Structure and the Whole

This book identifies the Romantic notion of the whole as the fundamental epistemological source of the notion of structure in the thinking of the Prague Linguistic Circle, primarily its Russian representatives, and studies what amounted to the slow, painful process of disengagement from the organicist metaphor in an intellectual world very different from Saussure's.

Auteur

Patrick Sériot, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.

Texte du rabat
The series focuses on the state of contemporary semiotics and its current applications. It is intended to produce a number of concise interventions in semiotics, by which is meant studies of discrete areas of nature and culture that are interrogated using sign theory (in particular, as derived from the example of Peirce, Saussure, Sebeok, Lotman, von Uexküll, Greimas, Eco). Semiotics has undergone exciting sea changes in recent years. It has also been supplemented and reinvigorated by developments in media and theory and new areas of application. The series is designed to present developments in contemporary semiotics by focusing primarily on specific areas of its application. In addition to their specific focus, the books in this series give a rounded picture of current semiotics. Their emphasis is on current theory and the possibilities offered by the implementation of such theory. Each volume in the series places its topic within a general understanding of today's semiotics, a disciplinary field which comprises not just the study of culture but also the study of nature. Given the interdisciplinary character of this field and the spread of the target audience, the books are accessibly written and communicate with an academic readership that is not overspecialized. SCC is a peer-reviewed series of international scope.

Résumé

"This book is one of substantial erudition and interest. Specialists in the history of ideas, and that of structuralism in particular, will be in the best position to evaluate the details and cogency of its arguments. Others, i.e., those of us with an interest in the Prague School arising in their education and research in Slavic Languages and Literatures, and specifically in linguistics, will find it fascinating intellectual history, taking them, potentially, to a far deeper understanding of the views, and their origin, of Jakobson and Trubetzkoy, views which originated not only in an interest in language per se, but also as it pertained to culture and nationhood. I know of no other book that does this."
Mark J. Elson in: Slavic & East European Journal 61.2 (2017) Nr. 18, S. 384