Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman

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Gravestone in Tartu

Juri Michailowitsch Lotman ( Russian Юрий Михайлович Лотман , scientific transliteration Jurij Michajlovič Lotman ; born February 28, 1922 in Petrograd ; † October 28, 1993 in Tartu , German: Dorpat ) was a Russian literary scholar and semiotic . Lotman, who initially specialized in Russian literature of the 18th century, co-founded the Tartu- Moscow School of Semiotics . Based on the work of the Russian formalists , Lotman developed a semiotics oriented towards cultural studies. Juri Lotman coined the term semiosphere . He understood culture as a hierarchy of sign systems and made a decisive contribution to semiotic cultural theory . The Faculty of Russian Culture at the Ruhr University Bochum , Lotman Institute, is named after him. In 1977 he was elected a corresponding member of the British Academy .

Space semantics according to Juri M. Lotman

Lotman developed a narrative-theoretical approach that is still interesting for literary studies in his publication The Structure of Literary Texts . In contrast to other relevant theoretical drafts in the field of narrative research, Lotman does not focus on the temporal structure of the narrative , but on the spatial organization of narrative texts. The structuralist -semiotische space model Lotman has proven for the narrative analysis because of its simple methodology and practical method and was Martínez / bushel popularized in Germany. Lotman's cultural anthropological model was developed by Karl Nikolaus Renner set theory reformulated so practical for the analysis of literature, films and other works of art and was wide in the semiotic literary and cultural studies rezipiert (Michael Titzmann, Hans Krah, Munich and Passau school).

subject

For Lotman, the terms " event " or " subject " stand for the summarizing paraphrase of the plot. The overall structure of the narrative should be mapped, not smaller sections.

A subject has three elements:

  1. First, a semantic field (= a narrated world) that is divided into two complementary subsets.
  2. Second, a boundary between the subsets , which is normally impermeable, but is permeable to the hero in a subject-like narrative.
  3. The third element of the subject is the hero who carries the plot.

Boundaries are crossed in subject-like texts, but not in subject-less texts.

The subspaces of the semantic field can be found on three levels, opposites:

  1. Topologically - e.g. B. high - low, left - right, inside - outside
  2. semantic - the topological distinctions are connected with (often evaluative) semantic pairs of opposites, good - bad, familiar - strange, natural - artificial
  3. topographical - the semantically charged topological order is made concrete by topographical opposites: mountain - valley, city - forest, heaven - hell

For Lotman, this spatial order is the organizing element around which non-spatial characteristics are built up. This means that the room design is a language that expresses the other non-spatial relations of the text.

Topographical spatial boundaries only become classificatory boundaries if they are also topologically or semantically coded . Only classificatory violations are considered an event.

Revolutionary and restitutive texts

Narrative texts can be revolutionary and restitative . A border crossing takes place in revolutionary texts. In restitutional texts, the border crossing fails or is carried out, but then reversed and thus canceled.

Lotman believes that every cultural order in the world is topologically structured. This means that social, religious, political and moral models are conceptualized through spatial concepts .

This thesis is made plausible by research results in cognitive psychology , which state that spatial concepts function as aids to memory and that abstract problems are thought of as spatial models. However, this is not enough to prove that narrative texts have to be topologically structured.

Semiosphere

Lotman developed the term semiosphere as an analogy to the biosphere . The semiosphere is thought of as a closed space within which communicative processes take place.

In the context of cultural semiotics, Lotman conceives, in addition to the sender-receiver model of communication ("I-He channel"), the "I-I channel", in which the sender and recipient are the same person ( auto communication ). The culture as a so-called collective person passes on texts to itself, whereby the I-He or the autocommunicative I-I channel are used primarily.

Fonts

  • The structure of literary texts . Fink, Munich 1972.
  • Lectures on structural poetics . Fink, Munich 1972.
  • The problem of artistic space in Gogol's prose. In: Karl Eimermacher (Ed.): Essays on the theory and methodology of literature and culture. Scriptor, Kronberg (Taunus) 1974, ISBN 3-589-00071-6 , pp. 200-271.
  • Analysis of the poetic text . Scriptor, Kronberg (Taunus) 1975, ISBN 3-589-20016-2 .
  • Problems of the cinema aesthetics. Introduction to the semiotics of film. Syndicate, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-8108-0046-5 .
  • Art as language. Investigations into the character of literature and art. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1981.
  • The Universe of the Mind. A Semiotic Theory of Culture . Tauris, London / New York 1990, ISBN 1-85043-212-0 .
  • The Inner World of Thought: A Semiotic Theory of Culture. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-518-29544-1 .
  • Culture and explosion. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-518-29496-3 .

Literature (selection)

  • Hans Krah: Introduction to literary studies / text analysis . Ludwig, Kiel 2006.
  • Andreas Mahler: Jurij Lotman. In: Matías Martínez , Michael Scheffel (ed.): Classics of modern literary theory. From Sigmund Freud to Judith Butler (= Beck'sche series. 1822). Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60829-2 , pp. 239-258.
  • Matías Martínez , Michael Scheffel : Introduction to narrative theory . Beck Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-47130-7 .
  • Karl N. Renner: Limit and Event. Further reflections on the event concept by JM Lotman. In: Wolfgang Lukas, Gustav Frank (Ed.): Norm - Limit - Deviation. Cultural semiotic studies on literature, media, economics. Stutz, Passau 2004, pp. 357–381.
  • Michael Titzmann: Semiotic Aspects of Literary Studies. In: Roland Posner, Klaus Robering, Thomas A. Sebeok (Eds.): Semiotik / Semiotics. A handbook on the theoretical basics of nature and culture. Volume 13.3, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, pp. 3028-3103.

Web links

Commons : Juri Michailowitsch Lotman  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed July 2, 2020 .
  2. ^ Matías Martínez , Michael Scheffel : Introduction to the narrative theory . CH Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-47130-7 .
  3. ↑ JM Lotman: About the semiosphere. In: Journal of Semiotics. 12, 1990, pp. 287-305.
  4. ^ G. Witzany: From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. In: M. Barbieri (Ed.): Biosemiotic Research Trends. New York 2007, ISBN 978-1-60021-574-2 , pp. 185-213.
  5. ↑ JM Lotman: The inner world of thinking . Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2010, pp. 31–52, esp. 49 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Lotman, Yuri Mikhailovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Лотман, Юрий Михайлович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Petrograd
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1993
Place of death Tartu