear', but he has to 'embody' them, 'inhabit' them within a 'physical space of representation', letting them inter-act with other readers' embodiments. In so doing, the reader becomes an Acting Reader. The contribution this thesis offers to research on Discourse Analysis and Literary Stylistics consists in recognizing the vocal, 'physical' dimension of poetic texts (a dimension which is often neglected) as a way of achieving a more thorough personal awareness of the poetic experience. Accordingly, I elaborate a principled pedagogic approach to poetic language through the reader's use of drama techniques with the aim to demonstrate how it can be relevant in the teaching of poetry to either Ll or L2 students at both High School and University levels. So that in the theoretical part (Chapters 1-4) I place my rationale against a context of 'new-critic', semiotic, and deconstructionist approaches to literary theory and teaching methodology to demonstrate how they imply only a one-way communication of a pre-established interpretation (Chapters 1-2). Then I describe the first 'two phases' of the reader's activation of 'familiarizing' top-down and 'defamiliarizing' bottom-up strategies in his attempt to authenticate the peculiar structural and semantic arrangement of the poetic text (Chapter 3). Eventually, these two top-down/bottom-up phases come to merge during the final interactive phase (Chapter 4) in which I postulate a group of acting readers' multiple 'embodied' poetic discourses - controlled by the same poetic text - inter-acting in a representational 'physical' space to recreate selves, schemata, and iconic contexts. This theory systematically informs the practical part of my research (Chapters 5-9) consisting in 'dialogic' classroom operationalizations of each of the three phases. I pragmatically demonstrate (through protocol analysis) that to be conceptually receptive to poetic language the student/acting-reader needs to be physically prepared to be receptive to it. Stylistics, thus, is meant as the analysis of the acting reader's own responses, not as the analysis of the text (Chapter 5). I first provide 'top-down' affective evidence that the nature of schemata is essentially 'bodily', as the body is the experiential way to conceptualization (Chapter 6). Then, I show students/acting-readers' 'bottom-up' cognitive embodiments of ideational/interpersonal 'voices' in both macro- and micro-communication (Chapter 7), to finally describe groups of acting readers' pragmatic achievements of 'interactive' dramatic embodiments of collective poetic discourses (Chapter 8). I conclude (Chapter 9) by indicating possible theoretical and pedagogic developments of my rationale.

The Dramatic Feminine Discourse of Cristina Escofet interrogates this author's use of language as a way to unravel her feminist discourse. In her writings on theater, her public pronouncements and her theater workshops Escofet employs the term "kaleidoscope" to describe her approach to language: colorful, changing and composed of many components. Therefore, my search to describe Escofet's feminine discourse uses a definition of discourse that embraces its kaleidoscopic nature. My approach is grounded in the theoretical insights of Helene Cixous, first and primary disseminator of the theory of feminine discourse, who maintains that feminine writing is elusive and must be approached from different angles. Consequently, my thesis also encompasses a study of the images of women, and their sexuality, and the effects of simulacra on feminine identity. In Cristina Escofet's search for a contemporary image of women her feminine discourse reevaluates, destabalizes or reinvents the image of women that has been perpetuated through Hollywood and through the telling and retelling of fairy and folk tales. The image of or reference to heroines like Little Red Ridding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or Snow White and of actresses such as Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, and the character Annie Hall are integrated into almost every one of Escofet plays. These images of Hollywood actresses and fairy and folk tale heroines stem from their performative gender roles. As Judith Butler explains, gender is an act created by society that has been mistaken for reality. To mistake the act for the real is a direct consequence of simulacra as explained by Jean Baudrillard. Escofet, conscious of the nature of signs in today's society, presents and explores the problems that arise out of the performative nature of gender, or rather, out of simulacra in relation to female's identity in her plays. The exploration of the image of women and the effects of simulacra on feminine identity continue in Escofet's characters' exploration of sexuality. Escofet adequately represents women's sexual beliefs, attitudes and experiences.

