Introduction

Abstract

The Course in General Linguistics (1916) has had over a one-hundred-year-long legacy, and it became an indispensable “Great Book” in the contemporary canon of ideas. This canonical text laid out an innovative research program in modern linguistics, and it led to the development of structuralist methods in the humanities. While the Course is justifiably enshrined within the canon, recent developments in Saussurean linguistics offer multiple venues for developing a critical perspective on this foundational text. This groundbreaking research has been largely confined to specialized French-language academic venues, and it is therefore not as popular and widely accessible as the Course itself. This book seeks to fill a part of the gap in Saussurean scholarship for English-speaking readers. The first part is concerned with the legitimacy of the Course in light of discrepancies between Saussure’s personal manuscripts and the posthumous redaction of the Course itself. Part II examines the contemporary legacy of the Course in the reception of Saussure’s work by Lacan, Derrida, and Merleau-Ponty.