H. M. Posnett

Who is H. M. Posnett?

Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett was an Irish-New Zealand lawyer and scholar who was a pioneer in the field of comparative literature.

He used the word 'Comparative Literature' first time in English form. From 1885 until 1890 Posnett held the Chair of Classics and English Literature at the University of Auckland although he also examined students in economics. His works include The Historical Method in Ethics, Jurisprudence, and Political Economy and The Ricardian Theory of Rent, but he is most notable for the 1886 Comparative Literature, "considered today by many scholars as the foundational work for the studies gathered under the same name during the following century". Informed by Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism and published as part of an "International Scientific Series", it explained the history of literature as occurring contemporaneously with social evolution, from simple and communal to individual and complex. Posnett's work was also much influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's concept of Weltliteratur. At the time of its publication, the Saturday Review stated "We find very little interest in Mr. Posnett's 'Comparative Literature.' The arrangement seems by no means well ordered. Heaps of information are 'shot' all over the place. … How remote all this is from the study of literature!"