The fluent
and highly accessible way in which James Turner, Cavanaugh Professor of
Humanities at the University of Notre Dame, recounts the evolution of the
science of philology makes for relatively easy reading, which is especially
exceptional when one considers the complexity of the subject matter of this
550-page book. Attention-grabbing from the start, Professor Turner begins his
prologue by discussing a highly apposite adage of the leading humanistic
scholar, Erasmus of Rotterdam, namely: “The fox knows many things, but the
hedgehog [knows] one big thing.” He explains the importance and relevance of the
adage to a central issue of this work: whether humanistic scholarship in the
West consists of many disciplines, or
just one overarching discipline.
Clearly, Turner is a dab hand at unpacking multidimensional and intertwined
concepts that might otherwise leave the reader floundering in the midst of an
academic maze. His competence and ease in exploring a subject to which he has
devoted much of his own academic career instils a sense of trust in the reader
that this is an expert who is not only on intimate terms with his material, but
who is also vitally concerned with conveying his understanding of the matter to
his readers, no matter how new they are to the field. While in no way being
condescending towards his audience, Turner explains even the most fundamental
of ideas and practices in a pragmatic and fulsome way that gives heart and
feeling to Philology: The Forgotten
Origins of the Modern Humanities (Princeton
University Press; ISBN: 978-0-691-14564-8). Making no undue assumptions as to the
pre-existing level of understanding among his audience, he animates and informs
all aspects of the evolution of philology, leaving no stone unturned in his
portrayal of the history of the discipline, from the time of the ancient Greeks
to the modern day.
Turner has
a delightful sense of humor—he manifests none of the academic stuffiness that
is typically associated with the science of philology, and is, in fact, prone
to take the mickey out of pedantic claptrap. For instance, he personifies the
appearance of philology in academic circles in Northern America and the British
Isles as tottering “along with arthritic creakiness. One would not be startled
to see its gaunt torso clad in a frock coat.”
The author traces the development of the science from its once “chic”
and “dashing” form to its present state of apparent decrepitude with the ease
and fluency of a skilled rhetorician who is a master of his art. He shows how,
from philology’s once all-embracing encompassment of the study of all language
and languages, as well as of all texts, the seeming deterioration of the
discipline into its present attenuated state came about through its birthing of
the many disciplines that currently comprise not only the humanities, but also
the social sciences. By giving rise to a plethora of children, as many parents
have done since time immemorial, it can clearly be seen to have sacrificed some
of its own integrity so that it could give life to a host of new entities, each
strong and growing by leaps and bounds in its own right.
In addition
to the present volume, Professor Turner has also authored The Liberal Education of Charles Eliot Norton and Religion Enters the Academy, as well as
coauthored The Sacred and the Secular
University. He is well-known for the depth of his professional insight and
for the fluency and accessibility of his writing, of which the present volume
is yet another memorable instance.
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