Category Archives: Ferdinand de Saussure

Did Benveniste read Derrida’s Of Grammatology?

Posted on October 12, 2025 by stuartelden

Jacques Derrida was certainly a careful reader of Émile Benveniste. He wrote a critique of Benveniste in “Le supplément de copule. La philosophie devant la linguistique” which appeared in 1971, in a special issue of Langages, “Épistémologie de la linguistique” edited … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Felix Guattari, Ferdinand de Saussure, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Julia Kristeva, Marcel Mauss, Martin Heidegger, Roland Barthes, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Pierre Bourdieu and Erwin Panofsky: Architecture, Scholasticism and the Concept of Habitus

Posted on September 14, 2025 by stuartelden

In 1967, Pierre Bourdieu translated Erwin Panofsky’s 1951 book Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism into French. The German-born Panofsky is best known for his work in art history, and for developing Aby Warburg’s distinction between iconography and iconology. He was teaching alternate semesters … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Erwin Panofsky, Ferdinand de Saussure, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Sunday Histories | 5 Comments

Books received – Adorno, Benveniste, Jakobson, Godel

Posted on May 19, 2025 by stuartelden

Three books by Adorno from Verso, and second-hand copies of Émile Benveniste’s Indo-European Language and Society, the first volume of Roman Jakobson’s Selected Writings, and Robert Godel, Les Sources Manuscrites du cours de linguistique générale de F. de Saussure.

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 27: more archive work on Saussure, Blanchot, Foucault, Jakobson and Koyré, two recordings, and a talk at the University at Buffalo

Posted on March 24, 2025 by stuartelden

I’ve been doing a lot more work in archives in the United States for this project over the past few weeks. I had a few days up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was even colder than New York. There, I was … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, David Farrell Krell, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Dumézil, Hannah Arendt, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Blanchot, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade, Roman Jakobson | 1 Comment

Émile Benveniste, Problèmes de linguistique générale – Problems in General Linguistics and other English translations

Posted on December 3, 2024 by stuartelden

Émile Benveniste’s Problèmes de linguistique générale was published in two volumes in 1966 and 1974 by Gallimard, and later reprinted in the Tel series (volumes 1 and 2). The first volume brought together essays from 1939 to 1964, and was compiled … Continue reading →

Posted in Bartolus of Sassoferrato, Emile Benveniste, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 22: finishing a draft of a chapter on Dumézil between 1938 and 1949; continuing work on Benveniste’s archive; and an article on “Foucault and Dumézil on Antiquity”

Posted on July 31, 2024 by stuartelden

July has been a steady month of progress on this project. I’d hoped to complete the chapter on Georges Dumézil’s work between 1938 and 1949 well before now, but it continued into this month too. It is another very long … Continue reading →

Posted in Canguilhem (book), Emile Benveniste, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Indo-European thought in twentieth-century France update 21: writing about Dumézil in the 1930s and 1940s and some archival work in Switzerland

Posted on June 28, 2024 by stuartelden

In previous updates on this project, I have talked a bit about how in the chapter I’m currently writing I am trying to situate Dumézil’s books from the mid-1930s and 1940s in relation to his politics and his teaching. I’ve made some progress continuing that work. This is no small … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Jean-Paul Sartre, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 13: work on Benveniste, Saussure and in UK archives, a seminar on the research, and a brief health update

Posted on August 31, 2023 by stuartelden

In an earlier post here I briefly mentioned the medical issues that put me in hospital for three weeks in July. The operation was a success and I am making a good, though slow, recovery. I have been at home for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Dumézil, Mircea Eliade, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Books received while in hospital – Saussure, Mauss, Whyte, Krupar, Girard, et. al.

Posted on July 26, 2023 by stuartelden

The books which arrived while I was in hospital – mostly ordered before I was admitted. I was pleased to be able to find a complete set of the Marcel Mauss, Œuvres, along with the Écrits politiques; a few books … Continue reading →

Posted in Ferdinand de Saussure, Marcel Mauss | 1 Comment

Saussure’s notes on German legends – cross-references between the different editions of these manuscripts

Posted on June 14, 2023 by stuartelden

I’ve previously discussed reading Ferdinand de Saussure’s work, mainly around the variant texts of his posthumously published Course on General Linguistics, and some of his early work on Indo-European languages. Saussure’s notes on German legends are one of the other major posthumous … Continue reading →

Posted in Ferdinand de Saussure, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized | Leave a comment