This chapter gives the background against which the ideas of Open Subjects come into focus. I look at how we presently view two connected topics: the legacy of early modern republicanism and the history of modern selfhood. The view established, I then explore how we might begin to re-orient our perspectives, and describe the forms of life that appear when we do so.

Open Subjects and the English Republican Legacy

I have said that one critical tradition to which Open Subjects offers an alternative could be called ‘republican’. I have also said that the alternative that I present is itself republican. The question of Spenser, Shakespeare, Marvell and Milton's republicanism – its facets as well as its legacy – arises time and again in this book, and I want to be up front in explaining this ostensible paradox. Many dimensions of republican thought emerge over the course of my analysis, but I can also put my point about such thought fairly simply: whereas republican figures are usually understood to regard vulnerability as that which community ought to minimise, I show how these figures also embrace vulnerability as that which community has to offer.

The question of what qualifies as ‘republican’ is a difficult one. Of republicanism, John Adams writes that ‘[t]here is not a more unintelligible word in the English language.’