Interdisciplinary seminar in honour of Prof. Boris Uspenskij

Historia sub specie semioticae

Interdisciplinary seminar in honour of Prof. Boris Uspenskij

Organized by School of Humanities, Tallinn University; Centre of Excellence in Intercultural Studies, Tallinn University

In 1976, Boris Uspenskij published a programmatic article, entitled “Historia sub specie semioticae”. In many respects, this article can be considered as the beginning of the new field in humanities – the semiotics of history. From semiotic perspective, Uspenskij argues, history can be considered as a cultural process, consisting in communication, in which new information evokes a response of the social addressee. This process always takes place in some cultural context, where acts of communication are founded in a certain code. This is a process in which meaning is ascribed to events, and in this way a text is created that is read by the social addressee.

Forty years later, this seminar addresses the current situation and future perspectives of the semiotics of history, bringing together a group of historically minded semioticians and semiotically minded historians. The seminar is organized in connection to the awarding of Doctor Honoris Causa degree to Boris Uspenskij by Tallinn University.

Boris Uspenskij (born in 1937 in Moscow) is one of the most outstanding scholars in semiotics, slavistics and general linguistics of our time, one of the founding members of Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics. He is Professor emeritus of the Naples Oriental University and Full professor at the Russian National Research University Higher School of Economics. Prof. Uspenskij’s work has ranged very widely, from general linguistics to history of Russian language, from literary theory to visual semiotics, from religious studies to cultural theory, from textual criticism to semiotics of history. Among his most important publications, widely translated around the world, one can mention Поэтика композиции (1970), Семиотика искусства (1995), Семиотика истории. Семиотика культуры (1996), История русского литературного языка (ХІ-ХѴІІ) (2002), Крест и круг (2006) and Ego Loquens. Язык и коммуникационное пространство (2007).

Program of the seminar

Chair Prof. Marek Tamm

11:00–11:15 Opening

Prof. Tõnu Viik (Director of the School of Humanities in Tallinn University)

11:15–12:00 Semiotics of History

Prof. Boris Uspenskij (Russian National Research University Higher School of Economics)

12:00–12:30 Semiotics of Cultural History

Prof. Peeter Torop (University of Tartu)

12:30–13.00 Facts and None Facts

Prof. Mihhail Lotman (Tallinn University; University of Tartu)

13.00–14.00: Lunch

14.00–14.30 Semiotic Segregation: Signs of Distinction in Medieval Society

Prof. Marek Tamm (Tallinn University)

14.30–15.00 ‘Mekhanizmy smuty’ in Russia’s Past and Present

Prof. Karsten Brüggemann (Tallinn University)