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Speaking the Social Body : Language-Origins and Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution

Barrow, Barbara LU (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)
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author
publishing date
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}},
}