Joseph Huizinga. The study of historical mentality as the basis of J. Huizinga’s methodology. Dr. Anton van der Lem on Huizinga's work
The book continues the publication of selected works by the outstanding Dutch historian and cultural scientist. The classic work Homo ludens [Man Playing] is devoted to the comprehensive essence of the phenomenon of play and its universal significance in human civilization. Articles: Problems of cultural history, On historical life ideals. The political and military significance of knightly ideas in the late Middle Ages. The problem of the Renaissance is comprehensively considered by philosophical and methodological issues that are still relevant in the field of history and cultural studies. reveal the theoretical and moral foundations of I. Huizinga’s approach to history and culture. The published works, with their analysis of the fundamental problems of the theory and history of culture, are marked by high scientific value, clarity and persuasiveness of presentation, brightness and variety of factual material, breadth of coverage, and undoubted artistic merit.
Advice. Narrative text in the context of the game
(Dmitry Silvestrov)................................... 9
HOMO LUDENS. Experience in determining the game element of culture
Preface ‑‑ Introduction.................................... 19
I. The nature and significance of the game as a cultural phenomenon......... 21
Game as an original concept and function that is full of meaning. ‑Biological basis of the game. ‑‑ Unsatisfactory explanations. ‑‑ The “jocularity” of the game. ‑‑ To play means to be involved in the realm of the spirit. ‑‑ Game as a certain value in culture. ‑‑ Sub specie ludi culture. ‑‑ Game is an extremely independent category. ‑‑ The game is located outside of other categories. ‑‑ Game and beauty. ‑‑ Play as a free action. -- "Just a game. -The game is not conditioned by extraneous interests. ‑‑ The game is limited by place and time. ‑‑ Play space. ‑‑ The game establishes order. Voltage. ‑‑ The rules of the game are indisputable and mandatory. ‑‑ The grouping power of the game. ‑‑ Detaching from everyday life. ‑‑ Wrestling and showing. ‑‑ The sacred game embodies what is shown. ‑‑ She maintains the world order through its representation. ‑‑ Frobenius's opinion on cult games. ‑‑ The path from “anxiety” to sacred play. ‑‑ Frobenius's explanation is lacking. -Game and ritual. ‑‑ Plato calls the sacred rite a game. -Consecrated place and play space. -- Holiday. ‑‑ The sanctified action formally coincides with the game. ‑‑ Game mood and consecration. ‑‑ The degree of seriousness in sacred actions. ‑‑ An unstable balance between sanctification and play. ‑‑ Beliefs and play. ‑‑ Childhood faith and the faith of savages. -Metamorphosis being acted out. ‑‑ The sphere of primitive beliefs. ‑‑ Game and mystery.
II. Concept and expression of the concept of play in language.......... 45
The concepts of the game in different languages are not equivalent. ‑‑ The general concept of the game is realized quite late. ‑‑ The concept of a game is sometimes distributed between several words. ‑‑ Words for game in Greek. ‑‑ A competition is also a game. ‑‑ Words for game in Sanskrit. ‑‑ Words for game in Chinese. ‑‑ Words for playing blackfoot. -Differences in the limitation of the concept of play.
‑‑ Expressing game state in Japanese. ‑‑ The Japanese attitude to life in a playful way. ‑‑ Semitic languages. ‑‑ Latin and Romance languages. ‑‑ Germanic languages. ‑‑ Expansion and dissolution of the concept of play. ‑‑ Plegen and to play. ‑Plegen, plechtig, plicht, pledge. ‑‑ Game and martial arts. ‑‑ Deadly game. ‑‑ Game and dance of sacrifice. ‑‑ Game in the musical sense. ‑‑ Game with erotic meaning. ‑‑ The word and concept “seriousness”. ‑‑ Seriousness as an additional concept. ‑‑ Play is a primordial and positive concept.
III. Game and competition as a culture-creating function.... 60
Culture as a game, not a culture that emerged from a game. ‑‑ Only joint play is fruitful in culture. ‑‑ Antithetical nature of the game. ‑‑ The cultural value of the game. ‑‑ A serious competition also remains a game. ‑‑ The main thing is the victory itself. ‑‑ Direct thirst for power is not the motive here. ‑‑ Prize, bet, winning. ‑‑ Risk, chance, give. ‑‑ Victory through deception. ‑‑ Mortgage, term transactions, insurance. ‑‑ Antithetical structure of archaic society. ‑‑ Cult and competition. ‑‑ Ancient Chinese holidays according to the time of year. ‑‑ Agonal structure of Chinese civilization. ‑‑ Winning the game determines the course of natural phenomena. ‑‑ The sacred meaning of dice. -Potlatch. ‑‑ Competition in the destruction of one's own property. ‑‑ Po-tlatch is a battle for honor. ‑‑ Sociological foundations of the potlatch. ‑‑ Potlatch is a game. -Game for glory and honor. ‑‑ Kula. ‑‑ Honor and virtue. ‑‑ The archaic concept of virtue. ‑‑ Virtue and qualities of nobility. ‑‑ Detractor Tournaments. ‑‑ Prestige through display of wealth. ‑‑ Ancient Arabic honor competitions. ‑‑ Mofakhara. ‑‑ Monafara. ‑‑ Greek and ancient Germanic hula competition. ‑‑ "The Husbands' Litigation." ‑‑ Gelp and gab. ‑‑ Gaber as a cooperative game. -Agonal period according to Burckhardt's views. ‑‑ Ehrenberg's point of view. -Greek agon in the light of ethnological data. ‑‑ Roman ludi. ‑‑ Meaning of agon. ‑‑ From competitive games to culture. ‑‑ Weakening of agonal function. ‑‑ There is an explanation in the game quality.
IV. Game and Justice................................... 85
Legal proceedings as a competition. ‑‑ Court and play space. ‑Justice and sport. ‑‑ Justice, oracle, gambling. ‑‑ The drawn lot. ‑‑ Scales of justice. ‑‑ Dike. ‑‑ Lot and chance. ‑‑ God's judgment. ‑‑ Competition as a legal dispute. ‑‑ Competition for the sake of the bride. ‑‑ Administration of justice and mortgage dispute. ‑‑ The trial is like a verbal duel. ‑‑ Eskimo drum competition. ‑‑ Litigation in the form of a game. ‑‑ Blasphemy competition and defensive speech. -Ancient forms of defensive speech. ‑‑ Her undeniably playful character.
V. Game and military affairs.................................... 95
Orderly struggle is a game. ‑‑ To what extent is war an agonistic function? ‑‑ Archaic war is primarily a competition. ‑‑ A duel before or during a battle. ‑‑ Royal Duel. ‑‑ Judicial duel. -An ordinary duel. ‑‑ A duel is also an agonistic legal decision. ‑‑ Archaic wars have a sacred and agonistic character. ‑‑ The ennoblement of war. -War as a competition. ‑‑ Questions of honor. ‑‑ Courtesy towards the enemy. ‑‑ Agreement on the battle. ‑‑ Point d'honneur and strategic interests. ‑‑ Ceremonial and tactics. ‑‑ Limitations broken. ‑‑ Game element in international law. ‑‑ Ideas about the heroic life. ‑‑ Chivalry. ‑ Ruskin on the warpath. ‑‑ Cultural value knightly ideal. ‑‑ Chivalry as a game.
VI. Play and philosophizing................................... 110
Contest in wisdom. ‑‑ Knowledge of sacred things. ‑‑ Riddle-solving competition. ‑‑ Cosmogonic riddles. ‑‑ Sacred wisdom is like a skillful thing. ‑‑ Riddle and harvest. ‑‑ A deadly mystery. ‑‑ Competition in matters with a stake of life or death. ‑‑ Method of solving. ‑‑ Fun and sacred teaching. ‑‑ Alexander and the Gymnosophists. ‑‑ Dispute. ‑‑ Questions from King Menander. ‑‑ Riddle competition and catechism. ‑‑ Questions from Emperor Frederick II. ‑‑ A game of riddles and philosophy. ‑‑ Riddles as a manner of early wisdom. ‑‑ Myth and sophistication. ‑‑ Space as a struggle. ‑‑ The settlement process as a lawsuit.
VII. Play and poetry................................... 121
The sphere of poetry. ‑‑ The vital function of poetry in the sphere of culture. ‑‑ Vates. -Poetry is born in the game. ‑‑ Social poetry game. ‑‑ Inga-fuka. -Pantun. ‑‑ Haiku. ‑‑ Forms of poetic competitions. ‑‑ Cours d'amour. ‑‑ Tasks in poetic form. ‑‑ Improvisation. ‑‑ Knowledge system in the form of poetry. ‑ Legal texts in verse. ‑‑ Poetry and law. ‑‑ The poetic content of a myth. ‑‑ Can there be a myth? serious? ‑‑ Myth expresses the playful phase of culture. ‑ The playful tone of the Younger Edda. ‑‑ All poetic forms are playful. ‑ Poetic motives and playful motives. ‑‑ Poetic exercises as a competition. ‑‑ Poetic language is the language of play. ‑‑ The language of poetic images and play. -Poetic darkness. -Lyrics are dark in nature.
VIII. Imagination function................................... 135
Personification. ‑‑ Praispolin. ‑‑ Does personification ever happen in earnest! ‑‑ Scholastic allegory or primitive concept! ‑‑ Abstract figures. ‑‑ Poverty at St. Francis. ‑‑ The ideological value of medieval allegories. ‑‑ Personification as a property that has a universal character. ‑‑ People and gods in the guise of animals. ‑‑ Elements of poetry as game functions. -Lyrical exaggeration. ‑‑ Going beyond any limits. ‑‑ Drama as a game. -Agonal origins of drama. ‑‑ Dionysian mood.
IX. Game forms of philosophy......................... 144
Sophist. ‑‑ Sophist and miracle worker. ‑‑ Its significance for Hellenic culture. - Sophistry is a game. ‑‑ Sophistry and mystery. ‑‑ Origins of philosophical dialogue. -Philosophers and Sophists. ‑‑ Philosophy is a youthful game. ‑‑ Sophists and rhetoricians. -Topics of rhetoric. ‑‑ Scientific dispute. ‑‑ Medieval disputes. ‑‑ Court Academy of Charlemagne. ‑‑ Schools of the 12th century. ‑‑ Abelard as a master of rhetoric. ‑Game form of educational work. ‑‑ The century of ink battles.
X. Playful forms of art........................... 154
Music and game. ‑‑ The playful nature of the music. ‑‑ Perception of music in Plato and Aristotle. ‑‑ The music rating is untenable. ‑‑ Music as high relaxation. ‑‑ Aristotle on the type and value of music. ‑‑ The imitative nature of music. ‑‑ Music appreciation. ‑‑ Social function of music. -Competitive element in music. ‑‑ Dance is a game in its purest form. -Musical and plastic arts. ‑‑ Limitations in the visual arts. ‑‑ There is not much room left for the gaming factor. ‑‑ Sacred qualities of a work of art. ‑‑ Spontaneous need to decorate. ‑Game features in a work of art. ‑‑ The competitive factor in the fine arts. ‑‑ Kunstyuk as a literary motif. ‑‑ Daedalus. -A competition of skill and a mystery. ‑‑ Art competitions in real life. ‑‑ Competition in fine arts. ‑‑ Benefit or game!
