Texts presented at an international symposium, entitled ‘The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man’, at The Johns Hopkins Center, Baltimore, USA, from 18th to 21st October 1966.
All the contributions to this symposium were published in: ‘The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man: the Structuralist Controversy’ edited by Richard Macksey and Eugenio Donato: The Johns Hopkins Press Baltimore and London: Published 1970. Download the book at www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /texts on request. Information on availability is at www.LacanianWorks.org /4 Jacques Lacan (19661018) or www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /Lacan (October 1966) or /Authors by Date (October 1966)
Index of Post
Contents of ‘The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man – the Structuralist Controversy’
Quote from the Preface
Quote from ‘About the Participants’
Colloquists at the seminar
Commentary :
– JE thinks it probable that Jacques Lacan is commenting on this Conference in the interview ‘Radiophonie’. It is necessary to use Jack W. Stone’s translation which includes the reference to the Ford Foundation. See the notes to Thoughts about the current forms of the impossible to teach : 21st September 2000 : Éric Laurent at this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Laurent) & Radiophonie : 9th April 1970 : Jacques Lacan at this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19700409 or Index of Jacques Lacan’s texts). As at July 2024, this text needs transferring with the updates…
– Jacques Lacan cuts between the real(ly)-symbolic (RS) & symbolic(ally)-real (SR) (a cartel ending/work-in-progress presentation) : 17th July 2019 (London) : Julia Evans. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Evans or Index of Julia Evans’ texts)
– A few notes on the 1966 Baltimore conference (inside and outside the conference, or better yet, the conference on a Moebius strip) : April 2022 : Richard Klein, p1-3 of www.Freud2Lacan.com /Lacan (92. Lacan’s 2 interventions and presentation (Of Structure as an Inmixing of an Otherness Prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever) at the October 1966, The Language of Criticism and the Sciences of Man Conference in Baltimore)
Book Contents & Availability
Pix Preface
Richard Macksey P1 Lions and Squares: Opening Remarks. [Notes only available at Lions and Squares – Opening Remarks : 18th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Richard Macksey. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Macksey or Index of other Authors’ texts)]
René Girard P15 Tiresias and the Critic. [Notes & text available at Tiresias and the Critic : 18th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : René Girard, this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Girard or Index of Other Authors’ texts)]
Charles Morazé P22 Literary Invention
P33 Discussion. [Notes & Download available. at Literary Invention : 18th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Charles Morazé & Discussion by Jacques Lacan. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Morazé).]
Georges Poulet P56 Criticism and the Experience of Interiority.
P73 Discussion [Notes only. Criticism and the Experience of Interiority & Discussion : 19th October 1966 : Georges Poulet. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Poulet or Index of Other Authors’ texts).]
Eugenio Donato P89 The Two Languages of Criticism. [Notes only. The Two Languages of Criticism : 19th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Eugenio Donato. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Donato or Index of Other Authors’ texts)]
Lucien Goldman P98 Structure: Human Reality and Methodological Concept
. 110 Discussion: Eugenio Donato-Lucien Goldman. [Notes & Download available. Structure – Human Reality and Methodological Concept : 19th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Lucien Goldman with Comments by Jacques Lacan. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Goldman) or /4 Jacques Lacan (19661018).]
Tzvetan Todorov 125 Languages and Literature. [Notes only. Languages and Literature : 20th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Tzvetan Todorov. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Todorov or Index of Other Authors’ texts)]
Roland Barthès 134 To Write, An Intransitive Verb?
P145 Discussion: Barthes-Todorov. [Notes & text available. To Write – An Intransitive Verb? & Discussion : 20th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Roland Barthès. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Barthès or index of other Authors’ texts)]
Jean Hyppolite P157 The Structure of Philosophic Language According to the “Preface” to Hegel’s ‘Phenomenology of the Mind’
P169 Discussion. [ Notes & text available. The Structure of Philosophic Language According to the “Preface” to Hegel’s ‘Phenomenology of the Mind’ & Discussion : 19th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Jean Hyppolite. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Hyppolite).]
Jacques Lacan P186 Of Structure as an inmixing of an Otherness prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever
P195 Discussion. [Notes & text available. Of Structure as an Inmixing of an Otherness prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever: 20th October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Jacques Lacan. See this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19661018).]
Guy Rosolato P201 The Voice and the Literary Myth
P215 Discussion. [Notes only. The Voice and the Literary Myth & Discussion : 21st October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Guy Rosolato. See this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19661018) or https://web.archive.org/web/20160201155737/http://www.lacanianworks.net/?p=272 .]
Neville Dyson-Hudson P218 Structure and Infrastructure in Primitive Society: Lévi-Strauss and Radcliffe-Brown
P242 Comments. [Notes only. Structure and Infrastructure in Primitive Society – Lévi-Strauss and Radcliffe-Brown & Comments : 21st October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Neville Dyson-Hudson. See this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19661018) or https://web.archive.org/web/20160202041914/http://www.lacanianworks.net/?p=273]
Jacques Derrida P247 Structure, sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
P265 Discussion. [Notes & text available. Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences & Discussion : 21st October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Jacques Derrida. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Derrida or Index of Other Authors’ texts).]
