URBAN SPACE AS A SEMIOTIC-MYTHOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT OF PERCEPTION: NOVOKUZNETSK MYTHOLOGIES

The relevance of the research is determined by sustained interest in the social sciences and humanities to understanding the spatial dimensions of urban life, the myth renewal as an important cultural reality of our time, as well as the need for understanding the practical problems of urban space perception, specific to Russian cities. The main aim of the study is to identify the myths and mythologies that determine the (mental) organization of urban space perception. The research methodology is based on a combination of a phenomenological and cognitive approach to understanding the image of urban space and compound of semiotic and psychoanalytic interpretations of the myth. The urban space seen in a relational perspective is described through cognitive-semantic structures that determine the selectivity of the perception process. Drawing on interviews with the residents of Novokuznetsk (Kemerovo region), collected by the author in April–August 2019, principal mythologies are analysed as entities resulting from the mythologization of urban space.
Results. The article shows significance and role of the perception mythologies for creation of the spatial phenomena classification model of urban reality. The formed image of urban space is defined as a semantic structure and special «textual» reality that relevant to system of intersubjective significations and intrasubjective meanings of the urban view of the world. The results obtained made it possible to see not only the continuum of actual mythological representations of the Novokuznetsk urban space, but also to identify the significance of the spatial contents of urban life for the constitution of socio-cultural realities. It is identified that the myth-making activity of urban life subjects is an intention to a world order that meets the basic human requirements of stability and harmony.