Speaking the Social Body : Language-Origins and Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution
(2014) In Journal of Victorian Culture 19(1). p.79-92- Abstract
- This article considers the political implications of Victorian language-study for Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution (1837) (reprinted and edited by K.J. Fielding and David Sorensen (Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 1989)). I investigate how Carlyle responded to the scientific study of language with what he termed a ‘bodied word’, a reading of language based in the word-become-flesh or the doctrine of the Incarnation. I show how this bodied word reflects wider changes in modern conceptions of the polity in the wake of the French Revolution, in the shift from a hereditary body politic towards what critics have termed a ‘social body’ or a more broadly inclusive model that incorporates the working classes. I then offer a reading of The... (More)
- This article considers the political implications of Victorian language-study for Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution (1837) (reprinted and edited by K.J. Fielding and David Sorensen (Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 1989)). I investigate how Carlyle responded to the scientific study of language with what he termed a ‘bodied word’, a reading of language based in the word-become-flesh or the doctrine of the Incarnation. I show how this bodied word reflects wider changes in modern conceptions of the polity in the wake of the French Revolution, in the shift from a hereditary body politic towards what critics have termed a ‘social body’ or a more broadly inclusive model that incorporates the working classes. I then offer a reading of The French Revolution to show how Carlyle's French history was crucial to the linguistic and conceptual production of this liberal notion of the social body, even as he worked both to acknowledge and contain its political agency. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/dc31eed3-ffac-4a16-a27b-fbff00aaf774
- author
- Barrow, Barbara LU
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- language, politics, social body, nineteenth century, French Revolution
- in
- Journal of Victorian Culture
- volume
- 19
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 79 - 92
- publisher
- Oxford University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84900510090
- ISSN
- 1355-5502
- DOI
- 10.1080/13555502.2014.889419
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- dc31eed3-ffac-4a16-a27b-fbff00aaf774
- date added to LUP
- 2022-08-23 18:16:40
- date last changed
- 2022-10-11 04:46:02
@article{dc31eed3-ffac-4a16-a27b-fbff00aaf774, abstract = {{This article considers the political implications of Victorian language-study for Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution (1837) (reprinted and edited by K.J. Fielding and David Sorensen (Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 1989)). I investigate how Carlyle responded to the scientific study of language with what he termed a ‘bodied word’, a reading of language based in the word-become-flesh or the doctrine of the Incarnation. I show how this bodied word reflects wider changes in modern conceptions of the polity in the wake of the French Revolution, in the shift from a hereditary body politic towards what critics have termed a ‘social body’ or a more broadly inclusive model that incorporates the working classes. I then offer a reading of The French Revolution to show how Carlyle's French history was crucial to the linguistic and conceptual production of this liberal notion of the social body, even as he worked both to acknowledge and contain its political agency.}}, author = {{Barrow, Barbara}}, issn = {{1355-5502}}, keywords = {{language; politics; social body; nineteenth century; French Revolution}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{1}}, pages = {{79--92}}, publisher = {{Oxford University Press}}, series = {{Journal of Victorian Culture}}, title = {{Speaking the Social Body : Language-Origins and Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13555502.2014.889419}}, doi = {{10.1080/13555502.2014.889419}}, volume = {{19}}, year = {{2014}}, }