Geopoetic Image as a Cultural Token, Process and Result of Aesthetic Reality Modeling

Abstract

The research field of geopoetics as the theory of studying creative forms and ways of human interaction with the geographic space, the multidimensional concept shaped by the syncretic perception of reality, is expanding dynamically in the aspect of space interpretation and modeling. Such research prism facilitates addressing projective meanings of the modeled reality, studying geopoetic image as a cultural sign, process and result of aesthetic display and representation of reality. Taking into account the relevance of the problem, the authors of the article set a goal to investigate the semiotic triad of St. Petersburg, the emotional component of the axiological model and its semantic transformations: Petropol’ - Petrograd - Leningrad, that permits to present a multilateral description of geopoetic image modifications. The research logic is dictated by the fact that the conceptualization of space in its various manifestations is associated with the study of the territory as an object of aesthetic reflection. The study analyzes creative embodiment of a particular toponym in its dual rational and emotional essence as a fact of verbal art. Transformation and treatment of geopoetic image meanings of St. Petersburg based on the spheres of urban semiotics are analyzed in the aspect of giving new meanings and semantics to the place in the context of spatial and cultural historical relations and models. The authors argue that geopoetic image is a special representation of geographical space in its historical and cultural, value and semantic nature and fusion in their unity. The existing territory can be presented as a compact axiological model through the “prism” of socio-cultural values, signs and symbols. Actualization of the palimpsest concept based on the combination of textual layers, research of peculiarities of structural meaning modeling enable addressing the reconstruction of the semiotic system and variant semantics of “city mirror” texts.