“Oh, Where are You, My Russia?”: The Image of Russia in the Camp Poems of A. Solzhenitsyn

The article deals with A. Solzhenitsyn camp poems, pertaining to the early and underresearched part of his oeuvre. The analysis is centered around the image of Russia. In his poetry, Solzhenitsyn formulates the basic artistic characteristics of this image, that are further developed and deepened in his prose. The image of Russia consists of two toposes: “the visceral Russia”, that embodies the author’s ideal, as well as “the orphaned Russia”, that reflects the country’s “pain points” or its most acute problems. The image of “the visceral Russia” is created under the influence of Christian traditions and the early lyrics of S. Yesenin. Its key elements are landscapes, pantheistic dissolvment in the world of nature, hesychasm and related to it notions of silence and color symbolism. The image of “orphaned Russia” is divided into “the free Russia” and “the Gulag Russia”. It echoes A. Blok’s poetry and demonstrates the historically ambivalent and dramatic sides of Russian history. Despite the spatial categorizations, the lyrical hero’s perception of his motherland is not fragmented, but objective and multi-sided. Like the author himself, he views Russia as a whole in all of its struggles and contradictions.

Varlam Shalamov. Rilke and Drozhzhin

In the publication V.T. Shalamov’s notes of the early 1970s about the meeting of the famous Austrian poet R.M. Rilke with the peasant poet S.D. Drozhzhin are introduced into academic study for the first time. The meeting took place in 1900 during Rilke’s second trip to Russia. The notes preserved in Shalamov’s archives represent preliminary observations for the future essay, which remained unfinished. The introductory article traces the history of Shalamov’s acquaintance with Rilke’s work and reconstructs Rilke’s image as perceived by Shalamov in the context of his biography and work. It also reconstructs, on the basis of letters and notebooks, the stages of an unrealized plan related to the theme of “Rilke and Drozhzhin”, suggested to Shalamov by B.L. Pasternak, but read by him in the subjective optics of the poet, who considered his main achievement “understanding of nature”. This subjective optics, which distinguishes Shalamov’s text from all subsequent interpretations of this historical and literary plot, is manifested especially clearly in the correlation of the figures of Rilke and Drozhzhin with Soviet writers who were Shalamov’s contemporaries (Tvardovsky, Dzhambul, Stalsky, etc.). The new archival material makes it possible to supplement the picture of the Soviet “Rilkeana” and to expand the understanding of Shalamov’s range of interests.

Perception modules and virtual creolization of a text in a verbal landscape

Text generation in poetic landscapes is considered from cognitive positions, with nature perception as part of spatial event conceptualization procedure. Emily Dickinson’s poems (No. 140, 668) and their Russian versions were taken as illustrations as for perception modules as sensual components. Virtual creolization was dealt with, as well as ways of translation equivalence, omission and forced restructuring. Perceptual thinking is a lower pre-semantic level not represented in a clear way. Apart from lexemes with meanings based on a clearly-cut perceptual component percepts are present in sensory words as traces of former perception. Modularity in representing percepts and their images generates a textual quality of virtual creolization, synthesis of verbal component and that of its representation image together with /without a reminiscence from another module. Text generation in a primary and translation texts was described as a reconstruction of perceptual and cognitive activity inherent to observer-speaker in an actual period. The analysis shows virtual creolization as a characteristic of initial and translation texts, which makes omission and forced restructuring transformations necessary.

New methods of metaphor identification in various types of discourse (Review of publications)

This article presents a review of the latest procedures for identifying metaphor in multilingual texts and different types of discourse. The choice of methods for identifying and decoding metaphorical expressions is the starting point of any research in the field of metaphorology. With the development of corpus linguistics methods, the volume of analyzed material has grown thousands of times. So, the identification of linguistic expressions in discourse that realize conceptual metaphors has become one of the most challenging issues of modern metaphorology. The paper describes theoretical foundations and historical background for the solution of this issue. It is shown that it is impossible to verify this or that method without a large-scale approbation; in this connection, the developments of research groups (PALASIGMET, PRAGGLEJAZ) proved to be the most perspective. The MIP (metaphor identification procedure) was finalized in the metaphor laboratory of the Free University of Amsterdam with the name MIPVU. This methodology was a great success all over the world, however, in Russia only a few articles of introductory character have appeared. This article summarizes the experience of applying the procedures of metaphor identification in different languages and types of discourse.

