Algirdas Julien Greimas
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| '''Algirdas Julien Greimas''' (born ''Algirdas Julius Greimas''; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992), was a [[Lithuania]]n literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for the [[Semiotic square|Greimas Square]] (''le carré sémiotique''). He is, along with [[Roland Barthes]], considered the most prominent of the French [[semiotics|semiotician]]s. With his training in structural linguistics, he added to the theory of [[Sign (semiotics)|signification]] and laid the foundations for the Parisian school of semiotics. Among Greimas's major contributions to semiotics are the concepts of [[Isotopy (semiotics)|isotopy]], the [[actantial model]], the narrative program, and the semiotics of the natural world. He also researched [[Lithuanian mythology]] and [[Proto-Indo-European religion]], and was influential in [[semiotic literary criticism]]. | '''Algirdas Julien Greimas''' (born ''Algirdas Julius Greimas''; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992), was a [[Lithuania]]n literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for the [[Semiotic square|Greimas Square]] (''le carré sémiotique''). He is, along with [[Roland Barthes]], considered the most prominent of the French [[semiotics|semiotician]]s. With his training in structural linguistics, he added to the theory of [[Sign (semiotics)|signification]] and laid the foundations for the Parisian school of semiotics. Among Greimas's major contributions to semiotics are the concepts of [[Isotopy (semiotics)|isotopy]], the [[actantial model]], the narrative program, and the semiotics of the natural world. He also researched [[Lithuanian mythology]] and [[Proto-Indo-European religion]], and was influential in [[semiotic literary criticism]]. | ||
| - | ==Biography== | ||
| - | Greimas's father, Julius Greimas, 1882–1942, a teacher and later school inspector, was from Liudvinavas in the [[Suvalkija]] region of present-day [[Lithuania]]. His mother Konstancija Greimienė, née Mickevičiūtė (Mickevičius), 1886–1956, a secretary, was from [[Kalvarija, Lithuania|Kalvarija]].<ref name=kasponis2005/> They lived in [[Tula, Russia|Tula]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], when he was born, where they ran away as refugees during World War I. They returned with him to Lithuania when he was two years old. His baptismal names are "Algirdas Julius"<ref name=zemlickas/> but he used the French version of his middle name, ''Julien'', while he lived abroad. He did not speak another language than [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] until [[Gymnasium (school)|preparatory middle school]], where he started with German and then French, which opened the door for his early philosophical readings in [[Gymnasium (school)|high school]] of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] and [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]. After attending schools in several towns, as his family moved, and finishing [[Rygiškių Jonas High School]] in [[Marijampolė]] in 1934, he studied law at [[Kaunas University|Vytautas Magnus University]], [[Kaunas]], and then drifted toward linguistics at the [[University of Grenoble]], from which he graduated in 1939 with a paper on [[Provençal dialect|Franco-Provençal dialects]].<ref name=peron/> He hoped to focus next on early medieval linguistics (substrate [[Toponymy|toponyms]] in the [[Grésivaudan|Alps]]).<ref name=greimas1985/> However, in July 1939, with war looming, the Lithuanian government drafted him into a military academy. | ||
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| - | The Soviet ultimatum led to a new "people's government" in Soviet-occupied Lithuania which Greimas was sympathetic to. In July 1940, he gave speeches urging Lithuanians to elect leaders who would vote in favor of annexation by the Soviet Union. As his friend Aleksys Churginas advised, in every speech he would mention Stalin and end by clapping for himself. In October, he was discharged into the reserve, and he began teaching French, German, Lithuanian and humanities at schools in Šiauliai. He fell in love with socialist Hania (Ona) Lukauskaitė, who later became an anti-Soviet conspirator with [[Jonas Noreika]], served ten years in a lager in [[Vorkuta]], and was a founder of the [[Lithuanian