Migrant’s Semiotics in the novel “The 45th Parallel” by Polina Zherebtsova

Abstract

The article is devoted to the socio-cultural and linguistic analysis of the characteristics of mutual penetration and mutual determination of Christian and Muslim semiotic culture codes in migration discourse of North Caucasus that creates the effect of syncretism of “ours” and “theirs” in speech behavior based on the novel “The 45th Parallel” by Polina Zherebtsova. The story takes place in Stavropol, on the 45th Parallel of the Earth. The documentary novel written in 2005 – 2006 is based on personal diaries of the author, a refugee from Grozny. The aim of this article is to analyze mentalities of Russian (Christian) refugees from the Chechen Republic in the fiction. The research makes it possible to conclude that secondary acculturation of migrants has modified their axiological picture of the world, psychology, lifestyle and sociocultural habits of migrants; together with attributes of their culture, they have preserved relics of the worldview of societies, which they have left. So it is possible to speak about a palimpsest of Christian and Muslim semiotic culture codes “Clothes”, “Food”, and “Interpersonal relations” in migration discourse of North Caucasus. The main methods of the research are the semiotic analysis and the hermeneutic interpretation of discourse.