XI. Cultures and eras sub specie ludi ..................... 168
The gaming factor in later cultures. ‑‑ The nature of Roman culture. ‑An archaic element of Roman civilization. ‑‑ The Roman state rests on primitive foundations. ‑‑ Traits of lethargy in the culture of the Roman Empire. ‑‑ The idea of the Roman Empire. -- Meal'n'Real! ‑‑ Public spirit or potlatch spirit? ‑Echoes of the gaming factor of ancient times. ‑‑ Game element of medieval culture. ‑‑ Game element of Renaissance culture. ‑‑ Renaissance tone. -Humanists. ‑‑ Game content Baroque. ‑‑ The appearance of clothing in the 17th century. -- Wig. -Powder, curls and ribbons. ‑‑ Rococo. ‑‑ The gaming factor in politics of the 18th century. ‑‑ Spirit of the 18th century. ‑‑ Art of the 18th century. ‑‑ Game content of music. ‑‑ Romanticism and sentimentalism. ‑‑ Romanticism was born in the game. ‑‑ The degree of seriousness of the professed life ideals. ‑‑ Sentimentalism is
seriousness, but also play. ‑‑ Seriousness dominates the 19th century. ‑‑ The game element decreases. ‑‑ The appearance of clothing in the 19th century. -- Woman suit. ‑‑ The seriousness of the 19th century.
XII. Game element of modern culture...... 186
This modern concept is flexible. ‑‑ Sports. ‑‑ Organized sports. ‑Sports are leaving the sphere of play. ‑‑ Non-athletic games as sports. ‑‑ Bridge. -Business life takes on some playful features. ‑‑ Record and competition. ‑Game element of modern art. ‑‑ Increased appreciation of art. -Losses and gains of the game factor in art. ‑‑ Game content of modern science. ‑‑ Gaming inclinations of science. ‑‑ Game content of social and political life. ‑‑ Puerilism. ‑‑ Teen spirit loudly declares primacy. ‑‑ Puerilism is not the same as play. ‑‑ Game content of politics. ‑‑ Gaming customs of parliamentary activities. -International politics. ‑‑ International law and rules of the game. ‑‑ The competitiveness factor in modern wars. ‑‑ Visible loss of a game element. -Is war a game? ‑‑ The game element is necessary. ‑‑ Inspire humanity is a game! ‑‑ Criterion of moral judgment, ‑‑ End.
Notes........................................................ 203
TASKS OF CULTURAL HISTORY.................................... 216
Notes................................................ 270
ABOUT HISTORICAL LIFE IDEALS.................................. 273
Notes................................................ 289
POLITICAL AND MILITARY SIGNIFICANCE OF CHILDREN’S IDEAS IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES......................................... 294
THE PROBLEM OF THE RENAISSANCE.................................... 304
Notes................................................ 343
Comments (Dmitry Kharitonovich)........................ 345
NOTICE
TEXT OF THE NARRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GAME
Two books most famously made Johan Huizinga famous. This is the Autumn of the Middle Ages (Volume I of this edition) and Homo ludens [Man playing]. Throughout the Autumn of the Middle Ages, the famous expression from I Corinthians runs like a refrain: “Videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate, tunc autem facie ad faciem” [“Now we see as in a dim mirror and guessingly, but then face to face” - I Cor. . 13, 12]. In terms of narrative, this comparison evokes memories of Stendhal, who likened the novel to a mirror lying on the highway. It dispassionately and objectively reflects everything that floats past. Isn't that the story? To be dispassionate and objective - isn't this what a historian strives for? However, can we rely on the mirror - speculum - with all the speculation that entails? The mirror is primarily a symbol of uncertainty. The fragility of the emerging reflections, the mystery and mystery of the Looking Glass, it seems, are fraught with inevitable self-deception. But what then is the historian’s objectivity - objectivity, the desire for which is invariably accompanied by ambiguity, as Joseph Brodsky would later say? And this is what Huizinga himself said: “In my deeply rooted conviction, all the mental work of a historian constantly takes place in a series of antinomies” * (one of the most obvious examples is the article The Problem of the Renaissance published in this volume).
The very concept of a mirror is antinomic. Doesn’t the phrase from I Corinthians also speak about this? The mirror, dim here, will become clear there. The river of historical Time will be transformed into the ocean of Eternity, the memory of which invariably preserves the Spirit of God that was once reflected there, an image from Tyutchev’s future:
"When nature's last hour strikes..." -
returned by Brodsky to the past: “I always thought that if the Spirit of God hovered over the waters...”** Lev Losev, pointing out that for Brodsky the face of God is forever preserved in the memory of the ocean mirror, speaks of
* De wetenschap der geschiedeis [The Science of History]. Haarlem. 1937.
** Watermark // Lev Losev. Reality Through the Looking Glass: Venice by Joseph Brodsky. IL. 1996.
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The autumn of the Middle Ages arose as a human response to a monstrously inhuman period of European history. But not only that. Culture, which saves us from the onset of barbarism, requires comprehension. The justification of history, without which the existence of religious consciousness is unthinkable (namely consciousness, and not a worldview, which should not be irrational for a thinking person!), we draw from the spiritualized - and spiritualizing - fruits of creative genius. However, it is necessary to find some universal rule, some universal sphere of activity, let’s even say some universal space that reconciles people, gives them at least some chances, and justifies their sometimes unbearable existence. This is not about the moral justification of history and, of course, not about theodicy - but about the ineradicable need to apply the measure of the human mind to the cosmic infinity of the spiritual component of human life.
The eternal paradox of freedom, which is actually achievable only on an imaginary horizon line, is given an impressive resolution by the phenomenon of play. A person is a person only insofar as he has the ability to act at his own will and be the subject of the game. And indeed - “created in the image and likeness of God”, in response to the key question about his name, he, unconsciously involved in the game imposed on him from childhood, ingenuously names the name assigned to him, never answering the question asked seriously, namely: “there are seven existing." Under the guise of our name, each of us plays out our life, in the universal essence of the game similar to the serious masquerade dances of primitive tribes." "After expulsion from paradise / man lives playing" (Lev Losev).
Autumn of the Middle Ages, this bizarre collection of gaming texts, with the author's obvious interest in anthropology and sociology of culture, leads to the next step: from the sphere of culture into the sphere of human existence. The world is on the eve of a second, even more monstrous world war. During the years of entre deux guerres, Huizinga does everything in his power to protect culture. He works for the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation, the predecessor of UNESCO. Publishes a number of important works on historiography and cultural history, including the bitter, warning treatise In the Shadow of Tomorrow. Diagnosis of the spiritual troubles of our time. And so, in 1938, Homo ludens will appear, where individual and social life, the entire historical and cultural development of mankind is described in terms of a game, like a game.
* After this article was written, I became acquainted with the review of the book by the above-mentioned Dr. Wessed Krul: Hanssen L. Huizinga en de troost van de geschiedenis [Heysia and the consolation of history], where one very curious episode is mentioned. When asked by an acquaintance in a letter to Huizinga in 1927 how to call him by name, a significant answer followed: “Actually, I don’t have a name, just like the wizard from Andersen’s fairy tales.” Leon Hanssen notes that he sees in this statement a sign of deep doubts of an existential nature.
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Having long since become a classic, this fundamental research reveals the essence of the phenomenon of play and its significance in human civilization. But the most noticeable thing here is the humanistic background of this concept, which can be traced at different stages of the cultural history of many countries and peoples. A person’s tendency and ability to put all aspects of his life into forms of playful behavior confirms the objective value of his inherent creative aspirations - his most important asset.
The feeling and situation of the game, giving, as direct experience convinces us, the maximum possible freedom to its participants, is realized within the framework of the context, which comes down to the appearance of certain strictly defined rules - the rules of the game. No context - no rules. The meaning and significance of the game are entirely determined by the relationship of the immediate, phenomenal text of the game to one way or another mediated universal, that is, including the whole world, context of human existence. This is very clear in the case of a work of art - an example of such a game, the context of which is the entire universe. .
The game here is not the Glasperlenspiel of Hermann Hesse, one of the masters of thought of the era of our sixties. The heroes of the novel The Glass Bead Game (1943) sort glass beads in the cozy Swiss Shambhala, fenced off from the rest of the world, but still this-worldly, brought out under the transparently symbolic name of the unforgettable Castalia: For Huizinga, the game is a comprehensive way of human activity, a universal category human existence. It extends literally to everything, including speech: “When playing, the speech-making spirit continually jumps from the realm of the material to the realm of thought. Every abstract expression is a speech image, every speech image is nothing more than a play on words.”*
“We would not like to delve into the lengthy question here to what extent the means at our disposal are fundamentally in the nature of the rules of the game, that is, they are suitable only within those intellectual boundaries, the obligatory nature of which is considered generally recognized. Is it always in logic in general and in In syllogisms in particular, there is some tacit agreement at play that the validity of terms and concepts is recognized here in the same way as is the case for chess pieces and squares of a chessboard? Let someone answer this question."**
Here is one of the answers. Ludwig Wittgenstein calls a “language game” “a single whole: language and the actions with which it is intertwined”***. And in a very recent concept of language, the latter appears as “the use by all communicators of agreed upon pretend (playful) assumptions about the intentionality of physical mediators
* Homo ludens, I, p. 24.
** Homo ludens, IX, p. 149.
*** Wittgenstein L. philosophical studies. M.: Gnosis, 1995. P. 83. 13
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(means ‑‑ D.S.) of communication... Those communicating pretendingly and consensually (in a playful manner) believe that the physical mediators they use are endowed with intentionality." These physical mediators themselves are the sounds of language, graphic icons ‑‑ are devoid of any meaning. But not only is language a game in its pure form. “The phenomenon of pretend (playful) positing permeates all layers of human culture.” That is, a person not only plays with meanings, but the meanings themselves are the products and components of the game*.
Generalizing the play principle of human activity as much as possible, Huizinga, however, separates it from morality, sets moral limits for it, beyond which, they say, something serious still comes. But, in our opinion, it was absolutely not necessary to do this. Play is not a way of living, but a structural basis for human actions. “Morality” has nothing to do with it. A moral, as well as an immoral, act is performed according to one or another rules of one or another game. Moreover. In essence, the game is incompatible with violence. It seems that it is precisely moral actions that indicate proper observance of the “rules of the game.” After all, morality is nothing more than a tradition rooted in the past. What is immorality? This is a deliberately chosen offside position, that is, something absurd by definition. Serious is not at all the opposite of play. “if you want to be serious, play” (Aristotle); its opposite is lack of culture and barbarism.
It is not easy to look at all our actions sub specie ludi. Something in the deepest depths of our being seems to resist this. But even in the dramatic condensation of the most important moments of human existence, such as in Elias Canetti, where “the game in which lovers are engaged” appears as an “irresponsible game with death,” everything that happens does not go beyond the paradigm of the game in general.
It is not without reason that the problems of the game sound so acute in our turbulent and too often very ominous times. It was precisely this that made the question of Pu-erilism, inextricably fused with the elements of the game, so relevant. The vital need to establish itself, to find a foothold when values that have seemed unshakable for so long are crumbling around, forces society to seek support not from authorities who have lost trust, but from young people - in a sense, currying favor with the future! At the dawn of the New Time, the herald of the coming puerilistic era, an elitist lone hero, a sudden alien from some almost heavenly world (as in Ibsen’s Solnes the Builder), decisively invades the musty human swamp. Soon, however, gray homogeneous masses with their constant predilection for red come to the fore, washing away the centuries-old foundations of ethics and culture with a bloody flood. In unstable, transitional eras, sharply increasing interest
* Blinov A.L. Intentionalism and the principle of rationality of linguistic communication. Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation. Sciences / Institute of Philosophy RAS. M., 1995.
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tours. In unstable, transitional eras, a sharply increasing interest in young people sometimes acquires a paranoid character. This was the case with the spread of Trotskyism among Soviet and then European youth, the cultivation of the Komsomol, the emergence of the Hitler Youth, the Red Guards, and the young followers of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran...
