Culture, Memory and History: Essays in Cultural Semiotics

Description

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. 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