This study aims to investigate the proposed complementary relationship between impoliteness (as a form of aggression), and humour (as a form of entertainment). Taking the fictional film As Good As It Gets, I draw from a number of scenes involving the main protagonist Melvin Udall. Although this character is extremely offensive to others, the film is classified as a romantic comedy. As such, it offers a good basis on which to test out my ideas regarding the proposed relationship between impoliteness and humour, and more importantly, how and why we may feel the need to laugh at what is essentially socially proscribed and disturbing behaviour. My work, then, contributes to two main academic fields of interest: with regards the field of impoliteness I demonstrate why offensiveness can be entertaining by making specific links with humour theory, and within the field of stylistics I show how a multi-disciplined approach to character analysis can offer us richer observations and interpretations of behaviour, than would otherwise be available through analysis of models in isolation.

This study undertakes an examination of fool-master discourse in Shakespeare with the help of discourse stylistics, an approach to the study of literary texts which combines findings from the fields of discourse analysis, conversation analysis and pragmatics. The analysis aims to show how the relations of power which exist between dramatic characters are manifested by the linguistic organization of the dialogue as interactive process. Fool-master discourse in Shakespeare is analysed from three different perspectives: the use of the pronouns of address (you/thou); the organization of the discourse as a whole; and the politeness strategies used by fools and their employers in face-to-face interaction. With regard to the pronouns of address, it is shown that neither a structural model nor a sociolinguistic one are sufficient per se to satisfactorily explain the constant shift of pronoun which occurs in Early Modern English dramatic texts. It is suggested that a model of analysis rooted in discourse analysis and pragmatics ought to be developed. Burton's framework is used to study the conversational structure of fool-master discourse, and to show how the power relations obtaining between dramatic characters are manifested by the internal organization of dramatic dialogue. Politeness phenomena in fool-master discourse are studied following Brown and Levinson's model and it is shown that both the fools and their employers orient to face in interaction. Finally, this study of power relations in fool-master discourse shows that, contrary to much current critical opinion, the fools in Shakespeare are not licensed jesters who enjoy unlimited freedom of speech. Feste, Lavatch and Lear's Fool need to resort to complex linguistic strategies if they want to make their criticisms and, at the same time, avoid being punished.

<p>This thesis deals with interactional patterns in verbal disputes as portrayed in the written dialogue of Swedish drama over three centuries. The overarching aim is to contribute to research into conflict talk in Swedish dialogue, but also to contribute to historical pragmatics and linguistic stylistics.</p><p>The teoretical and methodological framework combines elements from conversation analysis and theories of communicative events (activity types). A corpus of 30 drama texts, written during the 18^th century, the late 19^th century, and the late 20^th century, was examined for examples of conflict events that are lexically marked as such in the texts (by words such as <i>argument</i>, <i>dispute</i>, <i>quarrel</i> etc.). </p><p>A total of 47 conflict events were identified in 21 of the 30 drama texts. The construction of the beginning of the three most significant types of conflict sequences found within 45 of the 47 events, totalling 111 sequences, is analysed in detail. The three sequence types concern differences in opinion (disagreement sequences), accusations (complaint sequences) and directives (rejection sequences).</p><p>One result of the study is that complaint sequences are shown to be by far the most common conflict pattern in the data. Another result is that few differences are found regarding the construction of the sequences over three centuries. For the most part, it is the same sort of moves that are frequent no matter which period the data stem from. One conclusion is therefore that the conflict patterns in drama dialogue appear to be relatively stable over time.</p><p>The study also deals with the dramatic functions of the conflict patterns (the events, sequence types or moves). Two functions are discussed, namely plot development and characterisation. While all conflict can further the process of characterisation, for example by showing the negotiation of differences in power between the characters, less than half of the events further the plot by having an effect on the disputants or other characters in the drama.</p>

