Douglas Gray
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263952
- eISBN:
- 9780191734083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263952.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter examines the history and developments in the study of middle English literature in Great Britain during the twentieth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century the newly founded ...
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This chapter examines the history and developments in the study of middle English literature in Great Britain during the twentieth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century the newly founded British Academy contained a group of Fellows who had made distinguished contributions to the study of early English language and literature. They include W.W. Skeat, Sir Israel Gollancz and Sir James Murray. However, most of the century's outstanding work was done by people who were not Fellows. Despite this the Academy can still be proud of the contribution of its Fellows to the century's achievements and in the nurturing of a new generation of scholars who will continue the work.Less
This chapter examines the history and developments in the study of middle English literature in Great Britain during the twentieth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century the newly founded British Academy contained a group of Fellows who had made distinguished contributions to the study of early English language and literature. They include W.W. Skeat, Sir Israel Gollancz and Sir James Murray. However, most of the century's outstanding work was done by people who were not Fellows. Despite this the Academy can still be proud of the contribution of its Fellows to the century's achievements and in the nurturing of a new generation of scholars who will continue the work.
Alice Fox
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129882
- eISBN:
- 9780191671876
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129882.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This book examines the profound effect, on a major critic and novelist of the twentieth century, of the period of English literature's greatest glory, the Renaissance. Beginning in the sixteenth ...
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This book examines the profound effect, on a major critic and novelist of the twentieth century, of the period of English literature's greatest glory, the Renaissance. Beginning in the sixteenth century, with the poems and plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and with prose writings such as Hakluyt's Voyages, and continuing through the great lyric poets of the seventeenth century, the Renaissance influenced every aspect of Virginia Woolf's work. All her available writing – letters, diaries, reading notes, drafts of essays, novels, and feminist polemic – are explored in this study of Virginia Woolf's varied reactions to the period, and its impact on her fiction and criticism. Each of the novels, in particular, is shown to integrate some element of Renaissance literature in its language, characterization, and often structure, enriching the fiction.Less
This book examines the profound effect, on a major critic and novelist of the twentieth century, of the period of English literature's greatest glory, the Renaissance. Beginning in the sixteenth century, with the poems and plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and with prose writings such as Hakluyt's Voyages, and continuing through the great lyric poets of the seventeenth century, the Renaissance influenced every aspect of Virginia Woolf's work. All her available writing – letters, diaries, reading notes, drafts of essays, novels, and feminist polemic – are explored in this study of Virginia Woolf's varied reactions to the period, and its impact on her fiction and criticism. Each of the novels, in particular, is shown to integrate some element of Renaissance literature in its language, characterization, and often structure, enriching the fiction.
Meredith Martin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691152738
- eISBN:
- 9781400842193
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691152738.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Why do we often teach English poetic meter by the Greek terms iamb and trochee? How is our understanding of English meter influenced by the history of England's sense of itself in the nineteenth ...
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Why do we often teach English poetic meter by the Greek terms iamb and trochee? How is our understanding of English meter influenced by the history of England's sense of itself in the nineteenth century? Not an old-fashioned approach to poetry, but a dynamic, contested, and inherently nontraditional field, “English meter” concerned issues of personal and national identity, class, education, patriotism, militarism, and the development of English literature as a discipline. This book tells the unknown story of English meter from the late eighteenth century until just after World War I. Uncovering a vast and unexplored archive in the history of poetics, the book shows that the history of prosody is tied to the ways Victorian England argued about its national identity. Gerard Manley Hopkins, Coventry Patmore, and Robert Bridges used meter to negotiate their relationship to England and the English language; George Saintsbury, Matthew Arnold, and Henry Newbolt worried about the rise of one metrical model among multiple competitors. The pressure to conform to a stable model, however, produced reactionary misunderstandings of English meter and the culture it stood for. This unstable relationship to poetic form influenced the prose and poems of Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, and Alice Meynell. A significant intervention in literary history, this book argues that our contemporary understanding of the rise of modernist poetic form was crucially bound to narratives of English national culture.Less
Why do we often teach English poetic meter by the Greek terms iamb and trochee? How is our understanding of English meter influenced by the history of England's sense of itself in the nineteenth century? Not an old-fashioned approach to poetry, but a dynamic, contested, and inherently nontraditional field, “English meter” concerned issues of personal and national identity, class, education, patriotism, militarism, and the development of English literature as a discipline. This book tells the unknown story of English meter from the late eighteenth century until just after World War I. Uncovering a vast and unexplored archive in the history of poetics, the book shows that the history of prosody is tied to the ways Victorian England argued about its national identity. Gerard Manley Hopkins, Coventry Patmore, and Robert Bridges used meter to negotiate their relationship to England and the English language; George Saintsbury, Matthew Arnold, and Henry Newbolt worried about the rise of one metrical model among multiple competitors. The pressure to conform to a stable model, however, produced reactionary misunderstandings of English meter and the culture it stood for. This unstable relationship to poetic form influenced the prose and poems of Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, and Alice Meynell. A significant intervention in literary history, this book argues that our contemporary understanding of the rise of modernist poetic form was crucially bound to narratives of English national culture.
