Auguste Angellier, the scholar and the poet

This essay is comprised of four chapters : (1) The study of English literature in Japan-past and present (2) Auguste Angellier in Japan (3) The reminiscences of Prof. Kinji Shimada (4) Auguste Angellier, the man and his achievements. It was in the twenties of the Meiji era (i.e.1880s) that the study of English literature in Japan started both at a university and popular level. However the English ability of general academics was not high enough to specialize in English literature. The scholars and students weren't likely to go any further than trying to read and understand the original texts. In other words, their English was not good enough to appreciate or study English literature. The writings of general scholars of English literature in Japan were borrowed straight from the pioneers in England or in the United States. They wrote after the fashion of Western scholars. Generally this is still the marked tendency in Japan. The Japanese aren't rich in originality, and poor language skill has arrested the development of technical study of English literature in the country for generations. For the French, English literature means a foreign literature. It is the same way for the Japanese. However the French have made distinguished services in the study of English literature in France, making free use of their aesthetic appreciation and psychological approach as well. The key to their success is of great concern for us, so I have taken up Auguste Angellier (1848～1911) , the anglicist, as a case study. Angellier took a doctorate in 1893 by writing "Robert Burns : La vie et les oeuvres". However the opinion fiercely differed on his dissertation in the judging commitee at Sorbonne. Nevertheless it was due to the tutorage from Prof. Angellier that his disciples produced remarkable works in later years. Auguste Angellier is not well known in Japan. Some anglicists in the country took interest in Robert Burns as written by him in the Taisho era (i.e.1920s) . One of the most eager scholars of Angellier was a lecturer in English at Taihoku Higher School in Taipei, Formosa. Lecturer Shimada (Professor at Tokyo University after the Second World War) was engaged then in studying the French school of English literature and was publishing short essays on it now and then. He first published, "The French school of English literature-The Achievements of Auguste Angellier" in the annual reports of the literary course (no.3) , published by the department of literature and political science at Taihoku Imperial University in 1937.He reissued it with major enlargements in the "Travaux d'Auguste Angellier" (Hikaku Bungaku Kenkyu [i.e.] Etude de Litterature Comparees No.15) in 1969, based on "La personalite d'Auguste Angellier" by Floris Delattre and other books. When Shimada's study on the French school of English literature was almost completed, all of his manuscripts were destroyed by the American bombers in Taipei. Nevertheless, we must keep his name in mind as an introducer of Auguste's writings to Japan. Prof. Kinji Shimada visited France twice in 1978 and in 1980. He visited such cities in Flanders as Dunkirk, Calais, Douai and Boulogne-sur-Mer with his French friends. However he didn't conduct any survey of Auguste in these cities, except making photocopies at the municipal library in Lille. Later on he published his travel sketches twice in the "Rising Generation" published by Kenkyusha Publishing Co., in Tokyo. My essay on "Auguste Angellier, the man and his achievements" was written on the basis of "La personalite d'Auguste Angellier" by Floris Delattre and a field investigation conducted by me both in England and in Northern France. I was able to clarify in detail not only the East House in Greenwich (London) , where Auguste taught French in his twenties, but also the woman' T' who often appears in his pocket notebook. With so few historical records, the woman's identity was cloaked in mystery. As regards this mysterious woman, Floris Delatt