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior<br>A condição cibercultural pode ser entendida como uma cultura de circunstâncias operadas por tipos específicos de tecnologia; tecnologias que perigam codificar o pensamento, exagerando a polarização das ideias num duplo frenesi ideológico, e tecnologias que possibilitam a mobilização das pessoas em nome de pautas ignoradas pelos espaços legitimados para o fazer político e a discussão de temas deixados de lado, ou adulterados, pelos meios tradicionais de produzir conhecimento e comunicação. Para o internauta, personagem conceitual caracterizado e definido pelas conexões que articula, é neste segundo sentido que se inserem a Mídia NINJA, o Episódio Cablegate, a Primavera Árabe e o Occupy Wall Street. O OWS, mesmo, é coerente em seu manifesto: de fato, formalizar a política da esquerda é endireitar-se, é tornar-se direita, é transformar esse tempo criador em espaço. Mas, sem um espaço formal e estabelecido, como pode o tempo fruir e frutificar? Aí reside o problema do internauta ou, ao menos, o seu fundamento, problema que o internauta tentará encaminhar e, mesmo, recolocar com a noção de parresía. Através dum uso muito particular e peculiar da mesma feito por Michel Foucault, a noção repensa a relação entre verdade, política e sujeito, colocando o problema do discurso verdadeiro não nas famigeradas condições de possibilidade da veridicção, mas na questão do real da filosofia, da sua realidade. O parresiasta é aquele que, fora do estatuto social ou institucional, faz valer sua própria liberdade e coragem ao falar. Levado ao extremo, o parresiasta é o que aceita morrer pela verdade: aceita morrer em nome da verdade, por ter dito a verdade e por ter a verdade no dizer. O que interessa a Foucault e ao internauta, com a parresía, não é um estudo das performances e do sentido dos enunciados neste ou naquele contexto cibercultural, mas um drama, uma dramática dos discursos, um modo de dizer e pensar que revele o contrato do sujeito falante à verdade que enuncia, sua maneira de se vincular à verdade do que diz. Uma leitura cibercultural da parresía; uma leitura de Foucault por um internauta. Este drama cibercultural, aqui presentificado na escritura burocrática de um trabalho de dissertação, é uma tentativa do internauta em resolver o problema que o acomete, o registro institucional dessa tentativa e o próprio internauta.<br>Cybercultural condition is understood as a culture of circumstances operated by the specific types of technology; technologies which endanger to decode thinking, exaggerating the polarization of ideas on a double ideological frenzy, and technologies which enable the mobilization of people in the name of rulings ignored by legitimated spaces to political doing and the discussion of themes left aside, or adulterate, by traditional means of producing knowledge and communication. For netizen, conceptual personage characterized and defined by connections which articulate, it is in this second meaning that is inserted the NINJA Media, the Cablegate Episode, the Arabic Spring and the Occupy Wall Street. The OWS is coherent in its manifest: indeed, formalizing the left-winged politics turns it into right-winged politics, it is transforming this maker-time into space. However, without a formal space and established, how can the time possess and be fruitful? This is the problem of netizen or, at least, its foundation, problem which netizen will try to route and put back with the notion of parrhesia. Through a very particular and peculiar usage of it done by Michel Foucault, the idea rethink the relation between truth, politics and individual, setting the problem of unfeigned discourse not in infamous conditions of responsibility and veridiction, but in the real matter of philosophy, of its reality. |Parrhesiasta| is someone who even being outside of one´s social or institutional statute enforces one´s own liberty and courage when speaking. Taken to the extreme, |parrhesiasta| is someone who is willing to die in the name of the truth, for having said the truth or for having truth in the said. What comes to Foucault interest and the netizen, along with parrhesia, it is not the studies of the performances and the meanings of the enunciation in different cybercultual contexts, but the dramatic of the discourses themselves, a way of saying and thinking that reveals the relation of the speaker with the truth that one annunciates, one´s way of being bound with the truth. A cybercultural reading of Parrhesia; a Foucault´s reading by the netizen. This cyberculltural drama, presented in this bureaucratic thesis, it is an attempt of the netizen to solve the problem which one is attacked by, the institutional registry of this attempt and the netizen himself.

