Representing the Commons in Early Modern England
Représenter les communs dans la première modernité anglaise
Ours is an age of extremely fragmented experiences and identities – a fragmentation paralleled by a growing awareness that we all inhabit a common world. In reality, these two phenomena have a lot more in common than one might suspect: deeply engrained individualism and the destruction of ecosystems are two sides of the same capitalist coin. Thus, the question of “the commons” becomes more relevant than ever.
This book aims to fill a gap in the recent theoretical discussion of the commons by reth...
Éditeur : Presses universitaires de Caen
Lieu d’édition : Caen
Publication sur OpenEdition Books : 3 avril 2025
ISBN numérique : 978-2-38185-262-1
DOI : 10.4000/13on7
Collection : Symposia
Année d’édition : 2025
ISBN (Édition imprimée) : 978-2-38185-260-7
Nombre de pages : 154
Jeremy Elprin et Mickaël Popelard
Introduction: Empowering the CommonsLaurent Curelly
Chapter 1
What Does “Common” Mean? British Civil War Radical Sects and the CommonsThe Case of the Diggers, the Ranters and the Levellers
Z’hor Zizi
Chapter 2
Gerrard Winstanley and the Cromwellian Reconquest of Ireland: The Earth a “Common Treasury for All”?Jonathan Pollock
Chapter 3
Richard Carew on Cornish Commons: Farming, Fishing and Mining “in Wastrell” (1602)Janet Clare
Chapter 4
“The commons, knit and united to one part”: Representing, Fearing and Controlling the CommonsRémi Vuillemin
Chapter 5
“Cloistering from the common”? Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and the Power of the CommonplaceOurs is an age of extremely fragmented experiences and identities – a fragmentation paralleled by a growing awareness that we all inhabit a common world. In reality, these two phenomena have a lot more in common than one might suspect: deeply engrained individualism and the destruction of ecosystems are two sides of the same capitalist coin. Thus, the question of “the commons” becomes more relevant than ever.
This book aims to fill a gap in the recent theoretical discussion of the commons by rethinking the notion from the perspective of early modern English literature and culture. It argues that the commons needs to be shown and represented, not just theorised or discussed in abstract terms. By focusing on some of the foundational, textually embodied forms through which this notion was represented and disseminated, the essays brought together here aim not only to interrogate the ways in which the commons was framed and appropriated in early modern English texts, but also to highlight the enduring relevance of these forms to critical discussions of the commons today.
Jeremy Elprin (dir.)
Université de Caen Normandie
IdRef : 195503155
Jeremy Elprin is senior lecturer in English literature at the University of Caen Normandy. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Oxford and Paris Cité University, where he completed his doctoral research on the letters of John Keats. His research focuses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature, with particular interest in British Romantic poetry, epistolary culture and poetics, and manuscript studies. His recent publications include articles on John Keats, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Charlotte Lennox.
Mickaël Popelard (dir.)
Université de Caen Normandie
IdRef : 124870619
Mickaël Popelard is professor in early modern English literature at the University of Caen Normandy. His books include Francis Bacon. L’humaniste, le magicien, l’ingénieur (Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2009); Rêves de puissance et ruine de l’âme. La figure du savant chez Shakespeare et Marlowe (Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2010); as well as a French translation of Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2022). He is the co-editor, with Sophie Chiari, of Spectacular Science, Technology and Superstition in the Age of Shakespeare (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2017) and the author, with Laurent Curelly, of a joint translation of some of Gerrard Winstanley’s political pamphlets (Gerrard Winstanley. Pamphlets politiques, Brussels, Zones sensibles, 2023). His research focuses on early modern drama and philosophy, on which he has published many articles.

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