Article

Name: The image of “ultima Thule” in the semiosis of the Siberia sign

Authors: Maria A. Kaigorodova

Gorno-Altaisk State University, Gorno-Altaisk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

The paper reconstructs the semantic components of the Siberia sign by studying the travel diaries of British explorers and travelers to Siberia from the 18th to the 19th centuries. The focus is on the works of J. Bell, Ch. Cotrell, T. and L. Atkinson, H. Lansdell, W. H. Adams, and others. The analysis of English and Russian literature describing Siberian territories of that period allows the concept of “ultima Thule” (the edge of the world) to be identified that gradually got fixed to the image of Siberia. The image of Siberia is considered through its features of being wild, primitive, deaf, and, at the same time, fabulous, wonderful, heavenly, and divine. Lukomorie and Eldorado are mentioned as features highlighting the exoticism and attractiveness of Siberia by its natural wealth. The perception of the primitive and the naïve in the British texts about Siberia is compared with the perception of these notions by the Russian authors. The paper reveals the Russian words—pereferia, okraina, and glubinka—decoding the properties of “ultima Thule” in Siberia as a sign, though with the author’s respect to the natural wilderness. The identification of the signs of “own” and “foreign” in the perception of objects of geographical and ethnocultural space of Siberia is regarded as subjective and leading to cultural convergence. A conclusion is made that even in the modern period, the European reading of the Siberia sign still has a component of the exotic, and Siberia itself has been calling to be “rediscovered”.

Keywords: Siberia, Altai, British travelogue, ultima Thule, naïve picture of the world, periphery of civilization, cultural convergence

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