On the issue of the passionate factor in the development of domestic cultural studies

The topic of this article is related to the open nature of the question about the significance of the personal aspect of expanding the boundaries of humanitarian knowledge based on the development of new scientific directions, including cultural studies. In light of the 95th anniversary of MGIK, the concept of “culture of memory”, reflecting the value-semantic foundations of the continuity of generations and the modality of productive development of the intellectual and artistic-creative achievements of the past, is acquiring the status of an important and urgent problem. The author of the article, dedicated to the memory of the pioneers on the path to domestic cultural studies, sees his task in revealing the features of the “motivational context of creativity” of the subjects of the formation of cultural studies as a specific sphere of humanitarian knowledge. Hence the legitimacy of the author’s immersion in the “distant contexts” (M. M. Bakhtin) of the past and understanding of the subjective factor in the development of the cultural studies direction of modern humanities. Using the example of the life and legacy of Arnold Isaevich Arnoldov as the initiator and development of the system of cultural knowledge in our country, the passionate aspect of expanding and deepening the problematic and thematic space of the cultural sciences is revealed. The research scientific relationship between theoretical, historical and reflexive discourses. Particular attention is paid to the issue of Arnoldov’s contribution to the institutionalization of Russian cultural studies – the creation of the very first department of history and theory of culture at the Moscow State Institute of Culture.