The Languages of Paradise: Race, Religion, and Philology in the Nineteenth Century

Author:   Maurice Olender ,  Arthur Goldhammer
Publisher:   Harvard University Press
ISBN:  

9780674030626


Pages:   228
Publication Date:   01 September 2008
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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The Languages of Paradise: Race, Religion, and Philology in the Nineteenth Century


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Overview

Michel Foucault observed that the birth of philology attracted far less notice in the Western mind than did the birth of biology or political economy. In this penetrating exploration of the origin of the discipline, Maurice Olender shows that philology left an indelible mark on Western visions of history and contributed directly to some of the most horrifying ideologies of the twentieth century. The comparative study of languages was inspired by Renaissance debates over what language was spoken in the Garden of Eden. By the eighteenth century scholars were persuaded that European languages shared a common ancestor. With the adoption of positivist, scientific methods in the nineteenth century, the hunt for the language of Eden and the search for a European Ursprache diverged. Yet the desire to reconcile historical causality with divine purpose remained. Because the Indo-European languages clearly had a separate line of descent from the biblical tongues, the practitioners of the new science of philology (many of whom had received their linguistic training from the Church) turned their scholarship to the task of justifying the ascendance of European Christianity to the principal role in Providential history. To accomplish this they invented a pair of concepts-Aryan and Semitic-that by the end of the century had embarked on ideological and political careers far outside philology. Supposed characteristics of the respective languages were assigned to the peoples who spoke them: thus the Semitic peoples (primarily the Jews) were, like their language, passive, static, and immobile, while the Aryans (principally Western Europeans) became the active, dynamic Chosen People of the future. Olender traces the development of these concepts through the work of J. G. Herder, Ernest Renan, Friedrich Max Muller, Adolphe Pictet, Rudolph Grau, and Ignaz Goldziher. He shows that, despite their different approaches, each of these men struggled more or less purposefully to join romanticism with positivism in an effort to preserve a common allegiance to the doctrines of Providence. With erudition and elegance, Olender restores the complexity and internal contradictions of their ideas and recreates the intellectual climate in which they flourished.

Full Product Details

Author:   Maurice Olender ,  Arthur Goldhammer
Publisher:   Harvard University Press
Imprint:   Harvard University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 21.00cm
Weight:   0.249kg
ISBN:  

9780674030626


ISBN 10:   0674030621
Pages:   228
Publication Date:   01 September 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

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Reviews

A riveting book about a difficult but important subject. Olender plunges into the scientific roots of modern racial myths with verve, wit, and remarkable erudition, producing both a dense, powerful monograph in the history of philology and a fascinating essay on the roots of twentieth-century errors and horrors. - Anthony Grafton, Princeton University


Author Information

Maurice Olender is Maitre de Conferences at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Arthur Goldhammer received the French-American Translation Prize in 1990 for his translation of A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution.

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