Universe of the Mind
Semiotic Theory of Culture
Published on 31. December 1991
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-85043-212-8 (ISBN)
Description
Lotman attempts to define intelligence through the use of semiotics and, thereby, to arrive at a universal theory of human culture. The book is divided into three sections which deal with text, culture and the semiotics of history. Each section aims to show how the world of society interacts with the individual intellectual world of the human beings within it. The book draws on a wide range of examples from classical rhetoric and Pushkin's poetry to the pre-literate cultures of South America.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
diagrams, index
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-85043-212-8 (9781850432128)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
12/2000
I.B. Tauris
€94.28
Article is exhausted; no reprint
Persons
Content
Introduction by Umberto Eco. Preface. Notes to Preface. PART ONE: THE TEXT AS A MEANING-GENERATING MECHANISM. 1. Three functions of the text. 2. Autocommunication: 'I' and 'Other' as addressees. 3. Rhetoric as a mechanism for meaning-generation. 4. Iconic rhetoric. 5. The text as process of movement: author to audience, author to text. 6. The symbol as plot-gene. 7. The symbol in the cultural system. Notes to Part One. PART TWO: THE SEMIOSPHERE. 8. Semiotic space. 9. The notion of boundary. 10. Dialogue mechanisms. 11. The semiosphere and the problem of plot. 12. Symbolic spices. 1. Geographical space in Russian medieval texts. 2. The journey of Ulysses in Dante's Divine Comedy. 3. The 'home' in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. 4. The.symbolism of St Petersburg. 13. Some conclusions. Notes to Part Two. PART THREE: CULTURAL MEMORY, HISTORY AND SEMIOTICS. 14. The problem of the historical fact 15.Historical laws and the structure of the text 16. An alternative: culture without literacy or culture before culture?. 17. The role of typological symbols in the history of culture. 18. Can there be a science of history and what are its functions in the cultural system?. 19. Conclusion. Notes to Part Three.