A.S. Khomyakov and “people’s thought” in the epic novel by Leo Tolstoy “War and Peace”

The article reveals the deep connections of the “people’s thought” and Tolstoy’s philosophy of history in “War and Peace” with the theological and literary-critical works of A.S. Khomyakova. The author of the work analyzes the dispute between Tolstoy and the cult of an outstanding personality, with the Hegelian understanding of his role in the historical process. Tolstoy is alien to the Hegelian rise of “great personalities” over the masses, the Hegelian liberation of the “genius” from moral control and evaluation. Tolstoy believes that it is not an exceptional personality, but the life of the people that turns out to be the most sensitive organism, catching the will of Providence, intuitively sensing the hidden meaning of the historical movement. Anticipating Tolstoy, Khomyakov sharply criticizes the cult of personality in the church hierarchy, the Catholic dogma of papal infallibility, of the unconditional authority of an individual in matters of conscience and faith. Khomyakov reveals deep religious roots that feed the centuries-old Western enmity towards Russia. The article proves that Tolstoy is close to Khomyakov’s idea that Divine Providence overshadows with its grace only the believing people, united into a single organism by Christian love, that the epic basis of “War and Peace” is anticipated in Khomyakov’s literary-critical works “Glinka’s Opera ‘Life for Tsar’”, “On the Possibility of the Russian Art School”, “Ivanov’s Painting. Letter to the editor of ‘Russian Beseda’”. The article proves that “War and Peace” overcomes the conflict between the individual and society, the hero and the people, and reveals the epic horizons lost in the Western European novel.

Politicization of discussions of Covid-19 on Twitter

Power of social media including Twitter for English speaking community to shape public opinion becomes critical during the current pandemic because of misinformation. The existing studies on spreading misinformation on social media hypothesise that the initial message is fake. In contrast, we focus on information distortion occurring in cascades as the initial message about the Covid-19 treatment is quoted or receives a reply. Public persons discuss medical information on Twitter providing fast and simple response to complex medical problems that users find very attractive to follow. Followers generate information cascades while quoting and commenting on the initial message. In the cascades, medical information from the initial tweet is often distorted. The discussion of the Covid-19 treatment in the cascades is politicized according to users’ political sympathies. We show a significant information shift in cascades initiated by public figures during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study provide valuable insights for the semantic analysis of information distortion.

Russian language in the speech culture of bilingual students: dynamic analysis

The purpose of this article is a dynamic analysis of the transformations taking place in the speech culture of bilingual students of the post-Soviet space. Russian-foreign bilingualism, as our survey shows, has undergone a certain reconfiguration over the past decade. Previous experiments convincingly proved that the Russian language is dominant in the speech culture of bilingual students, which was due to a number of estralinguistic and linguistic-functional factors. Autochthonous languages in the cognitive structure of students occupied a less stable position and were communicatively limited even in conditions of microdiscursive functioning. It was safe to say that Russian was the core of the linguistic consciousness of bilingual students. Today the situation has changed. The role of autochthonous languages is signified. The Russian language still remains a communicative dominant, providing the basic communicative needs of the individual (including the need for training and the formation of professional competencies), however, it is gradually shifting from the core towards the center, which may indicate that linguo-constructive functions in the future may be lost, and new ones associated with the ethnically primary language have not yet been formed (taking into account the small historical time), which will entail the phenomenon of mass semilingualism.

