A Genealogy of Structuralism and Language

Abstract

Les mots et les choses. Une archéologie des sciences humaines was published in 1966 when the controversies surrounding structuralism were heating up. It was a decisive contribution to the structuralist trend in the wider public and became a phenomenon to be taken into account, not only in the humanities and social sciences but also philosophically. Despite it being a large and inaccessible work on the scientific and philosophical history of Western societies since the Renaissance, it was also — to the yet unknown Foucault’s surprise — a huge success and had to be reprinted five times that year.¹ This success happened because the book contained a number of claims that were viewed as controversial at the time.