THE HERO’S WAY, IDENTITY AND STAGES OF THE LIFE CYCLE IN CINEMA
Authors:   Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow Russian Federation), Kolotaev Vladimir A. 
Published: December 2021

The relevance of the research is determined by the high social significance of the problems of identity formation in modern society, reflected in cinema, and the insufficient knowledge of the processes of constructing various identity models in the art space of cinema and the connection of the psychological stages of development of this identity with elements of the structure of film narration. A comparison of the structural elements of the hero’s travel map (compositional nodes of the script) with the epigenetic diagram of the stages of identity formation and a description of the formal-substantive unity of the elements of dramaturgy and Erickson’s staged model constitute the scientific novelty of the study. The purpose of the study is to show that the drama of the film, the structural elements of the compositional set of stages of the hero’s way, the transition to new states through passing tests and gaining knowledge correspond to the stages of ego-identity formation, reflecting the person’s ability to overcome problems by transforming himself in the process of interaction with social categories. To achieve this goal, a comparative-typological method is used to solve the following problems: highlight the general structural and substantial characteristics of the initiation rite as a process of formation and development of the hero’s identity and way, built on the basis of the monomith structure; describe the possibilities of reflecting the psychological processes of the formation of ego identity at each stage of the structure of the hero’s path; based on the analysis of individual films show ways to reflect the stages of building the ego-identity of the hero in the meaningful characteristics of the stages of his path as elements of film dramaturgy. The subject of analysis in this article is the relationship of the stages of the way of the hero and level them solve psychological problems with the content of normative crises build ego-identity. The structure of the cinematic in the work relate to the sequences and stages of identity formation. The hero, moving from a state of "ordinary world" to the main test encounters problems, the relevant stages of identity formation. The hero of the film stay in the everyday world at the initial stage of the journey to the main test involves going beyond the existing knowledge about yourself and meet new requirements to change yourself, which can be done with varying degrees of success. If the hero has successfully passed the first stage of identity development, at this stage it has no problems and when confronted with the limits of private autonomy, he can hear "the call to pilgrimage", and the transition to the next stage of the journey will include a manifestation of the activity of changing yourself in gaining this autonomy. But if the confidence in the world the character was not formed, the call to travel in the form in which it is presented in the film, is seen as a confirmation of the fragility of the world and causes no movement in the direction of learning and change itself, and the movement in the direction of test the strength of the environment. In this case, the stages of the traversed path will not lead the protagonist to a complete solution of the problem of ego-identity, and throughout all the stages of the way the hero will solve these specific problems, moving consistently towards a successful or not successful gaining of trust to the world or the formation of learning ability. The research is based on the material of Russian and foreign cinema 20th-21st centuries.