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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