Abstract

This contribution discusses a phase in the history of the concept of ›structure‹ which is of great importance for the emergence of the ›structuralistic‹ methodologyin cultural studies. The concept of ›structure‹ was developed by the Russian phenomenological and hermeneutical philosopher Gustav Shpet in the 1920sas an important methodological tool of knowledge in cultural studies. Central importance is attached to the analysis of the ›structure of the word‹ which has aparadigmatic character for all socio-cultural research. Shpet transforms Wilhelm Dilthey’s idea of ›structure‹ into the concept of the structure of linguistic sensein terms of the philosophy of language and hermeneutics which was further developed in a ›structuralistic‹ sense by Russian linguists and literary scientistspreferably researchers of literature in Roman Jakobson’s circle.