Prague

pp. 43-69

in: Jan Broekman, Structuralism, Berlin, Springer, 1974

Abstract

In this chapter we examine to what extent Prague may be said to be the place of origin of present-day structuralist thought. In so far as the aesthetic isolationism of the Opojaz-theorists was abandoned, and literary work in particular examined in its societal context, formalism gave rise to structuralism, the principles contributed by formalism being retained. Art is fundamentally perceived as a semiological fact. Based upon this insight, connexions can be made with other semiological facts, thus adding to the complexity of the structural approach. Literature is thus no longer reduced to words only, nor identified exclusively with what is literary. It is in Czechoslovakian structuralism that for the first time the outline of the structural activity becomes clear.