Literature and Learning
A History of English Studies in Britain
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 10 April 2025
- ISBN 9780198800187
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages656 pages
- Size 242x165x41 mm
- Weight 1140 g
- Language English 0
Categories
Short description:
The first comprehensive history of 'English' as an academic discipline in Britain, covering the development of the subject from its late-eighteenth-century beginnings up to the 1960s.
MoreLong description:
The study and teaching of English literature is generally regarded as one of the central disciplines in the modern university, yet for much of its history it struggled to gain academic legitimacy and was frequently derided as 'a soft option'. Its early professors responded by emphasizing its scholarly character, foregrounding philology and literary history in ways that marked the syllabus far into the twentieth century.
Stefan Collini provides here the first full account of the discipline's development from its late-eighteenth-century beginnings up to the early 1960s. Paying special attention to institutional settings, he challenges numerous assumptions about the character of universities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From the detailed exploration of syllabuses, exam papers, and other institutional records, the impact of literary criticism is revealed to be later and more partial than is commonly assumed. Rather than seeing the early teaching of English literature as 'a substitute for religion' or 'a means to soften class conflict', Collini emphasizes the role of ideals of learnedness and scholarship, as well as of external factors such as opportunities for employment in the civil service and secondary school-teaching. There are full discussions of the parts played by such figures as John Churton Collins, A.C. Bradley, George Saintsbury, and Walter Raleigh, together with sceptical analyses of the decisive significance usually attributed to Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot, I.A. Richards, and F.R. Leavis. Separate chapters are devoted to neglected aspects of the story such as the role of Classics, the importance of the subject for women's higher education, and the connections with English teaching in schools.
Drawing on extensive use of institutional archives and records as well as the writings of contemporary participants, the book offers a vivid and wide-ranging history of English-as-discipline and its centrality across academic, literary, cultural, and educational life over the past two year hundred years, as well as a resounding testament to its continued importance and relevance today.
This "essay" provides a final rhetorical flourish to an extraordinary work of empirical scholarship and critical analysis. In 15 pages, it covers the various accounts of the history of the field and very fairly assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each text and emphasises what, in some cases, if anything, was added to our knowledge. What Collini has achieved is to add immensely to our knowledge of English Studies, to change and clarify our understanding in numerous ways and to set a new standard of rigorous scholarship for any subsequent account.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Beauty and the Footnote
CULTURAL CONTEXTS
The Ascendancy of Literature
The Authority of Classics
The Imperium of History
INSTITUTIONAL STORIES
A Scottish Prologue
Nineteenth-Century Realities
London
Civic Traditions
Oxford
Cambridge
Colleges for Women
Schools
FOUNDING FIGURES
The Professorial Squad
Matthew Arnold and John Churton Collins
A. C. Bradley and George Saintsbury
Walter Raleigh and Arthur Quiller-Couch
John Bailey: Criticism as a Vocation
PROFESSIONAL FORMS
Normal Scholarship
Local Varieties
The English Association
The Newbolt Report
MODERN TIMES
Insurgents
Normal Criticism
Cross-Currents
Meridian
Scenes from Departmental Life
Doubts
Existing Accounts: A Bibliographical Essay
Professors of English
Staff Numbers
Index
