Category Archives: Roman Jakobson

Vladimir Nabokov’s original and unpublished translation of The Discourse of Igor’s Campaign; and Roman Jakobson’s enduring wish to complete his English edition

Posted on November 9, 2025 by stuartelden

In two previous pieces in the ‘Sunday Histories’ series, I have discussed the planned but unrealised collaboration between Vladimir Nabokov and Roman Jakobson on an edition and translation of “The Song of Igor”, an old Russian poem of the 12th century. Jakobson had … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Mircea Eliade, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized, Vladimir Nabokov | 5 Comments

Roman Jakobson’s paper to The First World Conference on Yiddish Studies, 1958: “The Languages of the Diaspora as a Particular Linguistic Problem”

Posted on October 26, 2025 by stuartelden

In an earlier piece in the ‘Sunday Histories’ series, I discussed the work Roman Jakobson did for Franz Boas on the Paleo-Siberian and Aleutian material at the New York Public Library. In his initial time in the United States, as a refugee from … Continue reading →

Posted in Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories | 3 Comments

Roman Jakobson’s two series of 1972 lectures at the Collège de France – dating, topics and archival traces, and his friendships with Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan

Posted on August 31, 2025 by stuartelden

In Stephen Rudy’s chronology of Roman Jakobson’s career, the entry for 1972 reads, in part:  Visiting Professor, Collège de France, Dec. […] Professeur d’état, Collège de France. Four lectures, Feb. 3-8. How many lectures did he give across the visits, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Antoine Meillet, Étienne Wolff, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 29: working on Benveniste’s Vocabulaire, Dumézil’s Bilan and other work

Posted on August 18, 2025 by stuartelden

I’ve been back in the UK for a few months, though I continue to work through the archival material I saw in the United States, some of which is in the form of notes, some photos of things, and a … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Gillian Rose, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson | 1 Comment

Émile Benveniste on auxiliarity – an Acta Linguistica Hafniensia article, Eli Fischer-Jørgensen, a misplaced abstract and a 1965-66 Collège de France course

Posted on July 27, 2025 by stuartelden

In 1965, Émile Benveniste published “Structure des relations d’auxiliarité” in Acta Linguistica Hafniensia – a journal founded by the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen. Its initial editors were Viggo Brøndal and Louis Hjelmslev. Although the journal had been founded in 1939, and published five … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Books received – Denman, Jakobson, Harari, Derrida, Foucault, Fischer-Jørgensen

Posted on July 14, 2025 by stuartelden

Derek S. Denman, Fortress Power: Hostile Designs and the Politics of Spatial Control, second-hand copies of Roman Jakobson, Six Lectures on Sound and Meaning, Josué V. Harari, Scenarios of the Imaginary, Eli Fischer-Jørgensen, Trends in Phonological Theory: A Historical Introduction, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson | 3 Comments

Books received – Garber, Serres, Spanos, Bové & O’Hara, Trubetzkoy & Jakobson, Boulez

Posted on July 3, 2025 by stuartelden

Marjorie Garber, Shakespeare in Bloomsbury, now in paperback; Michel Serres, Hermes II: Interference; the older collection The Question of Textuality: Strategies of Reading in Contemporary American Criticism; Nikolai Trubetzkoy’s correspondence with Roman Jakobson in French translation; and Pierre Boulez’s lectures … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Serres, Roman Jakobson, William Shakespeare | 1 Comment

Six Months of ‘Sunday Histories’ – weekly short essays on Progressive Geographies

Posted on June 30, 2025 by stuartelden

At the beginning of 2025 I decided to try to post a short essay each week on Progressive Geographies. I felt the blog had become too much of a noticeboard, sharing information about interesting books, talks or shorter pieces by … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Alexandre Koyré, Edward Said, Emile Benveniste, Erwin Panofsky, Henri Lefebvre, Jean Hyppolite, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Territory, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Pierre Yves-Testenoire, Les cours de Roman Jakobson à l’École Libre des Hautes Études: New York, 1942–1946 – De Gruyter, August 2025

Posted on June 23, 2025 by stuartelden

Pierre Yves-Testenoire, Les cours de Roman Jakobson à l’École Libre des Hautes Études: New York, 1942–1946 – De Gruyter, August 2025 Exiled in the United States during the Second World War, linguist Roman Jakobson gave a series of lectures at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Roman Jakobson | Leave a comment

Books received – Quinn, Stonebridge, Harari, Donato, Anheim & Pasquali, Kojève, Jakobson, Wilson, Fall

Posted on June 11, 2025 by stuartelden

A pile of mostly recently bought books, including Josephine Quinn, How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History; Lyndsey Stonebridge, We are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience; Etienne Anheim and Paul Pasquali, Bourdieu et Panofsky: … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Boundaries, Erwin Panofsky, Hannah Arendt, Juliet Fall, Pierre Bourdieu, Roman Jakobson, Territory | 1 Comment