Georgiy V. Shpak

PhD in History, Senior Researcher

Institute of World History of the RAS

PhD in History, Lecturer

Russian State University for the Humanities

(Moscow, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2025-2-80-93

Abstract. The article deals with the synergies between the development of scientific knowledge and the transformation of literary tradition. During the 16th – 17th centuries English intellectuals work out new forms of narrativization of their scientific ideas, trying to make them accessible to the widest possible audience. In the middle of the 16th century, authors such as T. Eliot, W. Cunningham, R. Record and others began to write works in the national language, simplifying the texts of ancient authors, using the form of dialogues and poetic inserts, as well as illustrating difficult to understand concepts. At the beginning of the 17th century, to facilitate the perception of difficult terms, special dictionaries structuring the world in alphabetical order began to be created, which transformed into the first scientific and technical encyclopedias by the end of the 17th century. Based on the theoretical framework of Francis Bacon, authors used a variety of genres to overcome scholastic tradition and to simplify the presentation of complex material. For this purpose, the forms of aphorisms, fantastic journeys, card games, etc. could be used. The article concludes that it is necessary to comprehensively consider the history of scientific knowledge development in the context of the formation of the early modern period representational and communicative strategies.
Keywords: representation of scientific knowledge, “Scientific Revolution”, discourses of science, Modern England, popularization of knowledge.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Shpak, GV 2025, ‘Narrative Strategies of Knowledge Diffusion in Early Modern England’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 2 (22), pp. 80–93, https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2025-2-80-93 (in Russ.)

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