Ivory tower

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Ivory Tower (disambiguation).
Hortus Conclusus
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An ivory tower is a metaphorical place—or an atmosphere—where people are happily cut off from the rest of the world in favor of their own pursuits, usually mental and esoteric ones. From the 19th century, it has been used to designate an environment of intellectual pursuit disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life.

academia or the college and university systems in many countries.[2][3]

The term originated from the Biblical

Mary.[4]

Biblical usage

In the

Mary in the sixteenth-century Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary ("tower of ivory", turris eburnea in Latin), though the title and image were in use long before that, since the 12th-century Marian revival at least.[5] It occasionally appears in art, especially in depictions of Mary in the hortus conclusus. Although the term is rarely used in the religious sense in modern times, it is credited with inspiring the modern meaning.[6]

Modern usage

Hawksmoor Towers, All Souls College, Oxford
St. John's College, Cambridge

The first modern usage of "ivory tower" in the familiar sense of an unworldly dreamer can be found in a poem of 1837, "Pensées d'Août, à M. Villemain", by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, a French literary critic and author, who used the term "tour d'ivoire" for the poetical attitude of Alfred de Vigny as contrasted with the more socially engaged Victor Hugo: "Et Vigny, plus secret, Comme en sa tour d'ivoire, avant midi rentrait". [And Vigny, the more secretive, like he was in his ivory tower, returning before midday.][6] This poetic use of "tour d'ivoire" may have been an allusion to the rook (or castle) in chess, which is another meaning of the French word tour. Chess pieces were often made of ivory. The name Rook is derived from the Persian rukh ("chariot"), maybe influenced by the Italian rocca ("fortress"). In early versions of chess, this piece was imagined as conveying and shielding a powerful warrior.

laymen
outside their "ivory towers".

In Andrew Hodges' biography of the

Magdalen College, and it was popularly called the Ivory Tower, because of that benefactor of Princeton, the Procter who manufactured Ivory soap."[7] William Cooper Procter (Princeton class of 1883) was a significant supporter of the construction of the Graduate College, and the main dining hall bears the Procter name. The skylines of Oxford and Cambridge universities, along with many Ivy League
universities, are dotted with turrets and spires which are often described as 'Ivory Towers'.

In Randall Jarrell's essay "The End of the Line" (1942), Jarrell asserts that if modern poetry is to survive then poets must come down from the "Ivory Tower" of elitist composition. Jarrell's main thrust is that the rich poetry of the modernist period was over-dependent upon reference to other literary works. For Jarrell the Ivory Tower led modern poetry into obscurity.[8]

The ivory towers of King's College London's Maughan Library

Writers for

art deco tower called the Elverson Building, as the "Ivory Tower of Truth."[9][10][11]

Academic usage

The ivory tower is most often connected with the careers and lifestyles of academics in university and college systems.[12][13] They have often garnered reputations as elite institutions by joining or creating associations with other universities. In many countries, these institutions aligned themselves with a specific mission or athletic ties.[14][15] Some have criticized the elitism associated with these groups.[16]

In certain instances, these ivory-tower universities have received a disproportionate amount of regional and national funding.

U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking
.

See also

References

  1. S2CID 145660804
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  2. ISBN 978-1-101-47620-8
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  3. ISBN 9780813034225
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  4. ^ "Mary, the Ivory Tower ~ Cardinal Newman - Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman". Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. 2014-05-23. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  5. ISBN 978-0-85115-765-8
    .
  6. ^ a b Quinion, Michael (2001-01-13). "On "Ivory Tower"". WorldWideWords.org. Retrieved 2007-04-24. The origin is the Bible, specifically Chapter 7, Verse 4 of the Song of Solomon, in which Solomon is extolling the beauty of his beloved... Not quite the thing today [...] but it struck a chord with Charles-Augustin Saint-Beuve.
  7. OCLC 10020685
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  8. ISBN 978-0-631-22554-6
    .
  9. ^ "Philadelphia City Paper". Archived from the original on 2014-09-20.
  10. ^ "Philadelphia Living". Archived from the original on 2017-10-17. Retrieved 2014-09-20.
  11. ^ "Philadelphia Weekly". Archived from the original on 2014-09-20.
  12. ^ Gabriel, Deborah; Tate, Shirley Anne (2017). Inside the Ivory Tower: Narratives of Women of Colour Surviving and Thriving in British Academia. UCL Institute of Education Press.
  13. ^ Brennan, Jason; Magness, Philip (2019). Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education. Oxford University Press.
  14. ^ "Germany to continue building its Ivy League". Science.
  15. ^ "Eastern stars: Universities of China's C9 League excel in select fields". The World University Rankings. 17 February 2011.
  16. ^ "South Korean education ranks high, but it's the kids who pay". The Conversation. 30 March 2015.
  17. ^ "'Dire need': Elite universities urge parties to boost financial support for students". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 May 2019.
  18. ^ "New report shows Ivy League schools get more federal funding than some states". The Daily Pennsylvanian.
  19. ^ "Best universities in China 2019". The World University Rankings. 10 September 2021.

External links

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