Authors

The paper belongs to a series of articles with a focus on mental models, as construed and actualized in discourse and embodied in texts. Identity is treated as a type of the above-mentioned mental models. Supporting the constructivist stance on identity (in R. Brubaker and F. Cooper’s terms), the author postulates that identity is fragmented, multiple and fluid, being molded and interpreted in discourse, and a function of various historical and sociocultural factors. Using “Quichotte”, a 2019 novel by S. Rushdie, who represents postcolonial literature, the author argues that constructivist stance on identity is a rightful and fruitful approach to exploring identity construction through the prism of fictional texts, the latter seen as results of discursive activity. The purpose of the study is to analyze the writer’s essentially multilevel reflection on multicultural identity in the novel within the novel, taking into account the perspectives of different characters, and describe the means of multicultural identity construction. The conclusion is made that the constructivist approach to understanding identity does not hinder a researcher’s examination of the ways human self-understandings crystallize in texts.

The paper focuses on “kaleidoscopic” concepts, which are defined by A.P. Babushkin as cognitive structures that take different forms under the same verbal “skin”. The core of the research is the question raised by the author about the pos- sibility of “kaleidoscopic” performance being a feature not exclusively found in the concepts “captured” by abstract words. The idea that the concepts verbalized by concrete words can also be “kaleidoscopic” is investigated through a study of the concept TIGER, as actualized in the discourse space of the novel “When You Trap a Tiger” (2020) by Tae Keller, a young Korean-American children’s writer. The author presents a series of examples from the novel showing how cognitive structures of different kinds (e.g. mental pictures, frames, scenarios, schemes) are verbalized by one and the same concrete word, that is the name of the concept TIGER. For each case the type of the “kaleidoscopic” concept is defined, and the cognitive processes (i.e. profiling, conceptual metaphor, perspectivization, symbolization) activating the “shapeshifting” performance of the concept are described. Furthermore, using the data on the nucleus and peripheral areas of the concept in question, as presented in definitions of the key word tiger in several of the most authoritative dictionaries of English, the author formulates the principle of categorization of “kaleidoscopic” concepts that are verbalized by concrete words. It is deemed important that the above-mentioned principle is essentially different from the one pertaining to “kaleidoscopic” concepts named by abstract words.

Drawing from the field of intercultural communication in which space is referred to as a non-linguistic form of communication, as well as linguocultural studies that treat it as one of the cultural codes used to categorize the world, put it in order and evaluate it, the author of this article focuses on the use of space in cognitive-functional modelling of acculturation in contemporary multicultural fiction. The research examines how acculturation, which is defined as a process of change that affects one’s personal psychological space as a result of continuous intercultural contact, is constructed in the short story “How to Pronounce Knife” (2015) by S. Thammavongsa. A study of the following key binary oppositions pertaining to the physical and the psychological space in the short story is caried out: centre – edge, up – down, front – back, inside – outside, regular (traditional) configuration/layout – deformed configuration / distorted layout. Taking into account the acculturation-related symbolic meanings attributed to these spatial oppositions by S. Thammavongsa, the author concludes that the invisible “air bubble” that the protagonist of the story under analysis carries around in a new culture resembles a tesseract, or a 4D hypercube, which rotates about the XW and YW planes, rather than an ordinary 3D sphere.

