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Chapter 7 - Saussure’s cahiers and Lucretius’ elementa: A Reconsideration of the Letters–Atoms Analogy
from Part III - The Word and the World
- By Wilson H. Shearin
Edited by Donncha O'Rourke, University of Edinburgh
Book:

Approaches to Lucretius

Published online:

25 June 2020

Print publication:

16 July 2020, pp 140-154
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Summary

This chapter offers a reconsideration of the well-known letters–atoms analogy in Lucretius’ DRN. By reviewing two readings of this analogy and then turning to the anagrammatic ‘readings’ of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (who in three unpublished cahiers found significant names hidden in DRN), the chapter highlights gaps and omissions in the two existing interpretations. In particular, whereas the previous interpretations use the analogy as license to focus on either the sound of syllables or the arrangement of letters, Saussure instead allows us to think that the force of the analogy may lie not only in the written or spoken properties of letters but also in their creative power, their performative ability to create new words and denote new objects in the world.