Parliamentary talk, despite its central place in politics, has not been the focus of many qualitative studies. The present study investigates how parliamentary talk emerges in a dialogue between different arguments in the parliament. At the same time, this is a study of politics, of how human interaction gives birth to laws that regulate life in two contemporary democracies, Slovakia and Poland. It provides a close-reading of two political debates: on the state language in Slovakia and on gender parity in Poland. This study draws on hermeneutic and semiotic thinkers such as Gadamer, Bakhtin and Lotman to elaborate a dialogical understanding of language that can provide the basis for a method of textual analysis. The dialogical understanding of language emphasises that text and talk must be studied in the context of an interaction. The unit of analysis is a pair of utterances, a question and an answer. Until an utterance has been interpreted, it carries only the potential of meaning; its meaning is materialised by the responses it receives. The study further argues that conversation analysis and its tools can usefully be applied to the study of political debate. The method provides for the analysis of the dynamics between micro-scale interaction in the parliament and the macro-scale dynamics of culture. These dynamics assume two different forms that Lotman termed as “translation” and “explosion”. The study shows that parliamentary debate is characterised by a constantly evolving topic of discussion, namely that the meaning of the bill at the start of the debate and at the end of the debate are really two different bills. This is not because the content of the bill has undergone changes, but because in the course of the debate, the bill has generated new cultural connections. Casting a vote in support of the bill does not approve just the bill itself but a whole set of interconnected political, social and cultural values—what Lotman approached as the semiosphere. This study suggests Lotman’s cultural semiotics can provide for “imperfect hermeneutics” that is sensitive to the dynamic and contested nature of tradition in politics whilst acknowledging the inevitability of culture in mediating political talk.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo traduzir para português brasileiro e fazer uma análise semiótica da novela Parque cultural (1983), do escritor russo Serguei Dovlátov. Além disso, pretendemos apresentar aos leitores e pesquisadores brasileiros os traços fundamentais da obra deste, que é um dos principais prosadores russos da segunda metade do séc. XX e um dos maiores representantes da Terceira Onda de emigração russa. Uma das especificidades do método artístico de Dovlátov consiste em uma forte vinculação de sua obra com fatos da cultura, literatura e história da Rússia e da União Soviética. Essa característica permite-nos analisar seus textos como textos de cultura, segundo a concepção semiótica de Iú. Lótman. Na novela Parque cultural, espelham-se tais fenômenos da cultura soviética, como o mito soviético do poeta Aleksándr Púchkin, considerado símbolo da cultura, a existência na União Soviética de duas culturas paralelas (a oficial e a não oficial), o fenômeno da massiva emigração dos anos 1970, entre outros. A tradução da novela Parque cultural (título em russo, Zapoviédnik) para o português do Brasil, com notas e comentários, constitui parte integrante deste trabalho. Praticamente toda a obra de Dovlátov é humorística, e a transmissão dos elementos de humor e marcas culturais, presentes no texto, foi um dos desafios dessa tradução. / This work is aimed at translating the novel Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov into Brazilian Portuguese (the title in Russian is Zapoviednik, and the title in Portuguese is Parque Cultural, 1983) and analyze this text from a semiotic point of view. We furthermore intend to present the basic features of Dovlatovs work, who is considered to be one of the leading Russian prose writers of the second half of the XX century and one of the greatest representatives of the Third Wave of Russian Emigration, to readers and Brazilian researchers. One of the features of Dovlatovs artistic methods lies in the close connection of his work with the culture, literature and history of Russia and the Soviet Union. This feature allows us to analyze his texts as cultural texts, according to Yuri Lotmans semiotic concept. The themes of the novel Pushkin Hills reflect such phenomena of Soviet culture as, among others, the \"Soviet\" myth of the poet Aleksandr Pushkin, who is considered to be a symbol of culture, the existence in the Soviet Union of two parallel cultures (official and unofficial), the massive emigration of the 1970s. The translation of the novel into Brazilian Portuguese, with notes and comments, is an integral part of this work. Almost all of Dovlatov\'s work is humorous, and conveying elements of humor and cultural references in the text was one of the challenges of this translation.

