| Chaucer and the Discourse of German Philology: A History of Reception and an Annotated Bibliography of Studies, 1798-1948 Contributor(s): Utz, Richard (Author) |
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ISBN: 2503510868 ISBN-13: 9782503510866 Publisher: Brepols Publishers OUR PRICE: $66.50 Product Type: Hardcover Published: October 2002 Annotation: The genesis of modern Chaucer criticism, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to 1945, was heavily formed by German philologists. Such a history of Chaucer reception mirrors general cultural and political developments in Germany and in German academia from the revolutionary and liberal Chaucer of the 'Vormarz' (pre-March 1848) period, the conservative Chaucer of the post-1848 restoration, the 'Germanization' of Chaucer after the country's formation as a nation state (1871), the demise of German Chaucer studies after World War I and during the Weimar Republic, the ideological utilization of Chaucer during the Third Reich, to the sporadic Chaucer criticism after 1945. This study emphasizes the 'Chaucerphilologie' of 1870-1914 when philological positivism evolved and triumphed, and how even today positivism and philological source study and editorial work is esteemed above 'foreign' (non-German) scholars who engage in aestheticist, essayistic and hence 'unscientific' approaches. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Medieval - History | Europe - Medieval |
| Dewey: 821.1 |
| Series: Making the Middle Ages |
| Physical Information: 468 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - Medieval (500-1453) |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, German-speaking scholars played a decisive role in founding and shaping the study of medieval and early modern English language and culture. During this process, aesthetic and literary enthusiasms were gradually replaced, first by broadly comparative and then by increasingly narrow scientistic practices, all confusingly subsumed under the term 'philology'. Towards 1871, German and Austrian Anglicists were successful at imposing-- for about 30 years -- many of their philological discoursive practices on their English-speaking counterparts by focusing on strict textual criticism, chronology, historical linguistics, prosody, and literary history. After World War I, these philological practices were rejected in the U.K. and the United States because they were 'Made in Germany', but have remained essential features of German medieval scholarship until the present day. This book offers a case study of these foundational developments by investigating the reception of Geoffrey Chaucer by eminent scholars such as V.A. Huber, W. Hertzberg, B. ten Brink, J. Zupitza, E. Fluegel, and J. Koch. The narrative of their nationalist, scientist, and self-fashioning efforts is complemented by a comprehensive annotated bibliography of German Chaucer criticism between 1793 and 1948. |