Bartosz Juszczak, Językowo-kulturowy obraz przestrzeni miejskiej. Polsko-czesko-rosyjskie diachroniczne studium konfrontatywne [The Linguistic and Cultural Image of the Urban Space a Diachronic Polish-Czech-Russian Comparative Study], Atut, Wrocław 2021, pp. 230

Abstract

The review article concerns Bartosz Juszczak’s monograph Językowo-kulturowy obraz przestrzeni miejskiej. Polsko-czesko-rosyjskie diachroniczne studium konfrontatywne, Wrocław: ATUT, 2021, which constitutes a pioneering contribution to the fields of cultural linguistics and urban sociolinguistics. The author juxtaposes three urban centres – Warsaw, Brno, and Moscow – examining the processes through which their dialects evolved in the context of the social, political, and cultural transformations of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The review highlights the interdisciplinary character of the project, which integrates linguistic, cultural, and memory-oriented analysis. The diachronic perspective and the use of lexicographic sources (Słownik gwary warszawskiej, Slovník nespisovné češtiny, Язык старой Москвы), which enables the presentation of language as a vehicle of collective memory and urban identity, are particularly noteworthy. The study’s methodological consistency is assessed positively, as it draws inspiration from the concept of the linguistic worldview and theories of spatial semiotics. The review concludes that Juszczak’s monograph fills a significant gap in research on the urban culture of the Slavic world, offering an original approach to the relationship between language, space, and cultural memory.