The present paper focuses on the cognitive modelling of literary text space. The aim of the research was to conduct a comparative study of the cognitive proxemic models of the subconcepts “virtual space” and “real space”, as represented in the multicultural novel «Walking in Two Worlds» by W. Kinew. In accordance with E.A. Ogneva’s research, a cognitive model of literary text space is defined as a construct which demonstrates the correlation between various constituents of the nominative field of the literary concept “space”, which is perceived and comprehended by the reader. The term “proxeme” is used to denote a word or a word combination that is semantically related to parameters of space. The article presents data on the quantitative relation between the types of thematic proxemic models which comprise the nominative field of the literary subconcepts “virtual space” and “real space”, namely, models of personalised anthropocentrically marked literary text space, models of non-personalised anthropocentrically marked literary text space, as well as those of non-personalised anthropocentrically unmarked literary text space. For each of the abovementioned categories of proxemic models the most common types of proxemes are identified. In addition to this, the representation of dynamic literary text space and the spatial axes is examined. The results obtained highlight the qualitative differences between the significance of the virtual literary text space and the real literary text space, as conceived by the author of the novel. Despite the fact that the characters perceive real life as less salient and important than their performance in the virtual space, the real literary text space turns out to be more intense in terms of human activity than the virtual literary text space and, therefore, not less meaningful, whereas the virtual text space is represented as an environment conducive to creativity alongside revival and/or preservation of traditional culture.

The present paper belongs to a series of articles with a focus on ethnospecific concepts and identity construction in multicultural fiction from a cognitive- functional perspective. It seeks to take a new look on ethnospecific concepts, namely those which belong to an author’s idioconceptual subsystem, the latter being understood as a unique configuration of concepts in one’s mind, and constitute cognitive matrices. In accordance with N.N. Boldyrev’s research, the term «cognitive matrix» is used to denote a system of interconnected cognitive contexts which open onto different conceptual domains. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the potential of using cognitive-matrix analysis to reveal the connections between the cognitive contexts in the structure of an ethnospecific concept which unfold in a work of fiction, as well as the conceptual domains they are related to, on the one hand, and the many facets of an author’s cultural identity on the other. The paper outlines the results of the cognitive-matrix analysis of the concept BISON as represented in the novel “A Grandmother Begins the Story” by M. Porter, a Canadian writer of Métis background. Detail is given on several cognitive contexts in the structure of the concept in question pertaining to the following conceptual domains: NATURE, HISTORY, SPIRITUAL CULTURE, SPACE, TIME. The results obtained show that the ways in which the ethnospecific concept BISON functions in the text under consideration are affiliated with the writer’s identity and allow her not only to implement her creative ideas but also actualize her cultural identity in fiction.

The paper discusses culture-specific communicative features of official Russian, British, American, and Cypriot universities websites. The research focuses on context models of collective authors. The contribution deals with specific type of discourse which (following contemporary tendencies in discourse analysis) is referred to as “active effect discourse”. The study relies on interdisciplinary data provided by various spheres relevant to the issue under consideration. Thus, the study provides an overview of trends and tendencies in the development of modern education, outlines techniques used for online promotion of educational programs, describes specific features of communication environment. The paper analyses the structure and the content of official university websites, outlines verbal means used by collective authors of the texts under consideration in order to appeal to the target audience, and conducts analysis of culture-specific meanings conveyed through these means. The article also outlines prospects for future research on communication style adopted by the collective author of promotional texts functioning in digital learning environment.

The focus of the present paper is on “Metis futurism” as a conceptual framework that allows writers to actualize, construct and reimagine personal, cultural and other types of identity in and through fiction. Characteristics of “Metis futurism” as postulated by Ch. Vowell, a Canadian Metis writer, are examined through a study of her short story collection “Buffalo Is the New Buffalo” (2022) accompanied by the writer’s commentaries. The aim is to outline the key extralinguistic and linguistic aspects of Metis futurism as exemplified by Ch. Vowell’s fiction, as well as to analyze the function of the metaconcept in question within the author’s idioconceptual subsystem. 

The results obtained show that given the hybridity of genres, postcolonial speculative rhetoric, a set of culture-specific concepts relevant for the Metis people and other Indigenous cultures, alongside the extensive use of the speech strategy of discredit and non-English language means that the target audience is supposed to decode on its own, “Metis futurism” allows the writer to personalize and customize the format and the content of their fiction in accordance with their goal of inviting the audience to participate in the (re)construction of all kinds of identity in and through text, thereby performing its interpretive function.