City Semiotics: Kiev as a Culture Text

The article deals with the semiotic aspects of city, in particular, the city of Kiev. Kiev is represented as a culture text, the text in its broad, semiotic meaning and even as a “hypertext”. To make a hypertext, a number of texts must have the following characteristics: a thematic and modal integrity, completeness, common general typological characteristics. Kiev itself is treated as the hypertext of the Russian and Ukrainian literature and culture. This understanding of the text of Kiev allows us to describe extensive period of XIX-XX centuries and variable text extracts, united by Kiev as a common object. Kiev as a hypertext is personified in the poetic works as “the mother of Russian cities”, a highly spiritual town, a holy place.

semiotics, cultural text, hypertext, intertextuality, text linguistics, concept