The Novel Project
In fall of 2016, eleven Duke faculty all of whom were working on their own within their respective language departments discovered that they shared a common object of knowledge and stood to benefit immensely from working as a group. The group included Nancy Armstrong (English), Miriam Cooke (Arabic), Roberto Dainotto (Italian), Anne Garréta (French), Shai Ginsburg (Hebrew), Aimee Kwon (Korean, Japanese), Cate Reilly (Russian), Anne-Gaëlle Saliot (French), Aarthi Vadde (English), and Leonard Tennenhouse (English, American). (Bill Donahue from German is now at Notre Dame.) Convinced this group provided the right intellectual environment for challenging such Eurocentric notions as “the world republic of letters” or “world literature” and their area-studies counterparts, we applied for a multi-year collaborative grant to fund a project to discover what, if any formal features identified those novels likely to thrive in the new global market regardless of t
By Norimitsu Onishi
Feb. 9, 2021
PARIS The threat is said to be existential. It fuels secessionism. Gnaws at national unity. Abets Islamism. Attacks France’s intellectual and cultural heritage.
The threat? “Certain social science theories entirely imported from the United States,’’ said President Emmanuel Macron.
French politicians, high-profile intellectuals and journalists are warning that progressive American ideas specifically on race, gender, post-colonialism are undermining their society. “There’s a battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities,’’ warned Mr. Macron’s education minister.
Emboldened by these comments, prominent intellectuals have banded together against what they regard as contamination by the out-of-control woke leftism of American campuses and its attendant cancel culture.
Politicians and prominent intellectuals say social theories from the United States on race, gender and post-colonialism are a threat to French identity and the French republic.
PARIS The threat is said to be existential. It fuels secessionism. Gnaws at national unity. Abets Islamism. Attacks France’s intellectual and cultural heritage. The threat? “Certain social science theories entirely imported from the United States,’’ said President Emmanuel Macron. French politicians, high-profile intellectuals and journalists are warning that progressive American ideas specifically on race, gender, post-colonialism are.