Journal article
Régner précairement: inventing precarity in early modern France
- Abstract:
- The language of precariousness—précaire, précairement—occupied a crucial but fiercely contested position in early modern French culture. This article traces the emergence of this concept, tracking its journey from legalistic jargon to buzzword as it was applied, co-opted, and subverted in service of the political and constitutional arguments that gripped France in the century following the outbreak of the Wars of Religion. Arguing for the significance of these largely neglected political discourses, it uncovers a conception of precarity radically unfamiliar to contemporary eyes and an early modern culture capitalizing on the rhetorical potential this language afforded.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 367.5KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1017/rqx.2024.434
Authors
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Journal:
- Renaissance Quarterly More from this journal
- Volume:
- 77
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 1222 - 1250
- Publication date:
- 2025-05-05
- Acceptance date:
- 2024-01-29
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1935-0236
- ISSN:
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0034-4338
- Language:
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English
- Pubs id:
-
1609552
- Local pid:
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pubs:1609552
- Deposit date:
-
2024-01-31
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Luke O’Sullivan
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by the Renaissance Society of America. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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