Perceptual Image of Siberia in Boris Klimychev’s Poetry: Cultural and Linguistic Aspects

Abstract

The Russian mentality and national character are reflected in cultural texts, while the regional linguacultural profile is expressed in local literature. The Tomsk poet Boris N. Klimychev (1930–2013) used a variety of linguistic means to represent the image of Siberia in his verse. This article describes the linguistic representation of all types of sensory perception within the cultural and stylistic dimensions of Siberian poetry. The image of Siberia in Klimychev’s poetry is examined through the lens of his idiostyle and perceptive linguistics. It forms an artistic perceptive macro-image consisting of such micro-images as the city, cold, dampness, silence, darkness, fog, and the taiga. Klimychev’s poetry heavily focuses on vegetative micro-images, including the pine, cedar, birch, bird cherry, and poplar. The semantic chronotope is dominated by acoustic and auditory perception. The texts are rich in perceptual units with sound semantics, which are closely associated with the imagery of a tram, knocking, creaking, and horses. Being at the core of Klimychev’s idiolect, these auditory images provide a direct reference to the history of the Tomsk Province.