Scholarship, community formation and book reviews: The Literarisches Centralblatt as arena and meeting place

Christiaan  Engberts

Scholarship, community formation and book reviews: The Literarisches Centralblatt as arena and meeting place

Publication date: 13.09.2021

Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 2021, 20 (2021), pp. 651 - 679

https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.019.14050

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Scholarship, community formation and book reviews: The Literarisches Centralblatt as arena and meeting place

Abstract

Wiedza, formacja społeczna i recenzje książek: Literarisches Centralblatt jako arena i miejsce spotkań

Recenzje książek pełnią wiele funkcji. Służą nie tylko do oceny wartości poszczególnych książek, ale także przyczyniają się do tworzenia i utrzymywania społeczności naukowych.

Artykuł ten, opierając się na dziewiętnastowiecznych recenzjach książek, przedstawia trzy ich cechy, które przyczyniły się do samookreślenia się społeczności naukowych: ocena książek, ocena autorów oraz stosowanie pozytywnych i negatywnych strategii uprzejmości w zwracaniu się do poszczególnych autorów a także szerszej publiczności.

Analiza będzie oparta na recenzjach książek niemieckiego semitysty Theodora Nöldeke i eksperymentalnego psychologa Wilhelma Wundta w Literarisches Centralblatt z lat 70. XVIII w. W swoich recenzjach książek autorzy zarówno krytykowali, jak i chwalili swoich rówieśników, którzy zamieniali czasopisma przeglądowe, takie jak Centralblatt, na arenę polemicznych debat, a także miejsce spotkań dla podobnie myślących naukowców.

Mówiąc ściślej, recenzje książek posłużyły do przekazania standardów doskonałości naukowej, oczekiwań co do charakteru i umiejętności naukowców oraz uznania przez nich wartości dalszego istnienia celów i zainteresowań podzielanych przez dużą grupę osób wykształconych i zatrudnionych uczonych. Przyczyniając się do tworzenia i utrzymywania naukowych grup rówieśniczych o wspólnych wartościach, recenzje książek również wzmocniły linię podziału między badaczami akademickimi a laikami w swoich dziedzinach.

Article available under CC BY license.

License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Book reviews serve multiple functions. They are not only used to assess the merit of individual books but also contribute to the creation and maintenance of scholarly communities.

This paper draws on nineteenth-century book reviews to outline three of their features that contributed to the selfdefinition of such communities: the assessment of books, the assessment of authors, and the use of positive and negative politeness strategies to address individual authors as well as a broader audience.

The analysis will be based on the book reviews of the German Semitist Theodor Nöldeke and the experimental psychologist Wilhelm Wundt in the Literarisches Centralblatt in the eighteenseventies. In their book reviews they both criticized and praised their peers, which turned review journals like the Centralblatt in arenas for polemic debate as well as meeting places for likeminded scholars.

To be more precise, book reviews were used to communicate standards of scholarly excellence, expectations of the character and skills of scholars, and the acknowledgement of the value of the continued existence of aims and interests shared among a large group of academically educated and employed scholars. By contributing to the establishment and maintenance of scholarly peer groups with shared values, book reviews also reinforced the dividing line between academic researchers and lay contributors to their fields.

Article available under CC BY license.

License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Keywords

book reviews, standards of scholarship, scholarly character, communities of scholarship, late-nineteenth-century Germany, Theodor Nöldeke, Wilhelm Wundt, Literarisches Centralblatt / recenzje książek, standardy naukowe, charakter naukowy, wspólnoty naukowe, koniec XIX wieku, Niemcy, Literarisches Centralblatt

book reviews, standards of scholarship, scholarly character, communities of scholarship, late-nineteenth-century Germany, Theodor Nöldeke, Wilhelm Wundt, Literarisches Centralblatt

References

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ARCHIVAL SOURCES

Leiden University Library: BPL: 2389: Correspondence of Michael Jan de Goeje and Theodor Nöldeke.

Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig: NL 249: Nachlass Friedrich Zarncke.

PERIODICALS

Literarisches Centralblatt, 1850 & 1871–1879, accessed through Google Books:

1850: https://books.google.pl/books?id=I7NFAAAAcAAJ;

1871: https://books.google.pl/books?id=FhRTAAAAcAAJ;

1872: https://books.google.pl/books?id=UxRTAAAAcAAJ;

1873: https://books.google.pl/books?id=S2RaAAAAcAAJ;

1874: https://books.google.de/books?id=M1ZJAQAAMAAJ;

1875: https://books.google.pl/books?id=HG5JAQAAMAAJ;

1876: https://books.google.pl/books?id=Lp4xAQAAMAAJ;

1877: https://books.google.pl/books?id=YYUNAAAAQAAJ;

1878: https://books.google.pl/books?id=DsA4AQAAMAAJ;

1879: https://books.google.pl/books?id=BKAxAQAAMAAJ.

STUDIES

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Information

Information: Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 2021, 20 (2021), pp. 651 - 679

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.019.14050

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Scholarship, community formation and book reviews: The Literarisches Centralblatt as arena and meeting place

English:

Scholarship, community formation and book reviews: The Literarisches Centralblatt as arena and meeting place

Authors

Christiaan Engberts

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6658-7348

Utrecht University (Utrecht, The Netherlands)

Published at: 13.09.2021

Received at: 30.10.2020

Accepted at: 22.06.2021

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY

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Christiaan Engberts (Author) - 100%

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<p> Scholarship, community formation and book reviews: The <em>Literarisches Centralblatt</em> as arena and meeting place</p>

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