The dissertation highlights the features of the evolution of gender on a historical and cultural material of transitive (crisis) epochs through the problematization and assimilation of gender inversions and invariants by the culture power. It has been showed that gender inversions and invariants, which exist in socio-cultural practices, fulfill the functions of accumulation, transmission and problematizing the new cultural experience in the context of socio-cultural transformations. For most of carriers of the cultural tradition gender inversions are have deviations from the gender and cultural standards existing in the society, come into conflict / struggle with them, and are revolutionary in relation to the ruling discourse. During the periods of changes of the cultural paradigm, the “critical mass” of gender inversions and invariants grows, that leads to the transformations of gender standards.
The category of “cultural power”, arising from the theoretical developments of P. Bourdieu and M. Foucault, is considered in the mental-symbolic aspect of culture. The research made clear that the cultural power has a symbolic and disciplinary character, legitimizing the control of culture over the personality through a system of certain prescriptions and restrictions. It is especially revealed in the periods of crisis of the cultural paradigm, when the changes in the cultural system lead to inconsistencies of traditional gender standards with the challenges of socio-cultural reality. Historical and cultural ways of overcoming the cultural power over gender are considered through various variations of the cultural construct of androgyny, to which gender inversions and invariants are reduced.
The dissertation actualizes the problem of studying actual artistic practices (in particular Ukrainian art) as ways of overcoming the cultural power over gender. The analysis made it possible to identify the main areas of understanding and presentation of gender inversions, in particular body inversions, in the artistic and socio-cultural practices of the late 20 - early 21 centuries. It has been found that in today's culture the transformation of gender norms and the appearance of a great deal of inversions and invariants spread out in the situation of multiple identity and crisis of identity in general.
Key words: gender, gender inversion, gender invariant, cultural power, gender standard, androgyny, androgynism, social androgyny, corporeality, gender-bending, transitive epochs, tradition and innovation.
