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Structuralism and Semiotics in the USSR

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

E. Meletinsky  and
D. Segal
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In the Soviet Union, structural research has had certain distinctive features. Structural research, not only in language, but in literature and art too, is deeply rooted in Russian science. Quite apart from such distant forerunners as the Kharkov philologist Potebnia, one cannot forget the great group of philologists of the twenties, who dealt with questions of poetics, and whom contemporary criticism to a greater or lesser extent identifies with “formalism.” Soviet literary criticism of the twenties is well-known throughout the world; it has many times been discussed, from various points of view, in the press, and there is no need to dwell on its characteristic features. We need only emphasize the variety of theoretical standpoints that marked the Soviet philologists of the twenties and the differences between their subjective views, and also the fact that there are differences of principle that divide the majority of these workers from the “structuralism” of the fifties. Let us bear in mind that in the twenties V. M. Zhirmunsky and V. V. Vinogradov (who are usually numbered among the “formalists”) were in fact in dispute with the real members of Opoyaz (and subsequently adopted a reserved attitude towards structuralism as well). M. M. Bakhtin, who in his brilliant works has given a complete analysis of the complex semantic structure of great literary works, does in fact make use of the concept of a world image, and has a fine understanding of the “play” of oppositions at different levels, etc. His influence on structuralist research in modern literary criticism is undeniable; but he can certainly not be numbered among the “formalists” of the twenties, whom he vigorously opposed. It is noteworthy that even today both the structuralists and certain of their direct adversaries invoke the authority of Bakhtin.

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Notes and Discussion
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Diogenes , Volume 19 , Issue 73 , March 1971 , pp. 88 - 115
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Copyright © 1971 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

* Society for the study of the theory of poetic language [Translator's note].

1 For a more detailed account of Propp and his disputes with Lévi-Strauss, see E. M. Meletinsky's article "Strukturno-tipologicheskoe izuchenie skazki" [A structuro-typological study of the fairy-tale], appended to the second edition of Morfologija skazki [Morphology of the fairy-tale] by V. Ya. Propp (Nauka, Moscow, 1969). This article has been translated into German and French (Vladimir Propp, Morphologie du conte, followed by Les transformations des contes merveilleux and by the above-mentioned essay by E. M. Meletinskij: Paris, 1970, Editions du Seuil, Collection "Points," pp. 256).

2 Vilmos Voigt, "Toward balancing of Folklore Structuralism," Acta ethno graphica Academiae Scientiarum Hungariae, Tomus 18, Budapest 1969, pp. 247-255.

3 Beginning of the article "Verna li tochnost?" [Is precision accurate?], Voprosy literatury, 1967, No. 10, pp. 136-142.

4 Yu. M. Lotman, Lektsii po struktural'noy poetiki [Lectures on structural poetics], Fasc. 1. (Introduction. Theory of verse), TZS I.

5 Yu. M. Lotman and A. M. Pyatigorsky: "Tekst i funktsiya" [Text and function], LSh III, pp. 74-88; see also Pyatigorsky's article "Nekotorye obshchiye zamechaniya otnositel'no rassmotreniya teksta kak raznovidnosti signala" [Some general comments on the idea of a text as a variety of signal], STI, pp. 144-154, in which a text is defined in terms of signalization theory as a communication, fixed in space, and susceptible of non-random decoding. Lotman leans heavily on this article.

6 "O modeliruyushchem znachenii ponyatiy ‘nachala' i ‘kontsa' v khudo zhestvennykh tekstakh" [On the role of the concepts of "beginning" and "end" as generators of models in literary texts], LSh II, pp. 69-74; "K pro bleme tipologii kul'tury" [The problem of the typology of culture], TZS III, pp. 30-38; "O metayazyke tipologicheskikh opisaniy kul'tury" [The meta language of typological descriptions of a culture] TZS IV, pp. 460-477; "O nekotorykh printsipial'nykh trudnostyakh v strukturnom opisanii teksta" [On some difficulties of principle in the structural description of a text], TZS IV, pp. 478-482. See also two theoretical essays of Lotman's: "O razgranichenii lingvisticheskogo i literaturovedcheskogo ponyatiya struktur" [On the delimi tation of the linguistic and literary concepts of structures], VYa, 1963, No. 3; "Literaturovedeniye dolzhno byt' naukoy" [Literary criticism must be a science], VYa, 1967, No. 1, pp. 90-100.