In passing, we note that the phenomenon of puerocentrism also manifests itself in the educational boom characteristic of the New Age in general and our current modern time in particular. In the immanently violent activity of teaching, society’s sublimated fear of the unpredictable younger generation and, apparently, an empty desire to prevent inevitable aggression - a natural, alas, reaction to any changes - find a way out. (The craze for television games seems truly salutary here. Don’t worry, be happy! ‑‑ in a game that painfully transforms our whole lives. And of course, no money is spared for ever more grandiose Olympics.)
The dialectic of our behavior and thinking encourages us, therefore, to see the key to deliverance in the “root of all evil.” Predominantly playful forms of behavior specific to young age stimulate a corresponding universal approach to human behavior in general. In the light of the all-encompassing principle of play, all our activities, our entire culture, are puerilized. And if the behavior of teenagers often looks quite ridiculous from the outside, then what can we say about the behavior of puerilized adults? Unfortunately, the social games of our time are still far from chess, although the latter were not always guaranteed against excesses: Huizinga recalls “the frequent quarrels of young princes over the game of chess in the 15th century, where, according to La Marche, “even the wisest lose patience"".
The monumental study of Homo ludens is accompanied in this volume by articles that, in addition to their independent value, are important for understanding the human and scientific dimensions of the author's personality. Along with the purely scientific issues raised in them, we find there a theoretical and moral justification for Johan Huizinga’s approach to history and culture. History in itself does not teach anything: “knowledge of history is always purely potential.” At the same time, “every culture, for its part, as a prerequisite for existence, requires a certain degree of immersion in the past.” Needless to say, in our time of an almost universal dramatic sense of loss of cultural and historical context and - as a result - the desire to compensate for this vacuum with innovations of conceptualism of various kinds, Huizinga’s stoic, and, in essence, optimistic position, revealed in such works , as Problems of the history of culture and On historical life ideals, is full of the highest meaning for us. Let us cite only one passage from the Problems of the History of Culture.
"Anthropomorphism is the greatest enemy of scientific thinking in the humanities. It is a sworn enemy, and thinking brings it with it
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from life itself. Every human language is expressed anthropomorphically, expressed in images taken from human activity, and colors everything abstract with likeness to the sensory. But the task of the humanities is precisely to be aware of the figurative nature of its language, to take care that a chimera does not creep into the metaphor.”
These words may seem directed against play, one of the forms of which in this case is anthropomorphism as a type of mimesis, dressing up, masquerade. But the question goes deeper. We are talking about loyalty to the rules of the game, the high game to which every true scientist devotes himself.
In two other cultural-historical works: The Political and Military Significance of Chivalric Ideals in the Late Middle Ages and The Problem of the Renaissance, Huizinga remains an aesthetically sensitive and painstaking scholar, polymath, humanist, man and master of great style.
As literary works, Autumn of the Middle Ages and Homo ludens, at first glance, belong to different genres. The mosaic nature of the Autumn of the Middle Ages makes it look like a puzzle, a mysterious picture, inspiredly composed of many colorful fragments. Subsequently, the technique of “children’s play” grows into a deeply conscious holistic composition. Both Homo ludens and the published articles demonstrate - despite all the external differences from the Autumn of the Middle Ages - a clear stylistic continuity. All these works are characterized by classical clarity of style, musical rhythm in the construction of phrases, speech periods, and all elements of the text. The richness and versatility of the vocabulary is entirely subject to the author’s absolute ear. Huizinga is one of those masters for whom any errors of taste are completely unthinkable. His language is restrained and clear, but at the same time emotionally bright and expressive. Outwardly, a strictly scientific presentation every now and then evokes various reminiscences, often acquiring subtle shades of irony.
A few words about the principles that the translator strove to adhere to with unbridled pride and respectful zeal. Sharing the author's playful position, the translator tried to maintain the proper distance between the highly revered author and his distant and foreign-language reflection, his self-proclaimed alter ego. Distance is the necessary condition that alone can allow the game to take place. Partners in this game, being on opposite sides of the time separating them from each other, have freedom of action within their linguistic territory. A situation reminiscent of a metaphor from Antonioni’s film Blowup: a court covered in costumed ghosts, where with the plastic stoicism of Kabuki, exploding the noiselessness, or, if you like, the “noise of time,” the protagonists, fenced off from oblivion, rule invisible tennis. The ball itself is missing, the physical mediator (intermediary) makes no sense, but the intention of the game is obvious, the rules are strictly observed. Follow the movements of a physically non-existent ball, sword
Let us take the liberty of turning, with some minor deviations, to the text that accompanied the first edition of the Autumn of the Middle Ages (1988, “Science” edition, series “Monuments of Historical Thought”).
The purpose of translation - with all its aspiration to the original, with all its “openness” and closeness to it - is to be so different, so oneself, so far from the original as to make dialogue between cultures possible. A translation should distance us from the original - to the distance from which another culture is perceived with the greatest clarity. Since language is not a means, but a sphere of expression, Russian translation still cannot be anything other than a fact of Russian culture. As soon as something alien becomes the property of another culture, it is, in essence, no longer alien. Thus, the treasures of the Hermitage are a fact of Russian culture, the masterpieces of the British Museum are a fact of British culture, and the Louvre are a fact of French culture.
However, something alien becomes a true contribution to the national culture only when it is perceived by it precisely as its own alien.
We have yet to identify the role that Johan Huizinga himself played throughout his life within the space and time that fell to his lot; talk about the life of this great scientist, about the restrained and heroic nobility of a man who was an excellent example of that culture, which he himself characterizes as follows: “Aristocratic culture does not advertise its emotions. In its forms of expression, it maintains sobriety and composure. It takes a stoic position. In order to be strong, she wants and must be strict and restrained - or at least allow the expression of feelings and emotions exclusively in stylistically determined forms" (Tasks of the History of Culture).
When applied to our time, these words involuntarily bring to mind the images of some people who elevated - and are elevating - us to the position of their contemporaries. Let's name two who left. This is Bulat Okudzhava: as if the above lines were written about him. This is Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, despite all the apparent dissimilarities, in many ways surprisingly reminiscent of Johan Huizinga, also a man “for all times”, who has already become for us a symbol of our history, a true homo ludens, a man sacredly committed to the rules of the Game that was for us. more valuable to him than life. Of course, he thereby prevented other, “too serious” games, and those players did not forgive him for this. “The spielbreaker destroys the magic of their magical world, so he is a coward and must be expelled. In the same way, in the world of high seriousness, cheats, swindlers, hypocrites always feel much more comfortable than spielbreakers, apostates, heretics,
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freethinkers, prisoners of conscience.”* Let’s also name Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, who sometimes still speaks to us so heartfeltly, so heartbreakingly simply from our television screens.
A sketch of the life path accompanying the publication of letters and drawings of Johan Huizinga will be offered to the reader in Volume III of this publication.
Dmitry Silvestrov
* Homo ludeas. I, p. 31.
HOMO LUDENS [MAN PLAYING]
EXPERIENCE OF DETERMINING THE GAME ELEMENT OF CULTURE*
Uxori carissimae [Dear Wife]
PREFACE - INTRODUCTION
When we humans turned out to be far from being as thoughtful as the more joyful age considered us to be in its veneration of Reason, homo faber, the man-doer, was placed next to homo sapiens to name our species. However, this term was even less suitable than the first, for the concept faber can also be applied to some animals. What can be said about doing, one can say about playing: many of the animals play. Still, it seems to me that homo ludens, the man who plays, indicates a function as important as doing, and therefore, along with homo faber, fully deserves the right to exist.
There is an old thought that suggests that if we think through everything we know about human behavior, it will seem to us just a game. Anyone who is satisfied with this metaphysical statement need not read this book. For me, it gives no reason to avoid trying to distinguish play as a special factor in everything that is in this world. For a long time now, I have become more and more definitely convinced that human culture arises and unfolds in play, like a game. Traces of these views can be found in my writings from 1903 onwards. When I took office as rector of Leiden University in 1933, I dedicated an inaugural speech to this topic entitled: Over de grenzen van spel en ernst in de cultuur1 [On the limits of play and seriousness in culture]. When I subsequently revised it twice, first for a scientific report in Zurich and Vienna (1934), and then for a speech in London (1937), I entitled it respectively Das Spielelement der Kultur and The Play Element of Culture. element of culture]. In both cases, my dear ho
* Homo ludens. Proeve eener bepaling van het spel‑element der cultuur. H. D. Tjeenk Wil-link & Zoon N. V., 1940. (Huiziga J. Veizamelde Werken. VII. H. D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon N. V. Haarlem, 1950. P. 26-246).
The in-laws corrected: in der Kultur, in Culture [in culture] - and each time I crossed out the preposition and restored the form of the genitive case. For for me the question was not at all what place the game occupies among other cultural phenomena, but how much the playful character is inherent in the culture itself. My aim was - as is the case with this extensive study - to make the concept of play, so far as I can express it, part of the concept of culture as a whole.
Play is understood here as a cultural phenomenon, and not - or at least not primarily - as a biological function and is considered within the framework of scientific thinking as applied to the study of culture. The reader will notice that I try to refrain from a psychological interpretation of the game, no matter how important such an interpretation may be; he will also notice that I resort only to a very limited extent to ethnological concepts and interpretations, even if I have to turn to the facts of folk life and folk customs. The term magical, for example, appears only once; the term ma-na2* and similar ones are not used at all. If I reduce my argument to several points, then one of them will say that ethnology and related branches of knowledge resort to the concept of play to a very small extent. Be that as it may, the commonly used terminology in relation to the game seems to me far from sufficient. I have long needed an adjective from the word spel [game] that would simply express “that which relates to the game or the process of playing.” Speelsch [playful\ is not suitable here due to its specific semantic connotation. May I therefore be allowed to introduce the word ludiek. Although the proposed form is not found in Latin, in French the term ludique [play] appears in works on psychology.
In publicizing this research of mine, I fear that despite the work that has been put into it, many will see here only an insufficiently documented improvisation. But such is the fate of those who want to discuss cultural problems, each time being forced to intrude into areas about which he has insufficient information. Filling in all the gaps in knowledge of the material in advance was an impossible task for me, and I found a convenient way out of the situation by shifting all responsibility for the details to the sources I cited. Now it came down to this: to write or not to write. About what was so dear to my heart. And I still wrote.
THE CHARACTER AND SIGNIFICANCE OF GAME AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENA
Play is older than culture, for the concept of culture, no matter how unsatisfactorily it is described, in any case presupposes human community, while animals did not wait for man to teach them how to play. Yes, we can say with all certainty that human civilization has not added any significant feature to the concept of play in general. Animals play just like people. All the main features of the game are already embodied in animal games. One has only to watch how the puppies frolic to notice all these features in their cheerful romp. They encourage each other to play through a special kind of ceremony of postures and movements. They follow the rule of not biting each other's ear. They pretend to be extremely angry. And most importantly: they clearly perceive all this as a highly humorous activity and experience great pleasure at the same time. Puppy games and pranks are just one of the simplest types of games that exist among animals. They also have games that are much higher and more sophisticated in their content: genuine competitions and magnificent performances for others.
Here we immediately have to make one very important remark. Already in its simplest forms, including in the life of animals, play is something more than a purely physiological phenomenon or a physiologically determined mental reaction. And as such, play transcends the boundaries of a purely biological or at least purely physical activity. A game is a function that is full of meaning. At the same time, something plays in the game that goes beyond the immediate desire to maintain life, something that brings meaning to the action taking place. Every game means something. To call the active principle, which gives the game its essence, spirit would be too much; to call it instinct would be an empty phrase. No matter how we look at it, in any case, this purposefulness of the game brings to light a certain intangible element included in the very essence of the game.
