Abstract
The French program, one of the oldest language programs at the University of Melbourne, is currently housed in the School of Languages and Linguistics. Its history is intimately bound up with the career of prominent academics, including A. R. Chisholm, who was arguably “the most influential university teacher of French literature in twentieth-century Australia” (Kirsop 1981, p. 300). In this chapter I briefly retrace the history of French Studies at the University of Melbourne, from its beginnings in 1884, until today. However, in relating this history, I place a particular emphasis on the period of Chisholm’s tenure from 1921 to 1956, since his influence in shaping the curriculum over this period continues to resonate today.
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Notes
- 1.
Stan Scott (1927–2014) was a disciple of Chisholm. An outstanding and tireless teacher, he specialized in medieval and Renaissance French language and culture and was recruited as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne in 1956. Chisholm’s close friend and collaborator, Scott was also his literary executor. He devoted many years to writing Chisholm’s biography, and his 270-page manuscript sits in the Archives of the University of Melbourne where it can be consulted. It has recently been edited and published by Wallace Kirsop (Scott 2019).
- 2.
The choice of Karagueusian (“Kara”) as Assistant proved to be very successful according to Scott:
The choice of Kara was a particularly happy one, as he turned out to be a dynamic witness to his native French culture and way of life, an impressive if unorthodox teacher, and a source of animation throughout the Faculty of Arts. If his influence in the department was often complementary to Chisholm’s, he was nonetheless an omnivorous reader in French and English, with a spontaneous delight in stylish composition and a wide picturesque vocabulary in both languages. (Scott n.d., p. 116)
Karagueusian was promoted to senior lecturer in 1928.
- 3.
Outside of Sydney and Melbourne, the University of Tasmania was the first university to teach French, beginning in 1892. At the University of Adelaide, classes in French were given by the Professor of English and other casual lecturers during the 1880s and 1890s (Fornasiero and West-Sooby 2012, pp. 142–144), but the first dedicated appointment in French did not take place “until 1918 when John Crampton, a London graduate, took up a lectureship” (Barko and Martin 1997, p. 31). For discussion of Queensland and Western Australia see Barko and Martin (1997, p. 36), and, for Canberra and New England (1997, p. 42).
- 4.
According to Scott, Chisholm
gave a single Extension lecture on “French Symbolist Poetry and its International Influence”. In 1925 there was also a talk on Symbolism at a combined meeting of the French Club and Literature Society (July 21) and, in subsequent years, a course of five Extension lectures covering the precursors and the aftermath of this movement. Unfortunately, of course, the text of these lectures has not survived, and we can only speculate on the approach he is likely to have adopted after the impact of Brennan but before his own deep immersion in Schopenhauer. The titles of these lectures show a critical bias towards psychology and imagery. (Scott n.d., p. 112)
- 5.
See “Songs the French sing”, a recording published by Broadcast Exchange of Australia Pty Ltd., 331/3 RPM.
- 6.
See Jana Verhoeven (2013).
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Duché, V. (2020). French Studies at the University of Melbourne, 1921–1956. In: Fornasiero, J., Reed, S.M.A., Amery, R., Bouvet, E., Enomoto, K., Xu, H.L. (eds) Intersections in Language Planning and Policy. Language Policy, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50925-5_6
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