Publications

Publication details [#5614]

Hart, F. Elizabeth. 1998. Matter, system, and Early Modern studies: Outlines for a materialist linguistics. 33 pp.

Abstract

This ambitious and theoretically astute essay argues that a materialist linguistics drawing on metaphorics, especially the cognitive theory of metaphor developed by Lakoff, Johnson, and others, stands to provide a more effective basis for poststructuralist approaches to early modern studies (and cultural studies generally) than can the dated and "top-down" linguistic theories relied on at present. Changes in Early Modern English vocabulary (specifically in Shakespeare) are discussed as one example of the advantages of such a fundamentally new approach. (Margaret Freeman)