7 G. A. Leskiss, "K voprosu o grammaticheskikh otlichiyakh nauchnoy i khudozhestvennoy prozy" [The grammatical differences between scientific and artistic prose], TZS II, pp. 76-83; Dva sposoba opisaniya vneyazykovykh situatsiy. —Lingvisticheskie issledovaniya po obshchey i slavyanskoy tipologii [Two methods of describing extra-linguistic situations. — Linguistic studies in general and Slavonic typology], Moscow, 1966.

8 Cf. A. K. Zholkovsky and Yu. K. Shcheglov "O vozmozhnostyakh postro yeniya strukturnoy poetiki" [The possibility of constructing a structural poetics], SS, pp. 138-142; A. K. Zholkovsky and Yu. K. Shcheglov, "Iz predistorii sovet skikh rabot po struktural'noy poetike" [The pre-history of Soviet works on structural poetics], TZS III, pp. 367-377; A. K. Zholkovsky, "Ob usilenii" [On reinforcement], STI, pp. 167-171; A. K. Zholkovsky, "Deus ex machina," TZS III, pp. 146-155; A. K. Zholkovsky and Yu. K. Shcheglov, "Strukturnaya poetika, porozhdayushchaya poetika" [Structural poetics and generative poetics], VL, 1967, No. 1, pp. 73-89.

9 V. V. Ivanov, "O primenenii tochnykh metodov v literaturovedenii" [The use of exact methods in literary criticism], VL, 1967, No. 10, pp. 115-125.

10 Yu. K. Shcheglov: "K postroyeniyu strukturnoy modeli novell o Sherloke Kholmse" [The construction of a structural model of the Sherlock Holmes stories], SS, pp. 153-4.

11 Yu. M. Lotman, "Problema khudozhestvennogo prostranstva u Gogolya" [The problem of artistic space in the works of Gogol], in Trudy po russkoy i slavyanskoy filologii [Works on Russian and Slavonic philology], XI, Tartu, 1968, pp. 5-50.

12 "O ponyatii geograficheskogo prostranstva v russkikh srednevekovykh tekstakh" [The concept of geographical space in Russian mediaeval texts], TZS II, pp. 210-220.

13 See particularly: A. N. Kolmogorov, "Ob analize ritma Stikhov o sovet skom pasporte Mayakovskogo" [Analysis of the rhythm of Poem on a Soviet passport by Mayakovsky], VYa, 1965, No. 3; idem, "K izucheniyu ritmiki Mayakovskogo" [A study of Mayakovsky's use of rhythm], VYa, 1964, No. 4; A. N. Kolmogorov and A. M. Kondratov, "Ritmika poem Mayakovskogo" [The use of rhythm in Mayakovsky's poems], VYA, 1962, No. 3; A. N. Kolmogorov and A. V. Prokhorov, "O dol'nike v sovremennoy russkoy poezii" [The "dol'nik" in contemporary Russian poetry], VYa, 1963, No. 6, and 1964, No. 1; M. L. Gasparov, "Statisticheskoe obsledovanie russkogo trekhudarnogo dol'nika" [A statistical study of the tri-accented Russian "dol'nik"], in Teoriya veroyatnostey i ee primeneniya [Probability theory and its applications], 1963, vol. VIII, No. 1; idem, "Vol'nyy yamb i vol'nyy khorey" [The free iambus and the free trochee], VYa, 1965, No. 3; idem, "Aktsentnyy stikh rannego Mayakovskogo" [The accented lines of the early Mayakovsky], in TZS III, Tartu, 1967; idem, "Yamb i khorey sovetskikh poetov" [The iambus and trochee in Soviet poets], in K probleme evolyutsii russkogo stikha [The problem of the evolution of Russian verse], VYa, 1967, No. 3; S. P. Bobrov, "Opyt izuche niya vol'nogo stikha pushkinskikh Pesen zapadnykh slavyan" [Study of the free verse in Pushkin's Songs of the Western Slavs], in Teoriya veroyatnostey i ee primeneniya [Probability theory and its applications], 1964, Vol. IX, No. 2; V. V. Ivanov, "Ritm poemy Mayakovskogo Chelovek" [The rhythm of Mayakovsky's poem Man], P II, pp. 243-276; idem, "Ritmicheskoe stroyeniye Ballady o tsirke Mezhirova [The rhythmic structure of Mezhirov's Circus ballad], P II, pp. 277-300. See also the collection of essays Teoriya stikha [Theory of verse], Leningrad 1968.

