Een jonge en tere bloem. De Nederlandse anglistiek rond 1900 en de transfer van literatuur

Samenvatting

Abstract – In the Netherlands, the study of English language and literature was not recognized as an independent academic subject until 1921. However, in the preceding decades the university already functioned as a transmission channel for English literature. This article aims to draw attention to this transmission channel, which is usually neglected by the historiography of education. It does so on the basis of a concise discussion of the creation and previous history of the first university departments for English language and literature, of some leading professors, their ideas about academic literary education and its implementation. Building on the ideas of a pioneer like Allard Pierson, the professors J. Beckering Vinckers, A.E.H. Swaen and their colleagues developed an educational practice which constituted a new medium for the distribution of English literature in the Netherlands.