Representation of cultural meanings when using national cultural codes in fiction

Duktava Liubou Georgieuna ORCID: 0009-0003-5401-7932 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of communication technologies and public relations, Belarusian State University Kuibyshev str., 30, office 116, Minsk, 220029, Belarus docent2020@yandex.ru

Introduction

The works of fiction reflect spiritual values, worldview features, ideological attitudes and stereotypes functioning in society, shown through artistic and visual means, images, motives. The encoding and decoding of cultural meanings transmitted in a work of art takes place using cultural codes. The basis for understanding the cultural code and its role in the text was the research of Y. Lotman, R. Barth and W. Eco. In the semiotic models of R. Jacobson, Y. Lotman and U. Eco code is presented as one of the components of communication. In 1970, in the work "S/Z" by R. Barth, a textual analysis of the work "Sarrazin" by O. Balzac was published, in which emphasis was placed on the functioning of codes in a literary work. Among the five codes highlighted by R. Barth, a cultural code was designated, which represents "the essence of nothing more than citations – extracts from any field of knowledge or human wisdom" ^{[1, p. 31]}. This interpretation was not widely used in scientific research in the future, however, the very definition of "cultural code" is currently widely used in a number of philological disciplines. In the humanitarian discourse, there are various approaches to the interpretation of the concept of "cultural code", which are related to the following aspects:

– with the collective unconscious and archetypes (K. Rapai: "The cultural code is the unconscious meaning of a thing or phenomenon, whether it's a car, food, relationships, even a country in the context of the culture in which we were raised" ^{[2, pp. 16-17]});

– with a collective consciousness (M. Epstein considers the basis of the cultural code of the first understanding – ancient, universal thought formations that are common to all mankind: "Unlike Jungian "archetypes", they belong to the sphere of collective consciousness" ^{[3, p. 11]});

– with rules and ways of reflecting cultural meaning (V. Maslova, M. Pimenova: "Cultural codes are a set of ways of social practice specific to each culture, a set of values and rules of the game of collective existence, a system of normative and evaluative criteria developed by people through which people comprehend the world" ^{[4, p. 3]});

– considering the interaction of the cultural code and symbols (D. Gudkov, M. Kovshova: the cultural code is "a system of signs (sign systems) of the material and spiritual world that have become carriers of cultural meanings; in the process of human exploration of the world, they embodied cultural meanings that are "read" in these signs" ^{[5, p. 8]}).

In a literary work, authors can apply cultural codes of different communities. The study of national cultural codes helps to identify the peculiarities of the worldview of representatives of the nation, and sometimes the state as a whole. The following studies are devoted to the identification of national cultural codes in literary works: "National codes in literary texts about the war" by E. Ozerova, "National cultural code and literature of Kazakhstan" by A. Baibolov, "Problems of popularization of Korean literature in the world: on the question of the specificity of the national cultural code" by M. Soldatova, "The polarity of national codes in the story V.V. Nabokova "Cloud, lake, tower" O. Royko, "Aspects of the study of the national code of Austrian literature" Yu. Tsvetkova et al.

The presented studies are mainly related to the identification of the peculiarities of the linguistic picture of the world, with an emphasis on linguistic and cultural features. Consideration of not only the linguistic, but also the artistic level of the national picture of the world is associated with the identification of images, motives, concepts in the work. Recently, a number of literary dissertations have appeared, which examine the peculiarities of the interaction of cultural codes in national literatures. Russian Russian literature – "Typology of cultural codes in L.N. Andreev's dramaturgy" by T. Boldyreva, "The Morbid code of Russian Literature of the XX-XXI centuries" by E. Trubetskova, "Poetry of Vladimir Vysotsky and Western European Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: the interaction of cultural discourses and cultural codes" by L. Kalugina, in Belarusian literature – "Conceptualization of the national in Belarusian prose of the first third of the twentieth century" by A. Melnikova, in American literature – "National cultural codes in the novels of Dan Simmons" by E. Kulikov.

The study of literary works makes it possible to identify the cultural codes of nations and states.

The interaction of cultural codes and cultural universals

In literary studies, the study of cultural codes used by writers is aimed at identifying the specifics of the national picture of the world, which is advisable to consider taking into account the category of cultural universals – norms, rules and values inherent in all cultures, regardless of historical time, geographical location and social structure of society. Ozerova E.G. notes: "Cultural universals in the lyric-prose text come to life in the figurative-semantic and value-semantic aspects of the conceptual sphere of lyrical prose as a system of cultural concepts" ^{[6, p. 72]}.