Jean-Pierre Vernant P273 Greek Tragedy – Problems of Interpretation
P289 Discussion. [Notes & text available. Greek Tragedy – Problems of Interpretation & Discussion : 21st October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Jean-Pierre Vernant. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Vernant or Index of Other Authors’ texts)]
Nicolas Ruwet P296 Linguistics and Poetics
P313 Discussion. [Notes only available. Linguistics and Poetics & Discussion : 21st October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Nicolas Ruwet : See this site /4 Jacques Lacan (October 1966) or https://web.archive.org/web/20160202041920/http://www.lacanianworks.net/?p=276]
Richard Macksey, René Girard, Jean Hyppolite P319 Concluding Remarks. [For notes and the text, Concluding Remarks : 21st October 1966 (Baltimore, USA) : Richard Macksey, René Girard & Jean Hyppolite, see this site /Texts by date (October 1966)
Lucien Goldman P323 Appendix I
Structure: réalité humaine et concept méthodologique
Jean Hyppolite P335 Appendix II
Structure du langage philosophique d’après la “Préface de la phénoménologie de l’esprit” de Hegel
Jean-Pierre Vernant P345 Appendix III
Le Moment historique de la tragédie en Gréce-essai d’interpretation
P350 About the Participants
P357 Colloquists
P362 Sponsoring Committee
P363 Index
Quote from the Preface (Donato & Macksey) – Pix (the first two paragraphs)
‘Les théories et les écoles, comme les microbes et les globules, s’entre-dévorent et assurent par leur lutte la continuité de la vie.’ Marcel Proust
The papers and discussions collected in this volume constitute the proceedings of the international symposium entitled “The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man,” [“Les Langages Critiques et les Sciences de l’Homme”] enabled by a grant from the Ford Foundation. The sessions were convened under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins Humanities Center, during the week of October 18-21, 1966, when over one hundred humanists and social scientists from the United States and eight other countries gathered in Baltimore. The symposium inaugurated a two-year program of seminars and colloquia which sought to explore the impact of contemporary “structuralist” thought on critical methods in humanistic and social studies. The general title emphasized both the pluralism of the existing modes of discourse and the interaction of disciplines not entirely limited to the conventional rubric of the “humanities”.
By focusing the discussions on the structuralist phenomenon, the organizers were not seeking to promote a manifesto nor even to arrive at a fixed and unambiguous definition of structuralism itself. To many observers there seemed already to be too many manifestos, while satisfactory definitions of such polymorphic activities, or cultural events, are generally only achieved after the principals are safely dead. The danger was clearly that of deforming a method or a “family of methods” into a doctrine. The purpose of the meetings, rather, was to bring into an active and not uncritical contact leading European proponents of structural studies in a variety of disciplines with a wide spectrum of American scholars. It was hoped that this contact could in turn, stimulate innovations both in the received scholarship and in the training of scholars.
Quote from ‘About the Participants’ – p350 onwards
JE notes: These notes were correct in 1970. The list of publications, against each participant has been omitted.
Roland Barthès: is at present Directeur d’Études in the VIe Section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, where he conducts seminars on “semio-criticism and the sociology of signs, symbols, and collective representations.” His early essays in ‘Combat’ were published in ‘Le Degré zero de l’écriture’, a landmark in contemporary criticism. He was also one of the founders of Théâtre Populaire and an early champion of Brecht in France. During the first term of 1967-68, he was a visiting professor at The Johns Hopkins University. He also participated in the Continuing Seminars under the Ford Grant.
Jacques Derrida: of the École Normale Supérieure did work on Edmund Husserl and has recently published remarkably influential essays on contemporary questions in methodology. He has recently joined The Johns Hopkins faculty.
Eugenio Donato:, one of the organizers of the Sumposium, has recently joined the faculty of the State University of New York in Buffalo. His training was in mathematics and Romance philology. He has published essays on Italian and French literature and on the methodology of the ‘sciences de l’homme’.
Neville Dyson-Hudson: is a faculty member of The Johns Hopkins University. He studied at Oxford under Evans-Pritchard.
René Girard is the former chairman of the Department of Romance Languages at The Johns Hopkins University and one of the organizers of the Symposium. He has written widely on topics in French literature and is currently concerned with the psychological and philosophical implications of the Oedipus myth.
Lucien Goldman:, Directeur d’Études in the VIe Section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, and a member of the Institut de Sociologie (Brussels), is the author of ‘La Dieu caché’, a crucial book in developing his “structuralisme génétique.” He was visiting professor at Hopkins the first term of 1966-67.
Jean Hyppolite: was professor of the History of Philosophy at the Collège de France and former Director of the École Normale Supérieure.
