Knights, Mark and Burgess, Glenn (2011) Commonwealth : the social, cultural, and conceptual contexts of an early modern keyword. The Historical Journal, Vol.54 (No.3). pp. 659-687. doi:10.1017/S0018246X11000203 ISSN 0018-246X.

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Abstract

The article explores ‘commonwealth’ both as a term and a conceptual field across the early modern period, with a particular focus on the Anglophone world. The shifts of usage of ‘commonwealth’ are explored, from a term used to describe the polity, to one used to describe a particular, republican form of polity, through to its eclipse in the eighteenth century by other terms such as ‘nation’ and ‘state’. But the article also investigates the variety of usages during any one time, especially at moments of crisis, and the network of related terms that constituted ‘commonwealth’. That investigation requires, it is argued, not just a textual approach but one that embraces social custom and practice, as well as the study of literary and visual forms through which the keyword ‘commonwealth’ was constructed. The article emphasizes the importance of social context to language; the forms, metaphors and images used to describe and depict the polity; and to show how linguistic change could occur through the transmutation of elements of the conceptual field that endowed the keyword with its meaning.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts > History
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	State, The -- History, Political science -- Language, Political science -- Social aspects
Journal or Publication Title:	The Historical Journal
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	0018-246X
Official Date:	2011
Dates:	Date Event 2011 Published
Volume:	Vol.54
Number:	No.3
Page Range:	pp. 659-687
DOI:	10.1017/S0018246X11000203
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit:	17 December 2015
Date of first compliant Open Access:	17 December 2015

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

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