К вопросу концептуализации бинарных оппозиций и «противоречий» в семиотике литературы Ю. М. Лотмана
On the Conceptualisation of Binary Oppositions and „Contradictions” in Jurij Lotman’s Literary Semiotics

Summary/Abstract: In this article, the author continues to investigate the specificity of Jurij Lotman’s conceptualisation of binary oppositions in his semiotics of culture. Binarities are approached, first, through the differentiation of binary and ternary models „in the dynamics of Russian culture”, with an orientation to literature (the research object) and within the characterisation of the nature of the scientific description of culture (the metatext). The analysis is based on the reading of Lotman–Uspensky’s joint article (1977), Lotman’s О russkoj literature klassicheskogo perioda (Vvodnye zamechanija) (1992), and the second half of the article puts, in centre stage, the reading by Lotman of Pushkin’s novel in verse, „Evgenij Onegin”: Speckurs. Vvodnye lekcii v izuchenie teksta (1975). The concept of binary opposites and „contradictions” is given a more complex interpretation in the light of the definitions abstracted from the Special course where Lotman studies the meaning-engendering mechanisms within the overall semiotic system of the literary text, explaining opposites not only in terms of contrast and mutual exclusion, but also relating them to the concepts of inadequacy (neadekvatnost’), mismatch (nesovpadenie), heterogeneity (raznorodnost’) etc. With this, a shift of accent takes place pointing to the function of the differential trait, the change of semiotic conditionality and the emergence of semiotic plurality.

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