File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9803, message 281


Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 22:33:35 -0500 (EST)
From: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Jumble on the English departments



You didn't study law in the University in Arnold's day. The first
university course in common la--that is, the law of the UK-as opposed
to civil law or canon law, that was taught in a British university since
Blackstone's time was created in 1970. 

Philosophy is not nearly as marginal in England as it it here in America
today. British philosphers like Roger Scruton (yuck) and Bernard Williams
(hurrah!) are important figures in British public life. Nor was philosophy
always marginal in America. Dewey was as important and influential an
intelectual as America has produced.

--jks

On Tue, 10 Mar 1998, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:

> Lou P wrote:
> >One other interesting item to consider. In one of Terry Eagleton's books, I
> >can't recall which, he discusses how the English literature department was
> >a recent innovation. In the Victorian era, Matthew Arnold was concerned
> >about the weakening hold that church and state had on the masses. He argued
> >that an antidote might be to create literature departments where the
> >"great" books could be studied and analyzed in order to give the student a
> >sense of identification with the great civilization that produced them.
> >Previous to this, literature was just something that educated people
> >entertained themselves with in their spare time. You went to college to
> >study law, medicine or theology, not read novels and poetry.
> 
> Yes. If they had studied literature at all, the focus would have been on
> Latin and Greek, before the emergence of the English Dept. This history
> should help us understand that notions of national culture, national
> literature, national language, etc. came with capitalism and its needs for
> legitimation + standardization. With the Reformation, religious life too
> was reconstituted on a national basis.
> 
> Another important thing to remember about the English Dept. is a relative
> marginality of philosophy in the humanities in the UK and the US, compared
> to the social + cultural positions that philosophers occupy in countries
> such as France.
> 
> Yoshie
> 
> 
> 
> 
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