Elizabeth R. Napier
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128601
- eISBN:
- 9780191671678
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128601.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This book is an examination of narrative conventions in one of the most popular and controversial of the 18th-century English literary genres. The vogue of the Gothic in the latter decades of the ...
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This book is an examination of narrative conventions in one of the most popular and controversial of the 18th-century English literary genres. The vogue of the Gothic in the latter decades of the 18th century, its treatment by important critics such as Coleridge, and its distinctiveness as a genre, makes its study central to an understanding of 18th-century culture, of literary genre and popular literature, and of the problems surrounding attempts to judge quality in a literary work. The English Gothic novel, moreover, has attracted renewed attention from modern critics, who have argued its importance in mirroring the late 18th century's discomfort with the political, psychological, and sexual climate of the times. This book challenges such views, suggesting that the instability of the form may be more successfully addressed through a study of generic structure and the relationship of the Gothic to the designs of the fictional works that preceded it.Less
This book is an examination of narrative conventions in one of the most popular and controversial of the 18th-century English literary genres. The vogue of the Gothic in the latter decades of the 18th century, its treatment by important critics such as Coleridge, and its distinctiveness as a genre, makes its study central to an understanding of 18th-century culture, of literary genre and popular literature, and of the problems surrounding attempts to judge quality in a literary work. The English Gothic novel, moreover, has attracted renewed attention from modern critics, who have argued its importance in mirroring the late 18th century's discomfort with the political, psychological, and sexual climate of the times. This book challenges such views, suggesting that the instability of the form may be more successfully addressed through a study of generic structure and the relationship of the Gothic to the designs of the fictional works that preceded it.
HUGH M. THOMAS
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199251230
- eISBN:
- 9780191719134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199251230.003.0023
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
For many 19th- and 20th-century theorists and activists, language was crucial to nationalism. Scholars suggest that the linguistic effects of the Norman conquest constituted an important though ...
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For many 19th- and 20th-century theorists and activists, language was crucial to nationalism. Scholars suggest that the linguistic effects of the Norman conquest constituted an important though temporary blow to English identity, and that survival of English was important for survival of Englishness. This chapter argues that whatever connection there was between the English language and English identity, it was fairly weak. The discernible influence of Old English literature after the middle of the 12th century is also negligible. However, it contends that bilingualism was also very important in facilitating the process of cultural assimilation. In particular, England fairly quickly developed into a bilingual society, at least in towns, the aristocracy, and perhaps among the middling sort.Less
For many 19th- and 20th-century theorists and activists, language was crucial to nationalism. Scholars suggest that the linguistic effects of the Norman conquest constituted an important though temporary blow to English identity, and that survival of English was important for survival of Englishness. This chapter argues that whatever connection there was between the English language and English identity, it was fairly weak. The discernible influence of Old English literature after the middle of the 12th century is also negligible. However, it contends that bilingualism was also very important in facilitating the process of cultural assimilation. In particular, England fairly quickly developed into a bilingual society, at least in towns, the aristocracy, and perhaps among the middling sort.
Richard Terry
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198186236
- eISBN:
- 9780191718557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186236.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter discusses the permeation, rather than the construction, of ideas about English literature. It examines how far-flung, outside the metropolitan literati and the higher ranks of society, ...
