HSE Publishing House

Th is textbook off ers a systematic presentation of the main ideas of the semiotics of culture,a discipline that has had an exceptional impact on the development of the humanitiesin the twentieth century. It surveys general problems of semiotics: the defi nition and structureof the sign, primary and secondary semiotic relations, semiosis and mimesis, as well assome specifi c sign systems closely related to the study of letters (language and literature, visualsystems, the narrative, semiotic aspects of behavior and monetary circulation, the globalstructure of sign cultures). It explains the ideas of the leading theorists of semiotics: RolandBarthes, Umberto Eco, Yuri Lotman and others. Th e presentation is accompanied by numerousexamples, mainly taken from language, literature and other arts.Th e book is recommended to undergraduate and graduate students of literature andlinguistics.