Biosemiotic criticism: modelling the environment in literature

Abstract

This article elaborates a synthesis of the semiotics of the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School, literary semiotics, ecocriticism and biosemiotics as a methodology for analysing nature writing. The methodology uses the concept of modelling as it was developed by Yuri Lotman and Thomas A. Sebeok. From this perspective, every piece of nature writing is essentially a model of the relationship between humans and nature, in its actual state as well as in its idealised form. The methodology distinguishes three levels of modelling: zoosemiotic modelling, linguistic modelling and artistic modelling. As a practical example, the author analyses Fred Jüssi’s nature essay Ohakas [The Thistle] (1976). The analysis demonstrates that the different modelling levels in the text are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary of one another. This also means that there is no need to oppose literature’s ability to represent nature and the complexity of its poetic structure.

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