This volume brings together a selection of Juri Lotman’s late essays, published between 1979 and 1995. While Lotman is widely read in the fields of semiotics and literary studies, his innovative ideas about history and memory remain relatively unknown. The articles in this volume, most of which are appearing in English for the first time, lay out Lotman’s semiotic model of culture, with its emphasis on mnemonic processes. Lotman’s concept of culture as the non-hereditary memory of a community that is in a continuous process of self-interpretation will be of interest to scholars working in cultural theory, memory studies and the theory of history.
Author(s): Juri Lotman, Marek Tamm
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 275
City: Cham
Contents......Page 5
Chapter 1: Introduction: Juri Lotman’s Semiotic Theory of History and Cultural Memory......Page 7
Juri Lotman: Life and Work......Page 8
Culture......Page 11
Memory......Page 14
History......Page 21
References......Page 28
Chapter 2: Translator’s Preface......Page 33
References......Page 36
Part I: Culture......Page 37
Chapter 3: The Phenomenon of Culture......Page 38
References......Page 53
Chapter 4: The “Contract” and “Self-Surrender” as Archetypal Models of Culture......Page 54
References......Page 69
Chapter 5: Toward a Theory of Cultural Interaction: The Semiotic Aspect......Page 71
References......Page 85
Chapter 6: Culture as a Subject and Its Own Object......Page 86
References......Page 96
Chapter 7: On the Dynamics of Culture......Page 97
References......Page 114
Chapter 8: The Role of Art in the Dynamics of Culture......Page 116
References......Page 131
Part II: Memory......Page 132
Chapter 9: Memory in a Culturological Perspective......Page 133
Chapter 10: Cultural Memory......Page 138
References......Page 147
Chapter 11: Some Thoughts on Typologies of Culture......Page 148
References......Page 158
Chapter 12: The Symbol in the System of Culture......Page 159
References......Page 171
Part III: History......Page 172
Chapter 13: Clio at the Crossroads......Page 173
References......Page 183
Chapter 14: A Divine Pronouncement or a Game of Chance? The Law-Governed and the Accidental in the Historical Process......Page 184
References......Page 194
Chapter 15: Technological Progress as a Culturological Problem......Page 195
References......Page 216
Chapter 16: The Time of Troubles as a Cultural Mechanism: Toward a Typology of Russian Cultural History......Page 218
References......Page 236
Chapter 17: Afterword: (Re)constructing the Drafts of Past......Page 237
References......Page 255
Index......Page 258
