A History of Rutgers English: Part One,
by Karen Heinbach
The founding of the English
Department at Rutgers College coincided with the beginning
of a revolutionary era in the development of the discipline
itself. Although Rutgers was founded in 1766 (as Queen's College),
nearly a century was to pass before the study of English language
and literature was to gain recognition and legitimacy in the
academic world. Still, despite its gradual beginnings, the
formal program of English at Rutgers was one of the first
to be established in American universities.
Up until the late nineteenth century, most academic activity
related to what we now know as English was centered largely
on rhetoric rather than the study of literature. Learning
classical languages and practicing public speaking were the
main goals of humanistic education, reflecting rhetoric's
link to institutional religion. Students were trained to debate,
make speeches, and give sermons as part of their ecclesiastical
preparation.
At
Rutgers, this close tie between the study of rhetoric and
the church was embodied by the Reverend John Forsyth, the
first faculty member appointed to the "Professorship
of English Language and Literature" created in 1860.
Forsyth, a Rutgers alumnus from the class of 1829, had studied
theology in Edinburgh, and been a professor of Latin at Princeton
University. He also taught Hebrew, archaeology, and church
history at a seminary in Newburgh, New York, where he had
been a pastor and remained on the board of education. Like
many early English professors, his professional training and
academic interests were wide-ranging, but not focused on interpreting
literature. For the most part, his students received thorough
instruction in composition and declamation. Assigned readings
included Parker's Aid to English Composition for
freshmen, Blair's famous Lectures in Rhetoric and Belle
Lettres for sophomores, Day's Rhetoric for juniors,
and finally, for seniors, English literature. Great literature,
however, was to be a model for speaking and writing, not an
object of study in itself.
Forsyth's teaching methods were orthodox for his time: learning
through memorization and recitation. Each Wednesday, after
the required daily religious services, his students would
remain in the chapel for several more hours, listening to
speeches given by two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores,
and three freshmen. Upperclassmen gave original speeches (scrutinized
beforehand by Forsyth), while the freshmen and sophomores
simply recited approved selections. Forsyth's pedagogical
approach was standard, but his class schedule was not - the
Rutgers College faculty board made an official request in
December of 1862 that he hold formal classes every day, give
regular lectures himself in addition to the students' speeches,
and be present on campus more than three days a week. Forsyth
accordingly resigned, claiming that his responsibilities in
Newburgh were too important, and that "a man of advanced
age in winter" could not handle the commute from New
York to New Brunswick.
Even though Forsyth-s approach emphasized rhetoric over literature,
the creation of an English Language and Literature course
at Rutgers had preceded most other leading British and American
universities by over a decade. Harvard-s first English professor
began teaching in 1876, and Oxford did not establish the Merton
Professorships of English Language and Literature until 1885.
However, despite its early adoption at Rutgers, the English
Department foundered after Forsyth-s resignation. In 1864,
the Reverend Theodore Stanford Doolittle was appointed professor
of Rhetoric, Logic, and Mental Philosophy to fill the curricular
gap. A small portion of his time went towards the study of
literary texts, but his primary academic emphasis was on what
would later become the fields of psychology and philosophy.
Students interested in studying English literature in depth
would have to wait until the rebirth of the Department, in
1880.
To be continued...
Works consulted:
Bacon, Alan. The Nineteenth-Century History of English
Studies. Brookfield: Ashgate Publishing, 1998.
Demarest, William H.S., A History of Rutgers College,
1766-1924. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers College, 1924.
Gneuss, Helmut. English Language Scholarship: A Survey
and Bibliography From the Beginning to End of the Nineteenth
Century. Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts
and Studies, 1996.
McCormick, Richard P. Rutgers: A Bicentennial History.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1966.
Shumway, David R., and Craig Dionne. Disciplining English:
Alternative Histories, Critical Perspectives. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 2002.
Many thanks to the staff at the Rutgers University
Archives for their help in researching this article. The Archives
hold the papers of John Forsyth, the records of the Philoclean
Society, course catalogues, and many other documents from
the history of Rutgers.
|