Writing and European Thought 1600–1830

Writing and European Thought 1600–1830 argues for the central importance of writing to conceptions of language, technological progress, and Western civilization during the early modern era. Attitudes to the written language changed radically between the late Renaissance and Romanticism, and Nicholas Hudson traces the development of thought about language during this period, challenging some central assumptions of modern historical scholarship. He asserts that European thinkers have not been uniformly ‘logocentric’, and he questions the assumption that the rise of print and literacy produced a more visually oriented culture. Through detailed readings of major writers, Hudson shows how writing became the emblem of the superiority of European culture, and how, with the expansion of print culture, European intellectuals became more aware of the virtues of ‘orality’ and the deficiencies of literate society.

• Important study of writing and European thought, with no direct competitors • Questions assumptions of modern historical scholarship on the subject • Interdisciplinary interest, including linguistics, history, philosophy, English and French literature, anthropology, and Egyptology

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Sacred and occult scripts in the Renaissance tradition; 2. The demystification of writing in the seventeenth century; 3. ‘The uniform voice of nature’: conjectural history in the early eighteenth century; 4. Conservative reaction: the study of writing after Warburton; 5. Writing and speech: the debate in Britain; 6. Rousseau’s Essai sur l’origine des langues and its context; 7. The new mediation: perceptions of writing in the Romantic era; Conclusions: a continuing legacy of debate; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

‘Hudson has written a succinct and careful monograph, which is easy to use, full of information and a pleasure to read … it is to be hoped that his study becomes widely read both as a useful reference point for scholars from a multitude of disciplines and a fascinating story in its own right.’ English