De la sociologie aux théories littéraires. Ancrages disciplinaires de la littérature à la VIe section de l’EPHE (1956-1975)

Abstract

This article examines how research on literature was integrated into Section VI of the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes (EPHE) over time, showing how research shifted from the sphere of sociology to the burgeoning pole of specialists on literature and the arts formed around semiology and various appropriations of structuralism. Analysis of literature’s role as a research focus in the school also reflects the transformations of disciplinary subdivisions inscribed within broader trends in the academic field. The initial connections between promoters of the so-called “internal” and “external” approaches to literary texts bring nuance to the oppositions between these approaches and shed light on some of the mechanisms of their gradual split. Lastly, by situating these small groups of lecturer-researchers (enseignants-chercheurs) in academic and intellectual spaces, I offer a refined general understanding of some academic specialization rationales.