Ernest Renan (1823–1892)
From Linguistics and Psychology to Racial Ideology (1840s to 1860s)
This article, a successor to the author’s 2002 “Steinthal and Max Müller: Comparative Lives”, attempts to situate the Semiticist and ‘Orientalist’ Ernest Renan in a nexus between the poles represented by Heymann Steinthal (1823–1899) and Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900). Renan can be viewed as wavering — in the 1840s through 1860s — between (and perhaps developing from) a natural scientific and linguistic orientation influenced by Humboldtians such as August Friedrich Pott (1802–1887) and the Völkerpsychologist Steinthal and a racial ideology in linguistics similar to that of the more historicist linguist Max Müller. Max Müller had a similar set of influences in Paris to Renan in this period, such as their common amateur mentor Baron Ferdinand von Eckstein (1790–1861) and Collège de France professor Eugène Burnouf (1801–1852). But a crucial hypothesis relates to how much Renan was influenced in his change to racial ideology by the advent of the 1848 Revolution. The author explains how this hypothesis can be tested by specific further research into the manuscript of Renan’s 1847 Prix Volney prizewinning essay.
References
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Müller, Friedrich Max
1854a “
The Last Results of the Persian Researches in Comparative Philology”.
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Müller, Friedrich Max
1854b “
The Last Results of the Researches respecting the non-Iranian and non-Semitic Languages of Asia and Europe, or the Turanian Family of Languages.”
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Christianity and Mankind, 3), 263–521. London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans.
[Müller, Friedrich Max
]
1857 “
Renan’s Essays on the History of Religion”.
The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art 41 (
28 November 1857), p. 496. [Review of
Ernest Renan,
Études d’histoire religieuse (2nd ed. Paris 1857).]
Müller, Friedrich Max
1858 “
Mythologie comparée”. [Translated by
Mme. Cornélie Renan] with a preface by
Ernest Renan.
Revue germanique 21.562–591; 31.5–39.
[Müller, Friedrich Max
]
1860 “
Semitic Monotheism”.
The Times (London)
14 April 1860, p. 6;
16 April 1860, p. 12. [Review of
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[Müller, Friedrich Max
]
1862a “
Pre-Adamite Literature”.
The Times (London)
31 January 1862, 14a–d1. [Review of
D. A. Chwolson,
Ueber die Ueberreste der Alt-Babylonischen Literatur in Arabischen Uebersetzungen (St. Petersburg 1859),
Ernest Renan,
Mémoire sur l’Age du Livre … “Agriculture Nabatéenne” (Paris 1860) and
Étienne Quatremère,
Mémoire sur les Nabatéens (Paris 1835).]
[Müller, Friedrich Max
]
1862b “
Ernest Renan”.
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1 November 1862), 539–541. [Review of
Ernest Renan,
La Chaire d’Hébreu au Collège de France (Paris 1862).]
Müller, Friedrich Max
1901 My Autobiography: A fragment. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
Müller, Georgina Adelaide Max
ed. 1901 Life and Letters of the Right Honourable Friedrich Max Müller. 21 vols. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
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1968 “
Klassische Bildung und soziale Struktur in Deutschland zwischen 1800 und 1848”.
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ed. 1968 Sagesse de Renan. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
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1855 “
Max Müller und die Kennzeichen der Sprachverwandtschaft”.
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Pott, August Friedrich
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1892 “
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2 July 1892), 7 col. b-14 col. a.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1847 “
Essai historique et théorique sur les langues sémitiques en général et sur la langue hébraïque en particulier”. Ms. 2209, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France. Memoir Nr. 6 submitted to the Prix Volney 1847 competition, co-winner.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1855a Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques. Part I: Histoire générale des langues sémitiques. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1855b Letter to Friedrich Max Müller, Paris
13 November. Ms. n.a.f. 11953, Renan papers, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1856 Ms. drafts of three letters to editor [Charles Douniol] of
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William Cureton], Paris
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Hyacinthe Charles de] Valroger, n.p., n.d. Ms. n.a.f. 11492, Renan papers, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
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Renan, Joseph Ernest
1858a Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques. Part I: Histoire générale des langues sémitiques. 2nd ed. rev. and enl. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale.
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1958b [1848] “
De l’Origine du langage”. 2nd ed. published as a separate volume.
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Renan, Joseph Ernest
1858c Letter to Friedrich Max Müller, Paris
30 January 1858 Ms. n.a.f. 11953, Renan papers, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1859 “
Nouvelles considérations sur le caractère général des peuples sémitiques, et en particulier sur leur tendance au monothéisme”.
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5th series, 131 (
February/March 1859), 214–282 (
April/May 1859), 417–450.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
ed. and transl. 1860a Le cantique des cantiques. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1860b Letter to Friedrich Max Müller, Paris
8 May 1860 Ms. n.a.f. 11953, Renan papers, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1862 Letter to Friedrich Max Müller, Paris
30 November 1862 Ms. n.a.f. 11953, Renan papers, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1863 Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques. Part I: Histoire générale des langues sémitiques. 3rd ed. rev. and enl. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1864 Letter to Friedrich Max Müller, Paris
28 March 1864 Ms. n.a.f. 11953, Renan papers, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1879 Letter to Friedrich Max Müller, Paris, 16 October 1879. Ms. n.a.f. 11953, Renan papers, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Renan, Joseph Ernest
1883 “
Le Judaïsme comme race et comme religion”.
La Revue politique et littéraire (=
Revue des cours littéraires, 3rd series) 51.142–149 (
3 February 1883).
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Renan, Joseph Ernest
1923 Ernest Renan – Henriette Renan: Nouvelles lettres intimes 1846– 1850. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.
[Renan, Noémi
ed.]
1926, 1928 [Ernest Renan] Correspondance. 21 vols. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.
Rödiger, Emil
1856 “
Wissenschaftlicher Jahresbericht über das zweite Halbjahr 1854 und das Jahr 1855”.
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Roman, André
1988 “
L’histoire générale des langues sémitiques d’Ernest Renan et une vision d’aujourd’hui de la langue arabe”.
Études renaniennes Nr. 731.3–22.
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1979 [1978] Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
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[Steinschneider, Moritz
]
1860 Nr. “863”.
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M. Steinschneider, No. 3 (
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1854 Edmondson, ed. 1999.
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Steinthal, Heymann
1859 Letter to Ernest Renan, 11 June 1859. Box 19, bound volume, Nr. 35, Renan-Scheffer papers, Musée de la vie romantique, Paris.
Steinthal, Heymann
1860 “
Zur Charakteristik der semitischen Völker”.
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Renan 1859.]
Steinthal, Heymann
1890 “
Zum Ursprung und Wesen des Monotheismus: Ein Dialog”.
Zu Bibel und Religionsphilosophie: Vorträge und Abhandlungen. Berlin: Georg Reimer.
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1958 “
‘Race’ et ‘races’ dans l’oeuvre d’Ernest Renan”.
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Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
DANIŞ, Fahri & Esra DANACIOĞLU
2022.
LÜBNAN’I FENİKE’YE EŞLEŞTİRMEK: ERNEST RENAN’IN FİLOLOJİK YAKLAŞIMI VE MISSION DE PHÉNICIE.
Milliyetçilik Araştırmaları Dergisi 4:1
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