The Soviet Empire of Signs: A History of the Tartu School of Semiotics by Maxim Waldstein Review by: Peeter Torop

Slavic Review, Vol. 69, No. 2 (SUMMER 2010), pp. 517-518 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25677163 . Accessed: 12/04/2014 14:13
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Book Reviews

517

The SovietEmpire ofSigns:A History of theTartu School ofSemiotics.By Maxim Waldstein.

Saarbrucken: VDM raphy. Glossary. Dr. Miiller, Verlag Index. 79.00, paper. 2008. xii, 219 pp. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliog

This book byMaxim Waldstein may be thought of as a kind of sequel to Peter Seyffert's
the author has than either of those texts. As a sociologist, sociological amounts of oral in both Estonia and Russia and recorded copious book is also the Tartu school. Waldstein's material about plenty of memoirs, By including which of Edna Andrews's Conversations with Lotman remininscent (2003), incorporated It is, however, more conducted fieldwork information use of these gleaned especially in her interviews the that both the Tartu provides to combine rather from Iurii Lotman's sisters. Yet whereas for Waldstein the school. are Andrews makes of theoretical and discussions, for background western this oral Indeed presented At information the for as a basis

overview, "Semiotics in theUSSR," published in the compilation The Semiotic Sphere (1986).

Soviet Literary

Structuralism:

Background,

Debates,

Issues

(1985)

and

Stephen

Rudy's

thorough

mainly book's

provides features

sociohistorical Soviet school. a distinctive both the book

it is one

backgrounds

understanding Waldstein rative appears ing, it appears tradition and

and well-rounded and theoretical connected is closely

narrative.

historical

research Sovietological to understand is that the sociological used rather than approach ideology, not of a com the sociology of science. As a result, the Tartu school takes on the veneer, to himself his but of an institution. Waldstein with reference munity, explains approach "I am talking specifically intellectual about the idea that the Soviet intellectual elite capital: was not

that

approaches. to the

first glance, this nar Yet with closer read

Soviet society" (186).

merely

a victim

of the Communist

regime

but also

privileged

status group

within

Moscow School (1964-1974),

and the academic is an book ested other intelligentsia essential handbook

sized by the periodization

The Sovietological approach the general logic and conditions the Tartu school was unavoidably

to the Tartu school is clearly fruitful for understanding of the of science in the Soviet Union. And development a is further empha part of this science. This connection inWaldstein's of the history of the Tartu school book: the Tartu during perestroika and an abundant (1986-1991). source of data

theTartu School as Lotman's school (1975-1986), politics

And indeed, Waldstein's for any researcher inter in the Soviet Union. On the

the west, but also one of the first to interpret him. This too, feels it unfortunate reviewer, as School" that his paper "Tartu School has gone unnoticed and that the by Waldstein of science "invisible there has not been concept sociology college" employed compared own with Waldstein's of "parallel The Empire of Signs, referred to science" (40-41). concept book This in the title of the book, to the concept is closely connected as well. The of parallel science note of Lotman's makes of Signs, the Tartu Empire of Signs, and separate Empire come across as a deductive the Soviet Empire of Signs, all of which makes one. the school generalization theories and does tends to overshadow the fact that the Tartu school is based on ad hoc not a to introduce semiotic doctrine. attempt unitary to cast the Tartu it is important school against the background to study

or the in the Tartu school history of the humanities to does not allow one such an approach the hand, however, sufficiently appreciate nature of scientific in the Tartu its innovative and its content, school, creativity topical noticeable in the reading of this gaps appear ity for the humanities today. Unfortunately otherwise for understanding the nature of this science. author, highly erudite especially is the absence of papers written by Karl Eimermacher, unfortunate the founder Especially as he was not of the Lotman in Bochum, Institute in Lotman's work just the first to publish

in the west. Such an its reception is relevant from approach a the perspective of both history and theory. Namely, east and the west of the comparison into prominence the connection between its object of research, and brings theory and the impact of the to a lesser extent, Soviet Russian) on of Russian culture (and specificity that is constantly in the programmatic texts of the Tartu theory, something emphasized school. This is one side of ad hoc science?theory rises out of the specificity of the object of research. The is substantial other side of ad hoc science different subjectivity. Many theoretical and individual approaches can be generated from the same object of research,

