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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Histoire cachée du structuralisme : entre la métaphore organique et le point de vue

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The invisible history of structuralism: between “organic metaphor” and a “point of view”Abstract: Patrick Sériot’s reconstruction of an “invisible” and “unfamiliar” history of struc-turalism leads to conclusions about the importance of a comparative analysis of the historical-epistemological contexts of Russian and German-speaking research, as well as about the decisive role of the episteme of the 19th century in later linguistic theoretical constructions. This implies the idea of two structuralisms, two models of formal or structural orientation. The object of the first is a form or a structure as a logical organization and an expression of a certain “point of view”; the object of the second is a form or a structure as an expression. This division is based on discussions, very typical to the framework of the German morphological tradition, about the organic and mechanical form and the principles of the organization (organic and mechanical) of the form. It was this discussion that determined the aesthetics of German classicism and German romanticism. The organic model and the trace of the German natural philosophy at the base of Russian structuralism make it possible to extend this genealogical and comparative approach to the whole corpus of Rus-sian formalism and to concretize the idea of a romantic genealogy of it. The re-construction of P. Sériot allowed for the application of a genetic and historical approach to formalism and structuralism that categorically denied the very possibil-ity of such an approach, in this way transforming formalism and structuralism into what they really are: historical and epistemological object