Signs and Meanings in the Representations of their Home City by the School Pupils of Daugavpils

Abstract

Daugavpils historically was the place where different ethnic groups are living together, interacting on the public spaces. The mixture of cultures is represented in the city landscape - home to every inhabitant, still having differents accents, figures and symbolical meanings. The following paper is based on the semiotic analysis of the pictures made by the pupils of different (ethnic) schools of Daugavpils, in order to understand what and how cildren "see" their city - what are the signs they use to construct the message about their city together and what do they mean - how different is a pictorial message. To do the analysis collection of the children drawings was made for an exhibition in the hall of the city munipality of Daugavpils - a material for our research. The findings show that besides of expected reference to different cultural traditions and some aestetical preferences, no difference exists between the way children represent their city. Diversity of cultural footprints in the landscape of the city and the pride for their city is present in the works of children coming from different ethnic, linguistic and cultural environments.