For Waldstein, ern humanities and

of west

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518

Slavic Review

and the richness of the Tartu in fact lie in the diversity of such school does for further study of the Tartu establish school?to too, lies a program Herein, of different individual and to arrive, by comparing theories and generalizing school's theoretical history. Social history is an important step toward this theoretical history,

approaches. an overview them, without at the the

and

social background provided byWaldstein itwould be difficult to understand the nature of the school. And it is this fact thatmakes his book highly relevant for the scientific
endeavor. Peeter University Torop

of Tartu, Estonia

Sovetskoe

By Ol'ga Gurova. ideologiei ipovsednevnost'iu. Notes. 2008. 287 pp. Appendix. obozrenie, Bibliography. Hard bound. tions. Photographs. nizhnee bel'e: Mezhdu literaturnoe

Moscow: Index.

Novoe Illustra

Until very recently,the studyof clothingwas thepurview of twoacademic disciplines in the

was part of the decorative anthro and Russia: Soviet Union arts, while clothing European an lit scholars undertook the study of ethnic dress. These impressive produced pologists or outfits, to a erature devoted their of individual items of clothing focusing analysis deep on how the was made in which itwas worn. Most of this and the contexts clothing analysis scholarship focused on ethnic dress with little written about

have brought from the heavy hand of Soviet Marxism about important changes disciplines in high fashion and interest for the study of dress, however. First, there was a renewed were at the same time, Russians academics trends. And, past and present glamour?both now free to use new mainstream Ol'ga A of Soviet Gurova's methodologies to explore areas that had been excluded from scholarship. new work represents

themiddle classes. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the freeing of academic

the clothing

of the nobility

or

the

Michel Pierre Bourdieu, theorists of our time (Jean Baudrillard, cultural Foucault, major that few others have attempted. her to write on a subject and others) encouraged in is to explore how government As her subtitle suggests, Gurova's purpose ideology context to the social and cultural in life and how ordinary fluenced people adapted private so she explores these complicated lens which The found themselves. which they through a discussion of the official Soviet discourse Gurova is underwear. cial processes begins with of

on of Russian this new generation scholarship in of cultural she was Gurova is a practitioner studies. Indeed, sociologist, in St. Petersburg that originated to undertake her study by a museum exhibition spired in the Soviet Epoch." This "The Memory of the Body: Underwear in 2000-2001 entitled, on the Soviet Union and the of western with her own reading exhibit scholarship coupled clothing.

the de taste (1950-1980s). In the next section Gurova the body of personal analyzes In her final section, she writes a "cultural of underwear. and distribution sign, production, social reality, depending reflected underwear of underwear?how age, upon biography" and

three distinct periods: the healthy body (1917-1920s),

the body

and

its visual

representation

of underwear

in mass

culture.

She

the cultured body (1930-1940s),

argues

for

to the government; in public how underwear and relationship location, operated gender, was to the emotional linked life of Soviet citizens. To and how underwear and in private; uses texts and the art with hygiene Gurova her arguments, dealing support prescriptive as well as and literary texts, visual materials of dressing including photo autobiographies from dif and finally, twenty interviews with individuals and magazine illustrations, graphs in 2001. conducted fering backgrounds

to retell Soviet cultural history by showing how Soviet ideological constructs shaped and
interacted with us as it allows the most emphasize the history to understand hygiene of a material intimate proper

This

is an ambitious

book.

Using

primarily

western

cultural

theory, Gurova

attempts

is quite of underwear choice inspired object. Her on in a new way how Soviet affected ordinary people ideology to in the 1920s was intended that Soviet underwear level. Gurova argues and athleticism, not sexuality and sensuality, thereby expung

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