Lotman's Cultural Semiotics and the Political (original) (raw)
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Marek Tamm & Peeter Torop (eds), The Companion to Juri Lotman: A Semiotic Theory of Culture
London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022
Juri Lotman (1922–1993), the Russian-Estonian literary scholar, cultural historian and semiotician, was one of the most original and important cultural theorists of the 20th century, as well as a co-founder of the well-known Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics. This is the first authoritative volume to explore Lotman's work and discuss his main ideas and intellectual legacy in the context of contemporary scholarship. Boasting an interdisciplinary cast of academics from across the globe, the book is structured into three main sections – Context, Concepts and Dialogue – which simultaneously provide ease of navigation and intriguing prisms through which to view Lotman's various scholarly contributions. Saussure, Bakhtin, Language, Memory, Space, Cultural History, New Historicism, Literary Studies and Political Theory are just some of the thinkers, themes and approaches examined in relation to Lotman, while the introduction and Lotman bibliography in English that frame the main essays provide valuable background knowledge and useful information for further research. The Companion to Juri Lotman shines a light on a hugely significant and all-too often neglected figure in 20th-century intellectual history.
The Texture of Culture: An Introduction to Yuri Lotman's Semiotic Theory
2012
This introduction to the semiotic theory of one of the most innovative theorists of the twentieth century, the Russian literary scholar and semiotician Yuri Lotman, offers a new look at Lotman's profound legacy by conceptualizing his ideas in modern context and presenting them as a useful tool of cultural analysis. Semenenko demonstrates how Lotman's holistic theory, transcending the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines, offers a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to culture. This study covers a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence to the role of an individual in history.
This article 1 aims to introduce the concept of semiotic border in the oeuvre of the Russian semiotician Yuri Lotman (1922-1993) as well as the process of assimilation of foreign texts that occurs precisely in the border area. Based on this theoretical approach, we analyze cultural interrelations, such as the presence of the French language in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace and the impact of jeans in Soviet culture.
Unpacking the Post-Soviet: Political Legacy of the Tartu Semiotic School
All Azimuth, 2017
This article sketches out general approach to using cultural semiotics as a cognitive tool for analyzing international relations in general and in post-Soviet area in particular. The authors discuss how the homegrown school of cultural semiotics associated with the University of Tartu can be helpful for IR studies. In this respect we place cultural semiotic knowledge in a multidisciplinary perspective and look for projections of its concepts into the vocabulary of foreign policy. Then we intend to discuss the Tartu school from a political perspective, thus claiming that its premium put on cultural issues renders strong politicizing effects. Ultimately, we use cultural semiotic notions and approaches for problematizing the concept of the post-Soviet with its conflictual split between reproducing archaic policies and discourses, on the one hand, and playing by the rules of the post-modern society, with entertainment, hybridity and the spirit of deconstruction as its pivots.
Russian Theory and Semiotics of Culture: History and Perspectives, 2019
The Tartu-Moscow School accepted as its professional attitude to reconstruct the tradition and connect itself to the forgotten or repressed cultural-scientific achievements of the period of the first decades of the 20th century. One mission of Lotman as one of the leaders of the Tartu-Moscow School was knowing and mediating forgotten heritage. In the situation of censorship many contacts between Lotman and Russian theory were not visible. Thus, the synthesis of Lotman, Tynianov, Bakhtin, Vygotsky, Eisenstein and others, in an implicit dialogue, can be the basis for the formation of the next stage of semiotics of culture. Finally, Tynjanov's understanding of literary and cultural dynamics, Lotman's semiotic theory of text and his thoughts about a model of space as one of the primary languages of culture, and Bakhtin's theory of chronotope form this theoretical complex that can give new possibilities for developing both, theoretical and practical principles of cultural and textual analysis. RESUMO A Escola de Tártu-Moscou aceitou, como atitude profissional, reconstruir a tradição e ligar-se com as realizações-esquecidas ou reprimidas cultural e cientificamente-das primeiras décadas do séc. XX. Uma missão de Lotman como um de seus líderes foi conhecer e mediar a herança esquecida. Na situação de censura muitos contatos entre Lotman e a teoria russa não estavam visíveis. Dessa forma, a síntese de Lotman, Tynianov, Bakhtin, Vygotsky, Eisenstein e outros, num intenso diálogo implícito, pode ser a base para a formação da próxima etapa da semiótica da cultura. Enfim, a compreensão de Tynianov acerca da dinâmica literária e cultural, a teoria semiótica lotmaniana de texto e seus pensamentos sobre um modelo de espaço como uma das linguagens primárias da cultura, e a teoria bakhtiniana do cronotopo formam um complexo teórico que pode oferecer novas possibilidades para o desenvolvimento tanto dos princípios culturais teóricos e práticos quanto da análise textual.
Towards semiotic theory of hegemony. 2009. Tartu University Press
2009
Andreas Ventsel’s dissertation TOWARD SEMIOTIC THEORY OF HEGEMONY consists of an introductory chapter and five papers. They are primarily focused on establishing political semiotics as a specific discipline, which would give researchers better means for analysing the field of politics, which is the reason for focusing primarily on integration of the cultural semiotics of the Tartu-Moscow School and theory of hegemony by Essex School. From this elaborated theoretical framework was analysed empirical material, which is all taken from Estonian contemporary history . In paper 1 (The construction of the ‘we’-category: Political rhetoric in Soviet Estonia from June 1940 to July 1941. Sign System Studies, 2007, 35. ½, 249-267 ) I focus on applying one alternative approach to the research of political discourse, analysing how power relations are established through pronouns (deictics) used in political speeches in first soviet period. Papers 2 (Towards a semiotic theory of hegemony: Naming as hegemonic operation in Lotman and Laclau. Sign System Studies m 2008, 36.1, 167-183) and 3 (An outline for a semiotic theory of hegemony. Semiotica, 2009, xx - xx. [forthcoming]) (both co-written with Peeter Selg) I elaborate the model of this theoretical approach, using the discourse of the Bronze Night and the Singing Revolution as the analysis material. Paper 4 (Hegemooniline tähistamisprotsess fotograafias [Hegemonic process of signification in photograph]. Kunstiteaduslikke uurimusi. 2009, XX-XX [forthcoming]) tries to distinguish some of the signification practices of the visualisation of power by examining the hegemonic signifying strategies that were used in creating “the people” in the public picture-producing regime during the Stalinist period. The paper also makes use of Barthes’ semiotic and visual rhetoric views on photography. Paper 5 (The role of political rhetoric in the development of Soviet totalitarian language. Russian Journal of Communication, Vol. II, No. 1/2 (Winter/Spring 2009), 9-26) tries to explicate, within the created framework, the phenomenon of totalitarian language of the Soviet era.