Psychology and physiology are concerned with observing, describing and explaining the play of animals, as well as children and adults. They try to establish the nature and meaning of the game and indicate the place of the game in life.
nary process. The fact that play occupies a very important place there, that it performs a necessary, at least useful, function is accepted universally and without objection as the starting point of all scientific research and judgment. Numerous attempts to determine the biological function of play diverge quite significantly. Some believed that the source and basis of the game could be reduced to the release of excess life force. According to others, a living being, when playing, follows the innate instinct of imitation. Or satisfies the need for release. Or he needs exercise on the threshold of serious activity that life will require of him. Or the game teaches him to limit himself. Others again look for this beginning in the innate need to be able to do something, to cause something, in the desire for dominance or competition. Some see in the game an innocent deliverance from dangerous impulses, a necessary replenishment of one-sided activity or satisfaction in some kind of fiction of desires that are impossible to fulfill in reality, and thereby maintaining a sense of one’s own individuality 1.
All these explanations coincide in the initial assumption that the game is carried out for the sake of something else, that it serves purely biological expediency. They ask: why and for what purpose is the game happening? The answers given here are in no way mutually exclusive. Perhaps it would be possible to accept all the listed interpretations one after another, without falling into a burdensome confusion of concepts. It follows that all these explanations are only partly true. If at least one of them were exhaustive, it would exclude all the others or, as a kind of higher unity, embrace them and absorb them into itself. In most cases, all these attempts at explanation relegate the question: what the game itself is and what it means for the players themselves, to only a secondary place. These explanations, using the standards of experimental science, hasten to penetrate into the very body of the game, without showing the slightest attention, first of all, to the deep aesthetic features of the game. In fact, it is the original qualities of the game that, as a rule, elude descriptions. Despite any of the proposed explanations, the question remains valid:
“Okay, but what, exactly, is the very essence of the game? Why does a child squeal with delight? Why does a player forget himself from passion? Why do sports competitions drive crowds of thousands of people into a frenzy?” The intensity of the game cannot be explained by any biological analysis. But it is precisely in this intensity, in this ability to drive into a frenzy, that its essence, its primordial property lies. The logic of reason would seem to tell us that Nature could give her offspring such useful functions as the release of excess energy, relaxation after exhaustion, preparation for the harsh demands of life and compensation for unfulfilled desires, just in the form of pure
Huizinga Johan, 1872-1945
Dutch philosopher, historian and cultural theorist. Author of works: “Autumn of the Middle Ages” (1919), “Homo Ludens” (1938), “In the Shadow of Tomorrow” (1939), etc.
Since 1905 he was a professor at the University of Groningen, and since 1915 at the University of Leiden. Rector of Leiden University. In 1942, the university was closed by the Nazis, and the rector himself was sent to a concentration camp for hostages.
Oh, if only healthy sleep would make a righteous person out of a person!
There is no universal way back. There is only movement forward, although unfamiliar depths and distances are spinning our heads, although the near future yawns before us, like an abyss in the fog. Although there is no return to the past, it can give us an instructive lesson and serve as a guide.
Human culture emerges and unfolds in play, like a game.
An era inclined to reject the norms of knowledge and judgment for the sake of the will to live is quite suited to the revival of superstition.
Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) – Dutch cultural scientist. He considers the objective laws of history non-existent and, therefore, the construction of an objective historical and cultural theory is impossible. He sees the goal and method of knowledge in identifying the basic moods and worldview of the era, which is achieved through the researcher’s “getting used to” the spiritual essence of events. His main works are "Autumn of the Middle Ages", "In the Shadow of Tomorrow: An Analysis of the Cultural Malaise of Our Time", "Man and Culture".
Huizinga believed that a normal state of culture can exist in the presence of three conditions: a balance of spiritual and material values; focus on an ideal that goes beyond individuality; and domination over nature. The absence of these conditions determines the exhaustion and despiritualization of European culture.
The scientist calls on society to self-restraint. Without pinning his hopes on reason and science, he advises limiting the rights of reason in order to give room to faith.
Huizinga became especially famous for his concept of the playful element of culture, outlined in his work “Homo ludens” (1938).
According to Huizinga, "Play is older than culture. Animals play just like people." The fundamental factors of play were already present in the life of animals: duel, demonstration, challenge, boasting, arrogance, pretense, restrictive rules: peacocks spread their tails and show off their attire, black grouse perform dances, crows compete in flight, bowerbirds decorate their nests... "Competition and performance , therefore, do not originate from culture as entertainment, but precede culture."
What are the characteristics of the game?
“The game is isolated from “ordinary” life by its location of action and duration,” that is, it has its own playing space. “Inside the playing space there is its own, unconditional order.” Order is created by rules that cannot be broken, because then the entire edifice of the game collapses. Real play is “free action”; it is not associated with material gain, but gives joyful excitement, reveals human abilities, and unites groups. The game educates a “social person”, capable of voluntarily and consciously participating in the life of the team, suppressing his selfish interests, and being guided by the concepts of solidarity, honor, and self-denial.
The need for play is not associated with any stage of cultural development. Game is an existential and vital category.
Huizinga considers play in several aspects: as an activity; as a form of origin of culture; as an obligatory element of any cultural activity; as a driving force for the development of culture.
What makes his concept particularly valuable is the author’s desire to trace the role of play in all cultural spheres: in poetry, religious practices, jurisprudence, war, everyday life, science - in all of history.
“In the forward movement of culture, the hypothetical initial relationship between play and non-play does not remain unchanged. The play element as a whole recedes into the background as culture develops. For the most part and to a significant extent, it dissolved, assimilated in the sacred sphere, crystallized in scholarship, in legal consciousness , in the forms of political life. At the same time, the playful quality in cultural phenomena usually went out of sight."
At the same time, Huizinga warns that real play should be distinguished from “puerilism” (from the Latin puer - child), conscious childishness, an infantile booth, into which modern civilization is increasingly immersed.
Huizinga's work on the game is an attempt to create an image of “real” culture in order to contrast it with European culture of the second quarter of the 20th century.
Works of a Dutch scientist, world famous historian J. Huizinga(1872-1945) came to Russia very late, but immediately gained recognition among specialists in various fields of knowledge. In 1988, the fundamental study “Autumn of the Middle Ages” was published in Russian translation, and in 1992, Homo Ludens (“Man Playing”) and “In the Shadow of Tomorrow.” This is only part of the theoretical heritage published in Europe in 9 volumes.
And Huizinga's popularity had a prepared basis. Already in the 60s and subsequent years, domestic researchers S. Averintsev, T. A. Krivko-Apinyan, S. Botkin, A. V. Mikhailov, N. A. Kolodki, I. I. Rozovskaya, G M. Tavrizyan. Their articles and books very carefully and kindly present the original concept of the history of world culture by J. Huizinga. In the cultural studies of I. Huizinga, three aspects can be distinguished:
firstly, a historiographic analysis of the late Middle Ages in the Netherlands, European culture of the 15th century;
secondly, the role of the Game in the emergence and development of culture of all times and peoples;
thirdly, an analysis of the spiritual crisis of Western culture, the Spiritual tragedy of humanity associated with fascism and totalitarianism.
J. Huizinga and his humanistic ideas were close to the work of famous philosophers, cultural scientists, writers such as Hermann Hesse, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Thomas Mann, who worked in the “dark years of Europe”, during the onset of fascist regimes.
The life path and fate of J. Huizinga's theoretical heritage were full of dramatic events. Let's look at some facts of his biography.
Johan Huizinga was born on December 7, 1872 in Holland, in the city of Groningen, into a family dating back to the 16th century. The family strictly observed the religious traditions of the Mennonites, who preached moral life, pacifism and the ethics of non-violence, abstinence from secular pleasures, and marriages within the community. His father initially continued the family tradition by entering a theological seminary, but then became interested in natural science and mathematics, leaving the spiritual field.
At the gymnasium, J. Huizinga showed ability in learning languages, which served as the beginning for mastering eight foreign languages in the future, including Sanskrit, Greek, Arabic, and Slavic. He was interested in heraldry and numismatics, and this apparently sparked his interest in history.
After graduating from high school, he entered the University of Groningen, studying Dutch philology, and a few years later defended his dissertation “On Vidushaka (jester) in Indian drama”, having read a number of classical Indian dramas in Sanskrit
Then J. Huizinga becomes a history teacher at school. He chooses a unique method of teaching history using pictures. Already in these years he preferred a “coherent image of history,” which he later widely used in his historical works. In 1950, a collection of these stories, “Window to the World,” was published in Holland.
In 1903, J. Huizinga became a private lecturer in the history of ancient Indian literature at the University of Amsterdam, but, while teaching the course “Vedic-Brahmanic Religion,” he felt a change in his scientific interests. He is fascinated by the late Middle Ages of Western culture. He moved to the department of history at the University of Groningen and worked as a professor from 1904 to 1915. Already during these years, the idea of the book “Autumn of the Middle Ages” appeared, which was published in Holland in 1919 and brought him worldwide fame and fame. It is translated in various countries, and in 1988 it was published for the first time in Russian. In 1915, he moved to Leiden University, headed the department of history, and then became rector. He worked in Leiden until 1942, when the university was closed during the Nazi occupation.
Despite the fact that in his works on the history of world culture he is immersed in distant eras, the pulse of modern problems is constantly felt in them. Reflections on the fate of culture, the relationship between culture and power, the crisis of spirituality in the forms of everyday life, attitudes and values are addressed to the new reality of the mid-20th century.
These are his work “In the Shadow of Tomorrow. A Diagnosis of the Cultural Malaise of Our Time,” published in 1935, translated into many European languages, but banned during the years of fascism, as well as the book “Tormented World,” published in 1945, after the end of II world war.
J. Huizinga becomes a prominent public figure, he is elected president of the Academy of Sciences in Amsterdam, and since 1938 chairman of the International Committee for Cultural Cooperation of the League of Nations.
Humanistic ideas were presented in the books “Erasmus” (1942), dedicated to the biography of Erasmus of Rotterdam, as well as in the work “Dutch Culture of the 17th Century” (1933). The work of Homo Ludens (1938), distinguished by a new approach to illuminating the essence and origin of and evolution of culture, encyclopedic erudition, brilliance of literary style. It sets out the cultural concept of J. Huizinga. In the preface, he wrote that human culture arises and unfolds in play. This conviction arose in him back in 1903, and in 1933 he devoted his introductory speech to this problem when elected rector of Leiden University, calling it “On the boundaries of play and seriousness in culture.” Then he presented these ideas in Zurich, Vienna, and London in reports on “The Playful Element of Culture.” This work most fully embodied the humanistic, life-loving, morally bright, creative world of J. Huizinga.
He lived a surprisingly interesting, eventful life, full of dramatic experiences, in which there were rises in popularity and authority, persecution, arrests, and imprisonment in a concentration camp. Thanks to the efforts of the international community of scientists, 70-year-old I. Huizinga was released and exiled to the village of De Steeg near the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands. But even there he continued his activities, without books, using many sources from memory. J. Huizinga died of exhaustion in February 1945, before the final victory over fascism.
Reconstructing the history of world culture is one of the controversial problems of science. There are many conflicting points of view on the historical process of cultural development. Some consider it inappropriate to separate cultural history from civil history altogether, believing that all cultural phenomena are organically woven into the events of the era, depend on them and are therefore inseparable. There is no history of culture, there is only history - this is the conclusion. This leads to facts that accompany the presentation of the history of various eras
But this approach is gradually becoming obsolete and does not correspond to reality.