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This chapter discusses the permeation, rather than the construction, of ideas about English literature. It examines how far-flung, outside the metropolitan literati and the higher ranks of society, cognizance of high literature actually was in England. Recent critics who have described the ‘rise of English’ have rightly attached significance to the way English literature was bolstered by its accession to the status of an educational subject. This is mostly taken to occur between the 1860s, when the first professorships of English Literature were instituted in British universities, and 1921, when the Newbolt report elevated English literature to its (since unchallenged) position as a compulsory element of secondary educational syllabuses. The role played by education in the cultural fortification of English literature seems indubitable, but this chapter argues that this process gets under way as early as the 18th century, therefore appreciably earlier than is generally assumed. Ample evidence exists of the incursion of English literature into 18th century classrooms, yet this has mostly been given scant attention.Less
This chapter discusses the permeation, rather than the construction, of ideas about English literature. It examines how far-flung, outside the metropolitan literati and the higher ranks of society, cognizance of high literature actually was in England. Recent critics who have described the ‘rise of English’ have rightly attached significance to the way English literature was bolstered by its accession to the status of an educational subject. This is mostly taken to occur between the 1860s, when the first professorships of English Literature were instituted in British universities, and 1921, when the Newbolt report elevated English literature to its (since unchallenged) position as a compulsory element of secondary educational syllabuses. The role played by education in the cultural fortification of English literature seems indubitable, but this chapter argues that this process gets under way as early as the 18th century, therefore appreciably earlier than is generally assumed. Ample evidence exists of the incursion of English literature into 18th century classrooms, yet this has mostly been given scant attention.
Martin McLaughlin, Letizia Panizza, and Peter Hainsworth (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264133
- eISBN:
- 9780191734649
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264133.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Petrarch was Italy's second most famous writer (after Dante), and indeed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries he was much better known and more influential in English literature than Dante. ...
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Petrarch was Italy's second most famous writer (after Dante), and indeed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries he was much better known and more influential in English literature than Dante. His Italian love lyrics constituted the major influence on European love poetry for at least two centuries from 1400 to 1600, and in Britain he was imitated by Chaucer, the Elizabethans, and other lyric poets up until the end of the eighteenth century. With Romanticism Dante ousted Petrarch from his pre-eminent position, but in our post-Romantic age, attention has now started to swing back to Petrarch. This volume is a survey of Petrarch's literary legacy in Britain. Starting with his own views of those whom he called the ‘barbari Britanni’, the volume then explores a number of key topics: Petrarch's analysis of the self; his dialogue with other classical and Italian authors; Petrarchism and anti-Petrarchism in Renaissance Italy; Petrarchism in England and Scotland; and Petrarch's modern legacy in both Italy and Britain. Many important texts and poets are considered, including Giordano Bruno, Leopardi, Foscolo, Ascham, Sidney, Spenser, and Walter Savage Landor.Less
Petrarch was Italy's second most famous writer (after Dante), and indeed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries he was much better known and more influential in English literature than Dante. His Italian love lyrics constituted the major influence on European love poetry for at least two centuries from 1400 to 1600, and in Britain he was imitated by Chaucer, the Elizabethans, and other lyric poets up until the end of the eighteenth century. With Romanticism Dante ousted Petrarch from his pre-eminent position, but in our post-Romantic age, attention has now started to swing back to Petrarch. This volume is a survey of Petrarch's literary legacy in Britain. Starting with his own views of those whom he called the ‘barbari Britanni’, the volume then explores a number of key topics: Petrarch's analysis of the self; his dialogue with other classical and Italian authors; Petrarchism and anti-Petrarchism in Renaissance Italy; Petrarchism in England and Scotland; and Petrarch's modern legacy in both Italy and Britain. Many important texts and poets are considered, including Giordano Bruno, Leopardi, Foscolo, Ascham, Sidney, Spenser, and Walter Savage Landor.
David Johnson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183150
- eISBN:
- 9780191673955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183150.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter shows that the figure of the Victorian gentleman critic casts a long shadow over English criticism in the twentieth century, and that all critics writing after World War I define ...
