Introduction: Juri Lotman’s semiotic theory of history and cultural memory

Abstract

The central aim of this volume is to introduce the work of Juri Lotman (1922–1993) into contemporary debates on cultural history and cultural memory studies. Lotman is widely read and highly renowned in the fields of semiotics and literary studies, but his innovative ideas about history and memory, formulated mostly in the 1980s and 1990s, remain little known among historians, historical theorists and collective memory scholars, especially in the English-speaking world.