Urban Paradigms

Abstract

The author's English summary from the article:

Key words: City, urban culture, city paradigm, provincial town.

The art is not able to create critics. Neither critics is able to breed critics. They both are determined by the time and epochal conscience. The artistic world is its co-author and opponent at the same time. Artistry is the quantitative and not the qualitative component. When describing the serrounding world the artistic work depicts the past events not as already passed by or vanished but as existing ones in the present. So consequently, the reader percieves the life substance as his personal experience. From the point of view of the objective reality city is independent but at the same time it influences on the human conscience and to a certain extent directs it.

The subjective attitude of a man’s relationship with the structure of the city life creates a tense problematic field. This field reflects unfold experience, reflection, and understanding of a man’s city life. The creation of a city paradigm is tightly connected with the process shaping and forming city as a structure. In the process of formation of the city as the pattern emerging city paradigm, it facilitates the identification of urban issues on the main socio-ontological basis. It is clearly seen that recently more attention has been paid to the visual sources and the representation of visualization. Not every city is the capital though there may exist even much more significant cities in one and the same country.

We see the attitude towards the world and the involvement in the world processes in the city-province antinomy. The contradictory pair consisting of a provincial town and a capital depicts the difference in the degree of openness of the cities in the world. The capital city and the provincial town are on the opposite ends of the scale openness/closeness of the city. The contradiction between capital cities and provincial towns is vividly seen and felt in the geographical, historical, economic, social, psychological, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. At the same time it is just the province ramaz Wilaia that determines the reproduction, protects, and saves the traditional attitudes towards social and psychological norms.

The residents of the cities are more cosmopolite because of economic, social, or political reasons compared to the residents of province. This fact does not lower the dignity and significance of provincial towns in any case. City is an objective reality not existing in isolation. The word combinations like “my town”, “our city” prove that above-mentioned. Consequently, the city phenomenon implies not only objective parameters and peculiarities but it also includes intersubjective meanings. The city is not only a place of residence for the people but it is a certain structure of their relationship as well. City/town is a physical and social sphere simultaneously.

Taking an interest in the city text problematics and several methods of interpretation are corroborated. Among them we also want to mention imagology –the science which implies the combination of literary criticism, historical, psychological, and sociological knowledge. It must be underlined that nowadays contemporary scientific opinions and positions give privilege to the conceptions and studies of J. Lotman and V. Toporof. The term “city text” itself has appeared by means of unification of the two interrelated concepts. According to G. Deleuze and F. Guattari the concept is a territory and not an object. Just the above-mentioned characteristics determines its past, present, and possibly future form.

Consequently, it would be absolutely correct to conclude that the analysis of the city text includes the peculiarities of the national mentality as well as the possibility of the determination of the mental concept nourished by the locus. All the ways lead to the city (though not every city is Rome). Cities are the significant places of meetings, social and political processes. The dynamics of historical development was formed in the city (we mean the possibility of demonstration of cultural forms). This viewpoint is appropriate for any of the world cities. Though, there exist the cities with the extra status conferred to them by human conscience.

This is predetermined not only by their historical, economic, or cultural significance but by some kind of oversemantical understanding.

Published in the journal Sjani, vol. 15 (2014), pp. 183–189. Open the paper