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This chapter shows that the figure of the Victorian gentleman critic casts a long shadow over English criticism in the twentieth century, and that all critics writing after World War I define themselves as in some way trying to occupy the centre vacated by A. C. Bradley and his generation. This applies to critics in England, but with particular force to critics in the Cape Colony. The chapter also shows that the accommodation of dissenting critical voices in the academy has no predictable effect in the practice of English literature teaching at the school level. William Shakespeare occupied a central place in the educational institutions of Britain and the Cape Colony towards the end of the nineteenth century. This asymmetry between high-school and university Shakespeare is taken to be important in securing the relation of minorities to the teaching of English.Less
This chapter shows that the figure of the Victorian gentleman critic casts a long shadow over English criticism in the twentieth century, and that all critics writing after World War I define themselves as in some way trying to occupy the centre vacated by A. C. Bradley and his generation. This applies to critics in England, but with particular force to critics in the Cape Colony. The chapter also shows that the accommodation of dissenting critical voices in the academy has no predictable effect in the practice of English literature teaching at the school level. William Shakespeare occupied a central place in the educational institutions of Britain and the Cape Colony towards the end of the nineteenth century. This asymmetry between high-school and university Shakespeare is taken to be important in securing the relation of minorities to the teaching of English.
Carol Atherton
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263266
- eISBN:
- 9780191734854
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263266.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter discusses the emergence of English as an academic subject in the nineteenth century. It demonstrates how the early degree courses in English literature at a number of English ...
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This chapter discusses the emergence of English as an academic subject in the nineteenth century. It demonstrates how the early degree courses in English literature at a number of English universities were characterised by attempts to make the subject fulfil the disciplinary criteria that it should be rigorous, teachable and objective. It also analyses the series of debates that surrounded the teaching of English literature at Oxford, King’s College in London and Owens College in Manchester.Less
This chapter discusses the emergence of English as an academic subject in the nineteenth century. It demonstrates how the early degree courses in English literature at a number of English universities were characterised by attempts to make the subject fulfil the disciplinary criteria that it should be rigorous, teachable and objective. It also analyses the series of debates that surrounded the teaching of English literature at Oxford, King’s College in London and Owens College in Manchester.
MALCOLM GODDEN
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264584
- eISBN:
- 9780191734069
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264584.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This lecture presents the text of the speech about the Alfredian project and its aftermath delivered by the author at the 2008 Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture held at the British Academy. It ...
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This lecture presents the text of the speech about the Alfredian project and its aftermath delivered by the author at the 2008 Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture held at the British Academy. It explains the details of King Alfred's programme of mass education and to deliver near-universal literacy in English, and evaluates the impact of Pastoral Care on English literature.Less
This lecture presents the text of the speech about the Alfredian project and its aftermath delivered by the author at the 2008 Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture held at the British Academy. It explains the details of King Alfred's programme of mass education and to deliver near-universal literacy in English, and evaluates the impact of Pastoral Care on English literature.
D. J. Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199510177
- eISBN:
- 9780191700972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199510177.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Although English Literature was first included among the subjects for the pass examination in 1873, and English Language and Literature was introduced in the special examinations for women in 1881, ...
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Although English Literature was first included among the subjects for the pass examination in 1873, and English Language and Literature was introduced in the special examinations for women in 1881, the significant starting point of the development of modern English studies at Oxford University was the establishment of the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature. Created by statute in 1882, it was the outcome of various representations made to the 1877 Commission, though it did not conform exactly with any of them. Indeed, both the title of the new chair and the duties prescribed for its holder were somewhat unrealistic as well as imprecise, for ‘English Language’ was generally understood to mean the philological study of Old and Middle English, while ‘English Literature’ as an academic subject was widely and loosely conceived as an aesthetic and cultural engagement with great authors, useful as examination fodder for pass candidates and women, entrants to the civil service, and students in the civic universities.Less
Although English Literature was first included among the subjects for the pass examination in 1873, and English Language and Literature was introduced in the special examinations for women in 1881, the significant starting point of the development of modern English studies at Oxford University was the establishment of the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature. Created by statute in 1882, it was the outcome of various representations made to the 1877 Commission, though it did not conform exactly with any of them. Indeed, both the title of the new chair and the duties prescribed for its holder were somewhat unrealistic as well as imprecise, for ‘English Language’ was generally understood to mean the philological study of Old and Middle English, while ‘English Literature’ as an academic subject was widely and loosely conceived as an aesthetic and cultural engagement with great authors, useful as examination fodder for pass candidates and women, entrants to the civil service, and students in the civic universities.
