Guseltseva M.S. Art in Human Socialization: The Dialectic of Agent and Culture

The idea of G.G. Shpet about the readiness of the subject for the perception of art, for aesthetic perception and aesthetic education. This idea, expressed by him in his work “Art as a Kind of Knowledge” (1926/1927), served as a connecting thread in the analysis of the socio-psychological functions of art, such as the transmission of values, moral education, the formation of artistic taste, the development of critical thinking and self-reflection in the formation of identity. Along with the readiness of the subject for aesthetic perception and aesthetic education, another important thesis in the study of this problem is the understanding of art as a component of culture. In epochs of stagnation and in situations of cultural change, various configurations of the functions of art are formed. The socializing influence of art is based on the dialectic of the subject and culture, the observance of two conditions. The first is the socio-cultural context, which determines which works are allowed into the public space; what practices of interaction with them are recognized as normative; ambiguity or unambiguity is used in the interpretation of a work of art, etc. The second is the subjective state of a person, the degree of his openness to self-development, the level of readiness for aesthetic perception. The latter means the construction of functional organs for the perception of ethical, aesthetic, existential complexity, the development of artistic taste. The concept of artistic taste as an interdisciplinary category developed at the intersection of philosophy, sociology, psychology, art history, and pedagogy combine social (the educational impact of the environment and art on the formation of the subject) and individual (personal preferences and predilections; proper subjectivity) aspects of aesthetic education. The methodological basis of the study was the dialectical method, which allows focusing not only on the problem of socialization through art, but also on those cultural factors that both promote and hinder aesthetic education, the formation of artistic taste.

Key words: methodology, aesthetic perception, aesthetic education, subject, functional organs, artistic taste, art, culture

For citation: Guseltseva, M.S. (2023). Art in Human Socialization: The Dialectic of Agent and Culture. New Psychological Research, No. 3, 7–29. DOI: 10.51217/npsyresearch_2023_03_03_01

Acknowledgment

The article was carried out within a State assignment, project FNRE- 2021-0001.