Renaissance titanium, outstanding scientist and man Automatic translate

LOS ANGELES. Literary critic, anthropologist, linguist Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov died.

Ivanov was often compared with the Renaissance titans. An outstanding linguist, co-founder of the Moscow-Tartu school of semiotics, an anthropologist, author of hundreds of articles, monographs, essays, poems, memoirs, study guides, works on the asymmetry of the hemisphere brain work, the fundamental study "Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans", many chapters of the famous encyclopedia "Myths of peoples of the world. " Member of many societies and academies. A polyglot, in the luggage of which there were about two hundred languages, actively used, rare and known only from written monuments.

He was amazed at the scale of his knowledge in various fields, as well as his boundless courage. Among those who, in addition to close friends, had the greatest influence on the formation of his personality, Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich invariably called Pasternak. The work of Boris Leonidovich, with whom he was lucky enough to meet quite early, he considered a real hymn to life. Alternatives - to be near the poet during the period of persecution unleashed against him or to join the ranks of the persecutors - for Ivanov did not exist. Later, he will make an unmistakable diagnosis of the disease, the epidemic of which has affected so many - a mixture of fear with the habit of adapting. "Patients" strayed into the pack, tormenting the poet with frenzy, forcing them to refuse the prize, making it impossible to work normally.

Ivanov was not afraid to tell the truth at any time. “You look at life ethically,” Boris Slutsky said then, urging him to be treated politically. Ivanov chose not to change his beliefs, despite serious threats and ostracism from many colleagues. Reckoning was not long in coming. In 1958 he was expelled from Moscow State University and became restricted to travel abroad. The refusal to shout, together with everyone, to the great poet “black sheep”, “literary weed”, “bait on the rusty hook of anti-Soviet propaganda”, “traitor”, “did not read, but condemn” was not the only sin.

The young scientist did not want to anathematize the works of Roman Jacobson, literary critic, linguist, researcher of the Russian avant-garde. Jacobson is the creator of phonology, which allowed to determine the universals that form the basis of any language. His studies of aphasia made a huge contribution to the study of speech pathologies, the invention of new methods for their treatment, led to the creation of neuro-linguistics. His works on metaphors and metonymy are widely used in modern literary criticism.

In his works on the fundamental aspects of Jacobson’s scientific concept, Ivanov upheld the principles of free creativity and deideologization of linguistics. In the book “Even and Odd. Asymmetry of the brain and sign systems ”, he explores the parallels between literary criticism and linguistics, allowing you to restore lost speech functions and gain new ones. An example of this is the use of tactile braille in teaching deaf-blind children.

In the list of books that everyone should read, Ivanov included The Naturalist’s Journey Around the World on the Beagle by Charles Darwin, works by Rabelais, Einstein, Stern, Cervantes, Blok, Rilke, Pushkin, Mandelstam. Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich also spoke highly of the books of the new Nobel laureate, Kazuo Isiguro.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru