The Study of Language and the Politics of Community in Global Context, 1740-1940

Elisabeth Kaske

ISBN 10: 0739109553 / ISBN 13: 9780739109557

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, US, 2006

About this Item

In an age of rising nationalism and expanding colonialism, the science of language has been intimately bound up with questions of immediate political concern. Taken together, the essays in this volume suggest that the emergence of language as an autonomous object of discourse was closely connected with the consolidation of new and sometimes competing forms of political community in the period following the French Revolution and the global spread of European power. This is the common thread running through the seven individual studies gathered here. By deliberately juxtaposing the European, academic configuration of modern linguistic research with the more practical, extra-European activities of missionaries, colonial officials, or East Asian literati, the authors explore the tensions between forms of linguistic knowledge generated in different geopolitical contexts, and suggest ways of thinking about the role of social science in the process of globalization.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780739109557

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Study of Language and the Politics of Community in Global Context, 1740-1940
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, US
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0739109553
• ISBN 13: 9780739109557
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 531 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In an age of rising nationalism and expanding colonialism, the science of language has been intimately bound up with questions of immediate political concern. Taken together, the essays in this volume suggest that the emergence of language as an autonomous object of discourse was closely connected with the consolidation of new and sometimes competing forms of political community in the period following the French Revolution and the global spread of European power. This is the common thread running through the seven individual studies gathered here. By deliberately juxtaposing the European, academic configuration of modern linguistic research with the more practical, extra-European activities of missionaries, colonial officials, or East Asian literati, the authors explore the tensions between forms of linguistic knowledge generated in different geopolitical contexts, and suggest ways of thinking about the role of social science in the process of globalization.

About the Author

David L. Hoyt is an independent historian living and teaching in Chicago. Karen Oslund is visiting research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C.