Cultural Survival And Development Of Space

Juri Mikhailovich Lotman (1922-1993) is a world famous Russian literal theorist and semiotician of the 20* century. He served as Vice President of International Semiotics Association, and was a representative of the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School and one of the initiators of Cultural Semiotics. His Cultural Semiotics Theory made great contributions to the world's Semiotics due to its originality and has been an important subject in the world's humanities and social sciences research.Lotman's Cultural Semiotics is characterized by its profundity, among which important theories of aspects of cultural researches are involved. This dissertation takes the semiosphere theory of Cultural Semiotics as the research subject and proposes that semiosphere theory is the "commanding elevation" of Lotman's Cultural Semiotics and a pillar of his theories.The first chapter of this dissertation focuses on the theoretical basis of Semiosphere. It examines the changes and development of Lotman's thoughts from his earlier period to the later stage and describes the dialectical developmental process of Lotman's theories from sign to text, from text to culture, and from culture to semiosphere. The second chapter explains Lotman's semiosphere theory, analyzes and sums up three fundamental characters of semiosphere — heterogeneity, asymmetry and boundedness. The third chapter discusses the prominent spatiality of semiosphere theory. Based on the investigation of Lotman's viewpoint on space-time, the author compares Lotman's semiosphere theory with Bakhtin's chronotope theory, illustrates the originality of Lotman's viewpoint on space-time and argues that this special spatiality has become the essential methodology of Lotman's Cultural Semiotics rather than a partial character. Chapter Four reveals the unique dialogic mechanism of Cultural Semiotics. Upon the acknowledgement of Lotman's deep dialogic thinking, the author shows that Lotman's Cultural Semiotics, especially the semiosphere theory proposed in 1984, is the positive result and direct representation of his dialogic thinking. It is further demonstrated that Bakhtin's chronotope theory had great influence on the development of Lotman's semiotics thinking in his later years and expounded that Lotman made great contributions and innovations by absorbing the quintessence of Bakhtin's dialogic thinking. Chapter Five states the status, method and significance of semiosphere theory. It first explores the important position of semiosphere theory in the whole Cultural Semiotics and clarifies the changes of Lotman's thoughts related to semiosphere, from its certainty, systematicness and logic at his early stage to the uncertainty and unpredictability in his later years, as well as from objectivity and scientificity of the research to subjectivity and intelligentization of culture and semiosphere; It then points out that Lotman's special mode of thinking in respect of pursuing "others" is the key to his continual self-transcendency, and studies Lotman's thinking on binary oppositions while dissolving that on the traditional philosophical sense. It finally illustrates the significance of semiosphere theory and the enlightenment it brings from three aspects, and proposes that semiosphere theory not only offers us a new perspective and method of culture research, but the theory itself is also a perfect embodiment of free, multiple and dynamic spirit of human cultures. The Conclusion summarizes the developmental processof Lotman's semiotic theory. It puts forward that "Sencondary Modeling System", "Text" and "Semiosphere" are the milestones in the development of Lotman's theories. "Sencondary Modeling System" and "Text" has formed two particular "boundaries" in "Lotman's semiosphere". Crossing the "boundaries" has laid solid foundations for Lotman's free, multiple and dynamic semiosphere theory.