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The Social and Historical Significance of the First English Literature Professorship in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Franklin E. Court
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Abstract

The 1828 appointment of Thomas Dale to the Chair of English Language and Literature at London University (England's first) was also the first attempt, inculcated by the powerful Henry Brougham and University Council utilitarian allies, to institutionalize the university study of English literature. The “search committee” deliberations, the record of how Dale taught his courses, and the reasons for his premature resignation should be weighed in discussions of the ideological impact of formative nineteenth-century English literature programs on literary theory, on the socialization of literature, and on the development of the literary canon. The founding impulse behind Dale's appointment was social reform rather than ideological control or the academic investiture of culturally desiderated readers and was primarily the result of Brougham's desire to democratize literature and encourage national literacy by popularizing and legitimizing the “reading habit.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 103 , Issue 5 , October 1988 , pp. 796 - 807
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1988

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