Helsinki Group]] of anti-Soviet dissidents. Greimas became an avid reader of Marx. In March 1941, Greimas's friend, Vladas Pauža, a boy scout and fellow teacher, enlisted him in the [[Lithuanian Activist Front]]. This underground network was preparing for a Nazi German invasion as the opportunity to restore Lithuania's independence and drive out all of Lithuania's Jews. On 14 June 1941, the Soviets detained his parents, arresting his father and sending him to [[Krasnoyarsk Krai]], where he died in 1942. His mother was deported to [[Altai Krai]]. Meanwhile, during these traumatic deportations, Greimas had been mobilized as an army officer to write up the property of detained Lithuanians. Greimas became an anti-Communist but retained a lifelong affinity with Marxist, leftist and liberal ideas.<ref name="AsmuoIrIdejos">Arūnas Sverdiolas. "Algirdas Julius Greimas. Asmuo ir idėjos." 2017</ref> | ||
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| - | Nazi Germany's invading forces entered Šiauliai on 26 June 1941. The next day, Greimas met with other partisans and was put in charge of a platoon. He handed down an order from the German Commandant to round up 100 Jews to sweep the streets. He felt uncomfortable and did not return the next day. Nevertheless, he became an editor of the weekly "Tėvynė", which urged ethnic cleansing of Jews from Lithuania.<ref name="Kulikauskas">[http://defendinghistory.com/the-world-celebrates-professor-greimas-with-no-regard-for-his-victims/91017 Andrius Kulikauskas. The World Celebrates Professor Greimas With No Regard for His Victims.]</ref> The nominal editor, Vladas Pauža, was a proponent of genocide.<ref name="siauliugetas">The Siauliai Ghetto: Lists of Prisoners. Valstybinis Vilniaus Gaono žydų muziejus. Compiled by Irina Guzenberg, Jevgenija Sedovas. 2002.</ref> In 1942, in Kaunas, Greimas became active in the underground [[Lietuvos laisvės kovotojų sąjunga | Lithuanian Freedom Fighters Union]], which derived from the genocidal [[Lithuanian Nationalist Party]], which the Nazis had banned in December 1941, after Lithuania's Jews had been killed. He grew close to life long liberal-minded friends Bronys Raila, Stasys Žakevičius-Žymantas, Jurgis Valiulis, all of whom had supported ethnic cleansing of Jews from Lithuania. | ||
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| - | In 1944 he enrolled for graduate study at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] in Paris and specialized in [[lexicography]], namely [[Taxonomy (general)|taxonomies]] of exact, interrelated definitions. He wrote a thesis on the vocabulary of fashion (a topic later popularized by [[Roland Barthes]]), for which he received a PhD in 1949.<ref>{{cite book |title=Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language |chapter= Greimas |editor= Siobhan Chapman |editor2= Christopher Routledge| publisher= Oxford University Press |year=2005 |pages= 106–107 |isbn=0-19-518768-7}}</ref> | ||
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| - | Greimas began his academic career as a teacher at a French Catholic boarding school for girls in [[Alexandria]] in Egypt,<ref name=greimas1985/> where he would take part in a weekly discussion group of about a dozen European researchers that included a philosopher, a historian, and a sociologist.<ref name=dosse/> Early on, he also met [[Roland Barthes]], with whom he remained close for the next 15 years.<ref name=greimas1985/> In 1959 he moved on to universities in Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey, and then to [[Poitiers]] in France. In 1965 he became professor at the [[École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales]] (EHESS) in Paris, where he taught for almost 25 years. He co-founded and became Secretary General of the [[International Association for Semiotic Studies]]. | ||
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| - | Greimas died in 1992 in [[Paris]], and was buried at his mother's resting place,<ref name=bagdonas/> [[Petrašiūnai Cemetery]] in Kaunas, Lithuania.<ref name=grabauskas/> (His parents were [[Soviet deportations from Lithuania|deported to Siberia]] during the [[History of Lithuania#World War II (1939–1945)|Soviet occupation]]. His mother managed to return in 1954; his father perished and his grave is unknown, but he has a symbolic tombstone at the cemetery.<ref name=kasponis2010/>) He was survived by his wife, Teresa Mary Keane.<ref name=sulgiene/> | ||
