Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture

by Yuri M. Lotman

Universe of the Mind
A Semiotic Theory of Culture
Yuri M. Lotman
Introduction by Umberto Eco
Translated by Ann Shukman

A major book by one of the initiators of cultural studies.

"Universe of the Mind is an ambitious, complex, and wide-ranging book that semioticians, textual critics, and those interested in cultural studies will find stimulating and immensely suggestive." ―Journal of Communication

"Soviet semiotics offers a distinctive, richly productive approach to literary and cultural studies and Universe of the Mind represents a summation of the intellectual career of the man who has done most to guarantee this." ―Slavic and East European Journal

Universe of the Mind addresses three main meaning and text, culture, and history. The result is a full-scale attempt to demonstrate the workings of the semiotic space or intellectual world. Part One is concerned with the ways that texts generate meaning. Part Two addresses Lotman's central idea of the semiosphere―the domain in which all semiotic systems can function―presented through an analogy with the global biosphere. Part Three focuses on semiotics from the point of view of history.

A seminal text in cultural semiotics, the book's ambitious scope also makes it applicable to disciplines outside semiotics. The book will be of great interest to those concerned with cultural studies, anthropology, Slavic studies, critical theory, philosophy, and historiography.

Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman is the founder of the Moscow-Tartu School and the initiator of the discipline of cultural semiotics.

Genres: Semiotics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Russian Literature, Language, Linguistics, Psychology

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman (Russian: Юрий Михайлович Лотман, Estonian: Juri Lotman) – a prominent Soviet formalist critic, semiotician, and culturologist. Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. He was the founder of structural semiotics in culturology and is considered as the first Soviet structuralist by writing his book On the Delimitation of Linguistic and Philological Concepts of Structure (1963). The number of his printed works exceeds 800 titles and the archive of his letters, now kept in the scientific library of the University of Tartu, and which includes his correspondence with a number of Russian intellectuals, is immense.

Reviews

[Sachin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most astonishing books I have ever read. It is probably one of the most ambitious attempts at theorizing culture. Lotman's insights regarding parallels between human intelligence, text and culture is remarkable. A must read for anyone who cares about human culture and civilization.

[Ira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating, refreshingly uninvolved in fashionable diatribes of the time, Lotman does not do without structuralism to make sense of cultural change. Yes, a seemingly impossible task, but his attempt is well worth reading, if only because in the process he invented the concept of semiosphere, currently quite à la mode due to Bifo's proselytisation, and positions it skilfully at the centre of where language meets history. His involvement with Russian formalism is palpable. His examples not exclusive to literature and often drawn from everyday languages and mores, his democratic sensibilities and original attitude to the subjects he handles are refreshing to read. The introduction by Umberto Eco, too, concise, beautiful, essential.

[Boen Mada]

like the term!