SEARCH TERM is JAKOBSON, ROMAN 1 of 3 Entries #1 Book Review Jakobson, Roman:1896-1982 ; Waugh, Linda R. (ed) ; Monville-Burston, Monique (ed) On language Harvard Univ. Press ; 1990 reviewed in: Choice v28 p1304 April '91 Johnson, D.B. (250w) reviewed in: Library Journal v115 p127 December '90 Brody, Leon H. (140w) SUBJECTS COVERED: Language and languages ABSTRACT: This volume presents a selection of the author's writings on various aspects of linguistics. Bibliography. Indexes. REVIEW: Choice v28 p1304 April '91 Johnson, D.B. (250w) [Jakobson] was <-+ for Next Entry or ESC to STOP DISPLAY End/PgDn/v to Scroll Down one of the seminal thinkers of the 20th century. . . . A pair of readers issued by Harvard University Press contain Jakobson's more important and more accessible studies. The first, Language in Literature [BRD 1989], contains studies in poetics. . . . Most of the works [in the volume under review] are given in their entirety; a few are published here for the first time. Former Jakobson colleague Linda Waugh and her associate have provided a useful introduction outlining Jakobson's views and have organized the essays into logically ordered thematic groupings. Each essay is prefaced by an editor's note that provides context and neatly summarizes the content. Handsomely produced, with a splendid bibliography and separate name and subject indexes, this volume, like its earlier companion volume, is essential for all academic libraries. REVIEW: Library Journal v115 p127 December '90 Brody, Leon H. (140w) This selection of [Jakobson's] writings from the entire range of his academic career gives a good overview of his linguistic theories, showing how his orientation changed from structuralist to functionalist as he came to believe that usage rather than system was central to understanding language. Especially noteworthy here is his admission that Charles Sanders Peirce' work in semiotics influenced him tremendously, leading him to 'a larger study of communication, involving social anthropology, sociology and economics' and eventually biology and neurolinguistics. For academic subject collections. #2 Book Review Jakobson, Roman:1896-1982 ; Pomorska, Krystyna (ed) ; Rudy, Stephen (ed) Language in literature. Belknap Press ; 1987 reviewed in: Choice v26 p106 September '88 Johnson, D.B. (230w) reviewed in: Library Journal v112 p112 November 1 '87 Kaczvinsky, Donald P. (150w) reviewed in: The Times Literary Supplement p41 January 13 '89 Galan, F.W. (1350w) reviewed in: World Literature Today v63 p173 Winter '89 Sosa, Michael (360w) Contains: illustration(s) SUBJECTS COVERED: Literature Poetics Semiotics ABSTRACT: This is a collection of twenty-nine essays and lectures written between 1919 and 1979 in Czech, French, German, Russian and English. They are "divided into four sections, 'Questions of Literary Theory,' 'Grammar in Poetry,' 'Writer, Biography, Myth,' and 'Semiotic Vistas.'" (Libr J) The essays were published previously in such journals as Iskusstvo, Language and Slavische Rundschau, and in Festschrifts and editions of conference papers. Index. REVIEW: Choice v26 p106 September '88 Johnson, D.B. (230w) Jakobson was one of the seminal minds of the 20th century, making major contributions to anthropology, linguistics, literary studies, and semiotics. The present collection . . . includes enormously influential theoretical studies such as 'Linguistics and Poetics,' as well as lesser, occasional pieces. . . . The essays present a much broader selection than the 1985 collection Verbal Art, Verbal Sign, Verbal Time, although there is some overlap. Almost all of Jakobson's more significant work is available in his voluminous (and extremely expensive) Selected Writings, where, however materials usually appear in their original language of publication Jakobson's compact prose is well translated, and his editors have provided brief introductions to each section. This volume is essential for all academic libraries. REVIEW: Library Journal v112 p112 November 1 '87 Kaczvinsky, Donald P. (150w) The book amply displays the range and depth of one of the great scholars of our time and contains important theoretical essays as well focused studies on poem by Shakespeare, Yeats, Blake, Pushkin, and Baudelaire. Highly recommended for academic libraries. REVIEW: The Times Literary Supplement p41 January 13 '89 Galan, F.W. (1350w) [This anthology] unquestionably offers the best of Jakobson. It has been edited with the greatest care and consistency by Jakobson's widow the late Krystyna Pomorska, and his principal literary heir and collaborator, Stephen Rudy. . . . Six out of the twenty-nine essays, mostly translated from Russian, appear here for the first time, and several other have been extensively revised by Jakobson. . . . Jakobson has