Abstract
This essay aims to resume some historical and epistemological issues related to the discursive formation concept developed by Michel Pêcheux in the heart of the French discourse analysis. It is a key concept of discourse theory that, paradoxically, became a source of misunderstandings, hurried assimilations and even proposals for abandonment. One resumes this topic as it was not exhaustively explored in the several current researches. The concept’s epistemological issues are central in this essay and, based on historical data, they aim to clarify: the theoretical paradigm from which the concept was developed; its conceptual and permanent core; its changes (corrections, refinements and increases); the specificity of the concept developed by Michel Pêcheux and its demarcation of the homonym concept by Michel Foucault. The arguments and the conclusions achieved reveal, as such, some misunderstandings still existing today in the history of the French discourse Analysis.
Keywords:
Discourse analysis; Discursive formation; Michel Pêcheux; Epistemology