J. Murdoch, an anthropologist and researcher of cross-cultural communications, identified a number of cultural universals: religious beliefs, age gradation (infancy, youth, maturity, old age), dietary characteristics (cooking, reception time, food taboos, etc.), calendar and holidays, the institution of family and marriage, the specifics of everyday life, linguistic features, etc. others . The study of these parameters allows you to determine the specifics of representatives of a certain community. Cultural meanings transmitted through cultural codes are associated with various aspects of cultural universals, embodied in the artistic consciousness with the help of images and motifs. For example, the idea of good and evil, reflected through images in works of folklore and literature, allows us to highlight the features of everyday behavior based on moral attitudes related to the concepts of good and evil. Cosmological representations are associated with images of deities and heroes in works of art as symbols of greatness, with the help of a cultural code, the values of the "honorable" origin of the community can be transmitted.

M. Epstein in the work "First Concepts. The keys to the cultural code" (2022) proposed to consider the basis of the cultural code of the first understanding – "anthropological universals, the primary elements of universal human experience, refracted through national languages and cultures" ^{[3, p. 11]}. Among the first concepts, M. Epstein identifies 60 positions. This list is related to various aspects:

– the relationship between man and society (government, intelligentsia, people);

– objects (book, thing, letter);

– space (home, Homeland);

– time (future, reality, event, eternity);

– physiological and psychological characteristics of a person (person, body, madness, genius, age, soul, mind, longing, surprise, tenderness, consciousness, conscience, thinking, mood, charm, resentment, guilt, sadness, desire, love, wisdom, feeling, jealousy);

– secrets of life and death (life, death, faith, fate, immortality, miracle);

– actions (playing, reading, silence, creativity);

– properties and characteristics (possible, interesting, small, new, lightness of nothing, shell, image, vulgarity, poetic, purity, creepy, depth, emptiness);

– language (word).

There is a tendency to segmentation, when reflecting various phenomena of reality in works, the representation of cultural meanings can be organized using different types of codes. The spatial code is associated with the semiotization of space, time is a time code, the animal and plant world is a biomorphic (animal and plant) code, actions are an action code, physiological and psychological characteristics of a person are somatic and spiritual codes, properties and characteristics are attributive, objects are subject, etc.

It is advisable to consider cultural codes within the framework of several modules (for example, human activity, man and nature, man and society, man and the world), which will contribute to the generalization and systematization of existing research on the functioning of certain types of cultural codes in a work of art. Spiritual and somatic codes are associated with human life activity, as well as operational (action code) and morbual, which is associated with human health and treatment. It is important to note the sufficient relativity of the boundaries of codes, for example, morbid and somatic. The module "man and nature" is represented by biomorphic and meteorological codes, the module "man and society" is represented by a character code, the module "man and the world" is represented by spatial, temporal, quantitative, color, cosmogonic, subject, etc.

The research "Cultural code in a literary work" is devoted to the consideration of the issue of codification of cultural heritage. Interpretations of artistic texts in Russian literature of the XIX and XX centuries" by G. Chalacinska-Wiertelak, "Ornithological code of the Belarusian traditional spiritual culture", "Dendrological code of the Belarusian traditional folklore" by I. Shved, "Zoomorphic code of culture in the linguistic picture of the world" by F. Guketlova, "Animal style of Eurasia" by E. Korolkova, "The animalistic code of English culture in the linguodidactic aspect" by H. Rozenkova, S. Shustova, "The somatic code of culture in phraseological pictures of the world : based on the material of the Darginian and Arabic languages" by A. Omarov, "The plant code in Modern Greek folklore" by S. Sidneva, "Signs, symbols and codes of cultures of the East and West" by S. Makhlina, etc.

Codes of different cultures can be used in a literary work, and it is of interest to study national cultural codes based on national images presenting certain cultural meanings. National cultural codes are the basis of national images. As an example, let's consider national images associated with the semiotization of space and time.

National images associated with spatial and temporal cultural codes

In the literature of many countries of the world, the spatial code is represented using the image of the earth, its use helps to reveal the historical, psychological, and everyday features of a certain ethnic group. A. Melnikova in the work "National and ideological coordinates of Belarusian literature of the first third of the twentieth century" emphasizes: "The narrative about the people is necessarily based on ideas about space, contains an image of their land. The national landscape is one of the forms of constructing national identity. In modern science, the landscape is considered as a "social hieroglyph", a "system of cultural codes", a mechanism for the formation of national identity. The features of the image of the national landscape in fiction are determined both by the features of the real territory, landscapes, and its individual author's vision. As a rule, the reality is revealed by writers not specifically, but about the so-called "basic symbols", which are perceived as representative of a given territory (A. Pocheptsov). The specificity of the national mentality, the national image of the world is also reconstructed through the decoding of spatial symbols-codes of culture" ^{[7, p. 70]}.