14 M. I. Lekomtseva, "O sootnoshenii yedinits metricheskoy i fonologicheskoy sistem yazyka" [On the interrelation between the units of metric and phonologic systems of language], TZS IV, pp. 336-344.

15 D. M. Segal, "Nablyudeniya nad fonologicheskoy strukturoy pol'skogo stikha" [Observations on the phonological structure of Polish verse], in So vetskoye slavyanovedenie [Soviet Slavology], 1967, No. 2.

16 V. N. Toporov, "K analizu neskol'kikh poeticheskikh tekstov," [The analysis of some poetic texts], P II, pp. 61-120; "Istochnik Batyuskhova v svyazi s Le torrent Parni" [The spring by Batyushkov and Le torrent by Parny], TZS IV, pp. 306-335.

17 D. M. Segal, "Nablyudeniya nad semanticheskoy strukturoy ne'eticheskogo proizvedeniya" [Observations on the semantic structure of a non-ethical work], in International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics, The Hague, 1968; idem, "Mikrosemantika odnogo stikhotvoreniya" [Microsemantics of one poem], (in the press); Yu. I. Levin, "O nekotorykh chertakh plana soderzhaniya v poeticheskikh tekstakh II" [Some characteristics of the plan of contents in poetic texts, II] (in the press); B. L. Ogibenin, "K analizu stikhotvoreniya R. M. Rilke" [Analysis of a poem by R. M. Rilke], LSh II, pp. 31-33; I. I. Revzin, "Belyy, Birkgof i vopros ob izmenenii khudozhestvennogo tvorchestva" [Bely, Birkhoff and the question of changing artistic production], LSh III, pp. 49-55.

18 See Yu. I. Levin, "O nekotorykh chertakh plana soderzhaniya v poetiches kikh tekstakh" [Some features of the content of poetic texts], in Strukturnaya tipologiya yazykov [Structural typology of languages], Moscow, 1966.

19 V. V. Ivanov, "Struktura stikhotvoreniya Khlebnikova Menya pronosyat na slonovykh [Structure of Khlebnikov's poem Journey on an elephant], TZS III, pp. 156-171.

20 Yu. M. Lotman, "Analiz dvukh stikhotvoreniy," LSh III, pp. 191-224.

21 Z. G. Mints, "Antonimy v poeticheskom tekste" [Antonyms in a poetic text], LSh I; "Dve modeli vremeni v lirike VI. Solov'eva" [Two models of time in the lyric poems of Vladimir Solovyov], LSh II, pp. 96-104; "Ob odnom sposobe obrazovaniya novykh znacheniy slov v proizvedenii iskusstva" [A method for forming new meanings for words in a work of art], TZS II, pp. 330-8.

22 Z. G. Mints et al., "Chastotnyy slovar' stikhov o Prekrasnoy dame i nekotorye zamechaniya o strukture tsikla" [A word-frequency count of the Verses about the Beautiful Lady, and some observations on the structure of the cycle], TZS III, pp. 209-316.

23 Yu. I. Levin, "O nekotorykh chertakh plana soderzhaniya v poeticheskikh tekstakh" [Some features of the content of poetic texts], in Strukturnaya tipologiya yazykov [Structural typology of languages], Moscow, 1966.

24 Yu. I. Levin, "Struktura russkoy metafory" [Structure of the Russian metaphor], TZS II, pp. 293-299; "Russkaya metafora" [The Russian metaphor], TZS IV, pp. 290-305.

25 T. V. Tsiv'yan, "Materialy k poetike Anny Akhmatovoy" [Notes on the poetic technique of Anna Akhmatova], TZS III, pp. 108-208.

