Making the Course: Book Writing and Reviewing

Abstract

It was commonly believed that Saussure’s students used their redacted lecture notes to compose the Course in General Linguistics in the wake of Saussure’s untimely death. However, Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, who were responsible for editing and composing the manuscript for the Course, did not attend Saussure’s lectures. Still, they positioned themselves as loyal disciples of their great master, and they sought to carry out their master’s legacy through the publication of the Course. Bally and Sechehaye did not solely base their reconstruction on the extant autograph manuscripts by Saussure and the student lecture notes, but they attempted to reconstruct a linguistics based upon a divination of Saussure’s thought. This dubious practice was legitimized by their efforts to secure themselves as the rightful heirs of the Saussurean intellectual estate and through the publication of scholarly essays and book reviews of the Course. Several students who actually attended Saussure’s lectures objected to Bally and Sechehaye’s simplified rendition. Paul Regard, Albert Riedlinger, and Antoine Meillet all expressed concerns, publicly and privately, about Bally and Sechehaye’s version of the Course.