Abstract

The work of two nineteenth-century professors of rhetoric (John Veitch) and literature (John Nichol) at the University of Glasgow reveals the intersections between rhetoric and literature at the moment when they were officially separated, by government mandate, into two disciplines. The ways in which religion, politics, and nationalism shaped the ways Veitch and Nichol theorized their respective disciplines provide instructive parallels for our profession's current controversies, including who will have access to higher education, what those students will be taught, and who will make the decisions about the mission and content of English studies.