Research Catalog
From barbarism to universality : language and identity in early modern France / Christopher Coski.
- Title
- From barbarism to universality : language and identity in early modern France / Christopher Coski.
- Author
- Coski, Christopher
- Publication
- Columbia, S.C. : University of South Carolina Press, c2011.
Items in the Library & Off-site
Filter by
1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | PC2075 .C67 2011 | Off-site |
Holdings
Details
- Description
- 200 p. : ill.; 24 cm.
- Summary
- "Coski examines the treatment of French linguistic and cultural evolution as a literary theme, following the conversation as these writers envisioned an increasingly refined national language and identity. From an early notion that French was inadequate to Rivarol's conclusion of "that which is not clear is not French," the idea emerged that these refinements came as natural expressions of the perceived superiority of the language itself and thus justified its rise in prominence. Complementing and expanding on existing sociohistorical studies, Coski's account weaves literary ideas, linguistic philosophy, and cultural context into a deft analysis of how the construction of French identity on individual and communal levels stemmed in part from a philosophy of language developed during the rapid transformation of an undervalued vernacular into a highly esteemed international mode of expression."--Publisher description.
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
- History
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Processing Action (note)
- committed to retain
- Contents
- Du Bellay's deffence et illustration: the vernacular inferiority complex -- Montaigne's essais: the baroque mind, language, and being -- Descartes' discours: the mind/identity complex and human language -- Vaugelas' remarques: language, quality, and communal identity -- Condillac's essai: language, analytical method, and identity -- Rivarol's De l'universalit: French superiority.
- ISBN
- 9781611170368 (cloth : alk. paper)
- 1611170362 (cloth : alk. paper)
- LCCN
- ^^2011017788
- OCLC
- 722843253
- Owning Institutions
- Harvard Library