Others identify cultural history with the history of works and styles in art, scientific discoveries and inventions, and philosophical concepts of various periods. The “aestheticization” of the history of world culture also reflects the one-sidedness of the approach.
J. Huizinga offers his vision of cultural history. It is important for him to understand how people lived in those distant times, what they thought about, what they strived for, what they considered valuable. He wants to present the “living past”, to restore the “House of History” bit by bit. The task is very tempting, but extremely difficult. After all, it often happened that the past was portrayed as a “poorly developed present,” full of ignorance and superstition. Then history deserved only leniency. J. Huizinga has a fundamentally different point of view. For him, dialogue with the past and understanding of mentalities are important, therefore the subtitle of his main work “Autumn of the Middle Ages” contains very important clarifications - “a study of the forms of life and forms of thinking in the 14th and 15th centuries in France and the Netherlands.
J. Huizinga poses a particularly difficult task in the study of world culture: to see medieval culture in the last phase of life and to imagine new shoots that are gradually gaining strength. “Sunset” and “Sunrise” - this is the general outline of this concept of cultural history. These are two pictures of the world that exist in an integral cultural system. They enter into dialogue with each other. Turning to a time that is five centuries younger than ours, “we want to know,” writes I Huizinga, “how those new ideas and forms of life were born and flourished, the radiance of which subsequently reached its full brilliance.” Studying the past gives us hope to see in it the “hidden promise” of what will be fulfilled in the future.
He is interested in the “drama of the forms of human existence”: suffering and joy, misfortune and good fortune, church sacraments and brilliant mysteries; ceremonies and rituals accompanying birth, marriage, death; business and friendly communication; the ringing of bells announcing fires and executions, invasions and holidays. In everyday life, differences in furs and the color of clothing, in the style of hats, caps, and caps revealed the strict order of classes and titles, conveyed states of joy and grief, and emphasized tender feelings between friends and lovers. Turning to the study of everyday life makes J. Huizinga's book especially interesting and fascinating. All aspects of life were displayed arrogantly and rudely. The picture of medieval cities appears as if on a screen. “Because of the constant contrasts, the diversity of forms of everything that affected the mind and feelings, everyday life excited and inflamed passions, which manifested themselves either in unexpected explosions of crude unbridledness and brutal cruelty, or in outbursts of spiritual responsiveness, in the changeable atmosphere of which the life of the medieval city flowed.” .
Impenetrable darkness, a lonely light, a distant cry, impenetrable fortress walls, and formidable towers completed this picture. Nobility and wealth were opposed to blatant poverty and rejection, illness and health were much more discordant, the administration of justice, the appearance of merchants with goods, weddings and funerals were loudly announced. The cruel excitement caused by the sight of the scaffold, the executioner's outfit and the suffering of the victim was part of the spiritual food of the people. All events were furnished with picturesque symbols, music, dances, and ceremonies. This applied to folk holidays, religious mysteries, and the splendor of royal processions. “It is necessary to think about,” notes I. Huizinga, “this spiritual receptivity, this impressionability and variability, this hot temper and internal readiness for tears - evidence of a spiritual turning point, in order to understand what colors and what sharpness distinguished the life of this time.”
This is how I. Huizinga begins the chapter “Brightness and Poignancy of Life” in his book. Everyday life as a subject of historical research will attract the French scientist F. Braudel, representatives of the Annales school M. Blok, J. le Goff, L. Febvre. In domestic science, this approach is typical for the work of M.M. Bakhtin, A.Ya. Gurevich, A.M. Panchenko. But in those years when J. Huizinga wrote, the depiction of everyday life was considered a “fictionalization” of history.
However, it was difficult to imagine how one could otherwise convey the psychological atmosphere of the era, create an image of a century of knightly love and luxury, great virtues and vile vices, hopes and utopias, piety and cruelty. Life was so frantic and contrasting, notes I. Huizinga, that it spread a mixed the smell of "blood and roses". The people of this era are giants with the heads of children, rushing between fear and naive joys, between cruelty and tenderness. These are the features of the state of mind and attitude of the time. “Autumn of the Middle Ages” is full of historical facts, events, names, geographical names that make the story reasonable and real. And there is one more feature - this is a book about the native culture of J. Huizinga, Burgundy in the 15th century, Flanders, and the Dutch counties. This is a kind of cultural archeology, extracting from under ancient layers and layers the “fragments” of former life in order to make it understandable for contemporaries. The distant becomes close, the alien becomes one’s own, the indifferent becomes dear, uniting into a single trunk of culture.
Medieval society and all its ceremonies reflected a strict hierarchy of classes, which in meaning and significance was perceived as a “divinely established reality.” The social structure of society was stable, fixed by professional occupations, position in the system of domination and subordination, inherited from generation to generation, and had regulations in clothing and behavior.
The clergy, aristocracy and third estate formed the unshakable basis of society. In addition, there were at least twelve other categories: being married, along with maintaining virginity; remaining in a state of sin; four court groups - baker, cook, steward, cook; church servants - priest, deacon, altar boys; monastic and knightly orders.
The aristocracy had to carry out the highest tasks of management, caring for the good; the clergy - to carry out the work of faith; burghers - to cultivate the land, engage in crafts and trade. But the third estate was just gaining strength, so it was not given a significant place in culture. The public opinion of the Middle Ages was dominated by the “knightly idea.” The destiny of the aristocracy, virtues and heroic deeds, romantic love for the Beautiful flave, long campaigns and tournaments, armor and military prowess, risk to life, loyalty and selflessness are associated with it.
Of course, in the knightly ideal there was a lot that was far from reality, which was replete with examples of cruelty, arrogance, treachery, and greed. But it was an aesthetic ideal, woven from sublime feelings and colorful fantasies, freed from its sinful origins. It is the knightly ideal that medieval thinking gives pride of place; it is captured in chronicles, novels, poetry and lives.
The Ryr ideal was combined with the values of religious consciousness - compassion and mercy, justice and fidelity to duty, defense of faith and asceticism. The knight errant is free, poor, has nothing at his disposal except his own life. But there is one more feature that is extremely important for understanding chivalry as a lifestyle. This is the romantic Love of the Knight and his lady, noble deeds in the name of love, overcoming suffering and obstacles, demonstration of strength and devotion, the ability to endure pain in competition and duel, when the reward was the beloved’s scarf - all these subjects are noted in the literature of that time " The erotic nature of the tournament required bloody fury,” wrote I Huizinga. It was the apotheosis of male strength and masculinity, female weakness and pride, and this is how it passed through the centuries. Refined politeness, admiration for a woman, which does not pretend to be carnal pleasures, makes a man pure and virtuous. An erotic form of thinking with excessive ethical content arises, notes Huizinga. “Love has become a field on which all kinds of aesthetic and moral perfections can be cultivated,” he writes in Chapter "Stylization of love". Noble, sublime love was called “courtly”; it combined all Christian virtues.
But ennobled eroticism was not the only form of love. Along with it, there was another style in life and literature, which Huizinga calls “epithalamic.” It had more ancient roots and no less vitality. It was characterized by passionate unrestraint on the verge of shamelessness, ambiguity and obscenity, phallic symbolism and ridicule of love relationships, obscene allegories reaching the point of rudeness. This erotic naturalism was reflected in the comic genre of stories, songs, farces, ballads and tales. The art of love, combining sensuality and symbolism, was determined by a whole system of established norms, rituals and ceremonies.
Particular importance was attached to the symbolism of the costume, shades of colors and decorations. It was the language of love, which was only commented on by various statements. All these forms of love relationships retain their vital and cultural value for a long time beyond the Middle Ages, notes I. Huizinga. In contrast to Love, which embodies vital force, the image of Death appears in medieval culture. No era imposes the idea of death on a person with such persistence as the 15th century.
Three themes are united in the acuteness of the experience of the fear of death, firstly, the question of where are all those who previously filled the world with splendor, secondly, pictures of the decay of what was once human beauty; thirdly, the motive of the Dance of Death, which involves people of all ages and occupations in its round dance. The idea of the Mirror of Death appears in religious treatises, poems, sculpture and painting. Images of bodies in the throes of death appear on tombstones; withered, with a gaping mouth and gaping entrails. Death inspires fear and disgust, thoughts about the frailty of everything earthly, when only memories remain of beauty. Death as a character was captured in the plastic arts and literature “in the form of an apocalyptic horseman, rushing over a pile of bodies scattered on the ground; in the form of an Erinyes with the wings of a bat falling from heights; in the form of a skeleton with a scythe or bow and arrows; on foot, sitting on harnessed ox-drawn or riding on a bull or a cow." A personified image of the Dance of Death with the idea of universal equality also appears. Death is depicted in the form of a monkey, moving with unsteady steps and carrying with it the pope, the emperor, the knight, the day laborer, the monk, the little child, the jester, and behind them all the other classes. Man had to remember the hour of death and avoid the temptations of the devil. Among the mortal sins were “unsteadiness and doubt in faith; despondency due to sins oppressing the soul; commitment to earthly goods; despair due to suffering; pride due to one’s own virtues.”
Death as the inevitable end of all living things is perceived with the same inexorability as light turns into darkness. Medieval culture is saturated with religious ideas, and the Christian faith is revered as the main spiritual value. “There is not a single thing, not a single judgment that is not constantly brought into connection with Christ, with the Christian faith,” writes J. Huizinga. The atmosphere of religious tension manifests itself as an unprecedented flowering of sincere faith. Monastic and knightly spiritual orders emerged, which would later grow into huge political and economic complexes and financial powers. They create their own way of life, vows of obedience are taken, rituals and initiation ceremonies are established.
J. Huizinga compares the activities of these communities with the men's unions that existed in more ancient times, during the era of the clan system. These unions had military and military-magical tasks, their activities were carefully hidden from women, they had their own meeting places, rituals and traditions.
Religious orders had a strict hierarchy of ranks and titles, provided for solemn vows, compulsory attendance at divine services and festive rituals. “Life was imbued with religion to such an extent that there was a constant threat of the disappearance of the distance between the earthly and the spiritual,” notes I. Huizinga. In holiday symbolism, a religious element was obligatory; secular melodies were often used for church chants, and vice versa. There was a constant mixture of church and secular terminology to designate objects and phenomena, to express respect for state power. Plots on biblical themes filled art and literature, the construction of temples was the main event in urban planning, theological treatises and disputes filled spiritual life.
At the same time, religious excess inevitably dissolved in everyday life, combined with blasphemy and profanation of faith. Church holidays were held in an atmosphere of unbridled fun, combined with playing cards, swearing and foul language. Participants in religious processions chatted, laughed, chanted songs, and danced. Visiting church was an excuse to show off outfits and make dates. An ironic attitude towards the clergy is a very common motif in medieval literature. This was the other side of piety. To comprehend the spirit of the Middle Ages, the main forms of manifestation of worldly wisdom in ordinary everyday activities are of great importance. Among them, J. Huizinga considers the custom of giving names to events and inanimate objects. Wars, coronations, as well as military armor, jewelry, dungeons, houses and certainly bells receive their own names and names. Maxims, sayings, mottos, proverbs and sayings were common. Wisdom crystallized in them, cast into a moral model. There are hundreds of them in everyday use, all of them are accurate and meaningful, ironic and good-natured. They are used as instructions and a way to resolve disputes. “Proverbs immediately cut the knots: once you remember a suitable proverb, the job is done,” writes J. Huizinga. Emblems, coats of arms, predilection for genealogy can be compared with the meaning of the totem. Lions, lilies, roses, crosses become protective symbols, capturing family pride and personal hopes.
