Foundations and contexts of Juri Lotman’s literary theory (early structuralist period, 1963-1967)

Abstract

This essay examines the key concepts and theoretical propositions developed by Juri Lotman during his early structuralist period, when he authored such foundational works as the article “On the Distinction Between Linguistic and Literary Concepts of Structure” (1963), his first theoretical book Lectures in Structural Poetics (1964), and a series of articles on structuralism, semiotics, and mathematical methods in literary studies, published in Russian, Estonian, and Italian in 1967. The first two sections analyze Lotman’s distinction between two types of verbal structures—linguistic and supra-linguistic—generated by primary and secondary semiotic systems, respectively. The third section complements this discussion with an examination of the dialectic between “system” and “structure” in Lotmanian semiotics. The final two sections consider Lotman’s views on the application of mathematical methods to literary analysis, including probability-statistical and information-statistical approaches. Reconstructing the intellectual background of Lotman’s theory allows the essay to contextualize his programmatic assertion—that the modern scholar of literature must “combine in one person a literary critic, a linguist, and a mathematician”—in relation to the central theoretical and ideological debates of the late Thaw.