S.M. Eisenstein’s Aesthetics in Semiotic Perspective

Abstract

The article is devoted to the semiotic interpretation of the theoretical heritage of S.M. Eisenstein, the film maker who anticipated the structuralist approach which has been so popular from the 1960s. Back in the 1960s, Eisensteins heritage attracted the attention of Academician Vyacheslav Ivanov because he found there he found a trend for understanding cinema as a language or, to be more precise, as a semiotic system. Vyacheslav Ivanov could not but notice it, as the formation of semiotics methodology in Russia is associated with his name. No wonder that he would reflect on the background of art semiotics which in the sphere of motion pictures is associating with the name of S.M. Eisenstein. While trying to appreciate the significance of Vyacheslav Ivanovs research of Eisensteins aesthetics, the author is contemplates on the application of semiotics methodology to the cinema as a semiotic system. In this regard the article is reproducing the aura of devotion to semiotics of domestic film scholars. When explaining the meaning of the title of Ivanovs book on S. Eisenstein, the author argues that the concept of semiotics was initially developed on the stage of the formation of aesthetics as a philosophical science.