The world-modeling function of Russian-foreign bilingualism in the prose of S. Aflatuni (“Clay letters, floating apples”)

The prose of the Central Asian writer Suhbat Aflatuni is analyzed in the article in the context of the concept of transculturation, which is based on the principle of interference in the interaction of different national cultures, when “cultural diversity and universality” become the “heritage” of one person (M. Epstein). To determine the specifics of the image of the world in the novel “Clay Letters, Floating Apples” (2005), the article aims to reveal the mechanism of interaction between different languages and cultural codes and to trace the world-modeling function of Russian-foreign bilingualism. The text of the novel-parable is complexly organized, it intertwines the events of the present and the past, united by the themes of the Teacher and students, the awakening of genetic memory and the acquisition of the lost ancient alphabet, the return to national spiritual origins as the life-giving moisture of life (the motive of the connection of “clay letters” and water as the source of life in the symbolism of the image of “floating apples”). Thanks to the fairy tale form of the narration and the stylized language based on Russian-foreign bilingualism, the effect of interference carried out “at the borders”, in the zone of inter-lingualism, the author manages to create a universal, syncretic image of the world that demonstrates the attachment of the writer's personality to many cultures. The artistic style of the novel resembles a bright ornament of an oriental carpet with cultural codes encrypted in the drawing – as a continuation of ancient national traditions. At the same time, the form of the parable, the mythologized space, images and motives, the special author's optics, which is based on Russian-foreign bilingualism, allow us to talk about the connection between the novel and the traditions of magical realism.

Hybrid toponyms of Panama as a reflection of toponymic bilingualism

The article presents evidence of a comprehensive linguistic analysis of the toponymy of Panama. The relevance of the topic is due to the fragmented research of Panamanian toponymy and the need for a comprehensive study of socio-historical and linguocultural factors in the formation of the Panamanian toponymicon. The hypothesis of the article is as follows: toponymy of Panama has a unique heterogeneous and polystrate character, semiotically determined by historical facts, ethnic composition of the population, natural conditions of the country and migration processes. Maps, GoogleMaps, GeoNames electronic systems were used as materials and tools. It was found that Hispanic geographic names make up the largest percentage in comparison with autochthonous toponyms and hybrid (blended) toponyms. The authors identified Spanish-Indian and Spanish-English blended place names. It is substantiated that Panama is a unique area of ​​functioning of the general Spanish toponymic vocabulary. Historical and cultural events in the country were reflected in toponymy, capturing the topographic relief, including metaphorically perceived, names of first settlers, names of famous Panamanian personalities, perception of topographic objects at various stages of the country's development, influence of English language, which together form the toponymic dominants of the Panamanian society, heterogeneity and unique hybrid Indian-Spanish-English character of toponymicon, on the basis of which the term “toponymic multilinguism” is proposed.

Russian cultural code in the polylogue of cultures of the Russian-Chinese and Mexican-American borderland

The article deals with the elements of Russian cultural code in folklore and literary works of the Russian-Chinese and Mexican-American borderlands. The object of the study is the texts united by the topos of the border. The borderland is considered as the place of the most intense interaction of cultures. The authors focus on the features of the polylogue of cultures at specific loci: Trekhrechye, Northern China (right bank of the border river Argun); California and Baja California (Mexican-American border) — historically marked by the “Russian presence”. These loci are characterized by linguistic contacts of the Russian language with Chinese and Evenk (Trekhrechye, right bank of the Argun River); Russian with English and Spanish (California and Baja California). The relevance of the study connected with the growing academic interest in the phenomenon of cultural and linguistic interaction in the borderlands. The authors explore significant units of Russian cultural code: personal names (anthroponyms), toponyms, exoticisms based on Russian song folklore of the Trekhrechye and the literary works of contemporary authors of the Russian-Chinese and Mexican-American borderlands (Chi Zijian, G. Valdes). The verbal cultural code contributes to the preservation and transmission of cultural information in a situation of close interaction with a foreign culture. The work uses comparative-historical, structural-semiotic and linguocultural research methods. The study confirms that specific linguistic units, onyms (anthroponyms, toponyms) and exoticisms, are significant elements of the Russian cultural code, which is actualized in the polylogue of cultures in borderland loci.