Edwin L. Battistella
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195367126
- eISBN:
- 9780199867356
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367126.003.0007
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
Chapter Seven takes up Cody's advice on literature and book culture, connecting these to early 20th century self‐improvement views.
Chapter Seven takes up Cody's advice on literature and book culture, connecting these to early 20th century self‐improvement views.
David Johnson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183150
- eISBN:
- 9780191673955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183150.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This book is a study of the teaching and criticism of William Shakespeare in South Africa from the early nineteenth century to the present day, covering a number of key historical moments in the ...
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This book is a study of the teaching and criticism of William Shakespeare in South Africa from the early nineteenth century to the present day, covering a number of key historical moments in the interpretation of Shakespeare. It contributes to the well-established debate focused on the ‘neo-colonial’ use of ‘English literature’ and to the more recent interest in the conditions of cultural assimilation. The wide range of source materials used for this book – including Cape Department of Education examination papers and exam reports, as well as newspaper articles and essays – provides detailed research into the formulation of a literary education policy in South Africa. The insights into changes in thinking about pedagogic and cultural issues in the South African colonial ‘periphery’ and into the values associated with those changes makes for a significant resource for South African cultural studies.Less
This book is a study of the teaching and criticism of William Shakespeare in South Africa from the early nineteenth century to the present day, covering a number of key historical moments in the interpretation of Shakespeare. It contributes to the well-established debate focused on the ‘neo-colonial’ use of ‘English literature’ and to the more recent interest in the conditions of cultural assimilation. The wide range of source materials used for this book – including Cape Department of Education examination papers and exam reports, as well as newspaper articles and essays – provides detailed research into the formulation of a literary education policy in South Africa. The insights into changes in thinking about pedagogic and cultural issues in the South African colonial ‘periphery’ and into the values associated with those changes makes for a significant resource for South African cultural studies.
David Johnson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183150
- eISBN:
- 9780191673955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183150.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter deals with two related issues associated with the public lectures and literary journals at the Cape in the first half of the nineteenth century. First, it reflects on the origins in ...
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This chapter deals with two related issues associated with the public lectures and literary journals at the Cape in the first half of the nineteenth century. First, it reflects on the origins in South African culture of arguments about literary value, and second, it explores how these arguments prepare the way for the institutionalisation of English literature as a subject in school and college curricula at the Cape Colony. The chapter deals with them as one, abstracting four overlapping positions on the social function of literature implicit in the writings of this period. They are the missionary position, the utilitarian position, the romantic position, and the imperial position. The chapter also suggests how they might relate to current arguments about literature in South Africa.Less
This chapter deals with two related issues associated with the public lectures and literary journals at the Cape in the first half of the nineteenth century. First, it reflects on the origins in South African culture of arguments about literary value, and second, it explores how these arguments prepare the way for the institutionalisation of English literature as a subject in school and college curricula at the Cape Colony. The chapter deals with them as one, abstracting four overlapping positions on the social function of literature implicit in the writings of this period. They are the missionary position, the utilitarian position, the romantic position, and the imperial position. The chapter also suggests how they might relate to current arguments about literature in South Africa.
Christopher Cannon
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199230396
- eISBN:
- 9780191696459
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230396.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter describes ‘the events of 1066’ and the consequences of that cataclysm to literature. The first section provides a description of the histories pertaining to ‘1066’ and suggests that the ...
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This chapter describes ‘the events of 1066’ and the consequences of that cataclysm to literature. The first section provides a description of the histories pertaining to ‘1066’ and suggests that the ideas generated by retrospection sometimes substitutes themselves for the ideas actually embedded in the relics. The second section evaluates the effects substitution can have on the meaning carried in ‘The First Worcester Fragment’, a nearly-destroyed written form which pays no attention to ‘1066’ and its consequences. The last section examines how the process which removes the meanings of the ‘Fragment’ are manifested in the way early Middle English literary objects have been encountered and the way English literature is defined.Less
This chapter describes ‘the events of 1066’ and the consequences of that cataclysm to literature. The first section provides a description of the histories pertaining to ‘1066’ and suggests that the ideas generated by retrospection sometimes substitutes themselves for the ideas actually embedded in the relics. The second section evaluates the effects substitution can have on the meaning carried in ‘The First Worcester Fragment’, a nearly-destroyed written form which pays no attention to ‘1066’ and its consequences. The last section examines how the process which removes the meanings of the ‘Fragment’ are manifested in the way early Middle English literary objects have been encountered and the way English literature is defined.
