The concepts of HOME and DESERT as antipodes in an axiological sense as an example from a modern novel

Abstract

The modern world is considered a global village. Modern people for nomads. The term nomad is even associated with certain modern professions. There is the possibility of working from home to work all over the world. In such a mixed and confused context, we attempt to define the concept HOME and the concept DESERT, as its antipode. The inspiration for such a contrast emerges to us by reading the novel Personal Identification Number by the contemporary Macedonian and European writer Lidija Dimkovska. She herself is a kind of a modern “nomad” writer (who does not have a one and only HOME in a lifetime). In order to define these concepts from an axiological point of view, we conducted a survey among of first-year students at the Faculty of Educational Sciences in Shtip. The concepts they had to define were: HOME, HOST(MAN) and DESERT. In the analysis we also take into account the semantic definitions for these concepts as suggested in the Interpretive Dictionary of the Macedonian Language.