Ekaterina Velmezova (Université de Lausanne)
The presentation will focus on a particular episode in the (pre)history of semiotics in the USSR in the 1920s-1930s. Interpreting semiotics as a science concerned with signs and as a synthesis or a dialogue between various branches of knowledge permits to distinguish two trends in the (pre)history of Russian semiotics at that time. Representatives of both of them took a great interest in semantics. In particular, an attempt to create an “integral” science was made by linguists, among whom N.Ia. Marr was one of the best-known. Several semantic laws formulated by Marr could be either reformulated in order to be applied to other disciplines (literary studies, anthropology, archaeology, biology) or “proved” by the facts or discoveries drawn from them. Researchers who had never adhered completely to Marrism (R.O. Shor, V.N. Voloshinov, G.G. Shpet) were also interested in semantic studies. Some of them not only aspired to a synthesis of various disciplines, but also reflected upon signs. Both trends influenced the particular orientation of Russian semiotics in the second half of the past century.