Eliza Marian Butler

Eliza Marian Butler (29 December 1885 – 13 November 1959),

In her 1935 work, The Tyranny of Greece over Germany,[2] she wrote that Germany has had "too much exposure to Ancient Greek literature and art. The result was that the German mind had succumbed to 'the tyranny of an ideal'. The German worship of Ancient Greece had emboldened the Nazis to remake Europe in their image."^[4] It was controversial in Britain and its translation was banned in Germany.^[5] Butler also wrote two novels. Her autobiography, Paper Boats, was published by William Collins, Sons in the year of her death.^[5][1]

Butler was awarded an honorary doctorate (D. Litt.) from London University in 1957 and one from Oxford University in 1958.^[1]

Legacy

In her research on German orientalism, the scholar Suzanne L. Marchand built upon Butler's German cultural critique; Marchand, too, emphasised the political overtones of Orientalistik ('Oriental studies') and Germany's philhellenism. Marchand is critical of Edward Said's view, expressed in his Orientalism, that German orientalism was not of the same pernicious quality as the orientalism of the colonial powers, France and Britain. Said's belief was that Germany historically had a mostly "classical" interest in the Orient. In contrast, Marchand agrees with Butler in concluding that the use of classical Greece by 18th- to the early-20th-century German nationalism was a factor in the rise of fascist ideology.^[4][7]

Personal life

Butler had a long-term committed relationship with fellow-scholar Isaline Blew Horner. From 1926 until Butler's death, the two lived and travelled together.^{[2][8][9][10]}

Butler died in London on 13 November 1959.^[1]

Selected works

• The Saint-Simonian Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926)
• The Tempestuous Prince (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1929)
• Sheridan: A Ghost Story (London: Constable, 1931)
• The Tyranny of Greece Over Germany: A Study of the Influence Exercised by Greek Art and Poetry Over the Great German Writers of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Cambridge University Press, 1935; reprinted 1958 Boston: Beacon; and 2012 Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press,
  ISBN 1107697646
  ).
• Rainer Maria Rilke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1941; reprinted 1946 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
• The Myth of the Magus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1947)
• Ritual Magic (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1949; reimpression 1998)
• Daylight in a Dream (London: The Hogarth Press, 1951)
• Silver Wings (London: The Hogarth Press, 1952)
• The Fortunes of Faust (Cambridge University Press, 1952)
• Heinrich Heine: a biography (Hogarth Press, 1956)
• Paper Boats (London: Collins, 1959), a volume of reminiscences[6]

See also

References