Medieval consciousness willingly generalizes individual episodes of life, giving them strength and repeatability. The average person is especially concerned about the gloomy sphere of life associated with evil spirits that violate the established order of life.
Demonomania, witchcraft, sorcery, conspiracies, and witchcraft are sweeping countries like epidemics. Despite persecution and executions, they persisted for a long time. Black magic, devilish obsessions, superstitions, omens, amulets and spells are widely represented in medieval folklore and literature.
The Franco-Burgundian culture of the late Middle Ages was reflected in various types and genres of art. She is best known to subsequent generations for her fine arts. However, J. Heizmnga believes that painting and sculpture give a somewhat illusory and therefore one-sided picture, because the bitterness and pain of the era evaporate from them. All worries and sufferings, joys and hopes are most fully captured in verbal and literary creativity. But written evidence is not limited to literature. Chronicles, official documents, folklore, and sermons are added to them. Of particular artistic value are altars in churches, church utensils and vestments, pennants and ship decorations, military armor, costumes of the court nobility, artisans and peasants. Embroidery, inlay, leather goods, dishes, tapestries and carpet weaving, carnival masks, coats of arms and signs, amulets and portrait miniatures - all of this was distinguished by high artistic skill. Music acquired special significance, because it was included in divine services and encouraged contemplation and piety. The sound of an organ enhanced a person’s state of prayer and evoked aesthetic pleasure.
These are some of the features of the Autumn era of the Middle Ages, presented in the book by J. Huizinga.
But it is important to remember that J. Huizinga wrote a book about the Autumn of the Middle Ages, about the end of one historical period and the beginning of a new era. “The overgrowing of the living core of thought with rational and stiff forms, the drying out and hardening of a rich culture - this is what these pages are devoted to.” It is no less interesting to explore the change of cultures and the arrival of new forms. The author devotes the last chapter to this. Old life views and attitudes are beginning to be accompanied by new forms of classicism. They do not immediately make their way among the “dense thickets of old plantings” and appear as some kind of external form. New ideas and the first humanists, no matter how much spirit of renewal their activities exuded, were immersed in the midst of the culture of their time. The new was manifested in ease, simplicity of spirit and form, appeal to antiquity, recognition of pagan faith and mythological images.
The ideas of the future are for the time being still dressed in the ancient dress; the new spirit and new forms do not coincide with each other. “Literary classicism,” emphasizes J. Huizinga, “is a baby born already old.” The situation was different with the visual arts and scientific thought. Here, the ancient purity of image and expression, the ancient versatility of interests, the ancient ability to choose the direction of one’s life, the ancient point of view on man meant something more than “a cane on which one could always lean.” Overcoming the excesses, exaggerations, distortions, grimaces and pretentiousness of the “flaming Gothic” style was precisely the merit of antiquity. “The Renaissance will come only when the “tone of life” changes, when the tide of destructive denial of life loses all its strength and begins to move backward; when a refreshing wind blows; when the consciousness has matured that all the splendor of the ancient world, which has been peered at for so long, in the Mirror, can be completely reclaimed."
J. Huizinga ends his book with these hopes. At this time he was 47 years old.
"Autumn of the Middle Ages" brought the author European fame, but also caused mixed reviews among fellow historians. It is enough to recall the criticism of O. Spengler’s book “The Decline of Europe” in order to compare the mindsets widespread in historical science. But both of these works were published almost at the same time.
J. Huizinga is first and foremost a “telling historian” and not a theorizing one; he is a supporter of a living vision of history. This approach did not satisfy many; it was accused of lack of methodology and lack of serious generalizations. Some were not satisfied with J. Huizinga's desire to present history in the facts of everyday life, to describe the emotional experiences characteristic of people of the Middle Ages. He entered into polemics with historians, defended his approach, and continued it in subsequent works.
It is safe to say that J. Huizinga was ahead of his time as a historian, because his ideas were accepted and supported in science.
The undoubted merit of J. Huizinga is the study of crisis, transitional eras in which old and new trends simultaneously coexist. Their tragic connection also worries our contemporaries. Dramatic scripts, the “rich theater of persons and events” explored in the Middle Ages, give us the key to understanding subsequent historical eras.
He expanded the range of historical science, including in the description an analysis of forms of thinking and way of life, works of art, costume, etiquette, ideals and values. This gave him the opportunity to present the most expressive features of the era, to reproduce the life of society in its everyday existence. Religious doctrines, philosophical teachings, the life of various classes, rituals and ceremonies, love and death, the symbolism of colors and sounds, utopias as “hyperbolic ideas of life” provided guidance in the study of the history of world culture.
The original concept of the culture of KSK Games is developed in the work of J. Huizinga “Homo Ludens” (1938), which translated means “Man who plays”. The generic, or universal, characteristic of man attracted many: Homo sapiens - intelligent man or Homo faber - creative man, such definitions became common.
J. Huizinga, without rejecting them, chooses a different aspect, believing that “human culture arises and unfolds in play, like a game.” It is important to note that the book is subtitled “An Experience in Determining the Game Element of Culture.” Every word is important here. Experience involves turning to vast historical material, and the game as a cultural phenomenon is analyzed “by means of cultural thinking.” It is necessary to mention that the specifics of the cultural research method are one of the controversial topics of modern science, and J. Huizinga makes it possible to determine its difference from other approaches.
The book consists of 12 chapters, each of which deserves independent analysis. They reveal such problems as the nature and significance of the game as a cultural phenomenon; concept and expression of the concept of play in language; play and competition as a function of culture formation. These chapters define the theoretical concept of the game, explore its genesis, the main features and cultural value of the game in the life of peoples of different historical eras. Yi Huizinga then moves on to analyze play in different areas of culture: play and justice; game and war; play and wisdom, play and poetry, playful forms of philosophy; play forms of art This book ends with a consideration of play elements in the styles of various cultural eras - in the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo, Romanticism and Sentimentalism.
In the final XII chapter, “The Game Element of Modern Culture,” the author turns to Western culture of the 20th century, exploring sports games and commerce, the game content of art and science, the gaming customs of parliament, political parties, and international politics.
However, in modern culture it reveals signs of threatening decay and loss of play forms, the spread of falsehood and deception, and violations of ethical rules. But we will return to this later.
It is necessary first to determine the main contours of the cultural concept of the Game.
The initial thesis is that “The game is older than culture,” and animals were not at all “waiting” for a person to teach them how to play, says J. Huizinga. All the main features of play can be observed in animals. Every game has certain rules, performs certain functions, brings pleasure and joy.
The human world significantly increases the functions of the Game, expands the range of manifestations of the Game as a discharge of vital energy; as a form of recreation; as training before a serious matter; as an exercise in decision making; as the realization of aspirations for competition and rivalry and maintaining initiative - these are just some aspects of explaining the need for the Game in human life.
However, these approaches do not yet answer the questions: How does the Game become an element of culture? How is it reinforced by culture? What types and forms of Games are characteristic of the culture?
To answer these questions, J. Huizinga analyzes the main features of the Game. Every Game is, first of all, a free activity. A game under duress, under orders, becomes an imposed imitation, deprived of its main meaning and purpose. They play in their free time; it is not dictated by necessity or obligation, but is determined by desire and personal mood. You can join the Game, but you don’t have to do it, and put this activity off for an indefinite period.
In everyday life, the Game appears as a temporary break. It wedges itself into life as an activity for relaxation, creating a mood of joy. But her goals are not related to benefit, benefit, or material interest. It gains meaning and meaning through its intrinsic value. A person values this state, remembering the pleasure he experienced during the Game, and wants to experience the same feelings again.
The game is isolated from everyday life by its location and duration. It plays out within certain limits of space. This is also a sign of the Game. The game cannot last forever; it has its own beginning and end. It has a closed cycle, within which there is a rise and fall, a start and a finish. Therefore, they enter the game, but also finish it. The fixity and repetition of the Game determine its place in culture. “Once played, it remains in memory as a kind of spiritual creation or value, is passed on as a tradition and can be repeated at any time,” writes J. Huizinga. In all forms of the Game, repeatability and reproducibility are an important feature.
Further. Any game takes place within a certain space, which must be designated. The circus arena, the playing table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the place of judgment - all these are special territories, “alienated” lands, intended for performing game actions. The interior of the playing space has its own, unconditional order. This is a very important sign of the Game. It has an immutable character that prohibits breaking the rules of the Game. Any deviation from the established order deprives the Game of its intrinsic value and is perceived by the players as treachery and deception. The rules of the game are mandatory for everyone without exception; they are not subject to doubt or evaluation. They are such that as soon as they are violated, the Game becomes impossible. Rule violators are expelled from the Game with shame and punishment. The game is sacred and one must play “honestly and decently” - these are its internal laws. The game always requires community, partnership. Groups, corporations, associations have the ability for self-preservation and conservation, isolating themselves from the rest of the world, using game forms to strengthen themselves. “The club goes to the game like a hat to the head,” notes J. Huizinga. In order to strengthen belonging to the Game, rituals and ceremonies, secret signs, disguise, aesthetic design in the form of a special costume and symbols are used. Participation in the Game has its own script, dramatic action; it is played out like a play with a beginning, a climax and a denouement. As W. Shakespeare wrote, the whole world is a stage, and the people in it are actors. The category of Games can be considered as one of the fundamental ones in the study of spiritual life. For the science of culture, writes I Huizinga, it is important to understand what exactly figurative embodiments mean in the minds of peoples. To penetrate into the secret and obvious meanings of the Game is the task of a cultural scientist.
And Huizinga offers the following definition of Game as a cultural phenomenon: “Game is a voluntary action or activity performed within the established boundaries of place and time according to voluntarily accepted but absolutely mandatory rules, with a goal contained within itself, accompanied by a feeling of tension and joy, as well as consciousness “another existence” than “everyday life”.
This definition combines all the main features of the Game. Culture arises in the form of a Game, it is initially played out and thereby consolidated in the life of society, passed on from generation to generation. This was the case in all archaic traditional societies. Culture and Game are inextricably linked with each other. But as culture develops, the play element can be pushed into the background, dissolve in the sacred sphere, crystallize in science, poetry, law, politics. However, a change in the place of the Game in culture is also possible: it can again appear in full force, involving and an intoxicating whirlwind of huge masses. “Sacred ritual and festive competition are two constantly and everywhere renewed forms within which culture grows as a game and in a game.” The game is always focused on luck, winning, winning, bringing joy and admiration. This shows her competitive nature. In the game they enjoy the gained superiority, triumph, triumph. The result of winning can be a prize, honor, prestige. The bet in the Game is a golden cup, a jewel, a royal daughter, the post of president. People compete in the Game, competing in dexterity, skill, but at the same time observing certain rules.
J. Huizinga describes the trial as a competition, a verbal duel, a game of chance, a dispute about guilt and innocence, ending more often in a court victory than in defeat. Justice is always administered in a specially designated place; it is fenced off from everyday life, as if turned off from it. “This is a real magic circle, a play space in which the usual social division of people is temporarily abolished.” Judges temporarily become above criticism, they are inviolable, dressed in robes, and put on a wig. This emphasizes their involvement in the special function of justice. The judicial process is based on strict rules, norms of the code, according to which punishment is measured. The goddess of justice was always depicted with scales on which guilt was weighed. In archaic societies, judgment was carried out by lot, as a manifestation of divine decision. The competition takes the form of a bet, a vow, or a riddle. But in all cases it remains
A game based on an agreement to act according to established rules.