The thesis examines American teen dramas on Australian television in the period 1992 to 2004. It explores the use of the genre by broadcasters and its uptake by teenagers in an environment where American popular culture has frequently been treated with suspicion and where there are perennial arguments about the Americanisation of youth and their vulnerability to cultural imperialism. The thesis argues concerns about Americanisation and cultural imperialism in relation to youth culture, young people and the media are misplaced. American teen dramas are investigated as an example of the ways imported programs are made to cohere with national logics within the Australian mediasphere (Hartley, 1996). Utilising Yuri Lotman's (1990) theory of cultural 'translation' this thesis argues teen drams are evidence of dynamic change within the system of television and that this change does not result in a system dominated by imported product, but rather a system that situates foreign programming amongst domestic frames of reference.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo traduzir para português brasileiro e fazer uma análise semiótica da novela Parque cultural (1983), do escritor russo Serguei Dovlátov. Além disso, pretendemos apresentar aos leitores e pesquisadores brasileiros os traços fundamentais da obra deste, que é um dos principais prosadores russos da segunda metade do séc. XX e um dos maiores representantes da Terceira Onda de emigração russa. Uma das especificidades do método artístico de Dovlátov consiste em uma forte vinculação de sua obra com fatos da cultura, literatura e história da Rússia e da União Soviética. Essa característica permite-nos analisar seus textos como textos de cultura, segundo a concepção semiótica de Iú. Lótman. Na novela Parque cultural, espelham-se tais fenômenos da cultura soviética, como o mito soviético do poeta Aleksándr Púchkin, considerado símbolo da cultura, a existência na União Soviética de duas culturas paralelas (a oficial e a não oficial), o fenômeno da massiva emigração dos anos 1970, entre outros. A tradução da novela Parque cultural (título em russo, Zapoviédnik) para o português do Brasil, com notas e comentários, constitui parte integrante deste trabalho. Praticamente toda a obra de Dovlátov é humorística, e a transmissão dos elementos de humor e marcas culturais, presentes no texto, foi um dos desafios dessa tradução. / This work is aimed at translating the novel Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov into Brazilian Portuguese (the title in Russian is Zapoviednik, and the title in Portuguese is Parque Cultural, 1983) and analyze this text from a semiotic point of view. We furthermore intend to present the basic features of Dovlatovs work, who is considered to be one of the leading Russian prose writers of the second half of the XX century and one of the greatest representatives of the Third Wave of Russian Emigration, to readers and Brazilian researchers. One of the features of Dovlatovs artistic methods lies in the close connection of his work with the culture, literature and history of Russia and the Soviet Union. This feature allows us to analyze his texts as cultural texts, according to Yuri Lotmans semiotic concept. The themes of the novel Pushkin Hills reflect such phenomena of Soviet culture as, among others, the \"Soviet\" myth of the poet Aleksandr Pushkin, who is considered to be a symbol of culture, the existence in the Soviet Union of two parallel cultures (official and unofficial), the massive emigration of the 1970s. The translation of the novel into Brazilian Portuguese, with notes and comments, is an integral part of this work. Almost all of Dovlatov\'s work is humorous, and conveying elements of humor and cultural references in the text was one of the challenges of this translation.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo a análise da evolução da semiótica da cultura na obra de estudioso da cultura e literatura, crítico e filósofo russo Iúri Lótman por meio de traduções e dos comentários concernentes aos seus ensaios, escritos em diferentes épocas e dedicados aos principais conceitos da semiótica da cultura, tais como o fenômeno da cultura e os seus processos dinâmicos, o fenômeno da arte, o problema do texto, a memória cultural e a semiosfera. A obra de Lótman enquanto semioticista é inseparável do contexto histórico dos estudos da literatura, linguística, semiótica, cultura tanto na Rússia, quanto no Ocidente. Entre os seus precursores russos estão os escritores e os filósofos do século XIX e, no século XX, os simbolistas, os futuristas e os formalistas. A essência da semiótica da cultura lotmaniana começou a se formar no âmbito da Escola Semiótica de Tártu- Moscou e com a base na tradição dos estudos linguísticos, já nos trabalhos posteriores ela adquiriu um caráter mais filosófico, ao lidar com a imprevisibilidade dos processos culturais universais. Definimos ainda os pontos de coerência entre as ideias de Lótman e a obra dos estruturalistas e pós-estruturalistas franceses, além de Mikhail Bakhtin e Umberto Eco. / The present work aims at analyzing the development of semiotics of culture in the work of Russian culture and literature scholar, critic and philosopher Yuri Lotman through translation and commentary of his essays, written at different periods and dedicated to the core concepts of semiotics of culture, such as culture phenomenon and its dynamic processes, the phenomenon of art, the problem of the text, the cultural memory and semiosphere. Lotman`s work as a semiotician is inseparable from the historical context of the literature, linguistics, semiotics and culture studies both in Russia and the West. Among his precursors are Russian writers and philosophers of the nineteenth and twentiethcentury, the symbolists, futurists and formalists. The essence of Lotman`s semiotics of culture began to form in the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School on the basis of language studies tradition, though in later works he developed a more philosophical approach, dealing with the unpredictability of universal cultural processes. Further, we point out the connection between Lotman\'s ideas and work of French structuralists and poststructuralists, Mikhail Bakhtin and Umberto Eco.