Images of forests, swamps, rivers, paths, crossroads, houses (huts), mills, fields, and the sky are widely represented in the artistic consciousness of Belarusians. Images with these landscape elements successfully emphasize the Belarusian flavor (works of fine art "March Night" by V. Belynitsky-Biruli, "Mansion on the edge of Golubitskaya Pushcha" by Ya. Drozdovich, etc.). In the monograph "Contours of the native: the national locus of culture in the Belarusian prose of the Turn of the Century," A. Belaya identifies such loci of Belarusian culture as a house (hut), forest and swamp, city, mill and others: "For a full-fledged existence, a person needs a certain factorial "comfort", which for Belarusians provides a model of the world consisting of the earth, the forest and the sky" ^{[8, p. 191]}.

In Belarusian literature of different periods, the image of their land is presented as the center of the national picture of the world of Belarusians: the poem "Novaya Zemlya" by Ya. Kolas, the essay "The Land under the White Wings" by V. Korotkevich, etc. The image of "Holy Russia" is widely represented in Russian literature as a symbol of the inviolability and inviolability of the state. Russian Russian literature shows one of the most striking images of the city of Kitezh, a symbol of nobility and steadfastness of the Russian spirit, which is represented in the works of S. Yesenin, M. Gorky, N. Klyuev, A. Maikov, P. Melnikov-Pechersky, M. Prishvin, I. Severyanin, F. Sologub, M. Tsvetaeva, etc.

Decoding the cultural code involves reading the behavior model, worldview attitudes, mental traits of the nation and the population of the country as a whole. L. Khabibullina, T. Breeva in the work "National myth in fiction" note: "A specific spatial image of the national world begins to take shape at the earliest stages of the existence of national literature, becoming the initial form of representation of the peculiar mental traits of the nation: in relation to England, "island thinking" becomes such a model, in relation to Russia, this role is performed by a spatial type of thinking, which is based on a sense of vastness, generating a "desire for the horizon", "thirst for the beyond". However, at this stage, the nationalization of space turns out to be simply impossible. As noted by M.Yu. Lotman: "In the medieval system of thought, the very category of earthly life is evaluative – it opposes the life of heaven. Therefore, the earth as a geographical concept is simultaneously perceived as a place of earthly life (it is included in the opposition "earth/heaven" and, therefore, receives a religious and moral one that is not characteristic of modern geographical concepts. The same ideas are transferred to geographical concepts in general: certain lands are perceived as righteous and sinful lands. Movement in geographical space becomes movement along a vertical scale of religious and moral values, the upper stage of which is in heaven, and the lower one is in hell." This is how the image of the Russian land is built in ancient Russian literature, according to D.S. Likhachev" ^{[9, p. 251]}. The researchers emphasize that the perception of the Russian land in the monuments of writing was based on a religious principle. The postulate "Moscow is the third Rome", containing spatial and temporal codes, having a religious component, emphasizes the missionary role of the Russian people in world history, its orientation for the future. This ideology, which appeared in the XVI century and emphasizes the existence of two world Christian centers of Ancient Rome and Byzantium, is associated with the idea of Russia as a guarantor of justice and creator of a future harmonious world, and is reflected in journalism and fiction ("Diary of a Writer" by F. Dostoevsky, "Ivan the Terrible" by A. Tolstoy, etc.). In the future, the principle of unity of space and the spiritual principle is observed in the formulation of consolidating ideas at the state level in various historical periods, for example, during the Great Patriotic War – the call "Moscow, the heart of the Motherland, is behind us!" L. Khabibullina, T. Breeva note: "The dynamics of the spatial image is determined by the stages of nationalization of spatial representations; according to M.Y. Timofeeva, the nationalization of space is a process of assigning national meanings to national landscapes, sociolandscapes and landscapes. The nationalization of the first two elements proceeds differently in the general cultural and literary discourse. If in the general cultural discourse their nationalization is an important part of the ideology of the emerging statehood, then in the literary discourse the nationalization of these elements is attributed to the twentieth century. Sociolandscapes are included in the structure of the national myth of Russia in the first decades of the twentieth century, historical construction; this applies to texts significant for Russian culture in St. Petersburg, Moscow, provincial, etc." ^{[9, p. 252]}.

