The problem of (re)generation of the past in Juri Lotman’s semiotics

Abstract

This article investigates the past-generating mechanism in Lotman’s semiotics by formulating a typology that distinguishes between two types of past-generating models – Marxian (as the repetitive compulsion of the past) and Benjaminian (as the redemption of the past) – and traces Lotman’s views and perspectives that resonate with these two models. Not only was Lotman acutely aware of the obsession with repetition in the history of Russia, he actively contemplated the possibility of breaking free from and renewing such repetition as well. While Lotman’s awareness of this was conceptualized as the inevitable persistence of a “dualistic structure” in the dynamics of Russian culture, his contemplation, on the other hand, was framed as an issue of transition from dualistic to ternary models. Defining the alternative approach of Lotman’s to the historical past as ‘the aesthetic approach’, this article examines his speculation on the specific cultural mechanism called ‘smuta’ as an exceptional example of Lotman’s interest in the “lost pathway” of the past. Through these explorations, the discussion illuminates Lotman as a thinker who, to use his own phrase, could see both “the allure and weakness of the Russian type of culture”.