Jacques Lacan:, the founder of l’École Freudienne de Paris, is one of the most seminal and controversial figures in contemporary French intellectual life. During his visit to Baltimore, he also lectured at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. In 1970 his publications are given as
‘De la psychose paranoiaque dans ses rapports avec la personnalité’, Paris: Le François, 1932 [See On Paranoid Psychosis in its relationships with the personality, followed by first writings on Paranoia (Aimée) : 7th July 1932 : Jacques Lacan on this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19320101 or Index of Jacques Lacan’s texts)]
‘Écrits’, Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1966 : For translations see this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19661001 or Index of Jacques Lacan’s texts)
‘The Language of the Self: The Function of Language in Psychoanalysis’, translated by Anthony Wilden, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1968. [For availability see ‘The Language of the Self – The function of language in psychoanalysis by Jacques Lacan’ : 1968 : Anthony Wilden at this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Wilden or Index of Other Authors’ texts) &
The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis (Rome) : 26th September 1953 : Jacques Lacan : Also known as the Rome Report. See this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19530901 or Index of Jacques Lacan’s texts)]
Richard Macksey: is the Acting Director of the Humanities Center and has published work in number theory, intellectual history, and hermeneutics, as well as poems and translations. He has been involved in filn-making and has written on the semiotics of the film, music and critical studies of Sterne, Darwin, Henry James, Rilke, Proust, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Robbe-Grillet.
Charles Morazé: Secretary of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Charles Morazé is one of the founders of the VIe Section. He particpated in the Ford Continuing Seminars, exploring questions raised at the Symposium.
Georges Poulet:, former chairman of Romance Languages at Johns Hopkins, was until recently the Director of the Romanches Seminar at the Universität Zürich; he has just assumed the Chair at the Université de Nice.
Guy Rosolato: of the Clinique Delay, Paris, is a practicing psychoanalyst who has published widely both in psychoanalytical and iterary journals. He is a contributor to numerous volumes of ‘La Psychanalyse’. He also participated in the Ford Continuing Seminars.
Nicolas Ruwet: of the Fonds National Belge de la Recherche Scientifique is the French translator of Roman Jakobson. He has contributed important synthetic articles on structural linguistics, its methods, problems, and possible application to musicology. He was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967-68 and participated in the Ford Continuing Seminars. He will join The Johns Hopkins faculty in 1970.
Tzvetan Todorov: of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, participated in the Ford Continuing Seminars exploring questions raised at the symposium.
Jean-Pierre Vernant: is Directeur d’Études in the VIe Section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études. During 1967-68 he particpated in the Johns Hopkins Humanities Seminars (Interpretation: Theory and Practice) both in Baltimore and in Zürich.
Colloquists at the seminar
Henry David Aiken – Brandeis University
Peter Caws – Hunter College
Albert Cook – SUNY-Buffalo
Serge Doubrovsky – New York University
James M. Edie – Northwestern University
Jacques Ehrmann – Yale University
Norman N. Holland – SUNY-Buffalo
Roman Jakobson – Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of technology
Roger Kempf – Universität Zürich
Jan Knott – University of Warsaw and SUNY-Stony Brook
Jacob Loewenberg – University of California at Berkeley
Paul de Man – Zürich-Johns Hopkins
Carroll C. Pratt – Princeton University
Pietro Pucci – Cornell University
David M. Schneider – University of Chicago
Related texts
– ‘The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man : the Structuralist Controversy’ edited by Richard Macksey and Eugenio Donato : The Johns Hopkins Press Baltimore and London: 1970. See Of Structure as an inmixing of an Otherness prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever : 20th October 1966 : Jacques Lacan. See this site/ 4 Jacques Lacan (19661018) Book available at www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /Texts by request
– THE FRENCH INVASION, Essay by Cynthia L. Haven — Published on 11th December 2017 – http://quarterlyconversation.com/the-french-invasion
Also Evolution of Desire, the Life of Rene Girard by Cynthia L. Haven, Michigan State University Press (2018)-contains a lot of very funny and interesting stories about who organized this conference and how Lacan and Derrida stole the show and the ruckus that occurred right after Lacan’s presentation. The book can be downloaded from www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /texts by request (Jacques Lacan – October 1966)
– Jacques Lacan cuts between the real(ly)-symbolic (RS) & symbolic(ally)-real (SR) (a cartel ending/work-in-progress presentation) : 17th July 2019 (London) : Julia Evans. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Evans or Index of Other Authors Texts)
– A few notes on the 1966 Baltimore conference (inside and outside the conference, or better yet, the conference on a Moebius strip) by Richard Klein : April 2022 p1-3 of www.Freud2Lacan.com /Lacan (92. Lacan’s 2 interventions and presentation (Of Structure as an Inmixing of an Otherness Prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever) at the October 1966, The Language of Criticism and the Sciences of Man Conference in Baltimore)
– Meeting the Subjectivity of our Time : 6th June 2022 : Thomas Svolos. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Svolos or Index of Authors’ texts)