<i>Translatio studii</i>: The contribution of exiles to the establishment of Sociology and Art History in Britain, 1933-1960

Abstract

This story is a small part of a larger one, the Great Diaspora of central and east European intellectuals in the 1930s, to Britain, USA, France, Latin America etc. Exile may be regarded as a school, a form of adult education, not only for the exiles themselves but also for some of the natives who came to know them. Focussing still more sharply, let us consider the intellectual consequences of the diaspora on an insular culture, with special reference to two relatively new and small disciplines. Both sociology and art history were more highly developed in central Europe in the 1930s than they were in Britain, allowing a few remarkable immigrants to make a contribution quite disproportionate to their numbers. How does one establish a new discipline? In short, what is offered here is a kind of social history or historical sociology of both art history and sociology itself, suggesting that the contribution of the exiles should be regarded not a simple import or transfer of knowledge but rather as a cultural encounter leading to changes on both sides, to a kind of cultural hybridization.