26 Yu. Shcheglov, "K nekotorym tekstam Ovidiya" [On some texts of Ovid], TZS III, pp. 172-179.

27 Yu. Shcheglov, "Nekotorye cherty struktury Metamorfoz Ovidiya" [Some features of the structure of Ovid's Metamorphoses"], STI, pp. 155-166.

28 V. V. Ivanov and V. N. Toporov, Slavyanskie yazykovye modeliruyushchiye sistemy [Slavonic linguistic modelling systems], Nauka, Moscow, 1965.

29 A. A. Zaliznyak, V. V. Ivanov, V. N. Toporov, "O vozmozhnosti struk turno-tipologicheskogo izucheniya nekotorykh modeliruyushchikh semioticheskikh sistem" [On the possibility of a structuro-typological study of some semeiotic systems generating models], STI, pp. 134-143; V. V. Ivanov and V. N. Toporov, "K rekonstruktsii praslavyanskogo teksta" [The reconstruction of a proto-Slavonic text], in Slavyanskoye yazykoznaniye [Slavonic linguistics], Moscow, 1963, pp. 88-158; V. V. Ivanov and V. N. Toporov, "K opisaniyu nekotorykh ketskikh semioticheskikh sistem" [The description of some Ket semeiotic systems], TZS II, 116-143; V. V. Ivanov, "Lingvistika i gumanitarnye problemy semiotiki" [Linguistics and semeiotic problems relative to the humane sciences], Izvestiya AN SSSR, seriya literatury i yazyka, Vol. XXVII, 1968, fasc. 3; V. V. Ivanov, "Zametki o tipologicheskom i sravnitel'no-istori cheskom issledovanii rimskoy i indo-yevropeyskoy mifologii" [Notes on the typological and comparative historical study of Roman and Indo-European mythology], TZS II, pp. 44-75; V. V. Ivanov, "Dvoichnaya simvolicheskaya klassifikatsiya v afrikanskikh i aziatskikh traditsiyakh" [Dualistic symbolic classification in African and Asiatic tradition], NAA, 1969, No. 5, pp. 105-115; K. Toporov, The Several Parallels to the Ancient Indo-Iranian Social and Mythological Concepts—Pratidanam. Studies presented to Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper on his Sixtieth Birthday, The Hague, 1969; V. N. Toporov, "K rekonstruktsii nekotorykh mifologicheskikh predstavleniy" [The reconstruction of some mythological representations], NAA, 1964, No. 3, pp. 101-111; V. N. Toporov, "K rekonstruktsii mifa o mirovom yaytse" [Reconstruction of the myth of the cosmic egg], TZS II, pp. 81-99; V. Ivanov and V. Toporov, "Le mythe indo-européen du dieu de l'orage poursuivant le serpent. Réconstitution du schema," Mélanges Cl. Lévi-Strauss (to be published).

30 B. L. Ogibenin, "K voprosu o znachenii v yazyke i nekotorykh drugikh modeliruyushchikh sistemakh" [Meaning in language and in some other model-generating systems], TZS II, pp. 49-63; Struktura mifologicheskikh tekstov Rigvedy, [The structure of the mythological texts of the Rig-Veda], Moscow 1968; "Iz oblasti vediyskoy mifologii" [On Vedic mythology], NAA, 1967, No. 3; "Sur le symbolisme du type chamanique dans la Rig-veda" [On sha manistic symbolism in the Rig-Veda], in Trudy po vostokovedeniyu [Eastern studies], 1, Tartu 1968, pp. 140-151.

31 See A. M. Pyatigorsky, "Nekotorye obshchie zamechaniya o mifologii s tochki zreniya psikhologa" [Some general observations on mythology from the psychologist's point of view], TZS II, pp. 38-48; "Zamechaniya o strukture teksta dkhamasangani" [Observations on the structure of the text of Dhama sangani], TZS IV, pp. 159-163 and other works on a philosophico-psychological level.

32 D. M. Segal, "Nemotivirovannost' znaka" [The arbitrariness of the sign], LSh I; "Problema psikhologicheskogo substrata znaka" [The problem of the psychological substrate of the sign], LSh III, pp. 21-26.

