Lotman and Cultural Studies: Encounters and Extensions

394 Pages·2006·2.8 MB·English

by  Andreas Schonle

   

Lotman and
Cultural Studies
Encounters and Extensions
Edited by
 
    
The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 2006
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
1 3 5 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lotman and cultural studies : encounters and extensions /
edited by Andreas Schönle.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-299-22040-0 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Lotman, IU. M. (IUrii Mikhailovich), 1922– —Criticism and interpretation.
I. Schönle, Andreas.
P85.L68L67 2006
302.2092—dc22 2006008876

Acknowledgments vii
A Note on Transliteration and Referencing ix
Introduction 3
   
and
Power
     

1. Dante, Florenskii, Lotman: Journeying Then and
Now through Medieval Space 41
 
2. Lotman’s Other: Estrangement and Ethics in
Culture and Explosion 59
 
3. Pushkin’s “Andzhelo,” Lotman’s Insight into It, and
the Proper Measure of Politics and Grace 84
 
   

4. Post-Soviet Political Discourse and the Creation of
Political Communities 115
 
5. State Power, Hegemony, and Memory: Lotman
and Gramsci 136
 
6. The Ever-Tempting Return to an Iranian Past in
the Islamic Present: Does Lotman’s Binarism Help? 159
 
v
vi Contents
Margins and Selfhood
-   
7. The Self, Its Bubbles, and Its Illusions: Cultivating
Autonomy in Greenblatt and Lotman 183
 
8. Lotman’s Karamzin and the Late Soviet Liberal
Intelligentsia 208
 
 -
9. Bipolar Asymmetry, Indeterminacy, and Creativity
in Cinema 229
 
10. Post-ing the Soviet Body as Tabula Phrasa and
Spectacle 248
 
  
11. Eccentricity and Cultural Semiotics in Imperial
Russia 299
 . 
12. Writing in a Polluted Semiosphere: Everyday Life
in Lotman, Foucault, and de Certeau 320
 . 
Afterword: Lotman without Tears 345
   
Bibliography 353
Contributors 359
Index 363

This book would not have existed without the stubborn passion of
Jeremy Shine, then a graduate student in political science at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, who came to me to propose an interdisciplinary
conference on Yuri Lotman. He was planning to use Lotman in his dis-
sertation, he said, and hoped a conference would help resolve some
questions of methodology he was struggling with. Imagine what would
happen if every graduate student leapt into organizing a conference
when he or she hit a conceptual roadblock. The symposium took place
at the University of Michigan in 1999 under the title “The Works of
Yuri Lotman in an Interdisciplinary Context: Impact and Applicabil-
ity.” I remember distinctly vouching to myself that under no condition
would I seek to publish the papers of the conference. So much for my
pious intentions. Participants in the symposium, who clearly had en-
joyed the whole affair, pushed hard. Chief among them was Amy Man-
delker, to whom I am deeply indebted. It was in debates with her that
the book project took shape and was first articulated on paper. We solic-
ited several more articles to round out our concept, so much so that the
final volume bears only a limited relationship to the original conference.
The support of several friends and colleagues was critical. In partic-
ular, David Bethea, Caryl Emerson, and William Mills Todd III offered
their unfailing advice and steadfast encouragement. As is often the case,
I don’t know how best to express my gratitude.
It has been a treat to work with the University of Wisconsin Press.
Steve Salemson provided his full backing to the volume and expertly
shepherded it through its various stages. We were blessed with two ex-
ceptionallythoroughreviewers,BorisGasparovandananonymousone,
whose input greatly strengthened our contributions.
Publication of the volume was supported by the Office of the Vice-
President for Research; the College of Literature, Sciences, and the
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Arts; the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies; and the De-
partment of Slavic Languages and Literatures, all at the University of
Michigan. These same units had also funded the original symposium.
   
 
TransliterationofnamesisaccordingtotheLibraryofCongresstranslit-
erationsystem,exceptfornamesthathaveanestablishedspellinginEn-
glish.InkeepingwithotherpublicationsofLotman’sworksinEnglish,
wetransliteratedhisfirstnameasYuri.WerefertoLotman’stranslated
workswheneverpossible.Toavoidrepeatingineachchapterthefullref-
erenceforthesamewidelyquotedbooksorarticlesbyLotman,wecite
onlytheirtitles.Fullreferencescanbefoundinthebibliography.
ix