FROM THE ARCHETYPE TO THE AUTHOR’S MODEL: LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CODES OF URBAN SPACE IN LEO TOLSTOY’S “ANNA KARENINA”

Abstract

The article offers a new reading of the urban space in Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” through the system of cultural codes. The relevance lies in applying an interdisciplinary linguocultural methodology to a classic text. The objective is to identify the codes which are structuring the model of the city and to determine Tolstoy’s philosophical innovation. The methodology is based on the analysis of basic images (gestalts) behind textual metaphors, using the concepts of actional, fetishistic, and technomorphic codes. Сomparative analysis with archetypal models from Russian paremiology is applied. Scientific novelty: For the first time, the city in the novel is analyzed holistically through a synthesis of cultural codes, and Tolstoy’s transformation of folk archetypes into a philosophical concept is traced. The introduction of the “technomorphic code” is key to understanding his critique of society as a machine. The results show that Tolstoy’s city is a space governed by the codes of chaotic action, fetishism of things, and mechanization of life. This system leads to the alienation and destruction of the individual, as embodied in Anna’s tragedy. Thus, cultural codes serve Tolstoy as a tool for deep anthropological criticism of civilization.