Specificity of the Conceptual Apparatus of Imagology

The article deals with the key terms of imagology - a new interdisciplinary scientific direction that studies the image of the “other”, “strange” people in different types of discourse. The author gives an overview of the historical development of imagology, analyzes its conceptual apparatus, which is currently under active development. For the progress of this discipline methodology it is necessary to identify the boundaries of such related notions as stereotype, ethnic stereotype, ethnic image, ethnotype and imagological image. The paper conducts the analysis of the most significant works of Russian and foreign authors on imagology, as well as related disciplines to reveal the specificity of these terms. In addition, the narrower terms of imagology are described, namely auto-, hetero- and meta-image, counter-image, imageme, and imagotheme.