Category Archives: Roman Jakobson

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

Alexandre Koyré’s Wartime Teaching at the École Libre des Hautes Études and the New School

Posted on March 9, 2025 by stuartelden

In 1940, Alexandre Koyré was persuaded by Charles de Gaulle’s government in exile that he could make his most useful contribution to the French war effort by moving to New York and acting as secretary general of the planned École … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Hannah Arendt, René Descartes, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Edmund Leach on Roman Jakobson’s Contributions to Linguistics – audio recording from 1983

Posted on February 26, 2025 by stuartelden

In the NYU archives today, I read the typescript of a lecture given by Edmund Leach about Roman Jakobson at the New York Institute for the Humanities, and wondered if it had been published. One better, the audio recording of … Continue reading →

Posted in Roman Jakobson, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 26: Benveniste’s late publications; Sunday Histories; beginning archival work in the United States

Posted on February 14, 2025 by stuartelden

Since the last update in December, I’ve been making some good progress on this project. The focus has mainly been on Benveniste’s work in the 1960s. But, as ever, I’ve found myself backtracking to earlier parts of his career and seeing some potentially … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Henri Lefebvre, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized, Understanding Henri Lefebvre | Leave a comment

Vladimir Nabokov, Roman Jakobson, Marc Szeftel and The Song of Igor

Posted on February 9, 2025 by stuartelden

Superficially at least, the stories of Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) and Roman Jakobson (1896-1982) would seem to connect. Both were born in Russia – Nabokov in Saint Petersburg; Jakobson in Moscow; both went into exile after the Revolution – Nabokov in … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Georges Dumézil, Jean Gottmann, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized, Vladimir Nabokov | 17 Comments

Thomas Sebeok, Umberto Eco and the Semiotics of Nuclear Waste

Posted on February 2, 2025 by stuartelden

The oldest texts preserved are inscriptions which date back about 5,000 years, though the dating is disputed, and how they should be read presents its own controversies. Most of the earliest texts are on tablets or in stone; with surviving … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Julia Kristeva, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Umberto Eco | 12 Comments

Benveniste and the Linguistic Circle of Prague

Posted on January 19, 2025 by stuartelden

There are some good histories of the Linguistic Circle of Prague, which met in the years before the Second World War, and which included Russian scholars as well as ones from Czechoslovakia. Jindřich Toman’s The Magic of a Common Language is a particularly … Continue reading →

Posted in Antoine Meillet, Emile Benveniste, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Books received – Grant, Littleton, François, Bowd & Clayton, Nobus, Ariès, Linear B and the Prague Linguistic Circle

Posted on January 4, 2025 by stuartelden

Some books received in recompense for review work… … and some second-hand ones – a couple by Philippe Ariès, some about the decipherment of Linear B, and about the Prague Linguistic Circle. Most of these relate in some way to … Continue reading →

Posted in Jacques Lacan, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Roman Jakobson | Leave a comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 25: Benveniste’s teaching, a talk at St Andrews, Tzvetan Todorov, Roman Jakobson, and some archival work in Paris and Oxford

Posted on December 20, 2024 by stuartelden

I’m overdue an update on this project, but while I’ve been working hard, I haven’t felt there has been much to say until now. I’ve also had some further health problems, leading to another shorter stay in hospital and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson | 3 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 23: Emile Benveniste and Georges Dumézil at the Collège de France, and an article on Alexandre Koyré

Posted on September 9, 2024 by stuartelden

The chapter I’m currently working on for the Mapping Indo-European Thought project is a study of the two decades Benveniste and Dumézil were teaching in parallel at the Collège de France. I’ve been concentrating on Dumézil so far, but I plan to … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Emile Benveniste, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson, The Archaeology of Foucault, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | 1 Comment