Lotman's Cultural Semiotics and the Political

Description

Yuri Lotman (1922-1993) was a prominent Russian intellectual and theorist. This book presents a new reading of his semiotic and philosophical legacy. The authors analyse Lotman's semiotics in a series of temporal contexts, starting with the rigidity of Soviet-era ideologies, through to the post-Soviet de-politicization that - paradoxically enough - ended with the reproduction of Soviet-style hegemonic discourse in the Kremlin and ultimately reignited politically divisive conflicts between Russia and Europe. The book demonstrates how Lotman's ideas cross disciplinary boundaries and their relevance to many European theorists of cultural studies, discourse analysis and political philosophy. Lotman lived and worked in Estonia, which, even under Soviet rule, maintained its own borderland identity located at the intersection of Russian and European cultural flows. The authors argue that in this context Lotman’s theories are particularly revealing in relation to Russian-European interactions and communications, both historically and in a more contemporary sense. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction—Lotman and the Post-Soviet: An Unfinished Novel 1 Boundaries and the Political: A Cultural-Semiotic Contribution to the Debate 2 Beyond the Semiosphere: Signifying Corporeality and Displacements 3 Excavating the Soviet: From Explosion to Erasure 4 Playing Games with Europe: Between Accommodation and Subversion Conclusion—How to Read Lotman in the Twenty-First Century? Notes on Transliteration and Empirical Data Index