Since the Game is found in all cultures, all times and peoples, this allows J. Huizinga to conclude that “game activity is rooted in the deep foundations of human mental life and the life of human society.” The cult unfolded in the sacred Game. Poetry arose in the Game as a verbal competition. Music and dance were originally a Game; also applies to other forms of art. Wisdom, philosophy, and science also had playful forms. Even combat encounters contained game elements. Hence the conclusion: “Culture in its most ancient phases is “played.” It does not come from play, like a living fetus that is separated from the mother’s body; it develops in play and as play.” But if this statement is true for ancient eras, then is it typical? for a later historical period?
J. Huizinga notes the trend of a gradual but steady decrease in the play element in the culture of subsequent centuries. The Colosseum, amphitheatres, hippodromes in the Roman Empire, tournaments and ceremonial processions in the Middle Ages, festive carnivals and masquerades of the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo styles in Europe, parades of fashionable costumes and wigs - these are the few new forms that entered European culture in past centuries.
In the 20th century Sport took first place in the Game. Competitions in strength, agility, endurance, and skill become widespread and are accompanied by theatrical performances.
But commerce will increasingly penetrate the sport, it will acquire the features of professionalism when the spirit of the Game disappears. The desire for records is rampant everywhere. The spirit of competition pervades economic life, penetrates into the sphere of art and scientific debate. The game element acquires the quality of “puerilism” - naivety and childishness. Such is the need for banal entertainment, the thirst for crude sensations, the craving for mass spectacles, accompanied by fireworks, greetings, slogans, external symbols and marches. To this we can add a lack of a sense of humor, suspicion and intolerance, immense exaggeration of praise, and susceptibility to illusions. Perhaps many of these behavioral traits were encountered before, but they did not have the mass character and cruelty that are characteristic of them today.
J. Huizinga explains this by the entry of the semi-literate masses into spiritual communication, the devaluation of moral values and the too much “conductivity” that technology and organization have given to society. Evil passions are fueled by social and political struggle and introduce falsehood into any competition. “In all these manifestations of the spirit, voluntarily sacrificing its maturity,” concludes J. Huizinga, “we are able to see only signs of threatening decay. In order to regain sanctification, dignity and style, culture must take other paths”23. The foundation of culture is laid in a noble Game; it should not lose its playful content, for culture presupposes a certain self-restraint and self-control, the ability not to see something ultimate and higher in one’s own aspirations, but to consider oneself within certain, voluntarily accepted boundaries. True culture requires fair play, decency, and following the rules. A violator of the rules of the Game destroys the culture itself. “In order for the playful content of a culture to be creative or promote culture, it must be pure. It must not consist in blindness or apostasy from the norms prescribed by reason, humanity or faith.” It should not be a false radiance, a historical inflating of the consciousness of the masses with the help of propaganda and specially “cultivated” game forms. Moral conscience determines the value of human behavior in all types of life, including play.
It should be emphasized that the book Homo Ludens was written during the dark years of Europe, the years of the onset of fascist regimes. The famous scientist S.S. Averintsev called this time “totalitarian neo-barbarism.” Exploring the cultural concept of the game by J. Huizinga, he compares it with the novel by the German writer Hermann Hesse “The Bead Game” (“Game of Glass Beads”). Both belonged to the same generation and were close in their liberal-humanistic views and spiritual biography. They are united by a common perception of the reality of that period, when a cult of propaganda, lies, violence, and misanthropic persecution arose in Europe with mortal danger. They deny these phenomena the right to be called culture.
The fascist regime very widely used game forms - torchlight processions and rallies of thousands, awards and insignia, parades and marches, sports competitions and youth unions. No expense or time was spared on all this. It would seem that one could equate the Game with culture. But J. Huizinga publishes his book “as a protest against false play, against the use of game forms for inhumane purposes, in defense of the “real” game. To contrast the game with the crisis, with the game to save culture - this is the goal of this work,” rightly notes the researcher of his work T.A. Krivko-Apinyan. J. Huizinga’s book was published almost 60 years ago, but it has not lost its modernity, although the past is “crumbling away” behind us, the longer he leaves us.However, it crystallizes eternal problems and eternal values, warning against the repetition of tragic mistakes.
J. Huizinga's treatise "In the Shadow of Tomorrow", subtitled "Diagnosis of the spiritual illness of our era", was published in 1935, translated into many languages of the world, and reprinted many times. It was published in Russia only in 1992. The epigraph of this book was the saying: “This world has its dark nights, and there are many of them” - this conceals the symbolic and prophetic meaning of the book. It also contains a dedication: “To my children.” It is also perceived as an appeal from a scientist to future generations. This book was based on a report given in 1935 in Brussels. In the preface, J. Huizinga writes that, despite all the signs of decline and decay of modern culture, he considers himself an optimist, because he believes in the possibility of healing. To do this, you need to have courage, faith and fulfill your duty. There is some symbolism in the very title of the book: what does “the shadow of tomorrow” mean, and not morning, noon or evening? Different interpretations can be offered.
But let's return to the treatise. He also has the specifics of the genre - journalistic, aphoristic, appealing to a wide audience. This is reflected in the chapter titles: “Waiting for a Catastrophe”; "Fears before and now"; "The problematic nature of progress"; "Profanation of science"; "Cult of Life"; "The Decline of Moral Standards"; "State is a wolf state?"; "Views of the future." Each chapter is short, laconic, like a sentence or diagnosis.
J. Huizinga begins his treatise with an apocalyptic premonition: “It would not be a surprise to anyone if one day madness suddenly erupted into a blind frenzy, which would leave behind this poor European civilization dull and insane, for the engines would continue to turn, and the banners would fly, but the human spirit would disappear forever." He is overcome by fear of the future and a tragic feeling of death threatening a person. Everything that seemed unshakable and sacred is shaking - truth and humanity, law and reason, state institutions and production systems cease to function. The progressive decomposition and decline of culture became a signal of alarm, realized by an increasingly large number of people. Tangled knots of problems are growing everywhere: the fate of national minorities, drawn borders, a ban on family reunification, unimaginable economic living conditions. Any of these situations is experienced on the verge of violence, turning them into many hotbeds ready to ignite at any moment, notes J. Huizinga. The doctrine of the absolute power of the State justifies in advance any sovereign usurper, bringing the world closer to the threat of a devastating war.
In past eras, crisis situations arose repeatedly: tremors, displacement of layers and tidal waves were no less destructive than in our days. However, there was no feeling of the impending collapse of the entire civilization. Many see overcoming the cultural crisis in the revival of the past, a return to former perfection. J. Huizinga sneers at this approach. Old wisdom, old virtue create only the illusion of renewal. If we want to preserve culture, Huizinga believes, we must continue to create it. Only by continuously moving forward into the stormy sea of the unknown can we find a way out of the crisis. This does not mean forgetting the past, for a healthy spirit is not afraid to take with it on the road the weighty burden of former values.
For creative activity, it is important to understand the meaning and purpose of culture. In the chapter “Basic Conditions of Culture,” Huizinga names three essential features that are necessary for the formation of the phenomenon called culture.
Firstly, culture requires a certain balance of spiritual and material values. This means that the various spheres of cultural activity each realize, individually, but within the framework of the whole, the most effective life function possible. Harmony is manifested in the order, powerful articulation of parts, style and rhythm of life of a given society. Every assessment of the cultural state of a people is determined by an ethical and spiritual standard. Culture cannot be high if it lacks mercy.
Secondly, every culture contains some kind of aspiration. Culture is a focus on the ideal of society. This ideal can be different: spiritual and religious; glorifying honor, nobility, honor, power, economic wealth and prosperity; praising health. These aspirations are perceived as good, they are protected by the social order and are enshrined in the culture of society.
Third, culture means domination over nature; using natural forces to make tools, protect yourself and your neighbors. Thus, she changes the course of natural life. But that's only half the battle. The main thing is for a person to understand his responsibility and duty. This creates a system of conventions, rules of behavior, taboos, and cultural ideas aimed at curbing one’s own human nature. This is how the concept of “service” arises, without which culture cannot do.
Based on the listed features, Huizinga gives the definition: “Culture is the directional position of society given when the subordination of nature in the field of material, moral and spiritual supports a state of society that is higher and better than that provided by available natural irrigation, is distinguished by a harmonious balance of spiritual and material values and is characterized by definition of an ideal, homogeneous in its essence, towards which various forms of social activity are oriented." This definition is somewhat verbose, cumbersome, and difficult to understand. But it combines all the necessary conditions. Culture must be metaphysically oriented, or it does not exist at all, emphasizes J. Huizinga.
A spiritual crisis disrupts the balance of material and spiritual values in the orientation of society, leads to disharmony, disintegration, loss of ideals, and elevates Evil to the role of a guiding thread and beacon of humanity. The glorification of struggle by any means, war and conquest as the goal of the state invariably causes moral degradation and cruelty. Hatred and need are the consequences of a monstrous war and its retinue.
J. Huizinga considers the greatest danger threatening Western civilization to be the immoral autonomy of the State, which is allowed to use any means for self-affirmation - enmity and hatred, lies and treachery. “The state is the wolf,” the author concludes. This statement contains the main exposure of the policies of fascism and totalitarianism.
“Diagnosis of the spiritual illness of our era” is the subtitle of this book. What is this diagnosis? Huizinga notes that a whole range of dangers threatens a culture experiencing a period of acute spiritual crisis. The culture is in a state of weakened immunity against infection and intoxication, the spirit is wasted. The meaning of the word is uncontrollably falling, indifference to the truth is growing. “A cloud of verbal garbage hangs over the whole world, like fumes from asphalt and gasoline over our cities.” The danger of absolutely irresponsible mass actions inspired by slogans, rallies and appeals has increased enormously.
Having named the crisis symptoms of spiritual illness, the author makes an attempt to present a forecast for the future. However, he stipulates that a glance is enough for no more than three steps. The entire perspective is hidden in fog. Today's world cannot return to its previous path. In addition, the forecast is complicated by the fact that some signs of the new may not develop at all in the future. Where can we expect salvation?
Science and technology cannot become the foundation of renewal, a new structure of social life, streamlining the activities of the state can strengthen the basis of culture, but cannot cure the crisis, the unification of religions is possible, but not by dictate, but by the voluntary acceptance of the common will. But these are all external factors.
For recovery, renewal of the spirit is necessary. “The internal purification of the individual himself is necessary. The spiritual habitus (state) of a person must change”30. The foundations of culture are such that they cannot be laid or maintained by collective entities - be they peoples, states, churches, schools, parties or associations - believes J. Huizinga. The good cannot lie in the victory of one state, one people, one race, one class. The world has gone too far in its contradictions. The problems of national minorities, unimaginably drawn borders, bans on natural reunification, unbearable economic conditions are on the verge of brutality, turning into many hotbeds. ready to ignite at any moment “Only a purified humanity can create a new culture.” Purification or catharsis is a state that occurs at the moment of contemplation of tragedy, causing pain and sympathy, capable of ridding the soul of rough instincts and causing peace, calling a person to the proper use of vital forces.
It is still difficult to foresee when spiritual cleansing will begin, which requires new asceticism and self-sacrifice. This requires patient work. And Huizinga has high hopes for the younger generation. Despite all the hardships of life, they have not become weak, apathetic, or indifferent. “This youth looks open, cheerful, spontaneous, capable of both pleasure and hardship, decisive, courageous and noble. They are easier to rise than past generations.” She faces the task of once again mastering and managing this world, not letting it perish in recklessness and self-blindness, but permeating it with spirituality.
With this optimistic hope, J. Huizinga ends his book on the diagnosis of the spiritual illness of our era.
