Postmodern Doom and Transmetropolitan Redemption

Les Chants de Maldoror

Abstract: Plût au ciel que le lecteur, enhardi et devenu momentanément féroce comme ce qu’ il lit, trouve, sans se désorienter, son chemin abrupt et sauvage, à travers les marécages désolés de ces pages sombres et pleines de poison ; car, à moins qu’ il n’ apporte dans sa lecture une logique rigoureuse et une tension d’ esprit égale au moins à sa défiance, les émanations mortelles de ce livre imbiberont son âme comme l’ eau le sucre. Il n’ est pas bon que tout le monde lise les pages qui vont suivre ; quelques-uns seuls savoureront ce fruit amer sans danger. Par conséquent, âme timide, avant de pénétrer plus loin dans de pareilles landes inexplorées, dirige tes talons en arrière et non en avant. écoute bien ce que je te dis : dirige tes talons en arrière et non en avant, comme les yeux d’ un fils qui se détourne respectueusement de la contemplation auguste de la face maternelle ; ou, plutôt, comme un angle à perte de vue de grues frileuses méditant beaucoup, qui, pendant l’ hiver, vole puissamment à travers le silence, toutes voiles tendues, vers un point déterminé de l’ horizon, d’ où tout à coup part un vent étrange et fort, précurseur de la tempête. La grue la plus vieille et qui forme à elle seule l’ avant-garde, voyant cela, branle la tête comme une personne raisonnable, conséquemment son bec aussi qu’ elle fait p 24

Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity

Abstract: A partir d'une analyse des aspects philosophiques et ideologiques de la mecanique quantique et de la relativite generale, l'A. etudie le developpement scientifique que constitue l'emergence des nouvelles theories de la gravite quantique et en mesure les consequences culturelles et politiques

Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction

Abstract: 1. What is theory? 2. What is Literature and Does it Matter? 3. Literature and Cultural Studies 4. Language, Meaning, and Interpretation 5. Rhetoric, Poetics, and Poetry 6. Narrative 7. Performative Language 8. Identity, Identification, and the Subject Theoretical Schools and Movements References Further Reading Index

On the semiosphere

Abstract: This article, first published in Russian in 1984 in Sign Systems Studies, introduces the concept of semiosphere and describes its principal attributes. Semiosphere is the semiotic space, outside of which semiosis cannot exist. The ensemble of semiotic formations functionally precedes the singular isolated language and becomes a condition for the existence of the latter. Without the semiosphere, language not only does not function, it does not exist. The division between the core and the periphery is a law of the internal organisation of the semiosphere. There exists boundary between the semiosphere and the nonor extra-semiotic space that surrounds it. The semiotic border is represented by the sum of bilingual translatable “filters”, passing through which the text is translated into another language (or languages), situated outside the given semiosphere. The levels of the semiosphere comprise an inter-connected group of semiospheres, each of them being simultaneously both participant in the dialogue (as part of the semiosphere) and the space of dialogue (the semiosphere as a whole). Contemporary semiotics is undergoing a review of some of its basic concepts. It is a well-known fact that at the heart of semiotics lie two scientific traditions. One of these goes back to Peirce-Morris and begins with an understanding of the sign as the first element of any semiotic system. The second is based on the theses of Saussure and the Prague school and has at its core the antinomy of language and speech (texts). However, despite the differences of these approaches, 1 [Translator’s note.] This article, regarded as a classic or seminal piece by many who have studied Lotman’s work, was first published in 1984 in Signs Systems Studies (Труды по знаковым системам) 17: 5–23, and includes one of the first mentioning of the term ‘semiosphere’ coined by Lotman. Translated from the original Russian language version, published in Lotman 1992. We are not informed about any earlier English translation of this article. (See also fn. 6.)