Ideology, semiotics, and Clifford Geertz: Some Russian reflections (Reprinted from Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, vol 29, pg. 39-54, 1998)

This article, written by a Russian cultural historian, analyzes the concept of "ideology" in the work of Clifford Geertz. and his role in understandin g the figurative nature of ideology as a cultural system. The author compar es Geertz's semiotic approach to culture with the semiotics of culture deve loped by Russian theorists, particularly Yuri Lotman, showing the convergen ce and divergence of the two different national traditions. This understand ing of the nature and functions of ideology opens new possibilities for dis cussing the tortured relations of ideology and literature, showing the way fiction can affect the formation of ideological systems and influence pract ical politics. The analysis is illustrated by examples from Russian politic al life of the 1990s, when revolutionary changes demanded new sets of ideol ogical metaphors that in their turn shaped the direction of events.