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| - | == Work == | ||
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| - | === Early === | ||
| - | [[File:Costumes Parisiens 1826.jpg|thumb|left|100px|Greimas's thesis was on old Parisian fashion words.]] | ||
| - | Greimas's first published essay ''Cervantes ir jo don Kichotas'' ("[[Miguel de Cervantes|Cervantes]] and his Don Quixote")<ref name=greimas1943/> came out in the literary journal ''Varpai'', which he helped to found, during the period of alternating [[History of Lithuania#World War II (1939–1945)|Nazi and Soviet occupations of Lithuania]]. Although a review of the first Lithuanian translation of ''[[Don Quixote]]'',<ref name=cervantes/> it addressed partly the issue of one's resistance to circumstances<ref name=macianskaite/> – even when doomed, defiance can at least aim at the preservation of one's dignity (''Nebijokime būti donkichotai'', "Let's not be afraid to be Don Quixotes").<ref name=greimas1943/> The first work of direct significance to his subsequent research was his doctoral thesis "La Mode en 1830. Essai de description du vocabulaire vestimentaire d' après les journaux de modes {{sic}} de l'époque" ("Fashion in 1830. A Study of the Vocabulary of Clothes based on the Fashion Magazines of the Times").<ref name=greimas1948/> He left [[lexicology]] soon after, acknowledging the limitations of the discipline in its concentration on the word as a unit and in its basic aim of classification, but he never ceased to maintain his lexicological convictions. He published three dictionaries throughout his career.<ref name=budniakiewicz/> During his decade in Alexandria, the discussions in his circle of friends helped broaden his interests. The topics included Greimas's early influences – the works of the founder of [[structural linguistics]] [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and his follower, Danish linguist [[Louis Hjelmslev]], the initiator of [[comparative mythology]] [[Georges Dumézil]], the [[Structural anthropology|structural anthropologist]] [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]], the Russian specialist in fairy tales [[Vladimir Propp]], the researcher into the aesthetics of theater [[Étienne Souriau]], the [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenologists]] [[Edmund Husserl]] and [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], the [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]] [[Gaston Bachelard]], and the novelist and art historian [[André Malraux]].<ref name=beliauskas/> | ||
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| - | === Discourse semiotics === | ||
| - | [[File:Es515 semiotic square.jpg|left|thumb|[[Semiotic square]]]] | ||
| - | Greimas proposed an original method for ''discourse semiotics'' that evolved over a thirty-year period. His starting point began with a profound dissatisfaction with the structural linguistics of the mid-century that studied only phonemes (minimal sound units of every language) and morphemes (grammatical units that occur in the combination of phonemes). These grammatical units could generate an infinite number of sentences, the sentence remaining the largest unit of analysis. Such a molecular model did not permit the analysis of units beyond the sentence. | ||
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| - | Greimas begins by positing the existence of a ''semantic universe'' that he defined as the sum of all possible meanings that can be produced by the value systems of the entire culture of an ethno-linguistic community. As the semantic universe cannot possibly be conceived of in its entirety, Greimas was led to introduce the notion of ''semantic micro-universe'' and ''discourse universe'', as actualized in written, spoken or iconic texts. To come to grips with the problem of signification or the production of meaning, Greimas had to transpose one level of language (the ''text'') into another level of language (the ''metalanguage'') and work out adequate techniques of ''transposition''. | ||
