Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Endre Abkarovits: Teaching the Englishness of English Gothic cathedral architecture

ENDRE ABKAROVITS TEACHING THE ENGLISHNESS OF ENGLISH GOTHIC CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE Abstract: The present paper has the double aim of describing the role of English cultural studies (and, within that, art historical studies) in training students of English on the one hand and summarizing arguments on the other hand why, among other things, Medieval, especially Gothic, arts should be an important part of the course. Special attention will be paid to Gothic cathedral architecture, which is one of the most outstanding achievements of English arts and culture on the whole, one of those few fields of arts where England was not simply among the best for centuries, but the leading country in Europe for a period. 1 Introduction For decades the training of students of English in Hungarian higher education has comprised four main fields: literature, linguistics, language practice and methodology. These were the ones which were given priority at the expense of all other possible fields. A fifth area, with usually far less time span, was the one which - separately or condensed into one course offered information on the history, geography, culture, arts of England, as well as the educational, legal, political, etc institutions of contemporary Britain (and sometimes other English-speaking countries). This was sometimes done within the framework of a single course, but more commonly separated into 'British history' and 'British civilisation'. The word 'civilisation' has been used in varying senses, and educationalists still have not agreed on a term that would suit its Hungarian or German equivalent best (országismeret, Landeskunde). Very often as much time is spent on British as on American civilisation, although if British civilisation' also deals with the historical development of English culture, it should cover at least twice as long a period as its American counterpart. The equal amount of time dedicated to the two countries is made possible only by the fact that most books and courses on British and American civilisation contain mainly the description of the political, educational, legal, economic, etc institutions of contemporary England and 43