The book is compiled from articles written between 1966 and 1987. But since the author developed a general plan for the work a long time ago, one can hope that the different times in which individual chapters were written does not destroy the unity of the book as a whole. The publication of individual parts in the form of articles in periodicals inevitably led to the need to repeat some of the initial provisions. In this edition, the author tried to remove these repetitions, which, unfortunately, was not always possible, in particular in cases where different aspects of the original principles were revealed in different articles. Otherwise, the text is printed unchanged. This book presents selected articles by Yu.M. Lotman on semiotics and typology of culture. Long-term research in the field of cultural studies, literary studies and history led Yu.M. Lotman to the concept of the semiosphere, which makes it possible to unite various areas of human knowledge into global Knowledge about Man. CONTENTS SEMIOTICS OF CULTURE About the semiosphere 11 Brain - text - culture - artificial intelligence 25 Phenomenon of culture 34 Asymmetry and dialogue 46 Myth - name - culture (together with B. A. Uspensky) 58 About two models of communication in the cultural system 76 Dynamic model of the semiotic system 90 A few thoughts on the typology of cultures 102 Towards the construction of a theory of interaction of cultures (semiotic aspect) 110 The problem of Byzantine influence on Russian culture in typological coverage 121 TEXT AS A SEMIOTIC PROBLEMSemiotics of culture and the concept of text 129 Text and function (together with A. M . Pyatigorsky) 133Text and polyglotism of culture 142Text in the text 148Text and structure of the audience 161Rhetoric 167Oral speech in a historical and cultural perspective 184Symbol in the cultural system 191Memory in cultural studies 200On the content and structure of the concepts of “fiction” 203Word and language in Prosve culture origin of the plot in typological light 224 Canonical art as an information paradox 243 CULTURE AND BEHAVIOR PROGRAMS Poetics of everyday behavior in Russian culture of the 18th century 248 Theater and theatricality in the cultural structure of the early 19th century 269 Stage and painting as coding devices of human cultural behavior of the early 19th century 287 Decembrist in everyday life (Everyday behavior as a historical and psychological category) 296 About Khlestakov 337 Literary biography in a historical and cultural context (Towards the typological relationship between the text and the personality of the author) 365 Dolls in the cultural system 377 About the reduction and deployment of sign systems (To the problem of “Freudianism and semiotic culturology”) 381 SEMIOTICS OF SPACE About the metalanguage of typological descriptions of culture 386 About the concept of geographical space in Russian medieval texts 407The problem of artistic space in Gogol's prose 413Notes on artistic space 448Clio at the crossroads 464On the role of random factors in the history of culture 472