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| - | The descriptive procedures of ''narratology'' and the notion of ''narrativity'' are at the very base of Greimassian semiotics of discourse. His initial hypothesis is that meaning is only apprehensible if it is articulated or narrativized. Second, for him narrative structures can be perceived in other systems not necessarily dependent upon natural languages. This leads him to posit the existence of two levels of analysis and representation: a ''surface'' and a ''deep level'', which forms a common trunk where narrativity is situated and organized anterior to its manifestation. The signification of a phenomenon does not therefore depend on the mode of its manifestation, but since it originates at the deep level it cuts through all forms of linguistic and non-linguistic manifestation. Greimas' semiotics, which is ''generative'' and ''transformational'', goes through three phases of development. He begins by working out a ''semiotics of action'' (''sémiotique de l'action'') where ''subjects'' are defined in terms of their quest for ''objects'', following a ''canonical narrative schema'', which is a formal framework made up of three successive sequences: a ''mandate'', an ''action'' and an ''evaluation''. He then constructs a ''narrative grammar'' and works out a syntax of ''narrative programs'' in which subjects are ''joined up with'' or ''separated'' from objects of value. In the second phase he works out a ''cognitive semiotics'' (''sémiotique cognitive''), where in order to perform, subjects must be ''competent'' to do so. The subjects' competence is organized by means of a ''modal grammar'' that accounts for their existence and performance. This modal semiotics opens the way to the final phase that studies how ''passions'' modify actional and cognitive performance of subjects (''sémiotique de passions'') and how belief and knowledge modify the competence and performance of these very same subjects. | ||
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| - | === Mythology === | ||
| - | [[File:Algirdas Julien Greimas 2017 stamp of Lithuania.jpg|thumb|Algirdas Julien Greimas on a 2017 stamp of Lithuania]] | ||
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| - | He later began researching and reconstructing [[Lithuanian mythology]]. He based his work on the methods of [[Vladimir Propp]], [[Georges Dumézil]], [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]], and [[Marcel Detienne]]. He published the results in ''Apie dievus ir žmones: lietuvių mitologijos studijos'' (''Of Gods and Men: Studies in Lithuanian Mythology'') 1979, and ''Tautos atminties beieškant'' (''In Search of National Memory'') 1990. He also wrote on [[Proto-Indo-European religion]]. | ||
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| - | == Works translated in English == | ||
| - | * [1966] ''Structural Semantics: An Attempt at a Method.'' trans. Daniele McDowell, Ronald Schleifer, and Alan Velie. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. | ||
| - | * [1970] ''On Meaning.'' trans. Frank Collins and Paul Perron. Minneapolis: [[University of Minnesota Press]], 1987. | ||
| - | * [1976] ''Maupassant: The Semiotics of Text.'' trans. Paul Perron. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 1988. | ||
| - | * [1976] ''The Social Sciences. A Semiotic View.'' trans. Frank Collins and Paul Perron. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989. | ||
| - | * [1979] — with Joseph Courtés, ''Semiotics and Language: An Analytical Dictionary.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. | ||
| - | * [1985] ''Of Gods and Men: Studies in Lithuanian Mythology.'' trans. Milda Newman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. | ||
| - | * [1991] — with [[Jacques Fontanille]], ''The Semiotics of Passions: From States of Affairs to States of Feelings.'' trans. Paul Perron and Frank Collins. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. | ||
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| - | == References == | ||
| - | {{reflist|2|refs= | ||
