Linguocultural Framework of Russian Dacha Gastronomic Culture in Today’s Mass Media

Abstract

For a number of decades, both Russian and international researchers have demonstrated their unremitting interest in a such specific Russian phenomenon as dacha. Yet, the linguocultural aspects of its constituent gastronomic culture in Russia have not been studied. The study comprised several stages, at which the methods of hermeneutics, content analysis, narrative interviewing with subsequent linguistic analysis were employed. The significance of Russian dacha in shaping eating practices is reflected in communal and individual consciousness which is implicated in the broad coverage of this topic by the mass media. The linguocultural framework of the dacha gastronomic culture of Russia has been demonstrated by the thematic content of mass media texts and by cumulative and individual concepts evolved by the participants of dacha movement. We have found that such linguocultural concepts as special importance of a dacha diet and dacha foods, their uniqueness, health utility, simplicity and naturalness, hedonic value, festivity, and communal nature are most explicitly represented in the texts. Furthermore, recreational and ingenious potential of dacha activities embedded in a remarkable emotional atmosphere is semantically embodied. We have shown that the analyzed texts are impregnated with emotional and evaluative connotations verbalized by means of specific lexical and syntactical stylistic devices.