Geopoetics of space: Venice in English-language essay by J. Brodsky

The article provides research into geopoetic image of Venice represented in the essay “Watermark” by I. Brodsky. Research approach includes methods of conceptual, narrative, stylistic analyses as well as fictional text interpretation method. The study is based on the analysis of narrative-conceptual models, that contain urban objects as one of their components. Within this approach, the following models were singled out: “city perceived by senses”, “city and season”, “city as retrospection”, and “city as water”. Each of the models is distinguished by a certain set of spatial objects and their characteristic features. Symbolic interpretation of these objects receives conside rable attention in the paper as well. The study shows that the largest number of city objects is perceived by senses, mostly eyesight/eye. This concept is characterized by nominative density, text recurrence, wide scope of symbolic interpretations. The largest number of objects associated with Venice are represented within the model “city as retrospection” connected with walks, meetings, memories, and life situations. Water may be defined as the essay macro-concept, it is related to all the models under study. It is recurrent in the text, and has a wide range of symbolic meanings. Water is a geopoetic center of Venetian space and one of the philosophic concepts of the essay.