The Arctic and the North: The Problem of Conceptualization

Abstract

The article is dеvoted to the problem of conceptualizing a holistic image of the Arctic and the North from a transdisciplinary perspective, as well as in the context of the spiritual and civilizational identity of Russia, the search for the national idea. The objectives of the study are to draw attention to the need to develop an integrative paradigm of Arctic socio-humanitarian knowledge, to identify cultural and symbolic codes in the mass consciousness that characterize the conceptual field “Arctic and North”. The notions of the Arctic and the North are considered as universal concepts of world culture, a deep understanding of which is possible only by interconnection of humanitarian component with natural science aspects of cognition. For full-fledged interpretation of the mental image of a place, “the spirit of a place”, not only specific spatial coordinates, event line and personalities are extremely important, but also artistic symbolism (literature, painting, cinema, etc.), as well as linguistic-communicative component (symbolic words, verbal associations, stable expressions). The article characterizes the phenomenon of northern literature based on the perception of the Russian North and the Arctic as a special mythopoetic space, the semantic cores of which are both concrete historical and sacred-mythological semantic components. The article briefly presents the results of associative experiment conducted with the students of Saint Petersburg Mining University in order to identify stereotypical ideas about the circumpolar region in the linguistic consciousness of young people. The representation of Arctic megatrends in the Russian and global media communication space is noted as a promising research direction, especially in connection with the intensification of geopolitical disagreements. The article makes a conclusion about the actualizing of the symbolic and ideological value of the Arctic and the North for modern Russia, which is especially important in the aspect of value-semantic interaction of generations.

Keywords:

Arctic and North, image of a place, linguistic consciousness, identity, northern literature, associative experiment, cultural and symbolic constants