| Title of the article: |
Heraldic aspect of cultural self-identification of a nation: Britain – Russia |
| Author(s): |
SKLIZKOVA E. V. |
| Section: |
Theory and history of culture |
| Year: |
2016 |
| Issue: |
№ 1 (39) |
| Pages: |
65-75 |
| Index UDK: |
304.2 |
| Index BBK: |
71.4 |
| Abstract: |
Each country possesses cultural peculiarities, manifested in the sphere of semiotics. Sign is the means of identification: of self, objects of reality, emotions, notions etc. Each coat of arms is the sign of identification. All the countries have such signs, which are under the jurisdiction of heraldry, though not always possess characteristics of full-fledged coat of arms. State coat-of-arms are not only separate semiotics but also particular socio-cultural component of historical process. The state coat of arms should reflect all the peculiarities of the country. For both, Britain and Russia, heraldry is connected with alien influence. Though both countries have traditional symbols, structured and adjusted practice appeared with the foreign trends. Lack of full-fledged patriotic education and knowledge of emblematic semantics and history results in indifference to the state signs. Replacement of state symbols during global social change seems to be rather natural. However, the selection of symbols should be a very careful process. It is possible to follow several ways: to choose a new emblem either modern, or archetypical, or to change some elements of the existent unity of signs. Any state coat of arms is a very explicit sign with the concrete semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics. Impossibility of usage of Soviet coat of arms in democratic Russia is obvious. But choice of the monarchical sign of double-headed eagle is also very strange. |
| Keywords: |
aristocracy, clan, coat of arms, emblem, heraldry, knight, Middle ages, monarchy, semiotics, sign |
| Bibliography: |
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