Charles Muscatine, a Champion of Free Speech at Berkeley, Dies
Charles Muscatine, a renowned Chaucer scholar who was fired by the University of California at Berkeley in 1950 for refusing to sign a loyalty oath, has died at age 89.
Mr. Muscatine, a professor and a champion of undergraduate-curriculum reform, died March 12 in Oakland of a lung infection.
His 1957 work, Chaucer and the French Tradition, is still considered one of the hallmarks in his field. "Before Charles, people tended to talk about the themes and ideas of Chaucer's poetry or the humor or whatever, but he really emphasized the poetic craft," said C. David Benson, a former student of Mr. Muscatine's, now a professor of English and medieval studies at the University of Connecticut.
Mr. Muscatine received his undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees from Yale University and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He took part in the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach. In 1948 he joined Berkeley's English department as a specialist in medieval literature. The next year, with the nation gripped by anti-Communist sentiment, Berkeley began requiring faculty members to sign loyalty oaths to the California Constitution and deny affiliation with any organization calling for the overthrow of the U.S. government.
Mr. Muscatine, an assistant professor at the time, and 30 other faculty members refused to sign and were fired in the summer of 1950....
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Education
Mr. Muscatine, a professor and a champion of undergraduate-curriculum reform, died March 12 in Oakland of a lung infection.
His 1957 work, Chaucer and the French Tradition, is still considered one of the hallmarks in his field. "Before Charles, people tended to talk about the themes and ideas of Chaucer's poetry or the humor or whatever, but he really emphasized the poetic craft," said C. David Benson, a former student of Mr. Muscatine's, now a professor of English and medieval studies at the University of Connecticut.
Mr. Muscatine received his undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees from Yale University and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He took part in the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach. In 1948 he joined Berkeley's English department as a specialist in medieval literature. The next year, with the nation gripped by anti-Communist sentiment, Berkeley began requiring faculty members to sign loyalty oaths to the California Constitution and deny affiliation with any organization calling for the overthrow of the U.S. government.
Mr. Muscatine, an assistant professor at the time, and 30 other faculty members refused to sign and were fired in the summer of 1950....