Kolokol : spectres of the Russian bell
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2006
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Kolokol: Spectres of the Russian Bell, submitted by Jason Kaminski in
fulfilment of the requirements of PhD (Humanities and Social Sciences)
candidature at the University of Technology, Sydney, is an interpretative
history of Russian bells (kolokola) and bell music (zvon).
As a cultural object and sign, the Russian bell is associated with ideas of
transcendence, and ideological and creative ‘vision.’ This interpretation of
the signification of the kolokol as a sign arises directly from the
perception that the bell is essentially a physical (anthropomorphic) body
that is capable of ‘projecting’ or ‘transcending’ itself in the form of a
spectrum.
This essential ‘spectrality’ defines a history of the Russian bell as an
instrument of magical, spiritual and religious ritual, as a cultural artefact
associated with changing ideological movements (paganism, Christianity
and communism) and as a sign represented synaesthetically in image,
sound and text. Ethnographic and campanological studies observe that
the kolokol ‘reflects Russian social history like a mirror’, representing the
‘voice of God’ or Logos as an aural or ‘singing’ icon, pointing to the
primordial origins of language.
This dissertation further investigates the idea that the kolokol acts as an
‘acoustical mirror’ and ‘ideological apparatus’: a medium or spectre
through which Russian history and culture is interpellated and reflected.
The various logical streams (storytelling, legend, script, text, song,
cultural theory, philosophy and ethnography) that contribute to this
dissertation form a textual ‘polyphony’ through which the essential
meanings and ‘personae’ of the kolokol as a cultural object are
interpreted.
The bell is regarded as presenting an enigma of signification that must
be resolved through investigation and definition. The thesis concludes
that the kolokol acts as an iconic sign of the creative ‘Word’ (Logos) and
as a symbolic sign that implies a ‘bridge’, copula or psychic ‘hook’,
articulating the relationship between the cosmos and consciousness, the
material and spiritual, the real and imaginary.
Keywords: Russia, Russian History, Russian Arts, Russian Music, Russian
Poetry, Russian Political History, Russian Orthodoxy, Russian Revolution,
Bell-founding, Bell Music, Bell-ringing, Campanology, Iconology, Kolokol,
Zvon. Word-count: 82,250 (excluding endnotes) 98,300 (including
endnotes).
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