Newman’s Idea and its Shadow: Liberal Knowledge and Charismatic Space in a University

This chapter examines John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University, which has become the point of reference for debates about the nature and mission of university and liberal education in the nineteenth century. Shadow university discourse indicates how the usage of language in analysing universities marginalises the first-person experience of learning on the physical campus. Additionally, Newman abruptly presents the university in literary language and personal terms and suggests a theory of learning that necessarily operates in embodied space and time. The chapter also looks into how Newman’s Oriel pages shift to a more humanistic, experiential style that reframes and transforms the interactions of language, space, identity, and knowledge. It explains that charismatic spaces and physical experiences still matter despite the subsequent debates about university liberal education and shadow university.