Cultural connotations in the formation of artistic fiction in the detective textual-discursive space: a linguo-semiotic aspect

The paper examines cultural connotations functioning in the discursive-textual space, which allow revealing not only cultural and value-based meanings, but also individually-authored representations of such meanings, as well as their evaluation within the coordinates of the author’s conception of the world. The aim of the research is to substantiate the linguo-semiotic status of cultural connotations in the process of forming artistic fiction. The scientific novelty of the research lies in projecting the postulates of semiotics onto the process of forming the fictionality of detective discourse, which contributes to determining the role of cultural connotations in creating artistic images. As a result, it was revealed that in the detective textual-discursive space, cultural connotations acquire linguo-semiotic status due to their consolidation in the structure of the aesthetic sign – the artistic image, created in accordance with the author’s intent and purposefully influencing the rational and emotional spheres of the reader. Furthermore, in Agatha Christie’s detective novel “The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side”, cultural connotations are included in the structure of those aesthetic signs that characterize the “us vs. them” opposition, which determines their functioning as part of precedent onyms and precedent situations.