Linguistic turn
The expression 'linguistic turn' can be seen as a shorthand for the impact of the focus on the relationship between philosophy and language, which began to be significant in the early 20th century. This has challenged the traditional tenets of historical objectivity, which assume that there is a real past which can be described (to the extent to which sources are available) as it actually happened. Instead, proponents of the linguistic turn argue that the past does not exist outside our textual representations of it, and that these representations cannot be separated from the ideological baggage that historians bring to them. British historians have been reluctant to allow these ideas influence over their actual practice, and the issues (connected with developments in cultural and gender history particularly) remain contentious.
- Historians:
- Joyce, Patrick
Pocock, John Greville Agard
Skinner, Quentin - Themes:
- Cultural history
Cultural turn
Historiography
Intellectual history
Philosophy of history
Related publications
- Michael Bentley, 'Victorian politics and the linguistic turn', The Historical Journal, 42, 3 (1999), 883–902
- James Vernon, 'Who's afraid of the linguistic turn? The politics of social history and its discontents', Social History, 19, 1 (1994), 81–97
