This work examines the role of language in forging the modern subject. While social historians tend to regard language as a pragmatic tool, as much as an instrument of power, intellectual historians often treat language as a supra-human force that somehow grips men and turns them into brainwashed automatons. Taking issue with both these approaches, the contributors to this volume treat language as a force that imbues the historical protagonist with the horizon of his/her meanings, on the one hand, and that is used to acquire a new sense of identity, on the other. In the momentous...
This work examines the role of language in forging the modern subject. While social historians tend to regard language as a pragmatic tool, as much as...