Yale French Studies Structuralism
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Yale French Studies Structuralism Double Issue - Two Dollars Per Copy - All ArticlesIn English This content downloaded from 138.38.44.95 on Sun, 03 Jan 2016 19:52:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Yale French Studies THIRTY-SIX AND THIRTY-SEVEN STRUCTURALISM 5 Introduction The Editor LINGUISTICS 10 Structureand Language A ndreMartinet 19 Merleau-Pontyand thephenomenology of language PhilipE. Lewis ANTHROPOLOGY 41 Overtureto le Cru et le cuit Claude Levi-Strauss 66 Structuralismin anthropology Harold W. Scheffler ART 89 Some remarkson structuralanalysis in art and architecture SheldonNodelman PSYCHIATRY 104 JacquesLacan and thestructure of the unconscious JanMiel 112 The insistenceof the letterin the unconscious JacquesLacan LITERATURE 148 Structuralism:the Anglo-Americanadventure GeoffreyHartman 169 Structuresof exchangein Cinna JacquesEhrmann 200 Describingpoetic structures: Two approaches to Baudelaire'sles Chats Michael Riffaterre 243 Towards an anthropologyof literature VictoriaL. Rippere This content downloaded from 138.38.44.95 on Sun, 03 Jan 2016 19:52:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BIBLIOGRAPHIES 252 Linguistics ElizabethBarber 256 Anthropology Allen R. Maxwell 263 JacquesLacan AnthonyG. Wilden 269 Structuralismand literarycriticism T. Todorov 270 Selectedgeneral bibliography The Editor Cover: "Graph,"photograph by JacquesEhrmann. Editor, this issue: Jacques Ehrmann; Business Manager: Bruce M. Wermuth; General Editor: Joseph H. McMahon; Assistant: Jonathan B. Talbot; Advisory Board: Henri Peyre (Chairman), Michel Beaujour, Victor Brombert, Kenneth Cornell, Georges May, Charles Porter Subscriptions:$3.50 for two years (four issues), $2.00 for one year (two issues), $1.00 per number.323 W. L. HarknessHall, Yale University,New Haven, Connecticut.Printed for YFS by EasternPress, New Haven. Indexed in the InternationalIndex of Periodicals.Double issue, thirty-sixand thirty- seventhin series.Printed in U.S.A. Copyright? 1966 by Yale FrenchStudies. PublishedOctober 1966. This content downloaded from 138.38.44.95 on Sun, 03 Jan 2016 19:52:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Yale FrenchStudies Aftertwo years of devoted and imaginativeservice to Yale French Studies,Bruce M. Wermuth,the businessmanager and a studentin Yale College, has left the publication.During his tenuremany im- provementswere made in publicationschedules, subscription services, and generalmanagement; his unfailingefficiency and sense of organi- zation sparedthe editor many tedious concerns. Withthis issue, YFS appears undera new format,designed by Henry Pujol of the Yale UniversitySchool of Art and Architecture.The desire for a new format,which would be more legible and which would reflectcontemporary graphic styles, dates back several years. We believethat Mr. Pujol's designmeets this desire elegantly. Back issues of YFS, coveringNos. 1-18 may be orderedfrom Kraus ReprintCorporation, 16 East 46th Street,New York City. A list of back issues available directlyfrom the Business Manager appears on page four. Relations with bookstoresin New York and, in some cases, else- where,continue to be handledby B. DeBoer, 188 High Street,Nut- ley, New Jersey.Mrs. Tamara Bieber supplies French books from TotoketRoad, RFD 1, Quaker Hill, Conn. Notes on thecontributors will be foundon thelast page of thisissue. 3 This content downloaded from 138.38.44.95 on Sun, 03 Jan 2016 19:52:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Back issues still available fromthe Business Manager, at $1.00 per issue: 31 Surrealism 26 The mythof Napoleon 29 The New Dramatists 25 AlbertCamus 28 Jean-JacquesRousseau 24 Midnightnovelists and others 27 WomenWriters 23 Humor 19-20 ContemporaryArt The nextissue on "Classicismand classical influences"will come out shortlyafter this issue. Followingissues will be on "Revolutionand literature,"and "The mythof thetheatre." 4 This content downloaded from 138.38.44.95 on Sun, 03 Jan 2016 19:52:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Editor Introduction Man is made in such a way thathe con- tinuallyhas to definehimself and contin- ually escape his own definitions.Reality is not about to let itselfbe completely enclosedin form.Form for itspart does not agreewith the essence of life.Yet all thoughtthat tries to definethe inadequacy of formbecomes formin its turn and thusonly confirms our tendencytowards form. - Witold Gombrowicz Some remarksare probablynecessary as an introductionto the sub- ject of thisissue. It is not strictlyliterary, nor is thereanything specifi- cally or exclusivelyFrench about it. Since the objectives of Yale French Studies are usually concernedwith literarysubjects closely relatedto France, we may seem to be