Russian Russian and Belarusian writers celebrate the sacralization of images of the Motherland, small homeland, native land, Fatherland ("Blessed is the Russian land" by E. Yevtushenko, "My Homeland is the breasts of God" by M. Kostyukevich, "There is a land on earth that is not deprived of God" by V. Pavlov, etc.). It is also important to note that the feeling of pride it is connected with the image of the Motherland in the works "Homeland" by E. Baratynsky, "The Voice of the Motherland, the Voice of Russia" by F. Dobranravov, "White birches were spinning" by A. Tvardovsky, "My Homeland" by R. Rozhdestvensky, "Homeland hears" by E. Dolmatovsky, "My dear Homeland..." by A. Bochila, "I do not condemn foreign lands" G. Buravkina. A sense of permanence, a kind of cradle of the soul, happy childhood years in a person's life, longing for their native places – with the image of a small homeland ("My Quiet Homeland", "Night at Home" by N. Rubtsov, "", "Stork" by A. Kazhedub, "On a new Threshold" by G. Dolidovich, etc.), the image of the Fatherland is associated with the reflection in the works of literature of military power, historical battles, as well as national ideals shown in the past, in the future and the present ("Homeland" ("I love the fatherland, but with a strange love...") by M. Lermontov, "Fatherland" by M. Duksy, etc.).

It is advisable to show the interaction of spatial and temporal codes when considering the image of a house in the literature of different historical periods. In the Russian literature of the nineteenth century, cultural meanings are associated with the image of the house in the works "Old World Landlords" by N. Gogol, "Oblomov" by I. Goncharov, emphasizing the static nature of time: time seems to stop when describing everyday life passing in the house. In the literature of the twentieth century, the image of a house is associated with the fate of a person, sometimes it is perceived as the beginning of his life path, which researchers pay attention to: "If in the novel of the nineteenth century. temporality was interpreted as a sign of the passing past regardless of its value value, then in the literature of the twentieth century. there is an idealization of the house as the only way to preserve human individuality. The nineteenth century postulates the topos of the road as a metaphor for the spiritual path of the individual, the twentieth century actualizes the procedural significance of the topos of the house, which is filled with a mediatory meaning, either overcoming the distancing of the biographical time of the hero (I. Shmelev "The Sun of the Dead"), or removing the opposition of time – eternity (M. Bulgakov "The White Guard")" ^{[9, p. 253]}.

In Belarusian literature, the image of a house (Belarusian hut) symbolizes a small homeland, family ties, and serves as a reflection of the character of the hero. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the literature reflects the issue of homelessness during the ongoing transformations in the political, economic, and social life of society, which A. Belaya draws attention to: "Philosophically, the beginning of the twentieth century is characterized by great homelessness. In fiction, this special position is concretized by the corresponding life circumstances of literary heroes. During the First World War, the abstract concept of homelessness was embodied even more tragically. This is shown in the works of K. Cherny, M. Lynkov, T. Gartny" ^{[8, p. 33]}.

The image of the house in the works of Russian and Belarusian literature is multidimensional. This is a kind of model of the world, which is considered in a diachronic aspect, the image of a house is connected by a person's life path (childhood home, old house, fortress house, etc.), the house symbolizes the Motherland, its historical path.

Conclusions

The consideration of the cultural code in humanitarian discourse is associated with the consideration of such aspects as the interaction of cultural codes and the system of symbols and signs (N. Tolstoy, S. Tolstaya, D. Gudkov, M. Kovshova), the way of reflecting the social practice inherent in each culture (V. Maslova, M. Pimenova), the connection of the cultural code and archetypal representations (K. Rapai), highlighting the first concepts as the foundations of the cultural code.  It is advisable to consider the cultural code as a carrier of cultural meanings reflecting various aspects of cultural universals, the use of which is associated with the process of encoding and decoding information, which allows, with minimal explication, to achieve a certain effect on the recipient, while implicitness manifests itself in the relevance of images, motifs of an artistic work to elements of the worldview accumulated in the reader's memory. In terms of content, there are various types of cultural codes that it is advisable to systematize using the modules "man and the world", "man and nature", "man and society", "human activity", while it is necessary to emphasize the conditionality of the boundaries of different types of codes. It is advisable to consider the interaction of spatial and temporal codes using the example of images of home and Homeland in Russian and Belarusian literature. 

When studying cultural codes in a work of art, it is advisable to turn to identifying the features of the representation of cultural meanings related to different cultural universals. Codes of different cultures can be used in a literary work, and it is of interest to study national cultural codes based on national images presenting certain cultural meanings. Images of the Motherland, small homeland, and Fatherland are associated with temporal and spatial relations in the perception of representatives of the nation and the state. In the works of Russian and Belarusian writers, a sense of pride is associated with the image of the Motherland, a sense of permanence, a kind of cradle of the soul – with the image of a small homeland. In conjunction with the image of the Motherland, national ideals shown in the past, in the future and in the present are reflected in fiction.

In the world literature, the spatial and temporal code are used to reflect ideas about the sacred territory and the "golden age" of a certain state. The interaction of the spatial and temporal code can be traced in fiction at the value-symbolic level when it comes to the historical path of the state, the ideals of the future and the values of the past. To emphasize national spatial and temporal features in the literary work, the authors use images of great rulers, heroes, as well as images of cities and iconic places.