been pigeon-holed as a linguist unappreciative of the finer points of poetry on the basis of a small and misunderstood fragment of his total output, but even a brief perusal of the volume under review should persuade anyone that in terms of trenchancy, precision, versatility and cultural range, Jakobson's oeuvre is without rival in the modern age. He has been the central, if as yet unacknowledged, figure in the development of modern poetics; it is time for us to come to terms with his formidable legacy. World Literature Today v63 p173 Winter '89 Sosa, Michael (360w) 3 #3 Book Review Jakobson, Roman:1896-1982; Pomorska, Krystyna Dialogues MIT Press ; 1983 reviewed in: Choice v20 p1590 July/August '83 (190w) reviewed in: The New York Review of Books v31 p29 April 12 '84 Frank, Joseph (8000w) reviewed in: The Times Litary Supplement p228 March 2 '84 Stone, Gerald (2300w) reviewed in: World Literature Today v58 p330 Spring '84 Sosa, Michael (750w) SUBJECTS COVERED: Language and languages Jakobson, Roman:1896-1982 ABSTRACT: "The conversations cover such topics as the characterization of the phoneme--symbolist poetry--the painters of the Russian avant-garde--the structural approach to understanding literature and folklore--the relation of sound and meaning in poetry--linguistic universals--semiotic systems and Peirce's theory of signs--the genetic basis of language--'markedness'--parallelism in literary works--the specific role of grammar in poetry--film poetics--aphasia as the reversal of the process of language acquisition by children." (Publisher's note) Bibliography. Originally published in France in 1980 under the title R. Jakobson and K. Pomorska: Dialogues. REVIEW: Choice v20 p1590 July/August '83 (190w) The volume compactly treats Jakobson's seminal contributions to numerous areas: phonology, grammar, poetics, folklore, myth--to mention only the better known. . . . In spite of its conversational title, Dialogues, the text is composed in Jakobson's usual compact, lapidary style. The volume is a valuable bird's-eye view but is fully accessible only to readers already familiar with much of Jakobson's work. For a more elementary introduction, see Roman Jakobson and Linda Waugh, The Sound Shape of Language. Preface by MIT linguist Morris Halle and afterword by Krystyna Pomorska. REVIEW: The New York Review of Books v31 p29 April 12 '84 Frank, Joseph (8000w) No scholar of modern times has done more to revitalize the study what has come to be called 'the human sciences'--and particularly the science of language--than Roman Jakobson; and it is good to have this summary of his career, in the form of question-and-answer sessions with his former student and then wife, Krystyna Pomorska. . . . His writings are so scattered, exist in so many languages, and cover so many disciplines that the condensed overview of his activity offered by the present volume is more than welcome. All the same, these dialogues are not as illuminating as they might have been--for a perfectly comprehensible and easily forgivable reason. . . . [The book] is rather a celebration than a conversation or true dialogue. But since the emphasis remains strictly on Jakobson's work, which there are reasons enough to celebrate, the tone does not become too adulatory. REVIEW: The Times Literary Supplement p228 March 2 '84 Stone, Gerald (2300w) It is, perhaps, a pity that in these dialogues there is no debate and that the main performer is always allowed to have his own way. There are few references to his critics, except in the twelfth Dialogue, 'Poetry and Grammar', where two pages are devoted to refuting the chapter on 'Jakobson's Poetic Analyses' in Jonathan Culler's Structuralist Poetics [BRD 1975]. We should not allow Jakobson's brilliant contributions to general linguistic theory to outshine the specifically Slavonic side of his work. REVIEW: World Literature Today v58 p330 Spring '84 Sosa, Michael (750w) [This book] has unfortunately become a kind of last will and testament of the life work of Roman Jakobson. Due to Jakobson's death in July 1982, the English translation of Dialogues is marked with a stamp of finality that is certainly not present in the text's initial form, for Dialogues is anything but a threnody. It is in fact a description and analysis of serious work in progress, filled with all the excitement, polemics, and evolving potential which we associate with that genre. Krystyna Pomorska by no means assigns herself the function of mere intellectual receptacle here. Dialogues is a genuine conversation between two of the most highly respected Slavicists of our era and Pomorska draws upon her own profound knowledge of and experience in literary history and poetics. . . . Jakobson and Pomorska have left future scholars an invaluable historical document.