Universals in the Context of Juri Lotman's Semiotics

This book looks afresh at the heritage of cultural semiotician Juri Lotman - the founder of the Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics. The author proceeds from the idea that 'intellect' is one of the central categories of Juri Lotman's semiotics. Intellect becomes an important concept in Lotman's heritage - starting with the series of lectures given by him in the autumn and winter of 1967 at the University of Tartu (the lectures are published for the first time as an appendix to the book).

In these lectures the reader will find a preliminary schema of the specific "communicative functions" of intellect that have a universal character (the magical, religious and artistic functions; and after a few years, the mythological function is added). These ideas are developed further in the book, claiming that mythologicality, magicality, metaphoricality, religiosity and antitheticity are certain intellectual algorithms, which in culture have a central, stable and constructive role, generating the structure of culture and guaranteeing balance in cultural processes.

The author defends the hypothesis that these algorithms have common characteristics, which in the historical perspective have been most expressively represented in the sacralised structure of ancient ritual. This system of algorithms is also an argument that supports the central concept of Juri Lotman's semiotics: the similarity of the structures of intellect, text and culture - so-called vertical isomorphism.

The book should be of use to researchers and practitioners in the field of communication theory and public relations (including advertising), to (social) psychologists and folklorists, and generally in the fields of rhetoric and, of course, aesthetics - not to mention in the theory of semiotics and culture. Perhaps this book will also help to cool down those persons who, in their attacks on religion and religiosity, have not bothered to delve more deeply into the issue.

This is the first comprehensive and expert study on this topic, which should demonstrate that the Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics is still relevant in semiotics, and holds a heuristic weight deserving of attention.

Foreword ..……………………………………………………………………………………………11
Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………..14
1. Universals in connection with the interpretation of magic in Juri Lotman's semiotics ………18
1.1. Points of departure for the interpretation of universals ………………………………………..18
1.2. Two opposing interpretations ………………………………………………………………….26

2. Specifics of mythological and magical semiosis …………………………………………………35
2.1. Basic terms ……………………………………………………………………………………..35
2.2. Mythological semiosis …………………………………………………………………………45
2.3. Magical semiosis ……………………………………………………………………………….48
2.3.1. The epistemological status of magic ……………………………………………………..48
2.3.2. Magical procedure ……………………………………………………………………….49
2.3.3. Agens as a mythological structure ……………………………………………………….51
2.3.4. Agens as a magical structure …………………………………………………………….53
2.3.4.1. Phenomenon of the magician ………………………………………………………….54
2.3.4.2. Problem of magical effect ……………………………………………………………..54

3. Antithesis in culture and sign-creation …………………………………………………………..57
3.1. Determining of the viewpoint …………………………………………………………………57
3.2. Semiosis forms the culture type ……………………………………………………………….61
3.2.1. The antithetic dominant of semiosis ……………………………………………………..63
3.2.1.1. Complementarity of the antithetic cultural space ……………………………………...67
3.2.1.2. Principle of symmetry ………………………………………………………………….70
3.2.1.3. Symmetrical reduction …………………………………………………………………74
3.2.1.4. Mirror projection ………………………………………………………………………77
3.2.1.5. Enantiomorphic symmetry ……………………………………………………………..79
3.2.2. Autocommunication of culture: antithetic self-reflection ……………………………… 83
3.2.2.1. Antithesis as a secondary code of autocommunication ……………………………… 84
4. The uniqueness and universality of magic in culture …………………………………………..87
4.1. Viewpoint and tasks ……………………………………………………………………………87
4.2. Paradox of magic in culture ……………………………………………………………………87
4.3. Magic outside "folklore" (Selection of critical glances) ………………………………………93
4.3.1. Characteristics of "magical" behaviour in a child's ontogeny ...………………………...94
4.3.2. Magic as everyday spontaneous behavioural practice …………………………………..95
4.3.3. Connecting magic with the characteristics of natural language …………………………97
4.3.3.1. Defining magical function using terms from the act of linguistic communication …….97
4.3.3.2. Magicality of verbal representation …………………………………………………..101
4.3.3.3. Magicality of the substance of language ……………………………………………...104
4.3.4. Cultural-semiotic interpretation of magic: Juri Lotman's points of departure …………108
4.3.4.1. Structure-typological point of view ………………………………………………….. 100
4.3.4.2. Phenomenological viewpoint …………………………………………………………117
4.3.4.2.1. Phenomenological correlates of Edmund Husserl ……………………………………117
4.3.4.2.2. Universality and uniqueness of the reproductive communication of the intellect (using magicality as an example) ……………………………………………………………………..129
4.4. In conclusion on the analysis of magic in the "Lectures" …………………………………….136

5. Universal forms of the reproductivity of intellect ……………………………………………...140
5.1. Terminological classification of reproductivity ………………………………………………140
5.2. Constitutive reproductivity …………………………………………………………………...142
5.2.1. Phenomenon of vertical isomorphism ………………………………………………….143
5.2.2. The phenomenological criticism of Aleksandr Pyatigorski's viewpoint ………………146
5.2.2.1. "Ontologization" of the research method ……………………………………………148
5.2.2.2. "Naturalizing" the object of analysis …………………………………………………154
5.2.2.3. Semiotics changing into "almost philosophy" ………………………………………..159
5.3. The analytical and generative forms of the reproductivity of the intellect …………………...161
5.3.1. The analyticality of reproductive behaviour ……………………………………………161
5.3.1.1. Ritual and ritualizing reproductivity ………………………………………………… 163
5.3.1.2. Reproductivity of ritual communication ……………………………………………...170
5.3.2. The universal, generative functions of ritual……………………………………………176
5.3.2.1. Ritual and code text …………………………………………………………………..191
5.3.2.2. The concept and structure of code signal …………………………………………….197
5.3.2.3. Code text and code signal …………………………………………………………… 208

Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………… 213

Appendix: Juri Lotman. Semiotics of personality and society …………………………………..219

References …………………………………………………………………………………………...239

Index …………………………………………………………………………………………………260