The Texture of Culture
An Introduction to Yuri Lotman's Semiotic Theory
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

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. Semenenko demonstrates how Lotman's holistic theory, transcending the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines, offers a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to culture. This study covers a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence to the role of an individual in history.

 
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"Aleksei Semenenko's book The Texture of Culture is dedicated to Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman (1922-1993), one of the most original and important thinkers and cultural scholars of the twentieth century. Yuri Lotman was a figure capable of combining the history of Russian cultural theory and creating its synthetic meta-language. Lotman's theory of semiotic mechanisms of culture discusses, for example, eternal unpredictability of human mind and cultural activity. In Semenenko's contextual treatment, Lotman's cultural theory proves inspiring and applicable even in understanding today's culture and human life." - Tomi Huttunen, professor of Russian Literature, University of Helsinki

"The first book in English to clearly and accessibly elucidate the complete oeuvre of Yuri Lotman, this penetrating, masterly exposition nimbly draws upon source material from various languages and disciplines - including philosophy, cybernetics, neuroscience, linguistics, and literary theory. It maps out the continuities and the nuances of Lotman's multivalent theories, assessing them both for their own time and for the promise they hold out for future development. An important and fascinating study of culture as an external representation of the mind." - Irena R. Makaryk, University of Ottawa and general editor and compiler, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory