Semiosphere and/as the research object of semiotics of culture

Abstract

Since 1984 when J. Lotman’s article “On semiosphere” was published, this concept has been moving from one terminological field to another. In the disciplinary terminological field of the Tartu–Moscow School semiotics of culture, ‘semiosphere’ is connected with terms ‘language — secondary modelling system — text — culture’. From interdisciplinary terminological fields, the associations either with biosphere and noosphere, or with logosphere, are more important. As a metadisciplinary concept, semiosphere belongs to the methodology of culture studies and is associated with the concepts of holism and the part and the whole. In this context, semiosphere marks the complementarity of disciplines studying culture, the movement towards the creation of general culture studies and “understanding methodology”. On the background of the contemporary trends of science it has to be remembered that semiosphere is simultaneously an object- and a metaconcept. The dynamism of culture as a research object forces science to search for new description languages but the new description languages in turn influence the cultural dynamics as they offer new possibilities for selfdescription. Often, however, from a historical perspective, a new description language is nothing but a methodological translation. Thus also the term semiosphere joins together several concepts that are related to semiotics of culture and that have gained new relevance on the background of the culture’s developmental dynamics. The concept of semiosphere brings semiotics of culture again into contact with its history, as it also brings applicational cultural analysis into contact with the history of culture and with the newest phenomena in culture. These contacts determine the place of the semiotics of culture among the sciences studying culture.

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“…Como señala Torop la noción de semiosfera lotmaniana condensa un gran espectro de sistemas semióticos, heterogéneos y que están cambiando constantemente. Este análisis busca presentar el concepto de semiosfera como aquella idea que es capaz de abordarse desde el individuo humano o texto individual hasta unidades semióticas globales, provocando así que el concepto de semiosfera de Regias del Drag, en la semiótica de la cultura, esté concentrado en las ciencias investigadoras de la cultura y, en última instancia, en la semiótica educativa (Torop, 2005).…”

Papua dalam semiosfer Kota Yogyakarta

“…Bagi Lotman, definisi teks lebih luas dari sekadar literatur, melainkan mencakup budaya, yaitu representasi pikiran (Semenenko, 2012). Lotman dan Mazhab Tartu-Moscow-Semiotic School mendefinisikan semiotika sebagai studi tentang sistem dan proses tanda (Kull, 2015; Y. M. Lotman, 1990), di mana pendekatannya terhadap budaya bersifat holistik (Torop, 2005). Mazhab ini memandang budaya sebagai teks yang sangat kompleks, sebuah representasi pikiran (Semenenko, 2012) di mana kode kait-mengait, membentuk hubungan dan struktur baru.…”

Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School and the Development of Semiotic Studies in Indonesia

“…The infusion of semiosphere as a theoretical perspective into semiotic studies in Indonesia has much significance, as well as many consequences. The first consequence is holism perspective (Torop, 2005). It is perhaps the most important, differentiating it from other models of semiotic analysis, which tend to analyse the small and discrete text in its individuality as the object of study, which in fact also happen in the semiotic tradition in Indonesia.…”