VOLGA RIVER AS CULTURAL-AESTHETIC TOPOS OF TOURISM AND TRAVELLING

Abstract

Today the role of cultural heritage in the process of creation of the images of national identity becomes the sphere of intent research interest. In the focus of this interest there are the following matters: participation of tourists in the processes of globalization and cultural exchange. Touristic world is structured according to aesthetic criteria. In the pictures of the artists of the XIX century who took off to travel down Volga, to observe and to work in the open air we can trace artistic evolution of landscape painting. The largest European river is a spatial object regularly recalled in academic and artistic discourses, which is also scenery and a place of observation for many generations of aborigines and tourists. Volga River serves a certain highlighter of construction of national identity, symbolizes historical succession of cultural heritage, is a culturalaesthetic topos of tourism and travelling filled with personal images.