Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
10-11-2026
Embargo Period
10-11-2027
Publication Title
Christian Felix Weißes Werk im europäischen Kontext
Abstract
The intercultural transfer of Christian Felix Weiße’s writing for youth in anglo-phone literature presents a puzzle. Through his own active translation work, Weiße was especially oriented towards England—even more so in his writing for young readers (Zille 2021, 154). Meanwhile, there were significant attractions to German pedagogy in anglophone spheres between 1750 and 1850, the “pedagogic century” (Sheehan 2005, 131f.). As this volume demonstrates, it was an era of explosion in international print cul-ture exchange, and German writers across genres were profoundly influential on English books for children (Blamires 2009, 2–5). Moreover, a German family sat on the British throne, and German innovations in children’s literature and schooling (the Grimms’ fairy tales, the Kindergarten movement, Horace Mann’s tour of Prussian schools, and more) drew the eyes of British and American reformers to German educational models (Bruce 2021, 6–7). As this essay traces, however, most of Weiße’s influence on anglophone ped-agogy arrived indirectly, through the popularity of Arnaud Berquin’s L’Ami des enfans. Why was a writer as foundational as Weiße neglected by the English press and peda-gogy? While important scholarship exists on the transfer of English-language material into German via Weiße as translator (see Zille 2021 for a comprehensive bibliography), very little has been published regarding the other direction—the influence of Weiße’s didactic works on anglophone children’s literature and education. English translations of Berquin’s L’Ami des enfans are discussed in several encyclopedias or broad studies of publishing for children (including Jackson 1989; Lathey 2010; Grenby 2011). More gener-ally, this essay is informed by research on pedagogy and print culture during the Euro-pean Enlightenment (see Bruce 2021, 8–15 for a more extensive bibliography). After a brief exploration of Weiße’s direct appearances in anglophone literature, the chapter turns to translations of his didactic works, including through the multicul-tural transfer of L’Ami des enfans in English-speaking countries. By way of conclusion, it returns to the puzzle of why Weiße has been overlooked in English-language contexts.
ISSN
978-3-662-73783-5
Recommended Citation
Bruce, Emily. "The Reception and Influence of Christian Felix Weiße within Anglophone Enlightenment Pedagogy." In Christian Felix Weißes Werk im europäischen Kontext, edited by François Genton, Sebastian Schmideler, and Tom Zille. Springer, 2026.
Primo Type
Book Chapter
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following work: Bruce, Emily. "The Reception and Influence of Christian Felix Weiße within Anglophone Enlightenment Pedagogy" in Christian Felix Weißes Werk im europäischen Kontext, edited by François Genton, Sebastian Schmideler, Tom Zille, October 2026, Springer. This version of the manuscript has been accepted for publication, after final editorial and peer review (where applicable) is complete, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements (such as copyediting or typesetting), or any corrections. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://link.springer.com/book/9783662737828. Use of this Accepted Manuscript version is subject to the publisher’s Accepted Manuscript terms of use: https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/policies/accepted-manuscript-terms