Exploring the roots of four keywords for our times: Europe, the citizen, the individual, and the people
With economic, political and cultural globalisation, our world is inseparable from the fates of other nations and peoples. But how far can we trust English to provide us with a reliable lingua franca to speak about our world? If our keywords reflect our cultures and form parts of specific cultural and historical narratives, they may well help trace the paths we take together into the future. This book seeks the roots of four keywords for our times: the people, the citizen, the individual, and Europe. By exploring these keywords in English and understanding stories related to ‘equivalent keywords’ in Chinese, German, French and Czech, this book helps us to understand how other languages are adapting to English words, and how their worldviews resist ‘anglo-concepts’ through their own traditions, stories and worldviews.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One: The People
Chapter Two: Citizen
Chapter Three: Individual
Chapter Four: Europe
A Final Word
Glossary, Selected Reading, Abbreviations, References, Corpora and Databases, Books & Articles
About the Author
Mariarosaria Gianninoto is Associate Professor of Chinese at the Université Grenoble Alpes.
Reviews
A fascinating treatise on the origins and trajectories of some ideas which define humanity, this richly-sourced book offers a kaleidoscope of worldviews of individuals and their relationships with the group, society and the wider world, prompting us to think about our global community's shared destiny and cultural diversity.