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Literature and Learning: A History of English Studies in Britain

Online ISBN:
9780191839993
Print ISBN:
9780198800187
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Literature and Learning: A History of English Studies in Britain

Stefan Collini
Stefan Collini

Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History and English Literature

University of Cambridge
,
UK
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Published online:
5 March 2025
Published in print:
10 April 2025
Online ISBN:
9780191839993
Print ISBN:
9780198800187
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

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. This deeply researched book provides the first full account of this development from its late eighteenth-century beginnings up to the early 1960s. It pays special attention to the institutional settings, challenging 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.

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