Proteism in a cinematic portrait of a woman-philosopher

Abstract

The article analyzes the image of a woman philosopher, created by modern culture, on the material of feature cinematography. Revealing a set of characteristics that belong to a woman-philosopher in the collective representations that are broadcast in motion pictures allows performing a double research vision: 1) analysis of the cultural era to which the heroine of the biopic belonged; a specific philosophical concept created by her; 2) diagnostics of the culture that created the cinematic portrait of a woman-philosopher. The authors of the article express a hypothesis of a proteistic nature of both philosophical concepts and personal characteristics of women-thinkers. Proteism (permanent changeability, fluidity, incompleteness, uncertainty, fundamental inexpressibility) is found by film artists as the main characteristic of a woman-philosopher. Proteism, coinciding with the features of postmodernity as such, makes a woman-philosopher an attractive type of a famous person, a hero of a biopic. The authors conclude that by choosing to portray women-philosophers, cinema reveals another of its functionsthe futurological one, and predicts the development of culture.