Linguistic turns, 1890-1950 : writing on language as social theory / Ken Hirschkop.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hirschkop, Ken, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and languages--Philosophy--History.

Language and languages.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (338 pages)

Edition:

New product edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Summary:

Linguistic Turns rewrites the intellectual and cultural history of early twentieth-century Europe. In chapters that range over the work of Saussure, Russell, Wittgenstein, Bakhtin, Benjamin, Cassirer, Shklovskii, the Russian Futurists, Ogden and Richards, Sorel, Gramsci, and others, it shows how European intellectuals came to invest ‘language’ with extraordinary force, at a time when the social and political order of the continent was in question. By examining linguistic turns in concert rather than in isolation, Hirschkop changes the way we see them—no longer simply as moves in individual disciplines, but as elements of a larger constellation, held together by common concerns and anxieties. In a series of detailed readings, he reveals how each linguistic turn invested ‘language as such’ with powers that could redeem not just individual disciplines but Europe itself. We see how, in the hands of different writers, language becomes a model of social and political order, a tool guaranteeing analytical precision, a vehicle of dynamic change, a storehouse of mythical collective energy, a template for civil society, and an image of justice itself. By detailing the force linguistic turns attribute to language, and the way in which they contrast ‘language as such’ with actual language, Hirschkop dissects the investments made in words and sentences and the visions behind them. The constellation of linguistic turns is explored as an intellectual event in its own right and as the pursuit of social theory by other means.

Contents:

Dedication

Preface and Acknowledgements

Note on Translations and References

1 Introduction

Part I Order: 2 ‘Grammar, for example, can only be studied in the crowd’

3 The Ship of Logic on the High Seas of Discourse

4 Saussure and the Soviets

5 On the Diversity - and Productivity - of Language

Part II Myth: 6 Do They Believe in Magic? The Word as Myth, Name, and Art

7 Myth You Can Believe In Excursus

8 High Anxiety, Becalmed Language

Conclusion MatterBibliographyIndex

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-19-257462-0

0-19-187425-6

0-19-106293-6