News from the Division of Languages and Literature

Distinguished Writer in Residence Francine Prose looks at the arrest of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, who was led away in handcuffs on live television while covering the protests in Minneapolis against the killing of George Floyd. “The mistake was always to think that it can’t happen here, because it can, it has and—unless we remain aware and vocal—it most certainly will again,” writes Prose. Full Story in the Guardian

More from Francine Prose in the Guardian
How Coronavirus Has Infected our Consciousness
“Whether or not we disinfect our money, or the grocery bag, we can’t look at a bill or a paper bag without wondering if we should spray it,” Prose writes. “So the virus has infected our consciousness, regardless of how far we are from a hotspot, how safe or healthy we may feel. It takes time and energy, trying not to think about, or mind how much we have lost.”

“The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 gave, to my mind, a significant push to the irreversible decline in which we now find ourselves—it marked the apotheosis of a persistent strain of magical thinking in American politics. The 1980 election was a choice between a slick and intellectually inert charmer who spewed happy talk, on the one hand, and an unglamorous peanut farmer who wanted to talk about ‘malaise,’ on the other: we chose the happy talk—surprise, surprise—and have been choosing it ever since. Our current political crisis is the reductio ad absurdum of that choice: the fantasy that government is “the problem” and must be dismantled whenever possible (that’s certainly working out right now!), the contempt for institutions, the elevation of ideological fantasy above science and expertise.”

“Few writers have caught the grotesque nature of war better than Malaparte. There is no question that he felt drawn to human depravity as a subject. But he makes no excuses for it. His is a dark vision of humanity. To look away, to him, would have been a sign of weakness.”

Bard College Distinguished Professor of Literature Nuruddin Farah is among the 276 artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors who have been elected this year as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Farah joins one of the world’s most prestigious honorary societies, whose members include winners of Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes, Shaw Prizes, MacArthur Fellowships, Guggenheim Fellowships, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, and Oscars, among others. Founded in 1780, during the American Revolution, by John Adams, John Hancock, and others who believed the new republic should honor exceptionally accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good, the academy is a center for independent policy research and continues to dedicate itself to recognizing excellence and relying on expertise—both of which seem more important than ever. Celebrating its 240th anniversary this year, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected more than 13,500 members have been elected since its founding.

“The members of the class of 2020 have excelled in laboratories and lecture halls, they have amazed on concert stages and in surgical suites, and they have led in board rooms and courtrooms,” said Academy President David W. Oxtoby. “With today’s election announcement, these new members are united by a place in history and by an opportunity to shape the future through the Academy’s work to advance the public good.”

Nuruddin Farah is a Somali novelist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages and has won numerous awards, including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature,  “widely regarded as the most prestigious international literary award after the Nobel” (New York Times). Educated at Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. Works include two trilogies, Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship and Blood in the Sun, and several novels, novellas, short stories, plays. In recent years he has been a perennial nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is Distinguished Professor of Literature at Bard College.

PHOTO CAPTION: Bard College Distinguished Professor of Literature Nuruddin Farah has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jeremy Wilson
About the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”

“While the nation grieves, the US president has spent less than five minutes expressing compassion for those who are suffering,” writes Distinguished Writer in Residence Francine Prose. “We can’t help thinking how much less worried we would be if a humane, competent, well-informed adult was making the decisions that affect us all.”

 

For the spring 2020 publication of Sui Generis, Bard’s student-run translation magazine, Bard Classical Studies senior Kaitlin Karmen submitted translations for the three ancient languages that she studied at Bard: Ancient Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. She writes, "For Ancient Greek, I translated a passage from Thucydides's History on the social effects of the plague that afflicted Athens in the fifth century. My Latin submission was a passage from Lucretius's epic poem De Rerum Natura, where the poet seeks to show that the world is mortal. And my Sanskrit translation was of a short section from the Bhagavad-Gita (itself a section of the Mahabharata), which describes Krishna's revealing of his divine form to Arjuna.” ​​​​​​