Semiotics of Conflict. A Lotmanian Perspective

The volume sets out to explicate the phenomenon of conflict in dialogue with Juri Lotman’s semiotics of culture. Through theoretical investigations and case studies, the authors in this volume contribute to the illumination of the semiotic nature of conflict through a Lotmanian lens. While Lotman didn't provide a systematic theory of conflict, his ideas on the incompatibility of codes, untranslatability, stereoscopicity, semiotic resistance between communication partners, misunderstanding as conversation in non-identical languages and tension between opposing structural poles inside a semiotic system offer a rich foundation for the understanding of cultural and social conflict. The volume also contains the first English translations of three essays written by Lotman in the early 1990s, when the collapse of the USSR provoked new hopes as well as new conflicts. The diverse nature of the perspectives developed in the studies gathered here shows that Lotman’s ideas have the theoretical scope and versatility to inform a multifaceted approach to the analysis of conflict as well as providing some much-needed reflection on our current turbulent times.