Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; Original Title; Dedication; Original Copyright; Contents; Preface; I Introduction; I.1 General Statement of the Problem; I.2 Methodology and Organization; I.3 The Question of Authorship; Notes; II The State of the Question; II. 1 The Moscow-Tartu School on Bakhtin; II. 2 Bakhtin on Soviet Semiotics; II. 3 The Bakhtin-Lotman Connection in Western Scholarship; Notes; III LITERATURE, LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS; III. 1 Russian Formalism and the Question of Literariness (Literaturnost'); III. 2 Czech Structuralism and the Aesthetic Function. III. 3 Roman Jakobson --
Poetry and LinguisticsIII. 4 Bakhtin --
Content, Material and Form; III. 5 Lotman's Definitions of Literature; Notes; IV BAKHTIN AND LOTMAN LITERATURE AS COMMUNICATION AND COGNITION; IV. 1 Methodology; IV. 2 Text; IV. 3 Communication; IV. 4 Cognition; Notes; V CONCLUSION; Notes; VI BIBLIOGRAPHY; VI. 1 Works by Bakhtin and the Bakhtin Circle; VI. 1.1 Works by Bakhtin.; VI. 1.2. Works by the Bakhtin Circle.; VI. 2 Works by Lotman and the Moscow-Tartu School; VI. 2.1 Anthologies, Journals, Festschriften, etc.; VI. 2.2 Works by Lotman. VI. 2.3 Works by other members of the Moscow-Tartu School, VI. 3 General Works; VI. 4 Works on Cybernetics, Information Theory, and Philosophy of Science; VI. 5 Bibliographical Works.

This title, first published in 1990, argues for the existence of a significant connection between the theories of literature and culture of Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895-1975) and Iurii Mikhailovich Lotman (1922-1993). There is general agreement in the academic or scholarly community that there is such a connection; however, it is generally held to refer to Bakhtin's influence on Lotman which he expressed late in his life. The major aim of this study, meanwhile, is to demonstrate that the critical theories of Lotman and Bakhtin are highly compatible independent of and prior to any direct influence. This title will be of interest to students of literature and literary theory.