Transformation of the idea of power totality in poststructuralism discourse (based on the cycle “Apotheosis of policeman” by D.A. Prigov)

Statement of the problem. The paper analyzes transformation of an image of power totality in the conditions of the openness of the information society system, according to the Moscow conceptualism of D. Prigov. The purpose of the article is to provide an assessment of the representation of a positive image of power in the Soviet mass media, through legislative acts (the law on the Soviet police) and its further deconstruction in the works of Moscow conceptualists. Research results. The article demonstrates the importance of a policeman as a power representative within paradigm of social semiosis of J. Baudrillard’s simulacra - through the formation of a simulacrum in its stages; of J. Deleuze’s simulacrum - as an image devoid of similarity, considering the simulacrum through the paradigm of Plato’s vision of being; of J. Bataille’s simulacrum - as a meaning that deforms being itself - in the original ontological sense of the concept of simulacrum; and of S. Zizek’s social theory of post-Marxism - as an illusory “objective necessity”, continuing the Marxist concept of alienation in the broadest sense. The author considers the representation of power in the image of a policeman from the third order of simulacra: in the need to conceal the absence of the original actual meaning, to the fourth order - in the totality of simulation. Conclusion. The problem of the totality of power and its representation in the literature is raised symbolizing the crisis of the existing ontology of identity and the transition to the ontology of differences where the signified is no longer identical to the signifier, where the policeman stands and “does not hide”.