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Document Details :

Title: Wetenschappelijke specialisatie en gemeenschappelijke cultuur
Subtitle: Humaniora en natuurwetenschappen in de Groningse rectoraatsredes uit het laatste kwart van de negentiende eeuw
Author(s): KRUL, Wessel
Journal: Spiegel der Letteren
Volume: 42    Issue: 2   Date: 2000   
Pages: 97-115
DOI: 10.2143/SDL.42.2.415

Abstract :
The growing specialization of the university curricula in the last quarter of the nineteenth century made it increasingly difficult to maintain the idea of a shared knowledge among the educated public. This essay takes a look at the official lectures held every year between 1878 and 1902 to a non-specialist audience by the rector of Groningen University. It took recourse to the same popular notions about science that were current in the novels of the time. The changes and trends that characterize European culture during these decades are faithfully reflected in a minor literary genre like the rectoral oration.

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