Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to a History in the Manner of an Essay
- Part I Forming the British Essay
- Part II The Great Age of the British Essay
- Part III Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
- 20 The Essay and the Theme
- 21 The Academic Essay: Rhetoric and Pedagogy
- 22 The Essay and the Rise of University English
- 23 Victorian Essays in Criticism
- 24 Nineteenth-Century Reviews Reviewed
- 25 Essays in the ‘Golden Age’ of the British Newspaper
- 26 The Essay in the Age of Chartism
- 27 Political Theory and Ethics in the Victorian Essay
- 28 Plain English: Essays and Analytic Philosophy
- Part IV Fractured Selves, Fragmented Worlds
- Part V The Essay and the Essayistic Today
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
22 - The Essay and the Rise of University English
from Part III - Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2024
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to a History in the Manner of an Essay
- Part I Forming the British Essay
- Part II The Great Age of the British Essay
- Part III Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
- 20 The Essay and the Theme
- 21 The Academic Essay: Rhetoric and Pedagogy
- 22 The Essay and the Rise of University English
- 23 Victorian Essays in Criticism
- 24 Nineteenth-Century Reviews Reviewed
- 25 Essays in the ‘Golden Age’ of the British Newspaper
- 26 The Essay in the Age of Chartism
- 27 Political Theory and Ethics in the Victorian Essay
- 28 Plain English: Essays and Analytic Philosophy
- Part IV Fractured Selves, Fragmented Worlds
- Part V The Essay and the Essayistic Today
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter considers the role of the essay in debates over the ‘rise of English’ in the nineteenth century. It firstly explores the crossover between academia and publishing, focusing on David Masson and George Saintsbury, whose well-regarded literary essays led to professorial appointments at London and Edinburgh. It then considers how University Extension lecturer John Churton Collins turned to periodical essays to garner support for the introduction of English literature at Oxford and Cambridge. Collins’s diatribes argued that the literary essay itself was at risk of extinction if journalists and critics continued to be deprived of professional training. Finally, this chapter considers the inclusion of essayists on English literature syllabuses during the fin de siècle. Figures such as Joseph Addison, William Hazlitt, and John Dryden, along with later writers including Matthew Arnold, Walter Pater, and Charles Lamb were prominently featured, suggesting that essayists were regarded as the sine qua non of literary study at that time.
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- The Cambridge History of the British Essay , pp. 325 - 339Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024