Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1966 Origins of Expression: Principal Sources of Samuel Silas Curry's Theory of Expression. Paul Havener Gray Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Gray, Paul Havener, "Origins of Expression: Principal Sources of Samuel Silas Curry's Theory of Expression." (1966). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 1195. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/1195 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 6 7-1162 GRAY, Paul Havener, 1937- ORIGINS OF EXPRESSION: PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF SAMUEL SILAS CURRY'S THEORY OF EXPRESSION, Louisiana State University, Ph.D., 1966 Speech University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan 0R3BINS OF EXPRESSION: PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF SAMUEL SILAS CURRT'S THEORI OF EXPRESSION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech by Paul Havener Gray A.B., Marietta College, 1959 M.A., University of Illinois, i960 August, 1966 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to acknowledge a considerable debt to Dr, Francine Merritt whose encouragement and assistance with this study have been far more than routine. The author also thanks Dr. Waldo Braden, Dr. Claude Shaver, Dr. Fabian Gudas, and Dr. Harold Mixon for their suggestions. Finally, the author expresses his appreciation to Carolyn Gray for her criticism of style and form and for typing the final manuscript. ii TABIE OF CONTENTS Page ACKN OWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. S. S. CORKT: LIFEAND WORKS ? II. CURRY'S DEBT TO EDUCATIONAL THEORY 33 I H . CURRY'S DEBT TO PHILOLOGY 65 IV. CURRY’S DEBT TO PSYCHOLOGY 9^ V. CURRY'S DEBT TO AESTHETICS 136 VI. CURRY'S DEBT TO ELOCUTION 180 VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 2^7 SEIECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 256 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 269 ill ABSTRACT Although S, S. Curry restricted his theory of expression to a consideration of delivery alone, he denied any significant debt to traditional elocutionary theory. Despite this denial scholars have consistently described Curry's theory within a matrix of elocution. This study hypothesizes that this elocutionary matrix does not account for the more important tenets of Curry's theory. After examining all those sources to whioh Curry made- reference in his published and unpublished writings, this investigation concludes that the most significant aspects of Curry's theory originate not in elocution but in nineteenth-century theories of education, philology, psychology, and aesthetics. Among educational theorists, Curry was particularly attracted to Comenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzl, and Froebel, all principal figures in the naturalistic educational movement. From these theorists Curry borrowed much of his vocabulary as well as his conviction that any method for developing delivery should conform to the dictates of nature. From philologists, particularly Wilhelm von Humboldt, Curry derived three beliefs: (1) that each separate linguistic culture required a unique mode of expression, (2 ) that each individual required a unique mode of expression, and (3 ) that iv V only spoken language could fully express both the individual and his culture. Though Curry expressed a considerable interest in psychology, he restricted his reading largely to speculative psychologists like S. T. Coleridge, Herbert Spencer, Alexander Bain, and Hermann Lotse. Adapting to their descriptions of intellect, volition, and emotion, Curry designed a series of "psychic exercises" to train the ndnd of the speaker, the reader, or the actor. From the aestheticians of the expressive movement Curry derived his understanding of the elements of oral expression— the speaker or reader or actor, the audience, the means of expression, and the message. Like these aestheticians Curry believed that the speaker was the most important element involved in expression. Though Curry believed oral expression required training of the mental faculties, he also recognised that abnormal speaking habits necessitated the training of the voice and body. Rejecting the elocutionary theories of Sheridan, Walker, Austin, and Rush, Curry turned to L. B. Monroe, Alexander Melville Bell, and Steele MacKaye for methods for the development of voice and body. Consequently, Curry incorporated into his theory a series of "technical exercises" which he claimed would overcome objectionable habits and return both voice and body to their natural responsiveness to mental activity. In short, Carry's theory represents a coalescence of ideas derived mainly from education, philology, psychology, and aesthetics. Traditional elocution, on the other hand, operates only peripherally in Curry's theory. INTRODUCTION In 1891, after forty-four years of