Studying Literature as Language

For the past twenty-five years or so, there has been a running dispute between literary critics and linguists on the question of whether it is appropriate to apply linguistic methods -that is to say, methods derived from the discipline of linguisticsto the study of l i terature. There has been almost universal confidence among the linguistis that this activity is entirely justified; and almost universal resistance by the critics, who have regarded the exercise with almost moral indignation. In this unyielding dispute, the claims and denials on both sides have been voiced with great forcé and passion. Here is Román Jakobson putting the linguist's case, in 1958: