Description
Book SynopsisJuri Lotman (19221993), 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 essay
Trade Review
The cheerful colors of the book’s cover already say it: Lotman is of and for today. His pioneering semiotics of culture inflected the linguistic bias into a wide array of thinking about “culture” - not as distinct cultures-in-tension but as the environment that makes life livable. The many chapter titles like “Lotman and...” are telling: of the width of relevance of his ideas, of their interdisciplinarity, and of the spirit of collaboration. It gives the genre name “Companion” a new, vital and actual meaning. This book is a great gift to current cultural scholarship. * Mieke Bal, Cultural Theorist and Critic, Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, Netherlands *
Inexhaustible in his curiosity and creative intelligence, Juri Lotman is one of the great modern thinkers about culture. His generous mind seemed to dart from place to place, casting a brilliant light wherever it turned. At moments of bafflement, I have repeatedly found in him a source at once of clarification and inspiration. This volume stands as powerful testimony to his generative power across a wide range of inquiries. * Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University, USA *
Table of Contents
List of Figures Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Introduction, Marek Tamm (Tallinn University, Estonia) and Peeter Torop (University of Tartu, Estonia) 1. Lotman’s Life and Work, Tatyana Kuzovkina (Tallin University, Estonia) Part I. Lotman in Context 2. Lotman and Saussure, Ekaterina Velmezova (University of Lausanne, Switzerland) 3. Lotman and Russian Formalism, Mihhail Trunin (Tallinn University, Estonia) 4. Lotman and Jakobson, Igor Pilshchikov (Tallinn University, Estonia; UCLA, USA) and Elin Sütiste (University of Tartu, Estonia) 5. Lotman and Bakhtin, Caryl Emerson (Princeton University, USA) 6. Lotman and the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, Merit Rickberg (Tallinn University, Estonia) and Silvi Salupere (University of Tartu, Estonia) 7. Lotman in Transnational Context, Igor Pilshchikov (Tallinn University, Estonia; UCLA, USA) Part II. Lotman in Concepts 8. Language, Suren Zolyan (Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Russia) 9. Text, Aleksei Semenenko (Umea University, Sweden) 10. Culture, Mihhail Lotman (Tallinn University and University of Tartu, Estonia) 11. Communication, Winfried Nöth (Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil) 12. Modelling, Katre Pärn (University of Tartu, Estonia) 13. Narration, Wolf Schmid (University of Hamburg, Germany) 14. Space, Anti Randviir (University of Tartu, Estonia) 15. Symbol, Ilya Kalinin (Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia) 16. Image, Nikolay Poselyagin (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia) 17. Memory, Renate Lachmann (University of Constance, Germany) 18. History, Taras Boyko (University of Tartu, Estonia) 19. Biography, Jan Levchenko (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia) 20. Power, Pietro Restaneo (National Research Council, Italy) 21. Explosion, Laura Gherlone (National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina) 22. Semiosphere, Peeter Torop (Tartu University, Estonia) Part III. Lotman in Dialogue 23. Lotman and French Theory, Sergey Zenkin (Russian State Univresity for the Humanities, Russia) 24. Lotman and Deconstructionism, Daniele Monticelli (Tallinn University, Estonia) 25. Lotman and Cultural History, Marek Tamm (Tallinn University, Estonia) 26. Lotman and Literary Studies, Katalin Kroó (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary) 27. Lotman and New Historicism, Andreas Schönle (University of Bristol, UK) 28. Lotman and Cultural Studies, John Hartley (Curtin University, Australia) 29. Lotman and Popular Culture Studies, Eva Kimminich (University of Potsdam, Germany) 30. Lotman and Media Studies, Indrek Ibrus (Tallinn University, Estonia) and Maarja Ojamaa (University of Tartu, Estonia) 31. Lotman and Social Media Studies, Mari-Liis Madisson (University of Tartu, Estonia) and Andreas Ventsel (University of Tartu, Estonia) 32. Lotman and Memory Studies, Nutsa Batiashvili (Free University of Tbilisi, Georgia), James V. Wertsch (Washington University in St Louis, USA) and Tinatin Inauri (Free University of Tblisi, Georgia) 33. Lotman and Political Theory, Andrey Makarychev (University of Tartu, Estonia) and Alexandra Yatsyk (University of Tartu, Estonia) 34. Lotman and Life Sciences, Kalevi Kull (University of Tartu, Estonia) and Timo Maran (University of Tartu, Estonia) 35. Lotman and Cognitive Neurosciences, Edna Andrews (Duke University, USA) Lotman in English: A Bibliography, Remo Gramigna (University of Turin, Italy) Index
