Norm and opposition: the aesthetic theories of Mukařovský and Lotman

Jan Mukařovský and Yuri Lotman are key representatives of the Prague School of Structuralism and the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, respectively. Despite the difference in scientific traditions, the aesthetic concepts of both researchers offer unique perspectives for understanding the ambiguity of a literary text and the complexity of aesthetic perception and also demonstrate a deep continuity and interconnection of scientific ideas. This article shows how Mukařovský’s theory of the “aesthetic norm” and Lotman’s theory of the “aesthetics of opposition” offer different approaches to understanding a literary text: its structure, dynamics, and the role of binary oppositions in creating aesthetic perception. The aim of the research is to identify methodological and theoretical differences and points of contact in the aesthetic concepts of Mukařovský and Lotman, followed by the formation of new perspectives for their application in modern literary studies. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that a comprehensive consideration of these theories in a single methodological framework is proposed for the first time. The research findings showed that the discrepancies in the aesthetic approaches of the two aestheticians indicate the dual orientation of literary analysis. These differences represent not so much an opposition as a historically determined transformation of the Russian formalist tradition.