Remnants of Saussure. The criticism towards linguistics in the earlier writings of Giorgio Agamben

Ce qui reste de Saussure. La critique à la linguistique dans les premiers écrits de Giorgio Agamben

Quel che resta di Saussure. La critica alla linguistica nei primi scritti di Giorgio Agamben

Jacopo d'Alonzo (1, 2)

1 Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3
2 HTL - HTL - Histoire des Théories Linguistiques - UMR 7597

The aim of this paper is to present Giorgio Agamben’s interpretation of Saussure. Analyzing some Agamben’s writings from the 1960s and 1970s. This paper will show how his interpretation of Saussure’s Cours was deeply indebted to Jakobson and Benveniste. Fundamentally Agamben relates Saussure with Structuralism. Specifically, Agamben’s critique of goals, methods and objects of Saussure's linguistics leads him to critique some assumptions of Structuralism. Agamben finds in Saussure another semiology different from the main stream of linguistics. Such a conundrum demonstrates a deeper contradiction in Agamben’s critical evaluation of his own linguistic sources. Therefore, this paper will illustrate the consequences of Agamben’s interpretation of Saussure with regard to his philosophy of language. Agamben criticizes Structuralism and at the same time he retains to the assumptions of Structuralism.

Mots clés: Agamben – Structuralism – Saussure - Philosophy of Language

Domaines: Philosophie; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences; Linguistique

Jacopo d'Alonzo. Quel che resta di Saussure. La critica alla linguistica nei primi scritti di Giorgio Agamben. Studi Filosofici, 2017, Studi filosofici, XXXVIII. ⟨hal-01448721⟩