The center-periphery dynamics in Juri Lotman’s later works: A way forward for new epistemological dialogues

Abstract

In this contribution I will explore an aspect of Lotman’s culturological method, which consists of his unwavering focus on the conflictual-energetic dimension of the semiotic life of human beings: a dimension he identified, since the 1970s works, in a kind of “original” tension, that is, the center-periphery dynamics. Taking up this idea extensively in his latest writings and emphasizing the concept of “conflict” (конфликт) with all its synonymic variants (бинарность, противоречие, столкновение, борьба, драка, etc.), the Russian-Estonian semiotician seems to suggest that oppositional tension (difference) is a primary, maybe ancestral, energy that drives the semiosphere. In this contribution I will explore an aspect of Lotman’s culturological method, which consists of his unwavering focus on the conflictual-energetic dimension of the semiotic life of human beings: a dimension he identified, since the 1970s works, in a kind of “original” tension, that is, the center-periphery dynamics. Taking up this idea extensively in his later writings and emphasizing the concept of “conflict” (конфликт) with all its synonymic variants (бинарность - binarity, противоречие - contradiction, столкновение - collision, борьба - struggle, драка – fight etc.), the Russian-Estonian semiotician seems to suggest that oppositional tension (difference) is a primary, maybe ancestral, energy that drives the semiosphere. In this perspective, the vision of conflict in Lotman, in addition to finding its highest expression in the conceptualization of the “explosion”, can be a way forward for new epistemological dialogues.