Saussure’s Linguistics, Structuralism, and Phenomenology

This is the first English-language guidebook geared at an interdisciplinary audience that reflects relevant scholarly developments related to the legacy and legitimacy of Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics (1916) today. It critically assesses the relation between materials from the Course and from the linguist’s Nachlass (works unpublished or even unknown at Saussure’s death, some of them recently discovered). This book pays close attention to the set of oppositional pairings: the signifier and the signified, la langue (language system) and la parole (speech), and synchrony and diachrony, that became the hallmark of structuralism across the humanities. Sometimes referred to as the “Saussurean doctrine,” this hierarchical conceptual apparatus becomes revised in favor of a horizontal set of relations, which co-involves speaking subjects and linguistic structures. This book documents the continued relevance of Saussure’s linguistics in the 21^st Century, and it sheds light on its legacy within structuralism and phenomenology. The reader can consult the book on its own, or in tandem with the 1916 Course.

“Stawarska has a genius for explaining complex ideas in a clear and authoritative voice, making this book a valuable point of reference for students and scholars alike.”
–John E. Joseph, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

“It is a great joy that, thanks to Stawarska’s book, English speaking readers may appreciate the importance of Saussure’s recovered writings, and the revolution in human sciences they give rise to!”
–Simon Bouquet, University of Paris Nanterre, France 

“Stimulating and accessible. To write a short book that introduces the received (and distorted) thought of a thinker, the historical reception of the received doctrine and recent scholarship, while referring to the manuscript sources and the radically transformed ‘ghostwritten’ book, is quite a feat.”
–Anna Petronella Foultier, Stockholm University, Sweden

Beata Stawarska is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon, USA. She is an author of Saussure’s Philosophy of Language (2015), Between You and I (2009), and numerous essays in contemporary Continental and feminist philosophy.