33 "O svyazi semantiki teksta s ego formal'noy strukturoy" [The relation between the semantics of a text and its formal structure], P II, pp. 15-44.

34 E. M. Meletinsky, Edda i rannie formy eposa [The Edda and early forms of the epic], Nauka, Moscow, 1968.

35 E. M. Meletinsky, "O strukturno-morfologicheskom analize skazki" [The structural and morphological analysis of the fairy-tale], LSh II, pp. 37-40; "Strukturno-tipologicheskoye izuchenie skazki" [The structural and typological study of the fairy-tale], in the book: Morfologiya skazki" [Morphology of the fairy-tale], by V. Ya. Propp, 2nd ed., Nauka, Moscow, 1969, pp. 134-166; a German variant of this article: E. Meletinskij, "Zur strukturell-typologischen Erforschung des Volksmärchens," Deutsches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde, Band 15, Teil 1, Berlin, 1969, pp. 1-30. The following have either recently appeared or are printing: "Mif i skazka" [The myth and the fairy-tale], in Fol'klor i etnografiya [Folklore and ethnography], Nauka, Moscow-Leningrad, 1970; "Levi-Strauss i struktural'naya tipologiya mifov" [Lévi-Strauss and the structural typology of myths], in Voprosy filosofii [Problems of philosophy]; E. Meletin skij, Die Ehe im Zaubermärchen. Festschrift G. Ortutay [Marriage in the fairy-tale], Acta Ethnographica Scientiarum Hungariae, 1970; E. Meletinskij, "Le problème de la morphologie historique du conte de fées" [The problem of historical morphology of the fairy-tale], in the journal Semiotica, The Hague.

36 The results of these studies have been published in part: E. M. Meletinsky, S. Yu. Neklyudov, E. S. Novik, D. S. Segal, "K postroyeniyu modeli volshebnoy skazki" [The construction of a model of the magical tale], LSh III, pp. 165-177; "Problemy strukturnogo opisaniya volshebnoy skazki" [Problems in the struc tural description of the magical tale], TZS IV, pp. 81-135. "Eshche raz o problemakh struktural'nogo opisaniya volshebnoy skazki" [Further thoughts on the problems of structural description of the magical tale], to appear in TZS V.

37 B. L. Ogibenin, "Nablyudeniya nad dialogami v litovskoy skazke" [Ob servations on dialogue in Lithuanian fairy-tales], TZS IV, pp. 136-445.

38 S. Yu. Neklyudov, "K voprosu o svyazi prostranstvenno-vremennykh otno sheniy s syuzhetnoy strukturoy v russkoy byline" [The relation of spatio temporal relationships to the thematic structure in the Russian bylina], LSh II, pp. 41-45; "'Chudo' v byline" [The "marvellous" in the bylina], TZS IV, pp. 146-158. There is an article on "Space and time in the bylina" in the press (in Slavyanskiy fol'klor), and also an Italian version of it.

39 G. L. Permiakov, "Logiko-semioticheskiy plan poslovits i pogovorok" [The logico-semeiotic plane of proverbs and sayings], NAA, 1967, No. 6, pp. 52-68; idem, Izbrannye poslovitsy i pogovorki narodov Vostoka [Selected proverbs and sayings of Eastern peoples], Moscow, 1968, especially the Introduction, pp. 5-47. Cf. G. Permiakov, "O predmetnom aspekte poslovits i pogovorok" [The objective aspect of proverbs and sayings], Proverbium 12, Société de la litté rature finnoise, Helsinki 1969, pp. 324-328; his book Ot zagadki do skazki [From the riddle to the fairy-tale] is in the press (Nauka, Moscow). M. V. Arapov, "Struktura i semantika narodnogo zagovora" [Structure and semantics of popular magic spells], LSh I, pp. 25-29; I. A. Chernov, "K struktura russkogo lynbov nogo zagorova" [Structure of the Russian love spell], TZS, II, p. 159-172; V. N. Toporov, "K rekonstruktsii indoyevropeyskogo rituala i ritualino-poetiches kikh formul (na materiale zagovorov,") [Reconstruction of Indo-European ritual and poetic formulae (spells)], TZS IX, pp. 9-43.