Juri Lotman (1922–1993)

There aren't very many English translations of the works of cultural semiotician Yuri M. Lotman (1922-1993) who spent the majority of his working life at Estonia's University of Tartu where the relative remove from the central locations of Soviet power gave him some freedom of study and independence, certainly enough to make him an especially well respected international figure in his field.

His "Non-Memoirs' were dictated in the last year of his life but were based around anecdotes that he told many times to students and colleagues. This is a non-memoir in the sense that it is really just a few anecdotes and episodes from his days in an artillery battalion during WWII and then about his life and academic career in at first Leningrad and later Tartu. Of the book's 110 pages, only 67 are Lotman's own with the rest consisting of Notes and Translator's Introduction and Afterword. This might seem like small-measure but the anecdotes have been sharpened over time and are quite entertaining and often very funny.

Along the way you'll learn a sure-fire lice removal method used in the army, about the time Alexander Solzhenitsyn showed up at Lotman's door with the intention of punching him in the mouth (Lotman had inadvertently introduced Mikhail Bulgakov's widow to a student who turned out to be a kleptomaniac and who had purloined the only existing manuscript copy of The Master and Margarita, A.S. showed up to make indirect retribution - fortunately Lotman had already arranged for the return of the manuscript in the meantime) and you learn how Lotman won over his future wife despite her leaving him at their first meeting muttering "scum with a mustache." And yes, semiotics are scattered throughout, even in the nuances of the words "scram" vs. "retreat" from the days of the Soviet army.

As an introduction to Lotman and his work, but also to knowing why he was so beloved, this is ideal.… (mer)