Johan Huizinga [ˈjoːɦɑn ˈɦœyzɪŋɣaː]; -) - Dutch philosopher, historian, cultural researcher, professor at Groningen (-) and Leiden (-) universities.Biography
Proceedings
Huizinga gained worldwide fame for his research into the history of the Western European Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The most famous works are “Autumn of the Middle Ages” () and “Erasmus” (). Subsequently, Huizinga's most famous work was the treatise Homo Ludens("Man playing",).
Dr. Anton van der Lem on Huizinga's work
Dutch researcher of Johan Huizinga's work, Dr. Anton van der Lem, speaking about the unflagging appeal of the works of his famous compatriot, points to their five most significant features:
- Love of history solely for its own sake. In approaching the study of the past, Huizinga, following Jacob Burckhardt, seeks not to “draw lessons for the future”, but to see the enduring. It does not pursue political, economic or social goals. Many pages of his works are characterized by features of tangible authenticity. Ideological predilections have no power over them.
- A pluralistic understanding of history and a rejection of seductive explanations. History is a living, multifaceted process that could have proceeded differently. History has no purpose, no necessity, no engine, no all-determining principles. Huizinga rejects monocausality when analyzing historical processes. This makes it possible for his works to remain convincing regardless of the current time.
- The gift of figurative embodiment of historical events. Huizinga does not accept the positivist view of history as a process subject to rational explanation. For Huizinga, history is not a message, not a story, but a search, an investigation.
- The idea of "historical sensation". Huizinga compares the feeling of a “historical sensation” with a musical experience, or rather with the comprehension of the world through a musical experience.
- Ethical Imperative. The historian must remain faithful to the truth, correcting his subjectivity whenever possible. The pursuit of truth is the moral duty of a historian. Huizinga points to categories such as the seven deadly sins, the four cardinal virtues, or the pursuit of peace and justice as the standard by which past events should be judged.
Huizinga's definition of history
In the essay “On the definition of the concept of “history”” (Dutch. Over een definitie van het begrip geschiedenis) Huizinga gives the following definition of history:
History is the spiritual form in which a culture is aware of its past.
Original text(n.d.)
Geschidenis is de geestelijke vorm, waarin een cultuur zich rekenschap geeft van haar verleden
Over een definitie van het begrip geschiedenis
Huizinga interprets the elements of this definition as follows:
- Spiritual form- a broad concept that includes not only science, but also art. Thus, not only scientific history corresponds to the definition, but also narrative chronicles, historical legends and other forms of historical consciousness that have existed and exist in different cultures.
- Culture. Culture in this context refers to a cultural community, for example, a nation, tribe, state. A culture can be monolithic, or it can be divided into various subcultures.
- Realizes himself. This means that the purpose of studying history (in whatever form it is expressed - as a chronicle, memoir, scientific research) is to understand and interpret the surrounding reality.
- Your past. According to Huizinga, every culture has its own past. The past of a particular culture means not only the past of the representatives of the culture themselves, but the general image of the past (one’s own and others’) that dominates in a given culture. Huizinga believes that each culture will have its own view of the past and will “write history” in its own way. Moreover, within the same culture, different subcultures will have different histories (in the sense of “different images of history”). As an example, different interpretations of the history of the Netherlands from the point of view of Protestants and socialists are given. Huizinga considers this situation normal, but on the condition that the historian, working within the framework of his culture, must try to follow the truth (ethical imperative).
Bibliography
- On historical ideals of life / Trans. from Dutch by Irina Mikhailova, ed. Yuri Kolker. London: Overseas Publications Interchange Ltd, 1992.
- Homo Ludens; Articles on the history of culture. / Transl., comp. and entry Art. D. V. Silvestrov; Comment. D. E. Kharitonovich. - M.: Progress - Tradition, 1997. - 416 with ISBN 5-89493-010-3
- Autumn of the Middle Ages: Study of forms of life and forms of thinking in the 14th and 15th centuries in France and the Netherlands // = Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen / Transl. from the Netherlands Comp. and lane Silvestrova D.V.; Entry Art. and general ed. Ukolova V.I.; Conclusion Art. and scientific comment Kharitonovich D.E. - M.: Progress-Culture, 1995. - T. 1. - 413 p. - (Monuments of historical thought). - ISBN 5-01-004467-6.
- Dutch culture in the 17th century. Erasmus. Selected letters. Drawings. Comp. and lane D. V. Silvestrov Publishing house Ivan Limbach, 2009
- Shadows of Tomorrow. Man and culture. The Darkened World: An Essay. Comp.,trans. and preface D. V. Silvestrov. Comm. D. Kharitonovich. St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbach Publishing House, 2010
- Autumn of the Middle Ages. Comp.,trans. and preface D. V. Silvestrov Publishing house Ivan Limbach, 2011
- Homo ludens. A man playing. Comp., trans. and preface D. V. Silvestrov. Comm. D. Kharitonovich. St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbach Publishing House, 2011
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Excerpt describing Huizinga, Johan
In 1806, the old prince was appointed one of the eight commanders-in-chief of the militia, then appointed throughout Russia. The old prince, despite his senile weakness, which became especially noticeable during the period of time when he considered his son killed, did not consider himself entitled to refuse the position to which he had been appointed by the sovereign himself, and this newly discovered activity excited and strengthened him. He was constantly traveling around the three provinces entrusted to him; He was pedantic in his duties, strict to the point of cruelty with his subordinates, and he himself went down to the smallest details of the matter. Princess Marya had already stopped taking mathematical lessons from her father, and only in the mornings, accompanied by her nurse, with little Prince Nikolai (as his grandfather called him), entered her father’s study when he was at home. Baby Prince Nikolai lived with his wet nurse and nanny Savishna in the half of the late princess, and Princess Marya spent most of the day in the nursery, replacing, as best she could, a mother to her little nephew. M lle Bourienne, too, seemed to be passionately in love with the boy, and Princess Marya, often depriving herself, yielded to her friend the pleasure of nursing the little angel (as she called her nephew) and playing with him.At the altar of the Lysogorsk church there was a chapel over the grave of the little princess, and in the chapel a marble monument brought from Italy was erected, depicting an angel spreading his wings and preparing to ascend to heaven. The angel's upper lip was slightly raised, as if he was about to smile, and one day Prince Andrei and Princess Marya, leaving the chapel, admitted to each other that it was strange, the face of this angel reminded them of the face of a deceased woman. But what was even stranger, and what Prince Andrei did not tell his sister, was that in the expression that the artist accidentally gave to the face of the angel, Prince Andrei read the same words of meek reproach that he then read on the face of his dead wife: “Oh, why did you do this to me?..."
Soon after the return of Prince Andrei, the old prince separated his son and gave him Bogucharovo, a large estate located 40 miles from Bald Mountains. Partly because of the difficult memories associated with Bald Mountains, partly because Prince Andrei did not always feel able to bear his father’s character, and partly because he needed solitude, Prince Andrei took advantage of Bogucharov, built there and spent most of his time there. time.
Prince Andrei, after the Austerlitz campaign, firmly decided never to serve in military service again; and when the war began, and everyone had to serve, he, in order to get rid of active service, accepted a position under his father in collecting the militia. The old prince and his son seemed to change roles after the 1805 campaign. The old prince, excited by the activity, expected all the best from the real campaign; Prince Andrey, on the contrary, not participating in the war and secretly regretting it in his soul, saw only one bad thing.
On February 26, 1807, the old prince left for the district. Prince Andrei, as for the most part during his father’s absences, remained in Bald Mountains. Little Nikolushka had been unwell for the 4th day. The coachmen who drove the old prince returned from the city and brought papers and letters to Prince Andrei.
The valet with letters, not finding the young prince in his office, went to Princess Marya’s half; but he wasn’t there either. The valet was told that the prince had gone to the nursery.
“Please, your Excellency, Petrusha has come with the papers,” said one of the nanny’s girls, turning to Prince Andrei, who was sitting on a small children’s chair and with trembling hands, frowning, dripping medicine from a glass into a glass half filled with water.
- What's happened? - he said angrily, and carelessly shaking his hand, he poured an extra amount of drops from the glass into the glass. He threw the medicine out of the glass onto the floor and asked for water again. The girl handed it to him.
In the room there was a crib, two chests, two armchairs, a table and a children's table and chair, the one on which Prince Andrei was sitting. The windows were curtained, and one candle was burning on the table, covered with a bound book of music, so that the light would not fall on the crib.
“My friend,” Princess Marya said, turning to her brother from the crib where she stood, “it’s better to wait... after...
“Oh, do me a favor, you keep talking nonsense, you’ve been waiting for everything - so you’ve waited,” said Prince Andrei in an embittered whisper, apparently wanting to prick his sister.
“My friend, it’s better not to wake him up, he fell asleep,” the princess said in a pleading voice.
Prince Andrei stood up and, on tiptoe, approached the crib with a glass.
– Or definitely not to wake you up? – he said hesitantly.
“As you wish, that’s right... I think... as you wish,” said Princess Marya, apparently timid and ashamed that her opinion had triumphed. She pointed out to her brother the girl who was calling him in a whisper.
It was the second night that they both did not sleep, caring for the boy who was burning in the heat. All these days, not trusting their home doctor and waiting for the one for whom they had been sent to the city, they took this or that remedy. Exhausted by insomnia and anxious, they dumped their grief on each other, reproached each other and quarreled.
“Petrusha with papers from daddy,” the girl whispered. - Prince Andrei came out.
- Well, what is there! - he said angrily, and after listening to verbal orders from his father and taking the envelopes and his father’s letter, he returned to the nursery.
- Well? - asked Prince Andrei.
– Everything is the same, wait for God’s sake. “Karl Ivanovich always says that sleep is the most precious thing,” Princess Marya whispered with a sigh. “Prince Andrei approached the child and touched him. He was burning.
- Get out with your Karl Ivanovich! “He took the glass with the drops dripped into it and approached again.
– Andre, don’t! - said Princess Marya.
But he frowned angrily and at the same time painfully at her and leaned over the child with a glass. “Well, I want it,” he said. - Well, I beg you, give it to him.
Princess Marya shrugged her shoulders, but obediently took the glass and, calling the nanny, began to give the medicine. The child screamed and wheezed. Prince Andrei, wincing, holding his head, left the room and sat down on the sofa next door.
The letters were all in his hand. He mechanically opened them and began to read. The old prince, on blue paper, in his large, oblong handwriting, using titles here and there, wrote the following:
“I received very happy news at this moment through a courier, if not a lie. Bennigsen allegedly won complete victory near Eylau over Buonaparte. In St. Petersburg everyone is rejoicing; there is no end to the number of awards sent to the army. Although he is German, congratulations. The Korchevsky commander, a certain Khandrikov, I don’t understand what he’s doing: additional people and provisions have not yet been delivered. Now jump there and tell him that I will take his head off so that everything will be done in a week. I also received a letter from Petinka about the Battle of Preussisch Eylau, he took part - it’s all true. When people do not interfere with someone who should not be interfered with, then the German beat Buonaparti. They say he is running very upset. Look, jump to Korcheva immediately and do it!”
Prince Andrei sighed and opened another envelope. It was a finely written letter from Bilibin on two pieces of paper. He folded it without reading and again read his father’s letter, which ended with the words: “Ride to Korcheva and carry it out!” “No, excuse me, now I won’t go until the child recovers,” he thought and, going up to the door, looked into the nursery. Princess Marya still stood by the crib and quietly rocked the child.
“Yes, what else does he write that is unpleasant? Prince Andrei recalled the contents of his father’s letter. Yes. Ours won a victory over Bonaparte precisely when I was not serving... Yes, yes, everyone is making fun of me... well, that’s good for you...” and he began to read Bilibin’s French letter. He read without understanding half of it, he read only in order to at least for a minute stop thinking about what he had been thinking about exclusively and painfully for too long.
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