Hirschkop’s monograph offers a dense reconstruction of the way in which language was conceptualised and gained momentum in the scientific and intellectual sphere from the onset of structural thinking until the second post-war period in Europe. This being the aim, it covers a broad range of thinkers – linguists, such as Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913); philosophers, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein (1899–1951) and Bertrand Russell (1872–1970); Russian Futurists and literary critics, such as Mikhail M. Bakhtin (1895–1975) and Viktor Shklovskij (1893–1984) – showing the process through which language was turned from being a simple object of investigation into a key for understanding and interpreting history and reality. Or, in other words, how a stance on language became language as stance.

References

Rorty, Richard M.

1967 The Linguistic Turn: Recent essays in philosophical method. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Sebeok, Thomas A.

1953 “Structure and Content of Cheremis Charms. Part One.” Anthropos 48:3/4.369–388. “Part Two” Anthropos 48:5/6.760–772.