The Critical Edge of Learning

In this article, Jacqueline Rose argues that nineteenth-century literary writing, notably Mary Shelley’s relatively unknown Valperga, published the year Birkbeck was launched, has much to say about the crisis facing the humanities in the UK and worldwide today. Shelley’s text is a plea against tyranny. Birkbeck was founded, to acclaim and hostility, in order to make the pursuit of knowledge and critical thought available to the working class. Tracing her own educational experience, Rose argues that these issues have never been more urgently in need of attention than today.