Философские науки/4. Философия культуры

Borisenko I.V., Grigoryeva G.B.

South-Russia State University of Economics and Services, Russia

Еxternal and internal image of the country

The structure of the national image of the country includes two components: the “internal image” and “external image”. There are two types of ethnic image: intro image (the conception of one’s people) and extra image (the conception of other people) [1]. On the one hand, people in some way idealize themselves in the intro image, adding some positive features that are necessary to survive in specific socio-geographical, religious and political conditions. On the other hand, some mental features which people refer to trying to justify shortcomings of their lifestyle can be included into the intro image. (For example, in the consciousness of the Russians there is a distinctive tradition of self-conception in the image of Ivan the Fool. But very often, however, Russian Ivan gets smarter and more successful than others).

Extra images are more critical than intro images. “In order to bring an imaginary understanding closer to the actual one, we must make allowances for the national-historical system of concepts and values, i.e. take into consideration that a representative of other people can see the world quite differently than I do “[2]. We can reconstruct a typical example of the ethnic image on the basis of historical documents - the table “A brief description of peoples in Europe and their properties” (Vienna Natural History Museum). This table was compiled by an unknown author probably in the XVI century, published at the beginning of the XVIII century. That is what is written about the Russian people. Manners – villainous; mind – none; the manifestation of these properties – intemperate; science - in the Greek language; clothing – coats; defects – deceit; love - to a fistfight; the image of the country - covered with ice; military virtues - with effort; worship - the schism; addiction - to bees; pastime – sleep; animals to be compared with- a donkey [3].

It should be noted that extra images often serve as a source of national prejudices and preconceptions. The analysis of the image of Germans in the Russian urban culture of XVIII-XIX centuries on the material of the Russian print style and folk puppetry is rather illustrative. S.V. Obolenskaya believes that in the pre-revolutionary image of Germans in the Russian culture is not an image of an enemy, it happened later, during the First World War. According to the Russian perception, a German ridiculously distorts Russian words, he is a scientist but does not know the most simple things, mean, but at the same time a prudent and careful owner, a skilled worker and craftsman. These conceptions show a good-natured humor, yet a quiet recognition of the existence of a person who is different, the naive belief that the Russians have something above learning, agility, and tricks of a German [4].

The image of the country a set of interconnected objective characteristics of the national system (economic, geographic, ethnic, cultural, demographic, etc.) formed in the process of evolutionary development of the state as a complex multifactor subsystem of the world order, the efficiency of interaction between its components determines the trend of socio-economic, socio-political, national, confessional and other processes in the state [5].

One’s own people are put into the center of the universe. Hence, follow arrogance, mistrust and sometimes hostility towards others. “We” and “they” is not just ascertaining of variegation of the ethnic map of the modern world. Only those who try to separate nations, supposedly doomed to perpetual confrontation try to use this fact. It is not surprising that representatives of any ethnic group have characteristics of the peoples in abundance - superficial, standardized judgments and, as a rule, emotive stereotypes "[6].

Psychologically, the “enemy image” helps justify any action, including military aggression against other states, promotes group solidarity, cohesion often on nationalistic or chauvinistic basis. Certain images of states as hostile and dangerous to the Western world are being purposefully formed abroad often using specific PR-technologies

References:

1. Chesnov Y.V. Lectures on historical ethnology. - M., 1998.

2. Gachev G.D. National images of the world. - M., 1988. P.44.

3. Beloborodova I.N. The ethnonym “German” in Russia: Cultural and Political Aspect // ONS. 2000. № 2. P. 97.

4. Obolenskaya S.V. The image of Germans in the Russian folk culture // Odisseyyu - M., 1993. P 182.

5. Galumov E.A. International image of Russia: the strategy of forming. - M., 2003. P. 12.

6. Bagramov E.A. Ethnic Issues // The image of Russia in world culture and images of other countries in the Russian culture XIX-XX centuries. - M., 1998. P. 85.