breakingwith a traditionand may even be accused of touchingon an area which is beyond our competence.These argumentscannot be overlookedand lead us to make some explanatoryremarks about our choice of this topic - a topic whichhas to do withthe verybasis of our role as a journal of literarycriticism, comment, and scholarship. We maybegin by askingto whatextent structuralism is a French culturalphenomenon. Even themost rapid glance at thebibliographies printedat the end of thisissue will show thatthe world did not have to waitfor the French before discovering structuralism. In the area of linguistics,for example, the great centers of influencehave been - and in some cases remain- Geneva,Prague, Copenhagen, New York, and Cambridge,Mass. - as well as Paris. If we look only at the United States,we findthat it has made vital contributionsto structuralism whichhas been practicedwith brilliance by linguistsas well as anthro- pologists.Among the more recenttrends, one thinks,in linguistics, of the workof Naom Chomskyand his theoryof generativegrammar; and in anthropology,of W. H. Goodenoughand F. G. Lounsburyfor theirmethod of componentialanalysis. By contrast,American psy- choanalysishas shownhardly any interest in structuralmethods, while in France the difficultworks of Dr. JacquesLacan offera major con- 5 This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Mon, 19 Jan 2015 08:04:30 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Yale FrenchStudies tribution.The firstarticle of his to be translatedand publishedin Englishis printedin thisissue. Though it is limitedto certainof the disciplinesin the social sciences,structuralism is none the less quite alive in this country.It has its own traditionbehind it. As a result,we cannot say that the Frenchare thepioneers in thisdomain. But it is evidentto anyonewho observesthe French intellectual scene with some care thatstructuralism has been playinga key role in France for several years. More spe- cifically,around 1962 structuralism,from a workingmethod known to and practicedby specialists,became a fashionablephilosophy dis- cussed in as many circles as Sartre's existentialismhad been after World War II; thatyear saw the publicationof Claude Levi-Strauss' La Pensee sauvage whichcontained a chapter-lengthrefutation of the importancegiven to historyby Jean-PaulSartre in his Critiquede la raison dialectique (1960). We shall not speculate at any lengthon the reasonsbehind the Frenchenthusiasm for this new "ism." It may resultfrom a combinationof variousfactors such as the centralization of Frenchintellectual life in Paris, the tendencyof Frenchintellectual milieuxto thinkin termsof schools of thoughtand followin the steps of eminentfigures, the fairlyhomogeneous tradition of hegeliano- marxisttheory around which issues cristallize,the end of the French colonial wars which,given the semi-failureof engagementtheories, allowedthis new kindof formalismto gain ground. Whateverthe combinationof factors,we shouldbe aware of the fashionableaspect of this trend and not accept it uncritically,but ratherattempt to presentas informativean analysisas possibleto the Americanpublic. If we shouldkeep a criticaldistance from structuralism as fashion or panacea, we should not reject it automaticallybecause it goes againstour habitualpatterns of thinking;rather, we should appraise it dispassionately,with attention to itsvalue as methodof investigation and analysis,we should test it throughreflexion and practice,ap- preciateits valuable qualities,pass judgmentson itsweaknesses, possi- bly improveits efficiencyas a tool, and onlyafter careful examination rejectit ifwe feelit is no longersuitable to our needs. 6 This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Mon, 19 Jan 2015 08:04:30 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Editor But who constitutesthis "we?" First of all the readers of this issuewho have been attractedto it eitherbecause of previousfamiliari- tywith structuralism or curiosityto know more about it. It is also all thosewho, as amateursor specialists,are interestedin the sciencesof man. Finally and perhaps especially,it is those who are concerned withthe studyof literaturewhere structuralism has as yet made little impression.Here the topic of thisissue and the usual preoccupations of Yale FrenchStudies touch significantly on one another.As a result, we have given an importantplace to the literaryaspects of struc- turalism. Whatis structuralism?Before being a philosophy,as some tendto see it, it is a methodof analysis.Even as such its manyfacets and dif- ferentuses make it a subjectof various interpretations,debate, even polemics.No simple or singledefinition applies to it except in very generalterms. One could say a structureis a combinationand relation of formalelements which reveal theirlogical coherencewithin