Edward Bullough (28 March 1880 – 17 September 1934) was an English aesthetician and scholar of modern languages, who worked at the University of Cambridge.
[2] At seventeen Bullough moved to England,[3] and in 1899 matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge,[4] where he studied Medieval and Modern Languages.
[5] He graduated BA (Class I) in 1902, MA in 1906,[6] after which he taught French and German at Cambridge colleges and lectured in the university.
[13] He was elected to a Drosier Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College in 1912,[14] and in the same year published his noted theoretical paper, "'Psychical Distance' as a Factor in Art and an Aesthetic Principle".
[18] However this must not be such that psychical distance is lost: Bullough imagines a jealous husband watching a performance of Othello, who "will probably do anything but appreciate the play".
[29] In the following decade he published translations of Étienne Gilson, Karl Adam, and Achille Ratti (by then Pope Pius XI), and gave three papers on Dante at Catholic summer schools in Cambridge and Salzburg.
[36] In illustration, Bullough proposes Roman law, the Renaissance, and the Romantic movement as "three contributions made by Italy to the patrimony of the civilised world".
[37] He offers the contemporary fascist movement as a tentative fourth:[38] a successor to the chair, Uberto Limentani, believed there was "no doubt" that Bullough sympathised with fascism.