Yale University

Intellectual "schools"

Because of its age and prestige, Yale has been responsible for many intellectual trends. Most famously, these have come out of Yale's English and literature departments, starting with New Criticism. Of the New Critics - Robert Penn Warren, W.K. Wimsatt, and Cleanth Brooks were all Yale faculty. Later, after the passing of the New Critical fad, the Yale literature department became a center of American deconstruction, with French and Comparative Literature departments centered around Paul de Man and supported by the English department. This has become known as the "Yale School." Yale's history department has also originated important intellectual trends. Historian C. Vann Woodward is credited for beginning in the 1960s an important stream of southern historians; likewise, David Montgomery, a labor historian, advised many of the current generation of labor historians in the country. Most noticeably, a tremendous number of currently active Latin American historians were trained at Yale in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s by Emìlia Viotta da Costa; younger Latin Americanists tend to be "intellectual cousins" in that their advisors were advised by the same people at Yale. Because so many of the country's law professors were trained at Yale Law School, there is a similar effect in legal education.

Related Topics:
New Criticism - Robert Penn Warren - W.K. Wimsatt - Cleanth Brooks - Deconstruction - Paul de Man - Yale School - C. Vann Woodward - Southern - David Montgomery - Emìlia Viotta da Costa

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