studying, teaching, lecturing, and administrating at his own private school of speech, Samuel Silas Curry published his first textbook, The Province o£ Expression: A Search for Principles Underlying Adequate Methods of Developing Dramatic and Oratorio Delivery. The theory which Curry enunciated in The Province of Expression and the twelve other textbooks which followed it, has played a significant role in the course of speech education in the twen­ tieth century. According to Don Geiger, *'today, we honor Curry, as probably the outstanding interpretation theorist in the early part of our century. Recognition of Curry's importance in the history of modern speech education seems fairly well established. His name frequently appears in History of Speech Education in America. In her essay on "The Elocutionary Movement and Its Chief Figures,"2 Mary Margaret Robb devotes more space to •4)on Geiger, "Oral Interpretation and the Teaching of Literature," The Speech Teacher. XI (September, 1962), 203. 2History g£ Speech Education £n America: Background Studies, ed, Earl R. Wallace (New fork: Appleton-Century- Crofts, Inc., 195*0, PP. 178-201. 1 2 Curry than to any other figure, and Edyth Renshaw Includes Curry's Sohool of Expression in her essay, "Five Private Schools of Speech. This recognition of Curry's importance suggests that a detailed discussion of Curry's ideas would be of value to students of contemporary oral communication. Although a number of theses and dissertations treat selected aspects of Curry's theory of oral expression, no study to date treats Curry's com­ plete theory, and no study attempts to describe the process by which Curry arrived at that theory. I. Purposes This study has three purposes. First, the study iden­ tifies those sources which had a significant influence on Curry's theory of oral expression. Whenever possible, the study also accounts for Curry's familiarity with the source and shows speci­ fically the influence of each source upon Curry's theory. Second, this study explicates Curry's theory by describing that theory as a coalescence of ideas taken from a number of disciplines and tailored to the particular needs of the oral communicator. Third, this study traces the lines of demarcation between Curry's theory and the theories of his predecessors in the elocutionary movement. U . Souroes The most important sources of Curry's ideas are the 3£bjd., pp. 301-325. thirteen textbooks he published from 1391 to 1918*^ A discussion of the relative importance of these texts will be found in the first chapter of this study. In addition to these books Curry also published over 125 essays and book reviews In Expression: A Quarterly Review of Art. a magasine he founded and edited from 1895 to 1900. His essays also appeared In Werner's Magasine. Bsersom College Magasine and The Journal of Expression, the latter being a revival of Curry*s own Expression magasine. Furthermore, Curry's extant unpublished papers are housed in the Delsarte Collection of the Department of Archives, Louisiana State University Libraiy. Curry's papers include leoture notej and syllabi for courses taught at The School of Expression, personal letters, outlines and drafts of uncompleted essays, and the uncompleted manuscript of the bookon whloh Curry was working at the time of his death. These papers and particu­ larly the book manuscript are valuable as they represent the only detailed discussions of bodily movement penned by Curry. While this Investigator has not consciously adopted the Interpretations of any of the commentaries on and criticisms of Curry's theory, several of these studies have helped to clarify ii Curry also edited Classic Selections from the Best 4 S & 2 2 & M 2B£ed £0 £he gjaflg S L ISSSl Espresglon (Boston: The Expression Co., 1 8 8 8 7 . This anthology contains no discussion of Curry's ideas on vocal expression. particular points in Curry*s theory and to suggest lines for further investigation. Among the published discussions of Curry and his work this investigation is especially Indebted to Mary Margaret Robb's "The Elocutionary Movement and Its Chief F i g u r e s , ”5 Edyth Renshaw “Five Private Schools of Speech*Nathan Haskell Dole's bio­ graphical "Foreword" to Poems by Samuel Silas Curry.^ and Elisa g Josephine Harwood's flow We Train the Body. While a complete list of the unpublished discussions of Curry appears in the bibliography* this study benefits markedly from two previous investigations of Curry's ideas. These investigations are Edyth Renshaw's dissertation, "Three Schools of Speech,and Oolo Miller's thesis, "The Psychology of Dr. S. S. Curry."10 ^Robb, pp. 178-201. ^Renshaw* pp. 301-325. ^Samuel Silas Curry* Poems & Samuel 3ilas Curry. Ph.D.. Litt.D.. ed., with a foreword by Nathan Haskell Dole (Boston: Expression Co., 1922). ®Elisa Josephine Harwood* How We Train the Body; The Mechanics Pantomime Tanhnimia (Boston: Walter H.