Tony Crowley
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199273430
- eISBN:
- 9780191706202
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273430.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter gives an of the beginnings of linguistic colonialism proper in Ireland under Henry VIII, and the consolidation and hardening of the policy under Elizabeth I and James I. Central to the ...
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This chapter gives an of the beginnings of linguistic colonialism proper in Ireland under Henry VIII, and the consolidation and hardening of the policy under Elizabeth I and James I. Central to the strategy of the colonists was the attempt to subjugate Ireland militarily and culturally, including the conversion of the country to Protestantism. The varying practices of colonial enforcement are examined, ranging from Henry's gradualist reformism to the extreme measures enacted during Elizabeth's reign and that of James. Attention is drawn to the limited impact of linguistic colonialism on Gaelic culture before the defeat of the Gaelic chieftains in 1601, and the subsequent Flight of the Earls in 1607. Consideration is given to the attitudes and stereotypes of the colonizers and the native population as expressed in the English and Gaelic literature of the period.Less
This chapter gives an of the beginnings of linguistic colonialism proper in Ireland under Henry VIII, and the consolidation and hardening of the policy under Elizabeth I and James I. Central to the strategy of the colonists was the attempt to subjugate Ireland militarily and culturally, including the conversion of the country to Protestantism. The varying practices of colonial enforcement are examined, ranging from Henry's gradualist reformism to the extreme measures enacted during Elizabeth's reign and that of James. Attention is drawn to the limited impact of linguistic colonialism on Gaelic culture before the defeat of the Gaelic chieftains in 1601, and the subsequent Flight of the Earls in 1607. Consideration is given to the attitudes and stereotypes of the colonizers and the native population as expressed in the English and Gaelic literature of the period.
David Johnson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183150
- eISBN:
- 9780191673955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183150.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter deals with Shakespeare criticism and radical critical theory and explores how this radical theory has travelled to South Africa in the last 25 years. It is based on the conviction that ...
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This chapter deals with Shakespeare criticism and radical critical theory and explores how this radical theory has travelled to South Africa in the last 25 years. It is based on the conviction that this criticism represents an interesting departure from previous formulations of English literature's social function. Two key essays from U.S.-based academics have been particularly influential. The first is Edward Said's ‘Traveling Theory’ and the second is Adrienne Rich's ‘Notes toward a Politics of Location’. The chapter also introduces an analysis associated with Roland Barthes's famous essay ‘The Death of the Author’. Much of the credit for adding scare quotes to the name ‘Shakespeare’ can be given to Barthes's essay, with William Shakespeare, the most authorised of all authors, placed under fresh critical scrutiny in the light of Barthe's attempted murder.Less
This chapter deals with Shakespeare criticism and radical critical theory and explores how this radical theory has travelled to South Africa in the last 25 years. It is based on the conviction that this criticism represents an interesting departure from previous formulations of English literature's social function. Two key essays from U.S.-based academics have been particularly influential. The first is Edward Said's ‘Traveling Theory’ and the second is Adrienne Rich's ‘Notes toward a Politics of Location’. The chapter also introduces an analysis associated with Roland Barthes's famous essay ‘The Death of the Author’. Much of the credit for adding scare quotes to the name ‘Shakespeare’ can be given to Barthes's essay, with William Shakespeare, the most authorised of all authors, placed under fresh critical scrutiny in the light of Barthe's attempted murder.
Richard Terry
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198186236
- eISBN:
- 9780191718557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186236.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
Since long before the English Augustan era, it had been a commonplace that English literature began in the age of Geoffrey Chaucer, either through his offices or, more rarely, through those of his ...
