In the setting of an explosion. The end of the 20th century in journalism of Yu.M. Lotman

Abstract

The article is focusing on an application of the theory of explosion to the processes of the late 80s – early 90s in the USSR in the journalistic texts of Lotman. In the last years of his life, which coincided with perestroika and the collapse of the USSR, Lotman often acted as a publicist. That was facilitated both by external circumstances (scientific fame and the popularity of the TV shows “Conversations about Russian culture”, which provided him with an unprecedentedly wide audience for a humanities scholar), and an internal need associated with the desire to understand rapidly changing circumstances. Lotman’s journalism is closely related to his scientific work. Thus, the theory of the explosion as a cultural phenomenon, which gradually took shape in his works during the 1980s and early 1990s, found, perhaps unexpectedly for the author himself, confirmation in the collapse of the USSR. Lotman’s reaction to those events was very complex. As a researcher, he was well aware of the nature and mechanisms of the cultural explosion, and in that sense, reality stimulated his scientific research. As a “common person” (that is how Lotman positioned himself), he was confused and alarmed by the unpredictability of the modern world, as can be seen from his letters. The desire to connect these two poles, to take a certain civic position, in which a sober understanding of current events merges with an emotional reaction to them, forced Lotman to turn to journalism. The scientist defined the pathos of his publicistic speeches as “restrained optimism”, balancing between hope and anxiety. Several layers are distinguished in those texts: autobiographical, historical, theoretical. The object of the study is the public speeches of the late Lotman, letters, autobiographical text.