Linguistic Turns, 1890-1950: Writing on Language as Social Theory

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Linguistic Turns rewrites the intellectual and cultural history of early twentieth-century Europe. In chapters that study the work of Saussure, Russell, Wittgenstein, Bakhtin, Benjamin, Cassirer, Shklovskii, the Russian Futurists, Ogden and Richards, Sorel, Gramsci, and others, it shows how European intellectuals came to invest 'language' with extraordinary force, at a time when the social and political order of the continent was itself in question. By examining linguistic turns in concert rather than in isolation, the volume changes the way we see them―no longer simply as moves in individual disciplines, but as elements of a larger constellation, held together by common concerns and anxieties. In a series of detailed readings, the volume reveals how each linguistic turn invested 'language as such' with powers that could redeem not just individual disciplines but Europe itself. It shows how, in the hands of different writers, language becomes a model of social and political order, a tool guaranteeing analytical precision, a vehicle of dynamic change, a storehouse of mythical collective energy, a template for civil society, and an image of justice itself. By detailing the force linguistic turns attribute to language, and the way in which they contrast 'language as such' with actual language, the volume dissects the investments made in words and sentences and the visions behind them. The constellation of linguistic turns is explored as an intellectual event in its own right and as the pursuit of social theory by other means. Cover Linguistic Turns, 1890–1950: Writing on Language as Social Theory Copyright Dedication Preface and Acknowledgements Contents Note on Translations and References 1: Introduction: Linguistic Turns as Social Theory LANGUAGE AND THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY LANGUAGE AND THE PEOPLE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ‘LANGUAGE IN GENERAL’ IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY THE SHAPE OF THE BOOK: THREE CLAIMS PART I: ORDER 2: ‘Grammar, for example, can only be studied in the crowd’: Reason, Analogy, and the Nature of Social Consent ANALOGY: A STICKING POINT IN THE HISTORY OF LINGUISTICS ANALOGY AND SOCIAL ORDER ANALOGY AND THE COLLECTIVE WILL: WHETHER SPEAKERS THINK 3: The Ship of Logic on the High Seas of Discourse HUNTING THE SNARK: THE PROPOSITION WITHIN THE SENTENCE WITTGENSTEIN TURNS THE PROBLEM ON ITS HEAD CLARITY AND INTERSUBJECTIVITY A CULTURE OF SCIENCE ‘NEW WITTGENSTEINIANS’ TAKE A LITERARY SLANT MODERNIST IRONY AN AESTHETIC OF CLARIFICATION ANALOGY, THE ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ALWAYS WORKS 4: Saussure and the Soviets SAUSSURE OPENS PANDORA’S BOX: THE SOCIAL SIDE OF LANGUAGE KARTSEVSKII TRIES TO CLOSE THE BOX: LANGUAGE AND REVOLUTION VINOKUR: SAUSSURE AND LINGUISTIC POLITICS 5: On the Diversity—and Productivity—of Language BAKHTIN: DIVERSITY AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE NOVEL SAUSSURE: THE PRODUCTIVITY OF SOCIAL LIFE BENJAMIN: FROM PURE LANGUAGE TO THE CITY SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS OF A PROVISIONAL SORT PART II: MYTH 6: Do They Believe in Magic? The Word as Myth, Name, and Art WORD MAGIC, SCIENCE OF SYMBOLISM FREGE GRAPPLES WITH THE PUBLIC INVENTED LANGUAGES: THEIR PLUSES AND MINUSES BAKHTIN, MODERNITY AND MYTH 7: Myth You Can Believe In CASSIRER’S STRUGGLE WITH MYTH MAKING STRANGE AS DEMOCRATIZED MYTH: FUTURISTS AND FORMALISTS IN RUSSIA BENJAMIN, THE DIVINE AND THE MYTHIC Excursus: Reversing Out—Sorel’s Heroic Myth, Gramsci’s Slow Magic 8: High Anxiety, Becalmed Language: Ordinary Language Philosophy AN ART OF SEEING SENTENCES GESTURES, MUSIC, AND A SIGNIFICANT COMPLICATION MEANWHILE, IN OXFORD Conclusion: Motorways and Cul-de-Sacs—What the Linguistic Turns Turned To SOME FINAL REFLECTIONS Bibliography Index