Models of Cultural Space and the Issue of Identities of Its Elements

The article describes two models of a nation’s cultural space in the age of globalization: the topological one (describing it as a topological set), and the polyspheric one. The latter is based upon Lotman’s concept of semiosphere and J. Keane’s notion of public sphere. Using Lotman’s idea of the nucleus, and Keane’s thougnt that “the old dominance of state-structured and territorially bounded public life mediated by radio, TV and newspapers is coming to an end”, and there are numerous public spheres formed around media outlets, it is suggested that, in a model presenting a public sphere as a set of elements, there is a special element, the generator, that communicates cultural content in the public sphere. It is presumed that all elements of a public sphere (texts of culture, media outlets etc), and the public sphere as a whole, have identities. A national cultural space is an aggregate of public spheres which share the national identity or are culturally compatible with it. Such a cultural space is linked to the national territory but not limited by it. The identity of a public sphere is not determined by its generator, although the correlation is strong.