The Moscow Text and the Imagery of Urban Perception

Forum for World Literature Studies. 2023. Vol. 15. No. 4. P. 733–750.

Belova P., Sosnin A., Гусева Л. В., Никшикова Л. Ю.

Expounded in the article are prerequisites to a cognitive and semiotic
description of the Moscow text as it is represented in the Russian literature of the
twenty-first century. The concept of supertext or, the invariable recurrent text structure,
is introduced and applied to textual representations of cities; the typical imagery
forming the Moscow text is elucidated, along with its verbal representations. It
is suggested that the practical description of the Moscow text should be made on the
basis of the literary works constituting the Russian literary canon, which will ensure
the conformity of linguistics and literary studies within the framework of general
semiotics. The article mainly explores the specifics of the contemporary textual
representations, drawing upon works shortlisted for literary awards. The literary
material is supplemented with extensive social and cultural context, which is done
in accordance with the modern literary studies, when the corresponding extra-textual
reality is taken into account alongside the text itself. An orientation towards the
literary text is postulated as absolutely essential, as a solid corpus of literary texts is
indispensable for describing complicated linguistic phenomena and mental images
standing behind them. The latest texts about Moscow feature a decrease in the status
of the usual cult places of the metropolis, the authors’ attention being redirected to
urban images which have less historical or cultural significance.

Keywords: urban studies, supertext, verbalization, Moscow text, cognitive imagery