Online event: The Legacy of Juri Lotman in Tartu, Estonia and the World

This online program hosted by the New York Public Library will celebrate Tartu, Estonia as a 2024 European Capital of Culture, Tartu 2024 including luminaries of worldwide interest like Juri Lotman. The celebration will take us to memorable places in Tartu that are connected to the cultural heritage and legacy of this unique man and his city.

Speakers include Merit Maran, Elen Lotman, Peeter Torop. Read more about them below.

Please register to receive Zoom link to join!

Juri Lotman (1922-1993) was an internationally renowned intellectual and scholar. Born to Ukrainian Jewish parents in Leningrad, he escaped the ongoing wave of antisemitism, culminating in the “Doctors’ Plot”, by finding refuge in Tartu, within the safety of ancient walls of its university. Although Estonia was also occupied by the Soviet Union at the time, the environment was considerably more Western and Lotman didn’t experience hostility to his ethnic background.

As his academic career developed at the University of Tartu, Lotman became the key figure in cultural semiotics. Well loved by his students and internationally respected for his works, Lotman went beyond the academe to have his own program on the national TV and also wrote extensively on cinema. In the 2020s, after the celebrations of his centenary, Lotman’s intellectual legacy is still relevant and exciting – as is his life story.

Speakers include Merit Maran, Elen Lotman, Peeter Torop. Read more about them below.

This online program is a result of cooperation between the New York Public Library and Estonian Writers Union which was mediated by the Tartu 2024 European Capital of Culture Foundation and the Consulate General of Estonia in New York. In 2022, the Tartu branch of the Estonian Writers Union produced a webcast on Estonian polymath Uku Masing for the World Languages Collection of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library at the NYPL, with its premiere and online Q&A on April 26, 2022. That webcast can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z19HnOPox-U.

Speakers include Merit Maran, Elen Lotman, Peeter Torop.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Peeter Torop, PhD – Professor of Semiotics of Culture at the University of Tartu. Torop expanded the scope of the semiotic study of translation to include intratextual, intertextual, and extratextual translation and stressing the productivity of the notion of translation in general semiotics. He is also a co-editor of the journal Sign Systems Studies, the oldest international semiotic periodical. As a student of Lotman himself, Torop shares his memories of Lotman as a teacher and mentor, ever in search of fresh insights.

Merit Maran (Rickberg), PhD – Head of the Juri Lotman Semiotics Repository at the University of Tallinn. Maran was the main curator of Juri Lotman 100 centenary celebrations in 2022 and defended her PhD thesis, “Towards Complexity Thinking with Juri Lotman: Modelling Cultural Dynamics in Educational Systems” in 2023. Dr. Maran focuses on the contemporary and ongoing relevance of Lotman’s approach to complexity in cultural systems.

Elen Lotman, PhD – Associate Professor of Film Arts, Baltic Film, Media and Arts School. An award-winning cinematographer, director and lecturer, Elen Lotman is a granddaughter of Juri Lotman and has also translated his works on film into Estonian. Sharing a more personal side of her grandfather, she tells of her childhood full of stories, fun and discovery, as well as Juri Lotman’s daily habits and love for Tartu.

This webcast has been made possible by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Ministry of Culture. 

All programs are subject to change or cancellation.

Assistive Listening and ASL

ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.

NYPL The New York Public Library

Eesti Kirjanike Liit / Kultuuriministeerium

#JURILOTMAN

#ESTONIA#Tartu2024