Todorov: a structuralist transfigured Cover Image

Tzvetan Todorov - transfiguracja strukturalisty
Todorov: a structuralist transfigured

Author(s): Zofia Mitosek
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Literary theory; Structuralism; Tzvetan Todorov; Humanities

Summary/Abstract: The author discusses the consecutive stages of evolution of the thought of Tzvetan Todorov, the Bulgarian-French structuralist. She uses the word ‘transfiguration’ on purpose, as the notion may stand for metamorphose or conversion – something that concerns scientific views only to a small extent, primarily acting in the spheres of emotion and belief. Todorov has parted with structuralism for two reasons: (1) resulting from his afterthought on the method’s effects in teaching literature (literary education being limited t analysing single pieces or, at best, fragments thereof; and, (2) as a protest against suspension of the question about the sense of the dealings employed, against literature being cut off from its actual genesis and functions. Having broken off with the sciences, Todorov advocates the need for humanism: in order to get to the sense, or meaning, the text’s ‘interior’ should be investigated; in the first place, however, the text should be placed within the context of the history of ideas.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 165-174
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Polish