Sphere of Understanding: Tartu Dialogues with Semioticians

The book presents dialogues with fourteen highly influential semioticians: Juri Lotman, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Boris Uspenskij, Umberto Eco, Paolo Fabbri, Myrdene Anderson, Winfried Nöth, Gunther Kress, Roland Posner, Stuart Kauffman, Jesper Hoffmeyer, Terrence Deacon, Paul Cobley, and Jaan Valsiner. They have all made a remarkable impact on contemporary research in the Tartu centre of semiotics. As well as these remarkable dialogues, the first part of the volume features an illuminating sequence of chapters on topics including the importance of dialogues, the historical roots and context of semiotics in Tartu since the 19th century, plus the main principles formulated in Jakob von Uexküll’s and Juri Lotman’s works.

Kalevi Kull, University of Tartu; Ekaterina Velmezova, University of Lausanne and University of Tartu.