Sociology and semiotics in the context of “political thaw”: a failed conjunction

Abstract

This article examines the reasons for a failed conjunction between sociology and semiotics, which was very much possible under certain historical circumstances during the Soviet “thaw” of the 1960’s. The author assumes the following to have been the cause: sociology’s and semiotics’ varying degree of involvement in the public agenda; a varying modus in the relationship with the dominant theoretic-ideological platform; semiotics’ atheoretical and aphilosophical nature combined with an extremely broad scope of research subjects; the formalism and scientism of semiotic studies; Y.M. Lotman’s disdain for sociology; random factors in the formation of the Tartu-Moscow school’s contingent. It is revealed that the Tartu-Moscow school’s legacy possesses perspective access points to sociological, socio-historical and socio-philosophical subject matters.