Early Modern Keywords: the Anglo French Dynamic

The early modern period was defined from its inception by the idea of the conceptual revolution which distinguished it. Contemporary society, political systems and economic thinking track their origins to this conceptual revolution. From the mid-twentieth century historians and thinkers began to use semantic change and keywords as a means of understanding and exploring this change. The peculiar Anglo-French dynamic in these semantic shifts has long been recognized.  Recent research, which exploits the possibility of digital technology, confirms the importance of the Anglo-French dynamic. However, understandings of the migration of keywords and semantic change tended, until very recently, to be framed by within a national history and dominated by teleological assumptions of linear progress.  This workshop brings together historians and literature specialists of France and England to explore this special and important dynamic afresh. It will look at the new evidence on familiar keywords, rethink the chronology of semantic change and discuss the significance of newly uncovered keywords.

Funding from the Departments of History at Sheffield and York, the Centres for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies and Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at York, and the European History Research Centre at Warwick means that this workshop is free to registered postgraduate students and staff at the three participating institutions. However, space is limited to 50 participants and you must register via Eventbrite. Places are on a first come first serve basis. 

Provisional Programme

6 June

1.00-1.30: Coffee

1.30-2pm: Welcome: Stuart Carroll & Phil Withington

2-3.30

Jo Innes (Oxford) ‘Democracy’

Mark Philp (Warwick) ‘Politics’

Emma Clausen (Oxford) ‘Politique’

3.30-4: Coffee

4-5.30

Cathy Shrank (Sheffield) ‘Conversation’

Stuart Carroll (York) ‘Civil-‘

David Wootton (York) ‘Class’

Dinner for speakers 7pm

7 June

9-10.30

Jose Cree (Sheffield) ‘To addict’

Joe Clarke (Trinity, Dublin) ‘Atrocity’

Beth Richardson (York) ‘Medieval’

10.30-11: Coffee

11.00-12.30pm

Naomi Tadmor (Lancaster) ’Settlement’

Charles Walton (Warwick) ‘Reciprocity’

Elizabeth Wallman (Warwick) ‘Circulation’

12.30-1pm lunch

1-2pm: Resumé – Phil Withington and Roundtable

 
Free registration via  Eventbrite (Please register with your University e-mail address)