Yuri Lotman (1922-1993) was one of the most prominent and influential scholars of the twentieth century working in the Soviet Union. A co-founder of the Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics, he applied his mind to a wide array of disciplines, from aesthetics to literary and cultural history, narrative theory to intellectual history, cinema to mythology. This collection provides a stand-alone primer to his intellectual legacy in both semiotics and cultural history. It includes new translations ...

This volume presents a chronological biography of Alexander Pushkin, often held to be Russia’s national poet and writer. Lotman pays special attention to the development of Pushkin’s social and political thought throughout the poet’s life, painting a picture of the poet as having been deeply in tune with and even involved in the most pressing socio-political challenges of his age, such as the issue of constitutional monarchy and revolution through his association with various members of th...

In this introduction to the semiotic theory of one of the most innovative theorists of the twentieth century, the Russian literary scholar and semiotician Yuri Lotman, offers a new look at Lotman's profound legacy by conceptualizing his ideas in modern context and presenting them as a useful tool of cultural analysis.