Yuri Lotman (also Juri, Jüri, Jurij) (Russian: Юрий Михайлович Лотман) (28 February 1922 in Petrograd, Russia - 28 October 1993 in Tartu, Estonia) was an important semiotician, culturologist, and philologist in Russian literature. The number of his printed works exceeds 800 titles.

Yuri Lotman was born into the Jewish family of lawyer Mikhail Lotman and Sorbonne-educated dentist Aleksandra Lotman. He graduated from secondary school in 1939 with excellent marks and was admitted to Leningrad State University without having to pass any exams. He was enlisted in 1940 and served during the World War II as a radio operator in the artillery. 1946 he returned to studies in the university and received his diploma in 1950. Yuri Lotman published his first research papers on Russian literary and social thought of the 18th and 19th century.

Unable to find an academic position in Russia due to anti-Semitism, Lotman went to Estonia in 1950 and from 1954 began his work at Tartu University. In Tartu he set up his own school known as the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School. Among other members of this school there are the names of Boris Uspensky, Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov, Vladimir Toporov, Mikhail Gasparov, Pyatigorsky, Revzin, Lesskis, etc. This school is widely known for its journal Sign Systems Studies published formerly in Russian as Trudy po znakovym systemam - currently the oldest semiotics journal worldwide (established in 1964). Lotman studied the theory of culture, Russian literature, history, semiotics and semiology (general theories of signs and sign systems), semiotics of cinema, arts, literature, robotics, etc. In these fields, Lotman has been one of the most widely cited authors.

Lotman coined the term semiosphere.

Mihhail Lotman, Yuri Lotman's son is a well-known publicist, academic, and an independent right-wing politician (member of Riigikogu for Res Publica).

Bibliography

See also

• Philosophy in the Soviet Union

External links

• Short sketch by the Estonian Foreign Ministry
• Lotmaniana Tartuensia (in Russian and Estonian)
• Link page to works by and on Lotman
• Homepage of the Lotman Institute for Russian and Soviet Culture at the University of Bochum

1922 births | 1993 deaths | Semioticians | Russian philologists | Estonian scholars | Estonian linguists | Estonian semioticians

Juri Michailowitsch Lotman | Yuri Lotman | Juri Lotman | Лотман, Юрий Михайлович | Juri Lotman