Testament naukowy Jurija Łotmana

Yuri Lotman started his research activity in the field of literary theory (widely: theory of culture) as orthodox structuralist at the beginning of the 1970s. The concept of structure has been based on the structural linguistic theories and adopted to develop research on literary works as well as “cultural texts”. The last ones concern the perception of structure not only in terms of the “level of expression”, but also the “level of content” that can be analysed with the use of peculiar procedures. The strict procedures rely on distinguishing the set of “binary oppositions” in the “structure of content” to illustrate the author’s perception of reality and his “model of the world”. Lotman was convinced that ideological and artistic structures are immersed in history. They have a dynamic nature (likewise the culture which was seen as the complicated “semiosphere” with its processes, predictable or unpredictable as well as the innovative “explosion” mechanisms). Therefore, Lotman in his later years moves away from cultural self-models based on “binary oppositions” to “ternary” system. In spite of the evident evolution of his concepts Lotman was always devoted to the doctrine of knowledge and never left the humanistic ideals using them for research purposes. The scientific models and sources of inspiration could be changeable, but pathos and scientific rationality never left him. His structuralism was at its peak with possibility of evolution, infinitely flexible, individual, accidental, unpredictable or even “explosive”, but never was the betrayal of previous ideals.