With the increasing development of relations of consumption between discipline knowledge and students, educators face many pressures. One of these pressures is the emotional response of students to their learning experiences and the weight given to their evaluation of teaching by universities. This study emerged from the polarised nature of student responses to one particular area of study in landscape architecture, the integrative discourse of Landscape Planning. While some students found this subject highly rewarding, others found it highly confronting. Thus the main aims of this study are to describe how the students, teacher and institution construct this discourse and to propose a way to rethink these differences in student responses from a teacher's perspective. Firstly, the context of the study is outlined. The changing nature of higher education in Australian society frames the research problem of student-teacher struggles in Landscape Planning, a domain of knowledge in landscape architecture that is situated in a an enterprise university in Queensland. It describes some of the educational issues associated with Boyer's scholarship of integration, contemporary trans-disciplinary workplaces and legitimate knowledge chosen by the institution [Design], discipline [Landscape Architecture], teacher [Landscape Planning] and students [useful and relevant knowledge] as appropriate in a fourth year classroom setting. Secondly, the conceptual framework is described to establish the point of departure for the study. This study uses the work of Basil Bernstein, Harvey Sacks and Kenneth Burke to explore the changing nature of knowledge relations in Landscape Planning. Unconventionally perhaps, it begins by proposing a new concept called the 'decision space' formed from the conceptual spaces of multiple participants in an activity and developed from notions of creativity, conceptual boundaries and knowledge translation. It argues that it is in the 'decision space' that this inquiry is most likely to discover new knowledge about student-teacher struggles in Landscape Planning. It outlines an educational sociological view of the 'decision space' using Bernstein's concepts of the underlying pedagogic device, pedagogic discourse, pedagogic context, recontextualising field and most importantly the pedagogic code comprising two relative scales of classification and framing. It introduces an ethnomethodological view of knowledge boundaries that construct the 'decision space' using Sacks' concepts of context-boundedness and indexicality in people's talk. It also makes a link to a rhetorical view of knowledge choices in the 'decision space' using Burke's concepts of symbolic human action, motive and persuasion in people's speeches, art and texts. Thirdly, the study is divided methodologically into three parts: knowledge relations in official and curriculum texts, knowledge choices in student drawings and knowledge troubles in student talk. Knowledge relations in official texts are investigated using two relative scales of classification and framing for Landscape Planning and its adjacent pedagogic contexts including Advanced Construction and Practice 1 and 2 and Advanced Landscape Design 1 and 2. The official texts that described unit objectives and content in each context reveal that Landscape Planning is positioned in the landscape architecture course in Queensland as an intermediary discourse between the strongly classified and strongly framed discourse of Advanced Construction and Practice and the weakly classified and weakly framed discourse of Advanced Landscape Design. This seems to intensify the need for students in their professional year to access and adapt to new pedagogic rules, apparently not experienced previously. A further subjective reflection of my own week 1 unit information as curriculum text using classification and framing relations is included to explain what characterised the rationale, aim, objectives, teaching programme, assessment practice and assessment criteria in Landscape Planning. It suggests that the knowledge relations in my teaching practice mirror the weakly classified and strongly framed discourse of the official text for this unit, that is that students were expected to transcend knowledge boundaries but also be able to produce specific forms of communication in the unit. Knowledge choices in student drawings in Landscape Planning are described using a new sociological method of visual interpretation. It is comprised of four steps: (a) setting up a framing scale using the social semiotic approach of Kress and van Leeuwen (2005) (contact gaze, social distance, angle of viewpoint, modality, analytical structure and symbolic processes) combined with the pentadic approach of Burke (1969) (act, scene, agency, purpose); (b) setting up a classification scale using the concept of agent from the pentad of Burke (1969) combined with how the relationship between 'I' the producer and 'you' the viewer is constructed in each drawing, like a sequence in a conversation according to Sacks (1992a); (c) coding student drawings according to these two relative scales and (d) assessing any shifts along the scales from the start to the end of the semester. This approach shows that there is some potential in assessing student drawings as rhetorical 'texts' and identifying a range of student orientations to knowledge. The drawings are initially spread across the four philosophical orientations when students begin Landscape Planning and while some shift, others do not shift their orientation during the semester. By the end of the semester in 2003, eight out of ten student drawings were characterised by weak classification of knowledge boundaries and weak framing of the space for knowledge choices. In 2004, nine out