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CONCEPTUAL-SEMANTIC FORMULA OF THE COGNITIVE-PRAGMATIC PROGRAM “LAW OF CONSCIENCE” (BASED ON THE BOYS FILM CONSTRUCT) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2023. Issue 2 (36). P. 9-29

The article considers the conceptual-semantic formula of the Boys film construct through the authors’ theory of cognitive-pragmatic programs (CPPs). In terms of this theory, the film construct is a specific synthetic (creolized) form of embodiment and transmission (translation) of one/several CPPs that have received the status of the foundation of subjective reality (i.e., that determine the consciousness, self-consciousness, and behavior of the characters of the film). The filmmakers confront two options for the CPP of socialization of a teenager’s personality: didactical-compulsory, based on external copying and reproduction (“law of the law”), and humanistic, based on the constructiveness of equality, love, involvement, conscience (intrinsic “law of conscience”). In the first, the constructive impact of society is perceived by the object of “forced socialization” as a destructive act of subordination. As a result, the educational impulse is absorbed externally, at the level of a “social mask”, or is redirected back in the form of a distorted aggressive reaction. The second option is conceptualized as the only possible productive way of a constructive socialization of the individual. The CPP “Law of Conscience” is a key semantic and structural component of the authors’ concept and has a two-part structure (“to return the teenager to himself”; “to bring the teenager to the people”). This is the only possible productive way of an individual’s constructive socialization. The main instrument here is conscience, which blocks the process of simulative “social disguise” and helps the teenager to realize that the norms, attitudes and behaviors offered to him should not be automatically adopted. The figurative formulation of this CPP – “one’s heart needs to be woken up” – has two subject-role vectors of implementation (“to wake the hearts of parents”; “to wake the heart of a teenager trapped in a circle of alienation”). The vectors are interconnected, but, at the same time, two main perspectives of implementation are possible: a) individual-personological (when it is impossible to “wake the hearts of parents”); and b) the complex one. A teenager trapped within the “circle of alienation and desocialization” cannot adequately assess himself and his actions, or the actions of others. In the light of the irrevocable two-part conceptual formula of the CPP “Law of Conscience”, a clear structure of necessary educational actions is being formed, including the rejection of “repressive pressure”, the attitude towards the adolescent as an equal, indifference and involvement, the desire to awaken responsible introspection (conscience), to break or transform distorted relationships with sources of desocialization, to awaken civic identity. External pressure from society is replaced by constructive internal stress (feeling a sense of duty and responsibility in oneself). A teenager no longer needs to defend himself or hide, he can and should be himself, for which it is necessary to follow the principles of the basic moral quality of his personality (his conscience).

Keywords: film construct, destructive/constructive socialization, cognitive-pragmatic program, “circle of alienation”, conceptual and semantic formula, “law of conscience”