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Since long before the English Augustan era, it had been a commonplace that English literature began in the age of Geoffrey Chaucer, either through his offices or, more rarely, through those of his contemporary, John Gower. Indeed, it was not unusual for Chaucer to be seen as the sole literary figure of consequence before the 16th century. The most common conceit expressing Chaucer's priority in the literary tradition was that of his being the ‘father’ of English poetry. Another prevalent metaphor for Chaucer's initiation of the vernacular tradition, however, was that of his being a rising sun or new-breaking morn. This chapter considers the hunt for a pre-Chaucerian origin to English literature, an origin that would satisfy the question of at what point, and in connection with which writers, English literature actually began. It discusses the so-called battle of the books, especially as it addressed the status of the vernacular literary canon in comparison with the classical one.Less
Since long before the English Augustan era, it had been a commonplace that English literature began in the age of Geoffrey Chaucer, either through his offices or, more rarely, through those of his contemporary, John Gower. Indeed, it was not unusual for Chaucer to be seen as the sole literary figure of consequence before the 16th century. The most common conceit expressing Chaucer's priority in the literary tradition was that of his being the ‘father’ of English poetry. Another prevalent metaphor for Chaucer's initiation of the vernacular tradition, however, was that of his being a rising sun or new-breaking morn. This chapter considers the hunt for a pre-Chaucerian origin to English literature, an origin that would satisfy the question of at what point, and in connection with which writers, English literature actually began. It discusses the so-called battle of the books, especially as it addressed the status of the vernacular literary canon in comparison with the classical one.
Greg Walker
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199283330
- eISBN:
- 9780191712630
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283330.003.0018
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter explores the poetic innovations introduced or imported into England by Wyatt and Surrey in their attempts to discover new ways of writing political verse under Henry VIII’s tyranny. It ...
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This chapter explores the poetic innovations introduced or imported into England by Wyatt and Surrey in their attempts to discover new ways of writing political verse under Henry VIII’s tyranny. It argues that royal oppression not only stifled the traditional forms of literary good counsel that had dominated literary culture for generations, but also prompted the development of newer forms of expression that would come to be seen as characteristic of the Renaissance spirit: individual subjectivity, interiority, a new secular Petrarchan lyric voice, and a variety of new stanzaic forms and metres.Less
This chapter explores the poetic innovations introduced or imported into England by Wyatt and Surrey in their attempts to discover new ways of writing political verse under Henry VIII’s tyranny. It argues that royal oppression not only stifled the traditional forms of literary good counsel that had dominated literary culture for generations, but also prompted the development of newer forms of expression that would come to be seen as characteristic of the Renaissance spirit: individual subjectivity, interiority, a new secular Petrarchan lyric voice, and a variety of new stanzaic forms and metres.
Christopher Hilliard
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199695171
- eISBN:
- 9780199949946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695171.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter examines the engagement of Scrutiny contributors and F. R. Leavis's pupils with wider publics. F. R. Leavis's idea of ‘minority culture’ was not simply ‘elitist’ but envisioned a chain ...
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This chapter examines the engagement of Scrutiny contributors and F. R. Leavis's pupils with wider publics. F. R. Leavis's idea of ‘minority culture’ was not simply ‘elitist’ but envisioned a chain of ever larger ‘publics’ that could be guided indirectly by a critical minority. The chapter discusses his own public interventions during the 1960s and 1970s, and contrasts them with those of his followers, who went in for the sorts of popularizing usually practised by British intellectuals in the twentieth century. The focus is on the seven-volume Pelican Guide to English Literature edited by Boris Ford, which projected Scrutiny interpretations to a mass audience. Working from the Penguin archives, the chapter charts the series's publishing history, and explores the ways the context of a survey text affected critical judgements in the Scrutiny mode.Less
This chapter examines the engagement of Scrutiny contributors and F. R. Leavis's pupils with wider publics. F. R. Leavis's idea of ‘minority culture’ was not simply ‘elitist’ but envisioned a chain of ever larger ‘publics’ that could be guided indirectly by a critical minority. The chapter discusses his own public interventions during the 1960s and 1970s, and contrasts them with those of his followers, who went in for the sorts of popularizing usually practised by British intellectuals in the twentieth century. The focus is on the seven-volume Pelican Guide to English Literature edited by Boris Ford, which projected Scrutiny interpretations to a mass audience. Working from the Penguin archives, the chapter charts the series's publishing history, and explores the ways the context of a survey text affected critical judgements in the Scrutiny mode.
