SOURCE: Ehrmann, Jacques. “Introduction to Gaston Bachelard.” MLN 81, no. 5 (December 1966): 572-78.

In the following essay, Ehrmann traces the different phases of Bachelard's career.

Before dealing with Bachelard, the literary critic, it seems relevant to recall that he was formerly a philosopher of sciences. He had already spent an important part of his career writing books and essays on scientific topics when, in 1938, he undertook his first “literary” work. This change, which appears so radical and of which there are very few examples in our modern times of intense specialization, concerns only the object of his inquiry (literature instead of science), but not his method. It is only later—during what one might consider his third phase—that the method changed. Leaving aside his work on science, we shall limit ourselves to an exposition and analysis of the phases related to Bachelard's literary career.

How did this shift from...