Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 07:09:37 -0400

From: Fred Shapiro fred.shapiro[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALE.EDU

Subject: Re: "Privilege" as a Verb



In my previous message about _privilege_ I gave a 1977 usage, but upon

reflection I see that this may simply be the old sense rather than the

Marxist/postmodernist sense. A 1980 article by Peter Barry in the journal

_English_, entitled "Linguistics and Literary Criticism: A Polytheism

without Gods," refers to "privileging" of a linguistic approach. A 1983

article in _CEA Critic_ by K. S. Rothwell is titled "Roman Polanski's

'Macbeth,' the Privileging of Ross." In the _Monthly Review_, March 1984,

Bertell Ollman, in an article headed "Academic Freedom in America Today: A

Marxist View," speaks of "privileging the qualities of academic freedom as

an ideal."



In the _New York Times Book Review_, 15 Dec. 1985, a letter states that

"It is incumbent on intellectuals ... to contribute to the formulation of

standards of civic justice, without privileging their own participation in

a complex cultural and political process." At about the same time, the 21

Dec. 1985 issue of the _Nation_ carried a book review by Edward Hirsch

containing a reference to the poet Robert Hayden's "privileging poetry

over race." Finally, William E. Rogers published an article in _Religion

and Literature_ in 1986 with the title "Ricoeur and the Privileging of

Texts."





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+ Fred R. Shapiro Editor +

+ Associate Librarian for Public Services OXFORD DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN +

+ Yale Law School LEGAL QUOTATIONS +

+ e-mail: shapiro[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]minerva.cis.yale.edu (Oxford University Press) +

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