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Culture and Explosion by Yuri Lotman (NF)
Rights sold: Czech Republic - HOST, Spain - GEDISA
Originally published in Russian in 1992, a year before Lotman's death, Culture and Explosion puts forth a fundamental theory: the semiotics of culture. Proceeding from a model of communication, Lotman extends the work of the renowned Tartu-Moscow school that he founded, showing not only how culture can be observed and described, but also how it can be governed and guided. In fact, as Lotman demonstrates with copious examples, the modelling system of culture has an immeasurably strong influence on the way that humans experience "reality". As usual, Lotman's erudition is brought to bear on the theory of culture, and the book comprises a host of well-chosen illustrations from history, literature, art and right across the humanities.
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Sliding Into Isolation: Russia and the World. Diary of the pre-COVID Times With a Quarantine Epilogue. Collected essays by Kirill Kobrin, 2021
Rights sold: Russia – NLO
Kirill Kobrin himself is what we would call a rolling stone, a naturally born nomad. He has been moving from one place to another for the past 20 years, never really settling in one place, though eagerly absorbing everythying these places had to offer. While moving from one geographical point to another, he kept a diary explaining the cultural and political context immideately preceding the period of global lockdowns in 2021-2022. Reflecting upon objects, artefacts, texts and music he stumbled upon during the last three years, the author creates a detailed imprint of the precovid world that we left behind.
During the pandemic, he decided to publish this book sharing his thoughts about what was going to happen after the COVID. Should we expect the end of the world, or we can overcome this? Will the pandemic change people, make them more honest and better? Will humanity learn from this catastrophe some solidarity, humility and humanity? It is through answering these complicated questions the author invites us to a dialogue, or rather discussion about what was going on not that long ago and what is happening now.
See a short excerpt from Kobrin's Sliding Into Isolation: Russia and the World. in English (translated by Thomas Campbell) at openDemocracy project website:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-isolation-kobrin/
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