Overview

Contemporary thought has been profoundly shaped by the early-twentieth-century turn toward synchronic models of explanation, which analyze phenomena as they appear at a single moment, rather than diachronically as they develop through time. But the relationship between time and system remains unexplained by the standard account of this shift. Through a new history of systematic thinking across the humanities and sciences, The Writing of Spirit argues that nineteenth-century historicism wasn't simply replaced by a more modern synchronic perspective. The structuralist revolution consisted rather in a turn toward time's absolutely minimal conditions, and thus also toward a new theory of diachrony. Pourciau arrives at this surprising and powerful conclusion through an analysis of language-scientific theories over the course of two centuries, associated with thinkers from Jacob Grimm and Richard Wagner to the Russian Futurists, in domains as disparate as historical linguistics, phonology, acoustics, opera theory, philosophy, poetics, and psychology. The result is a novel contribution to a pressing contemporary question-namely, what role history should play in the interpretation of the present.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sarah M. Pourciau
Publisher:   Fordham University Press
Imprint:   Fordham University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.635kg
ISBN:  

9780823275625

ISBN 10:   0823275620
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   01 May 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction Part I. Eternal Etymology: From Sprachgeist to Ferdinand de Saussure 1. Language Ensouled Grammatical Life * Life Science * Kosmon Psychon * How Inflection Unfolds * Etymology: the Method * Spirit Superfluous? * The Demise of Analysis 2. Saussure's Dream In Search of the Literal * Neither Flesh nor Spirit * But Rather Writing * Postmeditation 3. Verse Origins Through the Letters Wafts the Spirit * 2 L, 2 P, 4 R (=2+2) * Little Sticks, Letter Rhymes * The Rhythm of Geist * The Cult of Cancellation Part II. Tending Toward Zero: From Runes to Phonemes 4. Wagner's Poetry of the Spheres Philology + Harmony * Wotan's Staff 5. Pythagoras in the Laboratory The Wagnerian Sound of Sense * Wave Systems (Acoustics) * The Undulating All (Psychophysics) * A Philology of the Ear (Poetics) 6. Jakobson's Zeros Analogy: the Method * Zero Degree Rhyme * The Silent ""e"" * Mama and Papa * In Retrospect: The Future Afterword Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

A probing and theoretically rich study on the history of linguistics, replete with impeccable research, insightful analyses, and daring but compelling conclusions, <em>The Writing of Spirit</em> is a brilliant accomplishment, certain to have a major impact on our understanding of language, physiological psychology, and the limits of structuralism. --John T. Hamilton, Harvard University

A probing and theoretically rich study on the history of linguistics, replete with impeccable research, insightful analyses, and daring but compelling conclusions, The Writing of Spirit is a brilliant accomplishment, certain to have a major impact on our understanding of language, physiological psychology, and the limits of structuralism. -- John T. Hamilton * Harvard University *

A probing and theoretically rich study on the history of linguistics, replete with impeccable research, insightful analyses, and daring but compelling conclusions, The Writing of Spirit is a brilliant accomplishment, certain to have a major impact on our understanding of language, physiological psychology, and the limits of structuralism. -- -John T. Hamilton Harvard University

A probing and theoretically rich study on the history of linguistics, replete with impeccable research, insightful analyses, and daring but compelling conclusions, The Writing of Spirit is a brilliant accomplishment, certain to have a major impact on our understanding of language, physiological psychology, and the limits of structuralism. -John T. Hamilton, Harvard University

Author Information

Sarah Pourciau is Assistant Professor of German at Princeton University.

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