THE MODERN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY AND EARLY ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS: GERMAN MODELS AND AMERICAN PRACTICE, 1870-1920

Yrd. Doç. Dr. Gerard PAULSEN

doi:https://doi.org/10.18026/cbusos.06796

Article Details

THE MODERN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY AND EARLY ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS: GERMAN MODELS AND AMERICAN PRACTICE, 1870-1920

Authors:

Yrd. Doç. Dr. Gerard PAULSEN

Publisher:

Manisa Celal Bayar University

Main Topics:

Sociology and anthropology

Journal:

Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 2015 Vol.13 Issue 1, pp.24-49

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

4/2015

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2000537544

Frequency:

Quarterly

eISSN:

2146-2844

pISSN:

1304-4796

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18026/cbusos.06796

Abstract:

 

The English department first came into existence in the modern American university; its theoretical apparatus, research methodology and pedagogic practices were directly derived from nineteenth-century German philology. Whereas the postCivil War educational reformers who constructed the modern American academic system adapted the German university model to fit it to the social and cultural patterns of America, professors in early English departments simply borrowed German philology and method and, without substantially adding to it or altering it, used it over the next five or six decades as the basis intense research publication. This paper aims to show why American professors of English were so enamored of German philology and, more importantly, what kind of research it enabled them to produce. In addition, it will attempt to examine the consequences of the philological orientation of early English departments and to explain why, when the New Critics finally supplanted philologists and their literary historian descendants, philology almost completely disappeared from English departments.

 

The English department first came into existence in the modern American university; its theoretical apparatus, research methodology and pedagogic practices were directly derived from nineteenth-century German philology. Whereas the post-Civil War educational reformers who constructed the modern American academic system adapted the German university model to fit it to the social and cultural patterns of America, professors in early English departments simply borrowed German philology and method and, without substantially adding to it or altering it, used it over the next five or six decades as the basis intense research publication. This paper aims to show why American professors of English were so enamored of German philology and, more importantly, what kind of research it enabled them to produce. In addition, it will attempt to examine the consequences of the philological orientation of early English departments and to explain why, when the New Critics finally supplanted philologists and their literary historian descendants, philology almost completely disappeared from English departments.

Article Details

THE MODERN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY AND EARLY ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS: GERMAN MODELS AND AMERICAN PRACTICE, 1870-1920

Authors: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Gerard PAULSEN

Publisher: Manisa Celal Bayar University

Main Topics: Sociology and anthropology

Journal: Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 2015 Vol.13 Issue 1, pp.24-49

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 4/2015

Document Language: English

Document ID (Org No.): 2000537544

Frequency: Quarterly

eISSN: 2146-2844

pISSN: 1304-4796

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18026/cbusos.06796

Issues

Authors:

Yrd. Doç. Dr. Gerard PAULSEN

Publisher:

Manisa Celal Bayar University

Main Topics:

Sociology and anthropology

Journal:

Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 2015 Vol.13 Issue 1, pp.24-49

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

4/2015

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2000537544

Frequency:

Quarterly

eISSN:

2146-2844

pISSN:

1304-4796

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18026/cbusos.06796