| - | <ref name=bagdonas>{{cite journal | title = Iš Kunigiškių- į ...Braziliją, Argentiną, Peru... |url= http://www.xxiamzius.lt/numeriai/2009/10/28/zvil_02.html |journal= XXI amžius |date= 23 October 2009 |first= Vytautas |last= Bagdonas |volume= 76 |issue= 1768 |issn= 2029-1299 |language=lt}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=beliauskas>{{cite book | last1 = Beliauskas | first1 = Žilvinas | title = Lithuanian Philosophy: Persons and Ideas | chapter = Algirdas Greimas in Lithuania and in the World |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=S_d-mrg4tK0C&pg=PA250 |volume= 2 |editor-first= Jūratė |editor-last=Baranova |publisher= The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy |year=2001 |page=250| isbn=1-56518-137-9}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=budniakiewicz>{{cite web |url= http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/2032/Algirdas-Julien-Greimas.html |work= Semiotics and Language: An Analytical Dictionary, Langages, directeur d'études, Du sens 2 |accessdate= 23 August 2010 |last= Budniakiewicz |first= Therese |year=2010 |title= Algirdas Julien Greimas Biography (1917–1992) | publisher= JRank Psychology Encyclopedia| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20100805070205/http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/2032/Algirdas-Julien-Greimas.html| archivedate= 5 August 2010 | deadurl= yes}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=cervantes>{{cite book |last1=de Cervantes Saavedra |first1= Miguel | authorlink1 = Miguel de Cervantes |translator= Pulgis Andriušis |others= Poems by Aleksys Churginas |title= Išmoningasis idalgas Don Kichotas iš La Mančos |editor-first= Aleksys |editor-last=Churginas | publisher= Valstybinė grožinės literatūros leidykla |year=1942 |location= Kaunas}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=dosse>{{cite book |last1= Dosse | first1= François |title= Histoire du structuralisme I: Le champ du signe, 1945–1966 |chapter= Communication personnelle avec Algirdas Julien Greimas |volume= 1 | publisher= La Découverte |year=1991 |location= Paris |isbn=2-7071-2062-6 |language=fr}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=grabauskas>{{cite journal |title= Garsinęs Lietuvą pasaulyje |url= http://www.xxiamzius.lt/numeriai/2009/10/28/zvil_01.html |journal= XXI Amžius |date= 28 October 2009 |first= Giedrius |last= Grabauskas-Karoblis |volume=76 |issue= 1768 |issn= 2029-1299 |language=lt}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=greimas1943>{{cite journal |title= Cervantes ir jo don Kichotas |journal= Varpai |year= 1943 |first= Algirdas Julius |last= Greimas |volume=1 |issue=1 |issn= 1392-0669 |language=lt}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=greimas1948>{{cite thesis |first= Algirdas Julius |last= Greimas |title=La Mode en 1830. Essai de description du vocabulaire vestimentaire d' après les journaux de modes {{sic}} de l'époque |type = thèse principale pour le Doctorat ès-lettres |publisher= Université de Paris |place= Paris |year=1948 |quote= Republished with corrections in: Algirdas Julien Greimas (Thomas F. Broden and Françoise Ravaux-Kirkpatrick, eds.): ''La mode en 1830, langage et société: écrits de jeunesse.'' Paris: Presse universitaires de France, 2000. {{ISBN|2-13-050488-4}} }}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=greimas1985>{{cite journal |title= Intelektualinės autobiografijos bandymas |journal= Metmenys |date= 1985–1986 |first= Algirdas Julien |last= Greimas |author2= Vytautas Kavolis |volume= 50–51 |pages=10–20, 21–30 |issn= 0024-5089 |language=lt |url= http://tautosmenta.lt/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Greimas_J_Algirdas/Greimas_Mtm_51_1986.pdf }}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=kasponis2005>{{cite journal |title = Algirdas Julius Greimas: neišblėsusios atminties pėdsakais |journal= Mokslo Lietuva |url=http://mokslasplius.lt/mokslo-lietuva/numeriu-archyvas/2005/Mokslo_Lietuva_2005_07.pdf |page=8 |date=7 April 2005 |first= Karolis Rimtautas |last= Kašponis |first2= Gediminas |last2= Zemlickas |volume=7 |issue=319 |issn= 1392-7191 |language=lt}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=kasponis2010>{{cite journal | title = Greimai ir Prienai |url=http://mokslasplius.lt/mokslo-lietuva/2006-2011/node/2358.html | journal = Mokslo Lietuva | date = 7 January 2010 | first = Karolis Rimtautas | last = Kašponis | volume =1 | issue = 423 | issn = 1392-7191 |language=lt}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=macianskaite>{{cite book | url = http://www.ec-aiss.it/pdf_contributi/macianskaite_30_12_08.pdf | chapter = L' 'esseistica' lituana di A. J. Greimas come traduzione semiotica | last = Mačianskaitė | first = Loreta | date =2010 | title=Incidenti ed Esplosioni. A. J. Greimas e Y. M. Lotman. Per una semiotica della cultura |editor-first=Tiziana |editor-last=Migliore |isbn=978-88-548-3730-0 | publisher = Aacne editrice }}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=peron>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Peron | first = Paul | title = Greimas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSKCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA194 | editor-first=Paul |editor-last=Cobley | encyclopedia = The Routlege Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics | year = 2005 | publisher = Routledge | location = London |pages=194–195 | isbn = 9781134545483}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=sulgiene>{{cite web |url= http://www.mb.vu.lt/naujienos/skelbimai/ajgreimo-archyvas-papildytas-asmeninio-susirasinejimo-laiskais |title= A. J. Greimo archyvas papildytas asmeninio susirašinėjimo laiškais |last= Šulgienė |first= Nijolė |date= 13 August 2009 |publisher= Vilniaus universiteto biblioteka |language= lt}}</ref> | ||
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| - | <ref name=zemlickas>{{cite journal |title= Diena, kai Didždvario gimnazija alsavo Greimu |journal= Mokslo Lietuva |url= http://mokslasplius.lt/mokslo-lietuva/2006-2011/node/2777| date=20 May 2010 |first= Gediminas |last= Zemlickas |volume=10 |issue=432 |issn= 1392-7191 |language=lt}}</ref> | ||
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| - | == External links == | ||
| - | {{Commons category|Algirdas Julien Greimas}} | ||
| - | {{refbegin}} | ||
| - | * [http://www.signosemio.com/greimas/ Greimas's biography and semiotic theories]. Signo. (in English and in French) | ||
| - | * {{cite journal|title=The Evolution Of French Linguistics after the War: A. J. Greimas's Conversion to 'Saussurism' |journal=Texto! |date=July 1998 |first=Thomas F.|last=Broden |issn=1773-0120 |url=http://www.revue-texto.net/Inedits/Broden_Evolution.html|accessdate=19 May 2008 |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080531134150/http://www.revue-texto.net/Inedits/Broden_Evolution.html| archivedate= 31 May 2008 | deadurl= no}} | ||
| - | * {{cite journal |last=de Geest |first=Dirk |date=January 2003 |url= http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/uncanny/dirkdegeest.htm |title=La sémiotique narrative de A. J. Greimas (traduction du néerlandais par Jan Baetens) |journal=Image & Narrative |volume=5 |issn= 1780-678X}} | ||
| - | * Andrius Grigorjevas, Remo Gramigna, Silvi Salupere 2017. [http://sss.ut.ee/index.php/sss Special issue: A. J. Greimas – a life in semiotics]. [[Sign Systems Studies]] 45(1/2). | ||
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| - | {{DEFAULTSORT:Greimas, Algirdas Julius}} | ||
| - | [[Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats]] | ||
| - | [[Category:Balticists]] | ||
| - | [[Category:1917 births]] | ||
| - | [[Category:1992 deaths]] | ||
| - | [[Category:University of Paris alumni]] | ||
| - | [[Category:Linguists from Lithuania]] | ||
| - | [[Category:French people of Lithuanian descent]] | ||
| - | [[Category:Lithuanian mythology researchers]] | ||
| - | [[Category:Russian semioticians]] | ||
| - | [[Category:Lithuanian semioticians]] | ||
| - | [[Category:French semioticians]] | ||
| - | [[Category:Université Grenoble Alpes alumni]] | ||
| - | [[Category:Vytautas Magnus University alumni]] | ||
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| - | Greimas is at the origin of the [[semiotic square]] (or [[semantic rectangle]]). | ||
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Algirdas Julien Greimas (born Algirdas Julius Greimas; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992), was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for the Greimas Square (le carré sémiotique). He is, along with Roland Barthes, considered the most prominent of the French semioticians. With his training in structural linguistics, he added to the theory of signification and laid the foundations for the Parisian school of semiotics. Among Greimas's major contributions to semiotics are the concepts of isotopy, the actantial model, the narrative program, and the semiotics of the natural world. He also researched Lithuanian mythology and Proto-Indo-European religion, and was influential in semiotic literary criticism.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Algirdas Julien Greimas" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
