Juri Lotman (; 28 February 1922 – 28 October 1993) was a prominent Russian-Estonian literary scholar,

semiotician Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is an ...

, and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

Russian culture Russian culture ( rus, Культура России, Kul'tura Rossii, kʊlʲˈturə rɐˈsʲiɪ) has been formed by the nation's history, its geographical location and its vast expanse, religious and social traditions, and both Eastern cultu ...

, who worked at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

. He was elected a member of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

(1977), the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

(1987), the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

(1989) and the Estonian Academy of Sciences (1990). He was a founder of the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School. The number of his printed works exceeds 800 titles. His extensive archive (now kept at the University of Tallinn and at the Tartu University Library) includes his correspondence with a number of Russian and Western intellectuals.

Biography

Juri Lotman was born in the

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

intellectual family of lawyer Mikhail Lotman and Sorbonne-educated dentist Aleksandra Lotman in Petrograd,

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. His elder sister Inna Obraztsova graduated from Leningrad Conservatory and became a composer and lecturer of musical theory, his younger sister Victoria Lotman was a prominent cardiologist, and his third sister Lidia Lotman was a scholar of Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century on staff at the Institute for Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Science ( Pushkin House) (she lived in Saint-Petersburg). Lotman graduated from the secondary school in 1939 with excellent marks and was admitted to Leningrad State University without having to pass any exams. There he studied philology, which was a choice he made due to Lidia Lotman's university friends (actually he attended university lectures in philology whilst he was still at secondary school). His professors at university were the renowned lecturers and academicians Gukovsky, Azadovsky, Tomashevsky and Propp. He was drafted in 1940 and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

served as a radio operator in the artillery. Demobilized from the army in 1946, he returned to his studies in the university and received his diploma with distinction in 1950. His first published research papers focused on Russian literary and social thought of the 18th and 19th century. Lotman moved to the

Estonian SSR The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, (abbreviated Estonian SSR, Soviet Estonia, or simply Estonia ) was an administrative subunit ( union republic) of the former Soviet Union (USSR), covering the occupied and annexed territory of Estonia ...

in 1950, where he started teaching Russian literature while working on his dissertation ( aspirantura), which he defended at the Leningrad State University in 1952. In 1954 he was appointed

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

in the Department of Russian literature of

Tartu University The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.doctoral A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

dissertation, also at the Leningrad State University, and the following year achieved the rank of

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

. In the early '60s Lotman established academic contacts with a group of structuralist linguists in Moscow, and invited them in the first Summer School on Secondary Modeling Systems, that took place in Kääriku from 19th to 29 August 1964. The group gathered at the first summer school later developed into what is now known as the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School. Among participants of the summer school, and later members of the Tartu–Moscow school, were such names as

Boris Uspenskij Boris Andreevich Uspenskij () (born 1 March 1937, in Moscow) is a Russian linguist, philologist, semiotician, historian of culture. Biography Uspenskij graduated from Moscow University in 1960. He delivered lectures in Moscow until 1982, ...

, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Vladimir Toporov, Mikhail Gasparov,

Alexander Piatigorsky Alexander Moiseyevich Piatigorsky (; 30 January 192925 October 2009) was a Soviet dissident, Russian philosopher, scholar of Indian philosophy and culture, historian, philologist, semiotician, writer. Well-versed in the study of language, he ...

, Isaak I. Revzin and Georgii Lesskis. As a result of their collective work, they established a theoretical framework for the study of the semiotics of culture. This school has been widely known for its journal ''

Sign Systems Studies ''Sign Systems Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on semiotics edited at the Department of Semiotics of the University of Tartu and published by the University of Tartu Press. It is the oldest periodical in the field. It was initially ...

'', published by Tartu University Press ("Труды по знаковым системам") and currently the oldest semiotics journal in the world (established in 1964). Lotman studied the theory of culture, Russian literature, history,

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

and

semiology Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

(general theories of signs and sign systems), semiotics of cinema, arts, literature, robotics, etc. In these fields, Lotman has been one of the most widely cited authors. His major study in Russian literature was dedicated to Pushkin; among his most influential works in semiotics and structuralism are ''Semiotics of Cinema'', ''Analysis of the Poetic Text'' and ''The Structure of the Artistic Text''. In 1984, Lotman coined the term

semiosphere The semiosphere is a concept in cultural semiotics and Biosemiotics, biosemiotic theory, according to which - contrary to ideas of nature determining sense and experience - the Phenomenon, phenomenal world is a creative and logical structure of ...

