A groundbreaking critical introduction to Structuralism and Russian Formalism by the acclaimed literary theorist In The Prison-House of Language, Fredric Jameson, one of the most important literary and cultural critics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, provides a thorough historical and philosophical introduction to Structuralism and Russian Formalism. Combining a survey of these influential critical movements and a critique of their methodology, Jameson lays bare their presuppositions, questioning whether the methods of Saussurean linguistics can adequately capture the concrete realities of time and history. The result is a unique and thought-provoking confrontation of two major strands of modern thought and a central work in the development of Jameson's monumental critical project.

Fredric Jameson (1934-2024) was the Knut Schmidt Nielsen Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University. His many books include Marxism and Form (Princeton) and Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Caleb Smith is the Karl Young Professor of English and American Studies at Yale University. Paul North is the Maurice Natanson Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Yale.