| Abstract [eng] |
Can the language of semiotic theory be entirely objective and semantically neutral? Why, alongside conceptual and scientific terminology, do elements appear that semioticians themselves might call "appearances of the natural world"? To explore this problem, the study focuses on the rarely addressed concept of transposition, which in Juri Lotman’s cultural semiotics acquires figurative aspects. Accordingly, the object of this master’s thesis is the concept of transposition in Lotman’s later cultural semiotic thought. The hypothesis posed in the study is: what does the introduction of figurative aspects contribute to Lotman’s concept of transposition? The aim of the research is to conceptualize and analyze the notion of transposition in Lotman’s cultural semiotics by examining the descriptions of the semiotic monad and the window. To achieve this, the first chapter offers an overview of how the concept of transposition is used in semiotics, including discussions by Algirdas Julius Greimas and Julia Kristeva. Their accounts serve as a comparative background for conceptualizing transposition in Lotman’s framework. The study shows that Lotman’s notion of transposition – defined as an “inexact”, yet creatively productive partial translation – fits within the broader semiotic use of the term, which sometimes refers to a partial transfer of meaning-bearing elements. The second chapter analyzes Lotman’s semiotic monad as a model of transposition, drawing on the concept of the monad developed by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The third chapter conceptualizes Lotman’s description of the window, granting it the status of an independent semiotic model of transposition. The theoretical analysis is supplemented with snippets of poetry analysis, focusing on the work of Kornelijus Platelis, in an attempt to trace expressions of the same phenomenon addressed theoretically. The study reveals that although Lotman does not explicitly define transposition conceptually, the term describes a key mechanism in the dynamics of culture that forms the invariant core of both the semiotic monad and the window model. It also demonstrates that figurative aspects not only function as a connective element between these models, but also enable a conceptual articulation of the nature and conditions of transposition and offer tools for semiotically describing such indeterminate phenomena as dreams or creative inspiration. |