of twenty-one drawings exhibited the same orientation by the end of the semester. Thus there is a changing pattern, complex though it may be, of student orientations to knowledge acquired through studying Landscape Planning prior to graduating as landscape architects. Knowledge troubles in student talk are identified using conversation markers in student utterances such as 'I don't know', 'I think', 'before' and 'now' and the categorisation of sequences of talk according to what is knowable and who knows about Landscape Planning. Student talk suggests that students have a diverse set of affective responses to Landscape Planning, with some students able to recognise the new rules of the pedagogic code but not able to produce appropriate texts as learning outcomes. This suggests a sense of discontinuity where students dispute what is expected of them in terms of transcending knowledge boundaries and what is to be produced in terms of specific forms of communication. The study went further to describe a language of legitimation of knowledge in Landscape Planning based on how students viewed its scope, scale, new concepts and other related contexts and who students viewed as influential in their selection of legitimate knowledge in Landscape Planning. It is the language of legitimation that constructs the 'decision space'. Thus in relation to the main aims of the study, I now know from unit texts that the knowledge relations in my curriculum design align closely with those of the official objectives and required content for Landscape Planning. I can see that this unit is uniquely positioned in terms of its hidden rules between landscape construction and landscape design. From student drawings, I acknowledge that students make a range of knowledge choices based on different philosophical orientations from a pragmatic to a mystical view of reality and that my curriculum design allows space for student choice and a shift in student orientations to knowledge. From student talk, I understand what students believe to be the points of contention in what to learn and who to learn from in Landscape Planning. These findings have led me to construct a new set of pedagogic code modalities to balance the diverse expectations of students and the contemporary requirements of institutions, disciplines and professions in the changing context of higher education. Further work is needed to test these ideas with other teachers as researchers in other pedagogic contexts.

This thesis is an examination of the ways in which competing discourses of love and sexuality, ranging from the literary and philosophical to the religious, have influenced the portrayal of men and women in the drama of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The structure of the thesis is in two parts: the first concerns what might be termed normative relationships, underlying which is the ideal of mutual affection in marriage, and the second, relationships which undermine, or challenge that ideal. My central proposition is that the conflict between the demands of the body and the spirit, rooted in the ascetic heritage of the Middle Ages, lies at the heart of all discourse on love and sexuality. This is demonstrated in the tension between the Petrarchan idealisation of love and women, and their denigration; between sublimation and sexual fulfilment. Underlying the idealism associated with love is the fear of disillusionment and betrayal, arising out of a deep-rooted association of sexuality with sin, which finds expression in anxiety about female sexuality. The playwrights dramatise these tensions, placing them in a context of changing values in which traditional views of morality come into conflict with a cynical acceptance of human frailty.

Contemporary Russian socio-cultural, cultural and philosophical, socio psychological, artistic and aesthetic practices actualize the Russian tradition of rejection, criticism, undisguised hatred and fear of power. Today, however, power has ceased to be a subject of one-dimensional denial or condemnation, becoming the subject of an interdisciplinary scientific discourse that integrates cultural studies, philosophy, social psychology, semiotics, art criticism and history (history of culture). The article provides theoretical substantiation and empirical support for the two facets of notions of power. The first facet is the unique, not only political, but also mental determinant of the problem of power in Russia, a kind of reflection of modus vivendi. The second facet is the artistic and image-based determinant of problem of power in Russia designated as artis imago. Theoretical grounds for solving these problems are found in F. Nietzsche’s perceptions of the binary “potentate-mass” opposition, G. Le Bon’s of the “leader”, K.-G. Jung’s of mechanisms of human motivation for power. The paper dwells on the “semiosis of power” in the focus of thoughts by A. F. Losev, P. A. Sorokin, R. Barthes. Based on S. Freud’s views of the unconscious and G. V. Plekhanov’s and J. Maritain’s views of the totalitarian power, we substantiate the concept of “the imperial unconscious”. The paper focuses on the importance of the freedom motif in art (D. Diderot and V. G. Belinsky as theorists, S. Y. Yursky as an art practitioner). Power as a subject of influence and object of analysis by Russian creators is studied on the material of perceptions and creative experience of A. S. Pushkin (in the context of works devoted to Russian “impostors” by numerous authors). Special attention is paid to the early twenty-first century television series on Soviet rulers (Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Furtseva). The conclusion is made on the relevance of Pushkin’s remark about “living power” “hated by the rabble” for contemporary Russia.