Yuri Lotman’s Concept of the Semiotic Memory of Culture as a Generative Principle in the Study of Social Memory

For sociologically oriented research into memory, the finding of connections between cultural mechanisms of constructing the past and their socio-structural effects is important. In this context, a principle linking phenomena of memory, culture, and social structure should be of use. This article is devoted to Yuri Lotman’s concept of the semiotic memory of culture, which the author believes could serve as a generative rule for this type of research in the sociology of culture. In the case of studies on social memory, Lotman’s concept constitutes a methodological bridge between phenomena of social memory and the transmission of culture, enabling the question of how the memory of the individual participates in collective memory to be answered