The Pursuit of Freedom: Reading Jakobson Reading Saussure

With the rise of “reading” as a textual practice in the early 80s, reading Saussure has gained much popularity. This thesis intends to join the fray and reread Saussure from a special angle: it aims at examining Roman Jakobson’s creative (mis)reading of the Course and his “development” of Saussure’s models. Jakobsonian theory can be seen in many ways as the revision of certain Saussurean ideas: his metaphor-metonymy pair replaces the associative and syntagmatic relations; and his six-factor scheme of communication substitutes the speaking-circuit. This thesis argues that the two theoretical refinements demonstrate a shift of critical attention that strives to make possible a transcendence—a liberalization of the Saussurean rule of game. With the goal of pursuing freedom at heart, the thesis scrutinizes the two Jakobsonian refinements respectively. The first refinement reorients the discussion from an old focus, i.e. the fixed syntagmatic system, towards a new one, i.e. the more creative metaphoric pole. The second reorganizes the relationship between langue and parole, a relationship first proposed by Saussure. It places code (langue) in a model of communication (parole) rather than the other way around, as Saussure’s speaking-circuit once does. These findings show that a certain pattern emerges out of Jakobson’s theoretical project: a certain intention to break free from the Course seen as the authorial text of modern linguistics. This thesis ends, however, with the reconciliation between Saussure and Jakobson, suggesting that although Jakobson misreads Saussure in places, that although Jakobson seems to remain on the outside of Saussure, his theory must depart from the Geneva master. In other words, it is Saussure’s works that enables Jakobson’s creative misreading.