The conference intends to scrutinise the cultural and mental mapping of Narva through both classical theoretical presentations and practical research with the help of the participants. It is the continuation of a series of scholarly events aimed at exploring specific places in Estonia, local identities, visible and invisible borders, and topographical hierarchies and preferences of the region's inhabitants.

Subjectivity as a starting point for the study of spatial environment also sets the form in which the results can be presented: we study the subject, his or her desires, aspirations, and preferences in order to combine individual indicators to obtain a generalised image of Narva, where the subjects live, to reveal an ideological construction that gathers significant points of space into a single set of representations. In this view, the problem of space interpretation receives a phenomenological dimension, indicating how the subject is rooted in the space. Such a vision allows us to work with mental maps that do not reflect all topoi, but fix the points of space – places – that are significant for the subject.

They are formed under the influence of cultural reputation, i.e. a set of generalised interpretations of a place, which, in the course of a special analysis, is broken down by the researcher into individual features attributed to the place and emerged as a result of folklore comprehension of events related to the place. Sometimes the cultural reputation of a place is defined as a set of oral histories narratives. Cultural reputation is accepted by the subject as an unconditional vernacular attitude, which is not subject to reflection, but which has a huge impact on the subject's everyday perceptions and practices, on his or her vision of space, and which forms the subject's mental map. Historical events and transformations of state borders determine cultural reputation and leave a deep trace on the mental map in the form of phantom borders.

The articles on the mental mapping and cultural reputation of Narva are planned to be published in the form of a monograph together with a collective study, which will bring together the spiritual topographical representations of the inhabitants of Estonia. Scholars from various fields of the humanities are invited to the conference.

Pre-registration for the conference is required here: Koha kultuuriline maine ja mentaalne kaart: Narva (Google Forms)

Working languages: Estonian, English and Russian

Contacts:
Estonian Literary Museum
Sergey Troitskiy - sergei.troitskii[at]folklore.ee
Mare Kõiva - mare[at]folklore.ee