Yuri Lotman. About the meaning, text, history. Themes and variations

Lotman"s heritage can give impetus to the fundamentally new transdisciplinary research areas. The combination of the hypostases of the historian of Russian culture and the semiotics-theoretic allowed Yu. M. Lotman to outline new approaches to culture and history, a natural increase in which will also be the proposed linguistic-sestetic perspective angle. The book has been given an analysis of a number of key ideas of Lotman, they consider their possible development in a new context. The Heraclitian image of the “self -growing logos” is seen as the basis of the scientific concept of Yu. M. Lotman, the mechanisms of the creation and multiplication of meanings described by him are applied to his own concept. The dynamic approach to the creation of the text, understanding and rethinking of history, the interaction and interpretation of the text and behavior are the leitmotif of the book.
In the first part, “Topics”, the views of Yu. M. Lotman to the nature of the text as the dynamic unity of the created and translated meanings during the communication of the author and the reader are systematized. Actions and events are described as signs, texts and communicative acts with social meaning. The flow of texts into life and history becomes decisive for the innovative approaches of Yu. M. Lotman to history and social semiotics. Thanks to this, the mechanisms of rethinking history in relation to new contexts are explained. The second section, “Variations”, make up the samples of the application of the ideas of Yu. M. Lotman to the description of texts and meanings. The collected together, the proposed “topics and variations” create a cumulative and synergistic effect - showing the possibility of the “new life” of Lotman ideas and inviting a dialogue regarding their further development. The application is placed in the appendix Yu. M. Lotman and Armenia ”and an article by Mikhail Lotman about the concept of the text in the Moscow-Tartusk school.
2nd edition