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo a análise da evolução da semiótica da cultura na obra de estudioso da cultura e literatura, crítico e filósofo russo Iúri Lótman por meio de traduções e dos comentários concernentes aos seus ensaios, escritos em diferentes épocas e dedicados aos principais conceitos da semiótica da cultura, tais como o fenômeno da cultura e os seus processos dinâmicos, o fenômeno da arte, o problema do texto, a memória cultural e a semiosfera. A obra de Lótman enquanto semioticista é inseparável do contexto histórico dos estudos da literatura, linguística, semiótica, cultura tanto na Rússia, quanto no Ocidente. Entre os seus precursores russos estão os escritores e os filósofos do século XIX e, no século XX, os simbolistas, os futuristas e os formalistas. A essência da semiótica da cultura lotmaniana começou a se formar no âmbito da Escola Semiótica de Tártu- Moscou e com a base na tradição dos estudos linguísticos, já nos trabalhos posteriores ela adquiriu um caráter mais filosófico, ao lidar com a imprevisibilidade dos processos culturais universais. Definimos ainda os pontos de coerência entre as ideias de Lótman e a obra dos estruturalistas e pós-estruturalistas franceses, além de Mikhail Bakhtin e Umberto Eco. / The present work aims at analyzing the development of semiotics of culture in the work of Russian culture and literature scholar, critic and philosopher Yuri Lotman through translation and commentary of his essays, written at different periods and dedicated to the core concepts of semiotics of culture, such as culture phenomenon and its dynamic processes, the phenomenon of art, the problem of the text, the cultural memory and semiosphere. Lotman`s work as a semiotician is inseparable from the historical context of the literature, linguistics, semiotics and culture studies both in Russia and the West. Among his precursors are Russian writers and philosophers of the nineteenth and twentiethcentury, the symbolists, futurists and formalists. The essence of Lotman`s semiotics of culture began to form in the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School on the basis of language studies tradition, though in later works he developed a more philosophical approach, dealing with the unpredictability of universal cultural processes. Further, we point out the connection between Lotman\'s ideas and work of French structuralists and poststructuralists, Mikhail Bakhtin and Umberto Eco.

The aim of this study is to draw new perspectives to the theoretic approach towards the complex nature of the modern fairy tale genre and its transformation. The study is exemplified by two books by Alan A. Milne about Winnie-the-Pooh (1926-1928), Tove Jansson’s eight books about the Moomintrolls (1945-1970) and Eno Raud’s four books about three funny creatures called “Nakstitrallid” in Estonian (1972-1982). In this thesis, I examine the disputable problem of defining the fairy tale genre in modern literature and refer to the history of the genre and storytelling tradition that have indirectly inspired all three authors in their decision to turn for fairy tale as a genre. Applying the poetical analysis, I argue that these authors contributed to the continuity of fairy tales by creating the link between folkloric heritage, novelistic literary expression and children’s imagination. This study can therefore be considered as topological, however it does not pretend to introduce the complete systematic definition of the genre as the thesis’ format does not allow such in-depth investigation. In the first chapter, ‘Archaic world stimulation in modern fairy tale’, I examine the dominating literary categories that refer to the folk fairy tale intertext: Bakhtin’s concept of ‘chronotope’ – category of time and space, system of fictional allegoric characters and category of fantastic.  In the second chapter, ‘Modern fairy tales from perspective of children’s literature’, I analyze the books of Milne, Jansson and Raud in the scope of narratological and aesthetic categories of children’s literature. The folkloric laughter intertextually reproduced by naïvism of the Moomins, the Naksitralls, and Winnie-the-Pooh’s friends, while folkloric collective hero is presented by universal harmony of a happy family and child-like protagonists. I came to the conclusion that poetics of folklore fairy tale still exists in these books through the intertextual dialogue. Modernism as literary method re-evaluates folkloric aspects such as nonlinear time, the blurred boarders between individual and cosmos, material and spirit, text and reality. Every new artistically unique fairy tale world resembles the new stage of the genre development. The more innovative is the story, the more sophisticated can be its poetics.