Space model of the city in folklore: on collective self-identification of a citizen

The paper describes the space structure of Tomsk reflected in folklore song texts as a means of collective self-identification of a citizen. The individual perception of the city is first associated with the structuring of the urban space. Space is one of the fundamental categories that model the world. Reflection of the urban space in the mind of townspeople determines their perception of the city, organises their existence. The external urban space in the mind of townspeople has inner content. Urban space objects are semiotically loaded as they interact semiotically with the desires, views and attitudes of an individual or a collective, a particular social group. This perception is reflected in folklore texts, it gets a proper discursive expression and special interpretation. The material of the research are texts of urban romances and bard songs (existing by folklore laws) recorded in the urban environment of Tomsk. The texts are from the personal collection of the author, from the city's Internet content, from the results of students' folklore expeditions. Significant for folklore are districts and streets of the city as a territorial unit and as a special place for an individual. In focus are the streets, alleys, districts of Tomsk that have axiological value for a simple citizen, representing largely a version of the urban space structure parallel to the official one. The stereotypical view of the city, its districts, characteristic of the citizen's everyday consciousness, crystallizes in folklore acquiring axiologically loaded content. Such districts of Tomsk as Zaistoche and Cheremoshniki appear in folklore texts as ''separate'' spaces with their own borders opposed to the other districts of the city. They have their own history anchored in the minds of citizens, who can identify themselves as a ''friend'' or a ''foe" in relation to them. Irkutsky tract district is presented in a different way. In the songs this district is described as having no spatial boundaries of its own, as if it dissolves in the space of the city, and therefore the life of the hero, the events take place in different parts of the city, not in the district as a closed local space. The picture of the world in the analysed song lyrics is organised according to the principles of folklore: the opposition of ''native" and ''foreign" spaces (even within the same city), predetermination of the behaviour algorithm, of value dominants by the orientations of the ''native" world - all this is the result of reflection of the city in the mind of a citizen.

Keywords

Authors

References