. In 1991 he received the Gold Medal of Philology, the highest award for a philological scholar. Juri Lotman's wife Zara Mints was also a well-known scholar of Russian literature and Tartu professor. They have three sons: *

Mihhail Lotman Mihhail Lotman (born September 2, 1952 in Leningrad) is an Estonian literature researcher and politician, son of Juri Lotman and Zara Mints. Mihhail Lotman's research fields include general semiotics and semiotics of culture as well as text th ...

(born 1952) is professor of semiotics and literary theory at

Tartu University The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.Riigikogu The Riigikogu (, from Estonian ''riigi-'', "of the state", and ''kogu'', "assembly") is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. In addition to approving legislation, the Parliament appoints high officials, including the prime minister and chi ...

(Estonian Parliament) as a member of the conservative Res Publica Party. *Grigori Lotman (born 1953) is an artist. * Aleksei Lotman (born 1960) is a biologist, since 2006 he has also been a politician and a member of parliament for the Estonian Greens party (2007–2011).

Bibliography

* 1975. Lotman Jurij M.; Uspenskij B.A.; Ivanov, V.V.; Toporov, V.N. and Pjatigorskij, A.M. 1975. "Theses on the Semiotic Study of Cultures (as Applied to Slavic Texts)". In: Sebeok Thomas A. (ed.), ''The Tell-Tale Sign: A Survey of Semiotics''. Lisse (Netherlands): Peter de Ridder, 57–84. * 1976. ''Analysis of the Poetic Text''. (Translated by D. Barton Johnson.) Ann Arbor (Mich.): Ardis. * 1976. "The content and structure of the concept of "literature". PTL: A Journal for Descriptive Poetics and Theory of Literature 1(2): 339–356. * 1976. ''Semiotics of Cinema''. (Transl. by Mark Suino.) (Michigan Slavic Contributions.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
Семиотика кино и проблемы киноэстетики
* 1977. ''The Structure of the Artistic Text''. Translated from the Russian by Gail Lenhoff and Ronald Vroon. (Michigan Slavic Contributions 7.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. * 1979

''Poetics Today'' 1(1–2), 161–184. * 1990. ''Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture''. (Translated by Ann Shukman, introduction by

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

.) London & New York: I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd. xiii+288 p. * 2005
"On the semiosphere"
(Translated by Wilma Clark) ''

'', 33(1): 205–229. * 2009. ''Culture and Explosion. (Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 1.)'' Translated by Wilma Clark, edited by Marina Grishakova. De Gruyter Mouton. * 2014. ''Non-Memoirs''. Translated and annotated by Caroline Lemak Brickman, edited by Evgenii Bershtein, with an afterword by Caroline Lemak Brickman and Evgenii Bershtein. Dalkey Archive Press: Champaign, London, Dublin. .

References

External links

Juri Lotman page at the Semiotics Department of the University of Tartu

Bibliography of English translated works
an
updates to bibliographyLotmaniana Tartuensia – biography, bibliography of works in Russian and Estonian
,
ELKOST Intl. literary agency
– translation rights in all Lotman's writings
Homepage of the Lotman Institute for Russian and Soviet Culture
at the University of Bochum
Intellectual Biography of Juri Lotman
at the Gallery of Russian Thinkers (International Society for Philosophers)
Lotman foundation and scholarship
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lotman, Juri 1922 births 1993 deaths Russian philologists Estonian scholars Linguists from Estonia Writers from Saint Petersburg Russian Jews Linguists of Slavic languages Academic staff of the University of Tartu Members of the Estonian Academy of Sciences Estonian semioticians 20th-century Estonian philosophers 20th-century Estonian writers Burials at Raadi cemetery Soviet literary historians Soviet male writers 20th-century male writers Estonian non-fiction writers 20th-century linguists 20th-century philologists Male non-fiction writers Film theorists Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Russian scientists 20th-century Estonian Jews

Biography

Bibliography

See also

References

Further reading

External links